Wedding Shoot Video Idea For Better Audio.
A friend of mine called the day before the wedding and asked if I could video tape their daughter’s wedding. The main point of this post is to make you aware of an option I used that I think most people would overlook. I used a Panasonic PV-GS500 camcorder that I had not used for years. It would be my cover camera mounted to a tripod behind the audience that was set for a close up shot of the bride and groom. I also brought a Nikon D5300 with an add on Rode VideoMic a shotgun camera microphone that easily connects to the camera shoe and the cable connects to the side microphone connector. I hand held the Nikon and used it for good cut away shots to enhance the production. I also brought a Tascam DR-05 digital recorder. I had absolutely no idea if I would use it or not. I typically mount this on top of my Nikon and I have the adapter kit to do this which allows me to monitor the audio with headsets. The Tascam is good for close in work as its pick up pattern is broad. For this event, I chose the shotgun instead for the tight pick up pattern and not the Tascam. The Rode was hooked to the top of the camera and took the Tascam recorder along with no clear reason as if I would use it. My point for this blog post is that I really was saved by taking the Tascam with me. When I got to the wedding I realized that they had a sound system. Right in front of one of the speakers was a palm tree with all kinds of woody protrusions from being pruned, perfect for hanging my Tascam audio recorder. The recorder was right in front of the speaker. The problem for me is the audio is unlocked with any video thus only offered me wild sound but its recording speed was as good as the cameras. Once I got it locked in the editing software, it should not drift. The minister for the wedding was given the PA system microphone so I now had audio much closer to the action. I started the recording about 10 minutes prior to the service beginning so the Tascam recorded the whole ceremony. I walked away with a master audio track that was way better than from my two cameras. Because my cover camera was behind the audience and picked up rather lousy audio and my Nikon was used to do insert shots only, I now had a bed of pristine audio that I now needed to insert properly timed video. An argument can easily be made that the audio for a wedding may be just as important or even more important than the video. After the wedding ceremony was over the wedding party went into the banquet room to eat and dance, I also used the audio recorder there. I hung the recorder form one of the speaker stands. I was not given an agenda so I had no idea that the father of the bride was to give a speech as well as the best man. Both people held the house microphone so I had fantastic audio of the people who were the talent. If you have to record a wedding with video, you might also consider doing an unlocked audio recording from the sound system. The pain will be when you edit and have to synchronize the video with the audio. I really recommend Adobe Premier for this.