Wedding Videographers shooting on RED

[Clayton Taylor]

I'm considering getting back into the wedding market (used to do wedding photography back in the day). I'm trying to figure out the logistics of shooting on RED. I have a 240GB SSD and a 64GB SSD. I'm sure I can rent plenty of media for the cash that one can make on a good wedding, but I'm trying to figure out your flow. To record the entire ceremony - do you swap to a DSLR for storage/media purposes or would you put in the 240GB drive and shoot at a resolution less than 6:1 to stretch it to cover the ceremony? Do you dump SSDs throughout the day or do you have MULTIPLE drives that you just dump when you get home? Any lavs that you would recommend? Do you mic the minister only or do you mic bride and groom? What do you use to get sound from the board for the DJ/musicians (if any)/etc?

Could appreciate any tips! Thanks! Trying to hustle some cash to make that Dragon upgrade in time please please help a fellow red user?

 

[Chris McKechnie]

I used to shoot weddings, many, many moons ago. Here are some tips for you.

If you plan on shooting weddings on a RED, charge more because the complexity of everything increases - storage space, rigging, crew, etc. I shot a wedding for one of my friends 2 years ago, charged $17k for 2 red cams, editing, etc. Don't sell yourself short and shoot a wedding on a RED for crazy cheap..people will pay. People pay for experience...so if you have it, charge for it.

An option you may want to consider picking up a couple of used DSLR's - GH4, A7S, NX1, or waiting for NAB (which is prob the best thing to do) to see what comes out. People will try and unload their 4K cams for the next latest and greatest, so there should be a flooded market with used 4K camera bodies. Smaller form factor really works in a wedding scenario. Smaller file sizes, quicker to deploy/move around, etc. Maybe only bring out the big boy REDs on the higher paying wedding gigs, and use the cheaper, smaller cams for the lower budget ones. It's good to offer versatility in your package pricing.

You really shouldn't shoot a wedding with just 1 camera. The bride/groom will have probably sifted through A LOT of samples from various cinematographers, some of which may specialize in weddings (that's all they do), which generally are shot with 2-3 cameras. So crew increases...I would say a minimum of a 3-person crew - 2 cam ops and 1 AC. Shooting it only on one camera leaves you in a bind, come editing, plus, it makes for a pretty boring creative edit since you have nothing else to cut to.

For audio, I would normally mic the pastor as well as the groom with Sennheiser G3's. Feeding directly to the camera. You can also try and get a house feed and record it with a Zoom H4N, H1, Tascam, etc, that way, you have any other things - readings, singing, etc in a high quality as well. You could also have a shotgun mic on your camera for house reference as well, but a separate recording always is best. I would generally allow 45 or so mins to setup for the ceremony, especially with multiple cams. Allow an hour if you're trying to get setting up/empty ceremony space b-roll.

One thing that you MUST NOT forget is to have a contract!!! Contracts have saved me numerous times in the wedding business, as there are some crazy brides who would claim - "but you said we would get an hour long feature, etc." Make sure the contract outlines exactly what they are getting. Nowadays, bride/grooms generally want a 4-5 minute highlight/recap and maybe a trailer. The parents generally want all the extra - full length stuff, which the bride and groom may watch once. So you could provide a 1-2 min trailer, a 4-5 minute recap/highlight, then add on the extra full length edited features like the ceremony, toasts, etc. If you allow your potential clients to select exactly what they want, they won't feel like you're forcing an option down their throats that they don't want. So make the packages customizable.

Sorry for the rambling, hopefully that provides a bit of advice for you. Let me know if you have any other questions...I'd be happy to help!

 

[Clayton Taylor]

Man one thing I learned from the photography side is CONTRACT CONTRACT CONTRACT.... that's for sure.

So on a 3 man shoot - what did you find yourself allotting to the help? 400/day? 300/day each? That'll cut profit quick. My reel right now consists of short films - nothing wedding wise. That's why I may have to take an initial hit to get some footage to build the reel.

 

[jake southard]

17K for a wedding? its hard enough to find people dont freak out when you tell them its going to cost 3,000$ for a wedding. At least in the Midwest. It's a big joke out here. people dont understand what the difference is between shooting on a RED and shooting on a Canon T2i. Trying to explain it to them is like trying to get a newborn to do an algebra equation

 

[Florin Danilov]

I’m also a wedding videographer. Occasionally I shoot on RED when clients are willing to pay the extra work on editing and camera rental.

To be honest I really like shooting on RED, because for me is a chance to improve my skills to make movies using the Epic in hard situations, where you don’t have the luxury to have another take
You have to be there… focus/battery/lens/ssd …always ready…all the time no matter what.

The setup I use is quite simple.

RED Epic, lcd, SSD and handle, only redvolts, a slider and a tripod.
Most of the shots are made handheld

Some examples
https://vimeo.com/114639565 (2014)
https://vimeo.com/118206967
https://vimeo.com/104323864

 

[Clayton Taylor]

Exactly - I shot my first this past weekend (posted the video on here under shot on RED) - I know I need some work, but the footage from the RED blew away DSLR (what I used to shoot on). It was the first time I've had a chance to really test the Scarlet... it didn't do too shabby in church lighting either.

I used RED, SSD, Top handle, Side Handle, and a brick (didn't go the redvolt path). Shot on monopod and tripod during the ceremony.

My video from this weekend - I know there are some things needing improvement, but I posted more about that in the post I made earlier.

 

[scott devitte]

I’m also a wedding videographer. Occasionally I shoot on RED when clients are willing to pay the extra work on editing and camera rental.

To be honest I really like shooting on RED, because for me is a chance to improve my skills to make movies using the Epic in hard situations, where you don’t have the luxury to have another take
You have to be there… focus/battery/lens/ssd …always ready…all the time no matter what.

The setup I use is quite simple.

RED Epic, lcd, SSD and handle, only redvolts, a slider and a tripod.
Most of the shots are made handheld

Some examples
https://vimeo.com/114639565 (2014)
https://vimeo.com/118206967
https://vimeo.com/104323864

OMG! love the heartbeat. How fortunate for these couples that they will have such a beautiful work of art to show their offspring or just each other. Lovely work.

 

[Florin Danilov]

OMG! love the heartbeat. How fortunate for these couples that they will have such a beautiful work of art to show their offspring or just each other. Lovely work.

Thanks Scott for sincere appreciations...
Just trying to add a different mood for my clients.

Florin

 

[Scott Brown]

RED would not be my first choice for weddings which essentially are "run and gun" style situations. You want a camera that is fast and simple to use and also one that is really good in low light and that offers an efficient post route as you'll want to edit and get the project out asap.

We don't shoot weddings but did film a friends - very stressful and I now have a new respect for wedding videographers :smiley:

To use a RED you'd need a minimum of two people IMO and you'd need to charge a premium price. Also at the end of the day, most users will watch in HD and won't really see the benefit of RED.

Scott