Filming Your First Wedding in 2022 | Simple Guide
After nearly 5 years in the wedding film industry, I look back at how I got to where I am. I will say that this industry can be very rewarding as long as there is consistency, dedication, and the ability to learn as much as possible from those who can help improve your craft. In this blog post, I am going to provide you a simple guide to filming your very first wedding. Whether you intend to make this a hobby or a career, I hope my advice will guide you down the right track to becoming successful!
#1 Planning Ahead Of Time
This may be one of the most obvious, yet overlooked, parts of filming a wedding. The further out the wedding date is, the more time you have to prepare for the big day. Communication is your greatest asset to all of this and your first job is to capture as much information from the couple as possible. Most likely, you may only be provided just a date and location, but at least you’ve got something to work off of. Wedding planning from the couple’s perspective becomes very complicated, and requires you to try and stay connected with them however you possibly can. The further out you are from the wedding date, the less information you’ll be provided, but the most vital piece of information that will help you is a timeline of the wedding day’s events. Most, if not all, couples will have a timeline of the wedding day that they can provide you ahead of time. By knowing the timeline of the wedding day, you’ll be able to strategize how you want to go about filming everything from bridal prep, all the way to the getaway! Be sure to stay in touch with the couple as frequently as possible if you are still trying to get information from them. If they have a wedding planner, I would suggest reaching out to them as well if you are unable to get a clear line of communication established with the couple.
#2 Camera Gear
By now, you may have read or watched videos on the “Best” camera gear to use for weddings, or “Must Have” items to film a wedding. To me, what’s important is your ability to understand the fundamentals of video, as well as quickly understanding the camera and lenses you choose to go with.
Camera
If you’re brand new to videography, it will be very important for you to understand the fundamentals of properly exposing an image, as well as understanding frame rates. This is a lot easier to understand and master once you have a camera to practice with, but what camera works best for you? For starters, this can get very complex and confusing since every brand of camera has what they would call an entry level camera. I say any camera is acceptable for video if it can pass these 3 requirements:
-It must be able to film at a rate of 24 frames per second
-Offers the ability to interchange lenses
-Provides 1080p resolution (Full HD video)
If the camera you choose can pass these requirements, then you will do great! just know that any additional features or frame rates if up to you, your budget, as well as your skill set you find yourself in with cameras.
Lenses
As for lenses, I recommend sticking with zoom lenses because they offer a variety of focal lengths for you to capture wide angle shots, as well as close up shots of the wedding day. I recommend using a 24-70mm lens because it is considered the workhorse of zoom lens for filmmakers, especially with weddings. If you’re going to be filming the wedding ceremony from the very back, then I would also suggest looking into a 70-200mm lens which can provide you very nice close up shots of the ceremony, while being at far distances.
Additional Gear To Consider
Besides cameras and lenses, there are other pieces of equipment to consider to capture the wedding day. I would primarily focus on a reliable tripod, audio recorders for the bride & groom, as well as a portable light setup to capture night time footage.
Manfrotto tripods are the industry standard in photography & film, but can also drain your budget. Any tripod will do that has a fluid head. Some tripods are designed for photography, but fluid head tripods are the go to for filmmakers.
Audio, I would recommend Tascam’s DR-10l. These are compact audio recorders that can easily be tucked away in the bride’s dress, as well as the groom’s coat pocket. These recorders are self sufficient, meaning you will have no control over them when you hit record, but they do produce very crisp and clean audio when attached correctly to the bride & groom.
For lighting, I’d recommend Neewer’s NL480 Bi-color panel lights. These lights are portable, can be powered by either a battery or power outlet, and have the ability to offer yellow or white light to help you blend your lighting with the church or venue’s lighting.
#3 The Day Of The Wedding
The day of the wedding has finally arrived! By now, you should have received a copy of the wedding day’s timeline, as well as the camera gear you’ve selected to work with. The #1 rule I would want you to know before anything else, is be prepared for the timeline to change! 99.9% of weddings never go according to plan, so it is up to you to be as understanding and flexible with the wedding day as possible. As the day goes on, be sure to film everything that you and the couple agreed to when you first started discussing the details of the wedding. If you were asked to film a highlight reel of their day, then try to capture as much footage as possible from bridal prep, all the way to the getaway at the end of the day.
When you film the ceremony, try to station your camera and tripod toward the back, looking down the aisle where you have a clear view of the ceremony. Most of the time I have limited options as to where I can station my cameras due to policies and restrictions made by the church or venue. Keep in mind too that photographers and guests may get in the way of your shot as well during the ceremony, but there isn’t really much else you can do about that if it occurs. Because this is out of your control, I’d suggest mentioning this to the couple during the early stages of talks. Make sure they understand that your cameras will be stationary, and that photographers and guests might get in the way of the shot if they get up to move around during the ceremony. It’s something you can later fix by using multiple cameras to film various angles, but for now, if you’re working with only 1 camera, there is only so much you can do.
Be sure that you are monitoring your camera’s battery life and memory card’s storage space. Filming your first wedding can get very busy and distracting for you, which can lead to your camera dying or running out of storage while you’re filming something important. Try to stay ahead of your camera’s battery and storage space as much as possible! And if you feel like you should swap out batteries or memory cards before filming something important, then I would advise doing so!
Conclusion
Filming your first wedding will be an experience of a lifetime, but don’t feel like you have to acquire many years of experience in a short amount of time. Filming your first wedding is going to be a new learning curve for you, so aspire to to your very best on the wedding day, while having fun and making new connections with the bridal party and guests! Be able to be yourself, and ready for any unexpected events to occur the day of. Don’t focus so much on a ton of gear to film the wedding day. I started out with a camera, 2 lenses, and a gimbal. That was all I brought! Now, after nearly 5 years, I bring way more gear than that, but it’s through filming more weddings that I get a feel for the gear I wanted to use, as well as mastering the fundamentals of my camera gear. As one wise wedding planner once told me, Practice Makes Progress!