Filming a wedding

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Just out of curiosity.. For those of who who currently shoot or have shot weddings (more than 1), on average how much footage would you typically end up with at the end of the day? Thanks.

[Zach Ashcraft]

Some numbers and thoughts for you. I have shot about 8 weddings now and feel comfortable calling myself a "professional" wedding videographer:

 

The first wedding I ever shot I came away with 23.61 GB in footage. I used the Sony RX100 to record the entire ceremony (surpisingly short, only about 15 minutes) and a few second angles of the first dance and cake cutting. I shot the rest of the night on the t2i. I did end up with a lot i didn't end up using 

 

The second wedding I shot: I found out I was shooting literally the morning of, and I did it for free. I ended up with 20.13 GB of footage. I shot between the 5D3 and t2i. Probably shot 75% of the ceremony continuous, and didn't stay for quite the entire reception. I only came away with a 4:30 highlight reel (didn't want to do too much work since it was free) so I obviously had a ton of extra I didn't put into the film. 

 

The third wedding I shot was 20.52 GB, and I just used the 5D mark 3 on that one. Only had to deliver I highlight reel but it was about 8-9 minutes. Turned out great. 

 

Most recently, I shot 27GB at a wedding. Used the t2i to film the ceremony and the 5D3 the rest of the night. 

 

All of this is without audio or photos. Even when filming, I do take about 100 photos at each event for facebook, my website, and portfolio. Hope that helps!

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Thanks Zach, do you think you could do a quick translation of that into amount of recorded time? Thanks.

[Zach Ashcraft]

I'm not sure of the math and I can't figure out how to get final cut to tell me the amount of footage in each event, but at a quick glance it appears to be on average an hour and a half of footage, give or take. Probably closer to 2 hours If I film the entire ceremony. Pretty rough estimate but I know thats in the ballpark at least

[nigelbb]

Shooting solo with 3-4 cameras I will come home with 100-125GB mostly 5D3 footage at about 4 minutes per GB. My largest shoot at a really big Jewish wedding with two other camera operators was about 300GB.

[Axel]

Also 8 weddings, spread over 5 years (so hardly a 'profession'). Depending on the scenes (Family anecdotes, bachelor party, preparation, office, church, courtyard posing of the newlyweds, big party), between 60 minutes and a little over 3 hours. Depending also on the degree of planning/scripting.

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Thanks guys.. I have one booked in a month (I'v never filmed one but shot several when I did photography before getting into video) I am trying to figure out if it's viable at all to shoot RAW (I'd love too) but I don't think it is, maybe in the future.. For now I guess I'll just switch between RAW and ProRes.. 3 hours of footage would be roughly 1.5TB of footage and another $1,100 on SSD's.. 

 

Maybe in the future if I focus on quality+price as opposed to just quantity I might be able to manage it if I factor HD's into price etc. Since I had never filmed a wedding I was curious to the amount of footage you'd get (in time) but I know it varies greatly depending on the wedding itself and who is shooting it (when working as an editor for wedding photographers I'd get some wedding photographers shooting under 1,000 images and some shooting over 3,000).

 

I am also curious as to what rigs people would use mainly for filming the event (I know it's personal preference) but I think I'm leaning towards a Manfrotto video monopod with 500 series head as opposed to a shoulder rig, still gives good flexibility to move around and will support the weight as opposed to my shoulder.

 

Just ordered the ViewFactor BMCC rig with top handle and IDX battery plate (and some IDX batteries) hopefully I'll be good to go for next month. If anyone has any tips or advice I'd appreciate it, thanks.

 

Pic related, the rig I decided on.

 

[Pascal Garnier]

After converting my Canon's footage to ProRes422, I usually end up with 300GB of footage.
This is for a full wedding day, from 7am till 1am, shooting with 2 cameras (Canon T3i and 5D MkIII)

 

Unless you've shot with the BMCC for 1)an entire day 2)on a remote location prior to this wedding, I would seriously question using this camera.  As you will know, a wedding is the perfect example of a shoot where there's plenty of spontaneous moments and where offloading or recharging batteries can be a challenge (even when you're fully prepared).  For the weddings we do, our first chance to recharge batteries and offload footage is round 4pm, after the prep in the morning and ceremonies and once we get to the location for reception, dinner and party.  By then, we have 5 16GB cards filled with footage and 4 batteries flattened.  I always carry 8 16GB memory cards and 6 batteries for a full wedding day shoot.  And recharge as soon as we've reached the reception/dinner/party location.  I've never run into problems, but then again that would be a disaster on a wedding shoot.  

Also, when shooting weddings you NEED a backup camera.  It doesn't have to be the same as your A-camera, but you can't risk not being able to shoot.  Even if it's a free gig.  

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Thanks Pascal.

 

I am going to have 5 fully charged IDX E-7S Enduras (my own one is on order and I have another 4 booked with a rental place) I'v been told they should have 3-4 hours charge each so I should be set for power (I will test my own once it arrives), the Internal battery will kick in if an IDX battery goes flat giving me over an hour to swap out the battery before the camera dies.

 

I have access to a Nikon D4 should the BMCC decide to play up. The BMCC is my own, I'v already used it for shooting some on location interviews and other footage, I am fairly comfortable with it by now. 

 

Obviously a BMCC is not the ideal camera for any event type shooting.. But I love the image so I am willing to put up with it.

[Zach Ashcraft]

After converting my Canon's footage to ProRes422, I usually end up with 300GB of footage.
This is for a full wedding day, from 7am till 1am, shooting with 2 cameras (Canon T3i and 5D MkIII)

 

 

Just curious - what do you usually offer the couples? I'm not sure of the file size difference after converting to ProRes but that seems like a TON of footage. 

[Pascal Garnier]

@ Zash : I offer the couples a highlights video (approx. 4 min.) and a 25-30 minute movie (= full movie).

Converting to ProRes422 multiplies file size by a factor 6 to 9, so I probably end up with 40-50 GB of H264 @ ACVHD footage after a day's shoot.

[Axel]

@ Zash : I offer the couples a highlights video (approx. 4 min.) and a 25-30 minute movie (= full movie).

Converting to ProRes422 multiplies file size by a factor 6 to 9, so I probably end up with 40-50 GB of H264 @ ACVHD footage after a day's shoot.

 

Moderate, yes?

 

You can, depending on your NLE, edit natively and just export a ProResHQ master. You can do without render files. Transcoding all clips to ProRes in advance and using it as render codec will produce substantially more uselessly big ProRes files. This workflow is only needed if your computer isn't fast enough to deal with native mpeg4. Qualitywise there is no difference. Often proved.

[Pascal Garnier]

I still edit in FCP7, so using H264 is out of the question.
I use 2 500GB drives in 1 enclosure (1 work disk, the other one is backup), once the movie is completed I only keep the full res output files and delete all footage.

[Axel]

Then log & transfer, don't use 5D2RGB or the like. You can already reject a lot of clips then.

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

On Super8 I would go through about 5-8 rolls of Kodachrome. Once the sun went down the shoot would be over and I would head to the bar. Usually would get a 3-5 minute piece with about a 4:1 ratio.

[Axel]

Yes, I consider it a great advantage to have shot on expensive film, when every second sucks on your wallet. It's offline now, but there was a great german short 'the photographer', in which the said photographer seemingly takes many shots of his model from different angles and in various situations. Then finally he says, let's go, loads a film and shoots ONE photo. As opposed to the MO of the modern digital wedding photographer, who makes 1000 photos to get 20 good ones.

 

BTW: This short is pretty self-reflective. It has a story that makes a point. Stanley Kubrick once said, every good shot was a recording of a preconceived image. Know what to look for first, then push the button.