We’ve all heard the terms, “Quiet on the set! Roll sound… and action!”  This is what the director says as s/he records a movie or TV scene.  Well, your wedding is a special production and these 3 items are very much in play during the exchange of vows and the reception.

Let’s break it down.  During the ceremony the guests are all “quiet on the set”, focused on the bride coming down the aisle and on what you say to one another.  Your videographer has arrived early to scope out the best place to set up the camera.  This is most often to the right of the couple.  The bride turns to the groom to exchange the vows and the videographer is able to fill the frame with her beautiful smile (and all the other fleeting emotions a still photograph can never capture.)  We call this “The Money Shot” and it’s very important.

Even though the room or sanctuary is mostly quiet during the ceremony, the use of a wireless microphone is absolutely a necessity.  Your videographer is “rolling sound”.  If he or she tells you s/he’ll be close enough to pick up the vows with an on-camera mic, you are in trouble.  The natural sound of 2 people speaking will be muffled and with ambient room noise, lost forever.

Now we come to the word “Action!”  We all know what that means in the movies.  During your ceremony, any video cameras are for the most part locked down on a tripod.  But when the reception starts and the wedding party is announced, that’s where the action takes place and it’s up to the videographer to take his camera into what’s going on.  The art of this comes from having a good solid background in shooting video of people in action – moving, talking, dancing, toasting – whatever folks are doing, the video must be a part of the action.

Have you ever gone to a live event such as a wedding and seen the videographer standing in the same place for most of the evening with the camera on a tripod?  You can bet the video will be nothing less than boring.  Your videographer should move with the bride and groom – wherever they go, the camera is there capturing every special moment and all those little comments and bits of sound that mean so much!

Action Video Service has spent over 25 years capturing people and their stories for different news networks and TV shows, as well as life events.  That’s the best education a videographer can have!

Chuck has a saying: “When I’ve finished a wedding day shoot, if my knees don’t have dust on them and my arms don’t ache from holding my camera above my head, I’ve not captured the day correctly.”