A wedding videographer is always conscious that a couple’s wedding is one of the most important days in their lives, so he knows that they will choose a form and venue with a special meaning for them.   Some couples hold them in unusual locations — not just in parks or gardens, but even stores like T.J Maxx or Whole Foods Market.  But more unusual are instances where the couple decides that they want to have some unusual theme:  Most readers have probably read news stories about Star Trek fanatics who asked their entourages to dress as Star Fleet officers or Klingons, but in recent years we’ve also seen couples choosing vampire,  superhero or even Super Mario brothers themed weddings.  Last year, a hipster couple invited controversy by staging a 1930s Great Depression hobo wedding, which some considered to be disrespectful to the homeless.  And another wedding where the bride and groom danced down the aisle became a viral video sensation in 2009.

These sorts of weddings can challenge even professional wedding videographers.  Even if it seems silly to you — and, believe me, it will — you have to remember that couples choose strange themes because these themes mean something special to them.

I once attended a wedding of two historical re-enactors, who decided to hold a renaissance faire celebration with lute players, medieval carnival games, and tarot card readers.  In a traditional wedding, you often expect the entire party to congregate at the reception, making it easy for the videographer to get everyone on camera.  At this one, some guests lingered at the reception, while other immediately wandered off to get their fortune told by the tarot reader or play some game.   It meant that the videographer had to be especially mindful that he sought out all the dispersed guests, since he couldn’t be sure that he’d get them all on camera just by doing the usual reception rounds.  There was also the added challenge of trying to shoot video of guests in situations that they might consider private; several guests objected to having a videographer shoot them during a tarot reading, while others welcomed his presence.

One thing that never changes, though, is that a successful wedding video depends all on the planning. Think about the countless hours that the bride and groom spend fixing every little detail, everything from reserving the church or temple to arranging the catering and flowers. And it’s all to make sure the ceremony goes off without a hitch.  So it should hardly be surprising that the key to successful wedding videography is all in the planning as well. (You can find more info on successful wedding videography and advice to help plan for ANY wedding day weirdness in Videomaker‘s Complete Wedding Toolkit.)

No matter how strange the ceremony, there are a few things that are generally going to be the same for every event.  After setting up your equipment at the church, the first order of business is getting your establishing shots. These shots will set the scene for the wedding ceremony. Here are some to include:

• Exterior shots of the church, temple or hall
• A marquee or sign with the wedding information posted
• Guests arriving and entering the building
• Wide shot of the auditorium as people enter and take their seats

A wedding is a ritual affair. The rituals are different from culture to culture and religion to religion, but they all have highlights. Here are some common highlights a good wedding video must include:

• The symbolic lighting of the “unity” candle
• The couple’s reciting their formal wedding vows
• The exchange of rings
• The pronouncement by the minister that the couple is now husband and wife
• The kiss

You can be reasonably sure of what to expect when you go to a wedding, but you should never assume anything. Be sure to check with your clients to make sure what to expect. For example, those hardcore Star Trek fans have been known to get married while dressed as Klingons, the warrior aliens from the television series. Since they are having a very non-traditional ceremony, they may be apt to throw in more unusual events and you will want to make sure that you capture the parts of the day that are important to the couple, whether or not they seem important to you. If guests move to mock fight each other with Bat’leth weapons, it may seem like an inconsequential diversion from the main event – but it may be the highlight of the day for your Trekkie clients!

Learn more about preparing to handle any wedding with Videomaker‘s Complete Wedding Toolkit.

And for those wedding videographers in the audience, what’s the strangest wedding that you’ve ever shot? Let us know in the comments!

Awards at the International CES 2012 abounded with the first ever International Academy of Web Television awards. Clips represented 16 different countries and come from some of the best online content available, exemplifying the web’s strength – content that viewer’s can’t get anywhere else. Among the IAWTV awards presented at the International CES 2012, The Guild, The Mercury Men and What’s Trending with Shira Lazar each took multiple trophies.

There is lots of other great content to be seen here, and what better way to find it than the best distribution platform: Blip.tv - this website brings many of the winners into one place. You’re sure to find something entertaining, and if not, at least worth sharing. There are hours to be spent watching the best hosted live web series, What’s Trending with Shira Lazar or laughing with the best comedy web series The Guild. If you like special features, the best supplemental content belongs to The Mercury Men. Mercury Men Pictures presents you with lots of extras including behind the scenes with visual effects, props, even retro trading cards. The quality of the content is unmistakably resemblant of online video.

The voting members had a tough job of sifting through such original content and coming out with decisions on 33 awards, including 9 categories for web series.  Two weeks to the day, the live broadcast from Las Vegas aired on their special site, and though the broadcast appears to be a first attempt at live view into an awards ceremony… that’s what it is. The waiting time for the broadcast treated viewers to clips from many of the nominees, and during the show, what really shines are the samples of web television. The content is sometimes shocking since there are fewer guidelines for these producers to follow, so plan accordingly for things such as language and a tampon reference.

With many of the categories including series, expect audiences to expand in number and some series to land on cable networks. Next year’s IAWTV awards are sure to be even more exciting, and maybe some of our readers will join the ceremonies.

In Michel Gondry’s 2008 film Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black’s character (“Jerry”) explains what it means to “swede” in this way: “You take what you like and you mix it with some other things you like and make a new thing.” Neither the filmmaker, Gondry, nor the actor, Black, likely predicted that sweding would take off the way it has. At the heart of the swede phenomenon is Swede Fest. If you’re not already familiar with Swede Fest, now’s the time to learn.

Swede Fest was launched in Fresno, California in 2008 and is held there and in Tampa, Florida, every six months. While it is a film festival, it’s like no other film festival you’ve ever seen, or entered. As described on the Swede Fest website: “Swede Fest is the only film festival dedicated to sweded films. A sweded film is a summarized, low-budget recreation of a popular movie, starring you!” The organizers go on to say about sweding that “it’s a great way to promote filmmaking in your community. Anyone can make a swede, it’s easy and a lot of fun!”

And from the list of movies that have been sweded by video enthusiasts around the world, “a lot of fun” is an understatement. Films on the swede list include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Silence of the Lambs, Planet of the Apes, The Breakfast Club, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Jurassic Park, The Godfather, Citizen Kane, and many, many more.

Swede Fest even caught the attention of National Public Radio recently. Check out their story at the NPR website.

Swede Fest will hold its ninth festival in Fresno in May of 2012 and its second in Tampa in April. The Swede Fest organizers don’t award prizes, they simply accept the first 20 entries that are submitted, and they want to see swede film festivals held in more and more locations across the country. If you’re interested in submitting a sweded film, or in holding a Swede Fest in your area, you should definitely check them out.

If you’ve ever directed or set up a live event, you know how hard it can be to find reliable and affordable camera operators. Though there is nothing that can beat a knowledgeable camera operator, Panasonic has come close with it’s new AW-HE120 pan and tilt camcorder. Their camcorder can mount to any surface and give a video feed and remote control ability to a director making multi-cam events easier and cheaper than ever to pull off.

Panasonic made this camera 60% lighter than their previous offering, making the camera mountable on almost any surface.  In order to get a video feed, the camera can be connected through HDMI and a standard Ethernet cable. The HDMI gives a high quality 1080/59.94p video feed while the Ethernet cable allows a director to control every aspect about the camera from a distance. The camera also comes with a 20x zoom range so that you can mount it in the back of a room and still achieve excellent close up shots, has a 2.2 megapixel U.L.T. 3-MOS sensor (in true Panasonic style), and has three different ND filters – 1/4, 1/16, and 1/64. Though the ND filters seem like a bit of an overkill given that the camera will almost always be mounted indoors, it did include some excellent engineering with a pan range of -175 degrees to 175 degrees and a tilt range of -30 degrees to 210 degrees meaning that this little beauty has more flexibility than an owl.

For those needing to mount the camera to a white ceiling, the unit comes in pearl white though a black metallic model can be bought for theatrical occasions. Panasonic will be shipping this item in what they call “winter” so expect it to come out shortly before CES in January.  The suggested retail price is $8,900, making it clear that Panasonic is targeting the house of worship and theater markets with this product. However, if you’re finding it hard to get quality camera operators for a fair price, this could be the product you’ve been waiting for.

2011 marks the 16^thyear for the Webby Awards and the this year’s entry deadline is October 28^th. There are many good reasons for making short films, music videos, documentary shorts, animated movies, etc: love of the craft, fascination with the ever-evolving technology, professional endeavors, and “having something to do on the weekends” are among the many motivating factors Videomaker readers often mention. While only a handful of videographers are likely to admit it, fame and fortune should probably be added to the list.

From their relatively humble beginnings in 1996, when the web was still young, the WebbyAwards has obviously grown to be a major player in championing both mainstream commercially driven work on the internet and innovative, highly creative websites, interactive media, and mobile apps. As the Webby website states, the “Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.”

Are you considering submitting an entry? While the $150/275 entry fee is a hefty price to pay, the exposure to peers and to a worldwide audience is clearly worth the investment to many. To learn more about entering, visit the Webby Award website.

In the Online Film and Video category, the Webby Awards has a fairly rich and varied catalog of winners. Last year’s winners include “The World’s Smallest Stop-motion Character Animation,” “Rated Awesome,” and “Ode to a Post-It Note.” (“The Johnny Cash Project” which we’ve blogged about here recently, was also a 2011 winner.) But possibly the most intriguing and innovative winner from last year’s Webby winners in the Online Film and Video category is “Welcome to Pine Point.”  This video/photography/interactive documentary about what happens when an entire town is built and dismantled in a single generation, is an absolute must-see.

So it’s time again for the Webby’s to solicit submittals. If you’re planning to enter, let us know. And then we’ll watch for your achievement to be celebrated.