You may think that shooting weddings is all about the ceremony, but there is a lot more involved than meets the eye. We will go over the legalities associated with wedding video production to protect yourself and your client before you shoot their big day.
Seperating a good wedding production from a bad one, usually starts by paying close attention to the audio that carries the video along.
A wedding is a once in a lifetime event, which means when you capture the audio, you need to do it right .... The first time around....
Mic placement is crucial when it comes to weddings, as there are several different options to choose from. The idea, is to make sure that you are prepared for all of them.
First off, you need to make sure that the camera has a mic input jack, either for XLR or an eighth inch mini cable. This will ensure that all your bases are covered. One of the most common scenarios that you will be facing, is who to mic.... The best possible solution that is going to result in the cleanest audio track, would be getting as close to the actual ceremony as possible. This is why placing a microphone on the groom is one of the best solutions. You are going to want to make sure that you mic the groom just under their collar. If they aren't comfortable with the mic clip showing, you can always conceal the mic within the button hole of there tux. Now, if this isn't possible.
Another solution would be to mic the pastor. He is close the both the bride and groom and generally a bit further behind them which means that a mic clip wouldn't necessarily be visable in the wedding video.
If you can't get that close in with the groom or the pastor, there are plenty of other Audio Solutions that should work out just fine.
Plugging into the mixing board or the house mix is a great way to capture good clean audio of the ceremony if you have xlr inputs in your camera. If you don't, be sure to grab an xlr to mini eighth inch adapter. This works because now your camera works as a capture device for any audio leaving the main house mix that is captured through the house mic.
If the camera that you are working with doesn't have any xlr inputs and you can't find any adapters, another good solution would be to set a hand held mic in front of the main speakers. Hand Held mics are used to mic instruments and amplifiers during recording sessions for bands so they can take a beating when it comes to loud intense audio and still capture a clean source of audio. And generally, Hand Held mics also come with the necessary adapters for most prosumer cameras. If you are working on a budget, this is a great solution for capturing a clean audio track.
Sometimes guests want to say something on camera for the bride and groom, when it comes to these types of brief interviews its always best to move the subjects into an area with less noise.
Receptions can be loud and if they are held outdoors, very difficult to work around do to the large amount of ambient noise. The best way to work around this and capture clean audio is to move your subjects into a entirely seperate area in which you can control the scenario. This means if there is a lot of noise, grab the guest and move them into another room where the music isn't louder than their voices.
