If your church has a video crew in view every Sunday, rest assured that at some point someone is going to ask it to record their wedding. The good news is that many happy couples will shell out, like, a thousand bucks for that DVD. The bad news is that if they are seeking the service from a volunteer church crew, they probably balked at the price quoted by a professional videographer and are looking for something that fits better into their budget. But it can still be a nice little side business or a fund-raiser for the video department, so might I humbly suggest taking the job.
Already have a multi-camera switcher setup in place? Then it's mostly just a matter of pulling together a special crew and shooting it like a Sunday morning service. But if the wedding is being held in a chapel where there are no wired camera positions, it's time to haul in the cameras and edit in post. In either case, it is a must to set up an unmanned camera on the platform that will get a clear view of the couple as they face the pastor. Best to set this up during the rehearsal when you can frame up with bridesmaids and groomsmen in mind. Just a little out of place and you'll have a nice shot of the best man's... uh... back. I have some more tips about multi-camera shoots in a previous post.
The more cameras you can set up, the easier it will be to edit. I shot a wedding this last weekend with six cameras, and editing was a breeze because there was always one camera that was getting just the right shot for each moment. My main camera position was directly in the back where I could get a clean shot between the couple to see the pastor. However, this placement misses the processional entirely. So a new trick I tried out this last time was to shoot from the front of the chapel along side the photographer to get nice shots of everyone's entrance. Once everyone was in place I abandoned that visually obtrusive position and shot from the back.
Recording the reception is a matter of employing all the best hand-held camera operation principles to catch every special moment. While it can be nice to have several camera operators covering different angles, I have found that one is enough, and more can make for an unnecessarily epic editing job.
Let's discuss that epic editing job in the next post. Right now, I have a wedding to edit.
