I'm Danny from InterSlippers. We're one of those studios who films with DSLRs. In fact,
that's all we use to film our weddings. This tutorial will be one in a series, so keep
your eye on educational blog from the future. Today, we're going to talk about the 12-minute
limit when recording with DSLRs and how to navigate your way around it. Later on, we're
also going to talk about why we made the switch to DSLRs and how.
One question we see coming up a lot is how can you record a service or speeches when
you can only record for 12 minutes? It's easy. You break it up into 12-minute chunks. While
the clip you can record is only 12 minutes, the memory cards, such as a 32-bit card,
can hold as much as 90 minutes. The important thing is to find those moments in the speeches
when you can stop and start recording, and just how much time do you lose when you stop
and start recording? That much. 0.7 seconds, just over half a second, and in any service
you'll find plenty of opportunities to do that. What we're going to look at is when we
see those opportunities during a church service, typically, when you can stop and start recording.
One of the points is after the first set of hymns. When everyone gets seated, you have
a hymn, and typically that's about six or eight minutes in, a perfect time to stop and
start recording and reset your 12-minute limit. Normally, after the hymns, you have a good
45 seconds when people are sitting down and the minister's getting himself sorted for
the next bit, a perfect chance to stop and start. Another point is just before the actual
pronouncement starts. Again, you have a good bit of time when the minister's thinking
about what's happening next. And again, other points when we stop and start are typically
around when the hymns happen. The basics to recording a wedding with a DSLR is to record
all of your audio separately. For us, we place a lapel mic on the groom, we then connect
that to a Zoom H4N, and we sometimes place another H4N on the lectern. This is recording
constantly throughout the entire service or speeches, and this gives you your constant
reference point when editing. What you then need to do is just sync up your video footage
later on in the edit. What you can do is, if you're solo shooting and you want to fill
those gaps, simply cut away to b-roll. Shots of purens, flowers, stained glass windows,
a guest's hat. Or, if like us, you film a multi-cam, you just have to coordinate your
stop and starts so that you overlap so you don't have those gaps. The way we do it is
with one of these, and one of these. Each member of the team has a walkie-talkie, and
each one has a near piece. And the way we handle it is, you obviously can't speak during
the ceremony or speeches, it'd be unprofessional. So what we do is we simply have a beep. When
if you push the talk button on the walkie-talkie, the other person hears a beep, and it's their
cue to look at the other shooters to see who's giving them hand signals to give them directions.
For example, I might give them a hand signal to shoot wide, to shoot tight. Shoot the primary,
shoot the secondary, or more to the not, we say in hold. What that means is, lock off
your camera, don't move, because the other person's going to either move themselves or
they're going to stop and start recording. And that allows us to stagger recordings and
have a continuous recording throughout with no gaps. And don't forget, you've also got
the fact that the time it takes to stop and start is only 0.7 seconds. Another question
we get asked is, how many people film with us? People look at our work and think we're
filming with three, four, or maybe more people. Often, it's just myself and Julie. Occasionally,
for the larger weddings, we take along our third, either Gavin or Alex. The way we actually
do all this is because of the walkie-talkies. It's because of these, it allows us to function
like a larger unit. It effectively saves one person through efficient communication. For
example, at every shoot, one person be designated the director. And it's their job to say what
shots they want, what they don't want. And it's through the walkie-talkies that can
do that. And often, they will direct without even being there. For example, Julie will
be off shooting the details in the reception room. And I know what the room looks like
because I walked in there earlier. So I'll be saying to her on the walkie-talkie, you
can get a shot of this, a shot of that, do it with the track, do it with a steady cam.
I'll be giving her direction from far away while I carry on shooting the guests or the
couple. So why and how did we make this switch to DSLRs? We'd seen what everyone else is
producing with it and it just looked gorgeous. The shallow depth of field, the filmic look
from the 25p. So we took along a 7D with a Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens to a wedding. The plan
was to just shoot a few things for the show reel. When we got back to the edit, we looked
at it and thought, this stuff is absolutely gorgeous.
So what we decided to do was use it a bit more at weddings. To shoot traditionally, as
we normally do, with our two cameras, but also to have this third camera on a tripod,
having a little bit extra. Over the time, it became clear that we just fell in love
with the footage. So we started to plan the transition to DSLRs. We started to phase out
one camera. The plan was to have one typical video camera recording and the other one would
be our DSLR, doing what the other camera typically did. But we had to navigate way around the
challenges, the 12-minute limit, the audio recording and everything else that goes along
with it. Eventually we took the plunge and recorded with two DSLR cameras and we haven't
gone back. Another reason we switched to DSLRs was because people are just a lot more comfortable
around them. Everybody's got a DSLR these days. So when people see someone else with
a DSLR, they feel more at home. What we used to get with the video camera was people would
turn their backs and go quiet and we used to get footage that we couldn't use or wasn't
worthy of being used. But with DSLRs, everybody is more comfortable. They keep talking and
often they'll give you a pose. They get bored when there's no click and they carry on. But
that's fine. We film that, we just go, yes, thank you, it's all been recorded. And then
we just keep on recording it when we get those lovely natural, genuine moments that you just
do not get with traditional video cameras. We hope you found this informative and don't
forget to check out our write-up that goes along with this video at Mintyslippers.com.
We'll be giving away a little bit more information about how we do and why we do it. But also
if you're looking to improve your craft and new storytelling, join us for the Society
of Movement in 2012.
