Winter Wedding Tips

Previously published on GashlerFilms.com/wedding-videos/wedding-news/winterweddingtips/

Winter weather can make for beautiful photography for those willing to brave the cold. For those of you who will be getting married in winter weather, here are some tips on how to have a comfortable experience and get beautiful results with your photography and videography.

The Coat-Bearer

Because the bride will likely wearing little more than a wedding dress, it's important that you have someone with a warm coat standing by between shots to help her stay warm. In addition to offering comfort, this will help avoid skin turning pale and from shivering during shots.

The Essentials

• Coat for the Bride


• Hand Warmers


• Umbrella (to keep Bride's hair dry)


• Good Shoes
  
  

An interesting idea that I saw on the last wedding I filmed was the bride wore boots instead of typical dress shoes. If you don't want people to know you're wearing boots then we won't show them, but being bold enough to wear boots deserves to be in the video; it's a neat way to show your adventurous personality.

Your Worst Enemy

Besides the cold, you need to worry about the moisture, such as snow, rain and puddles of slush. Using the umbrella between shots will help prevent the bride's hair from becoming messed up from getting wet.


Watch out for slush and wet surfaces. Some photographers and videographers like to have you sit down on say a bench or in front of a pond; obviously, we won't ask you to do that if it's not going to be practical, but if you want to get these shots anyway, you can bring a sheet of plastic or a garbage bag to sit on so you don't get lovely marks on your clothes where you sat down.

Finally

Don't sweat it—not that you will, because it will likely be too cold to sweat. Winter weddings are beautiful in their own way. You might be cold the day of, but you will have the warm memories of your wedding video to look back on for the rest of your life.

Red Epic Digital Cinema Camera

While it probably would be overkill for most weddings, the Red Epic is an incredible camera with capabilities far surpassing anything filmmakers and videographers have ever seen before. The price tag is not cheap, except when it is compared to what cinema-quality cameras cost just five or ten years ago. The best part is that it's digital and there is no need to buy film stock, which is also very expensive. It also films at a resolution about 4 times that of most of the best high-defintion cameras still used today.

Perhaps the new feature of this camera that impresses me more than most features is that it allows one to film in HDR (high dynamic range)—or in other words, it allows the user to film very bright and very dark portions of a shot at the same time and for the image to show up well and more balanced. This is typically very hard to do with most cameras. If you want to see an example of how difficult this is, try taking a picture of a person in front of a window inside and see if you can get the person and the bright background of day show up in the same picture well and balanced.

So, if any ultra wealthy person is looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for me, Brad, then feel free to get me a Red Epic.

iLive Film Everywhere I Go

No, it's not a typo in the title—"iLive" film everywhere I go has to do with me listening to my iPod and thinking of film ideas. Film is so much a part of who I am that I often tend to see life around me as if I were filming it. When I lived in Iowa from 2008-2010, I enjoyed watching to music on the car stereo the green scenery with the rolling hills and plains of corn that stretched seemingly forever.

Most filmmakers prefer to shoot outdoor scenes one hour before sunset, which is when the sunlight is the warmest color. I often am excited when I get to be outside during this time which filmmakers often call "magic hour." To me, there is something seemingly magical about it. The colors are gorgeous, and they really bring out cinematic value in movies.

For weddings, I think that shooting during magic hour makes the best engagment photos and videos. It also is a perfect time to get outdoor shots before the reception begins depending on the time of the year. Natural sunlight is an excellent form of lighting, and best of all, there's no setup and it's mostly wherever you need it.

PHOTO: Courtesy of PDphoto.org

The Beauty of 24p

There's something very special about watching footage shot at 24p versus 60i. What I'm trying to say is that watching cinema style video versus home video camera video is very different. I'v0e long been a fan of 24p. It flows and is so fluid, and for a long time, it was hard to come by.

I shoot almost everything I do in 24p, and I think it's the best way to shoot a wedding. It may sound strange that shooting at 6 pictures less a second than typical video (30 frames per second, with each half frame at 1/60th of a second) is actually more difficult to come by in most cameras—shouldn't it be easier for a camera to do that? Well, not exactly.

Most electronics are based off how AC power alternates at 60 times a second (or 60 hertz). That's why you'll see that many videocameras, especially ones from a couple years ago, could not film anything but 60i, or 60 interlaced or something else based of AC power's natural frequency. To better understand what 60i and 24p mean, check out Wikipedia.

So, strange as it seems, shooting at a slower rate produces a more dramatic, cinematic effect to the footage. It's something that I crave in video. Next time you go to a movie theater, compare the image and motion you see to what a typical home camera does. It's a remarkable difference that I think we often take for granted. 24p is virtually what you see in a movie theater. Maybe you've been in love with it for a long time and just haven't known it.