Lessons

Lesson Info

Planning for Bridal Prep Shoot

okay so the first segment we talked about gear we talked about some camera settings we talked we talked about the importance of second shooter's third shooter's things like that now we're going to talk about the most important part of the day not for the bride's film because that's what that's her vows on the words spoken and things like that but the most important time of the day for us where we can control the most is when perhaps preparations so if you're one of these studios that kind of offers the choice tohave preps covered or not I would tell you change that philosophy because you need perhaps be why don't we why do we need props because we need content right how long do we spend in bridal preparations on average more or less how long how long would you say you're in the room with the bride at least at least an hour sometimes an hour and a half I've spoken to some video people I was just down in brazil that they spend two three hours with the bride it's a lot it's a long time th...

e good thing about broader preparations is that you can control a lot of things okay you can control your lighting you can get good lighting you can set the stage for that hour and a half that hour that you're going to be in there are the two three if you're in brazil the two three hours there you're going to be in there it's very important because what's gonna happen if you're in a bad situation for an hour and a half or an hour or two or three hours all your shots are bad right if you're a bad lighting situation for an hour and half think about that if you're one of these video offers that just shows up in most videographers we have a tendency to do what we have a tennessee to accept the situation as is however we show up whatever we're dealt we kind of say the lighting's bad all right I got to get to work for the next hour hour and a half your shots are not going to be good because the light is no good the light is the number one thing that you need for perhaps if you have the light for an hour and a half your golden because that means for an hour and a half two hours you're gonna have amazing imagery because your compositions going good right we all understand composition we're going to push the envelope but as far as composition goes we're going we're going to strive towards great composition so what do we need now we just need great lighting can't have one without the other can have great composition in poor lighting poor lighting is very unflattering to a bride do you know that why create shadows you know if you're if you're in one of these rooms you're in they're salon and there's mixed lighting going on there's lamps there's tungsten if if she's doing her make up in a bathroom it's creating all these shadows and things like that are taken away from her beauty how easy do you think it is to explain to a bride you know if we do it this way in the natural light it's gonna make you look better how many brides do you know that would go against you or like kind of go against um looking better it doesn't happen what you have to do is you have to ask the only thing I do is us because the worst thing they could do is say what they can say no you just have to ask for a better situation but do it before the wedding because once what they happens you don't want to kind of be the guy that shows up and just discombobulating everything to try and get what you need now because it's a little bit it's a little bit late in the game you need to you need talk to the bright and one thing that you definitely have to do with these brides is that a lot of us don't myself included I didn't used to do this I never even thought about it do brides understand video production not at all but we expect them to kind of like get it like hey I need a better situation in her my saying for what just deal with it just just film because she doesn't understand lighting and composition and all these things right so you have to educate him said listen I need a better lighting is just going to make you look better okay if you love these stunning images that are in my films on on this block of mine on my website that you fell in love with and you hired me to achieve that I need good lighting I need to be put in a good situation so I'll be able to achieve these beautiful results with you and you'll just look stunning not only that it gives the makeup artist an accurate representation of what that bride's going to look like outs by having that natural light and we're going we're going to do this later on this very cool because during this workshop we have an actual bride and actual groom we have a make up artist we actually have like a bridal room that we're going to work with an actual like a real life situation that we're going to work with him going to work through some of the obstacles and we're going to basically find the light we're going to find the light that wouldn't eat and you always I have to find the light even if it's just a little one by one window with some natural light coming through you just always have to look toward natural life you're always going to run into a situation we're gonna have a bad situation where there just is no natural light maybe it's maybe it's a nighttime affair maybe she's doing her make up at night and you just have to deal with the situation but for the most part bryce get their hair and makeup done early morning or at least during the day when there's at least some natural light that you can work with so you always have to give some suggestions and that's all we're given is we're giving food for thought based on what based on our own experiences because we know what's getting make the bride looked good right which is generally it starts with what it starts with the lighting way can't have a bride in a dark room we're filming with all these fancy high definition cameras you can't chd in the dark like these cameras were require at least decent type of light okay well there's sinatra artificial but we need you have to feed these cameras to some light in order to see their true potential shop plan is going to be very important you know that when I meet with the bride the only thing that I'm thinking about is what's the lighting situation going to be like for preparations what's the lighting situation will be like for the ceremony because those air generally to places where I don't introduce any light I just try to work with the available light that's there I don't want to introduce any my own stuff because it's just too big and bulky it and it and it kind of it draws attention to me and I never want attention drawn to me because I'm just there looking for natural raw emotions I'm not looking I don't I don't want to be that guy that's just lugging things around or showing up with two three four guys to film it's just may I'm by myself period I just need a good shooting situation for the next hour hour and a half this is critical if you put yourself in that good situation you golden for the next hour and a half you know that pretty much every shot hopefully that's coming out of your camera is a u very usable stunning shot that you can use in that from that that's the whole purpose of us being there is to create these amazing images they're not hiring us because we're uncle bob you know we're just going to show we're gonna put a camera tripod and just kind of record the obvious they're expecting us the people in this room the people that are at home watching this on creative life they're expecting us to be visual artist that's why they're paying us more money if not they would just pay us less money and we would just be kind of like a tripod shooters and just record obvious whatever the lighting situation was it is what it wass that's have a thing but that's not who we are we're expected to create amazing imagery and we can only do that through great composition and the use of great lighting find the light I always think just very simple if you walk into a room find the light and there's gonna be a lot of times where you've educated the bride on where she should do her makeup but what else is there there's someone there's so many other things that are going on she's going to get into her dress right you need someplace where she can get her address that well that there may be a gift exchange you need some place where there will that it might just all happen in the same spot as the makeup it just depends it depends on the situation because sometimes we're in a room that's very very small and sometimes we're in a big penthouse suite that's very very large you know our brides parentshouse that's very huge and there's you know eight different bedrooms or something like that or or you're in a studio or the bedroom the kitchen the bathroom and everything is all in one room and you just have to kind of deal with that room so it just depends but you definitely need the light and that's what we need it I already have the camera if I could just have these two things here are these three things you know obviously the bride some natural light and a high chair I would be the happiest man on earth because I know for the next hour and a half no matter what the room looks like no matter how large how small I can work I can work with this situation right here and it happens the only thing you have to do is ask when I when I was setting up for this creative live workshop they asked me so what do you need I said I just need some natural light if you're involved in the process I just need some natural light ah high chair and a bright and as you'll see in a little while I was dealt you know obviously a bride some natural light and a high tree just have to ask the same thing on the wedding day ninety nine percent of the time you can either find ah high chair already there a barstool somewhere or the makeup artist they generally have highchairs just said nobody asked him to bring that it's much more convenient for them just to use the chairs that are readily available in the bride prep area that something it's less work for them to kind of lug around their high chair but you know what if it's needed and there's nothing else you know we need that high chair the reason for the high chair is what do you see this bright shoulders back this is naturally I didn't tell her to sit there with the shoulders back it's just natural beautiful posture that she's going to be in the low chairs you tend to slouch right and it's not it's not a great posture it doesn't kind of exude of that brides beauty and that's what I'm looking for in every shot this shot here I'm shooting at a distance with a long lens and she's just propped up like that just because she simply been placed in this in this high chair the other great thing about the highchairs that if they're in a low chair there's other obstructions there's other people sitting in the room there's centerpieces there's lamps and things like that they just don't have a clear view of the bride where is this kind of props her up for the most part above anything and now you can shoot from anywhere in the room and you have this beautiful bride proper posture looking great you have natural light coming in and guess what for the next hour and a half I'm going to be generating so really really useful shots for my editor this is all I need now remember this because you guys are going to counter this you guys have already encountered this so have I do not under any circumstances except a bad situation do not there is no reason in the world why if a situation could be made to look better during preparations why it's not done unless the bride which this would never happen just flat out said no I don't want to go I just can't see that happening so if it's just a matter of a makeup artist kind of moving as you can see here you know you have you have great light off to the left bad light and then great light off to the right and guess where the brightest it's it's always in the bad light okay she's facing into the room which is underexposed and this room is just so cluttered right and this was this was a huge house and as you can see here if you see the bride's face she's not looking too happy at all because I had already discussed just like like I do with all my brides I had already discussed with his bride all about natural light and how it was going to make her look and this and that and actually when I showed up to the house the makeup artist wasn't even there yet and the bride came running up to me and she said right I got this great room for make up and I said okay cool let's check it out and went up there and it was gorgeous I even like I had the chair position like ready to go next thing I know oh I thought she was just doing the hair and I came up tio this make a person and I said hey when you're done with her hair can we move upstairs you know to do the makeup thank you said said no we do right here and as I but upstairs looks so much better you know to make the bride look ray there's natural light what we already set everything up for you all you have to do is like physically just move up there she said no and that's what my bride was looking like the whole time and my bright finally said after about sixty seconds she said I really want to go upstairs now to the mega bars and about ten seconds later we all moved upstairs so but this was a very bad this is a very challenging situation it was the first time I encountered a makeup artist that was just so dead against doing something so simple that was going to make the bride looks so good just moving upstairs you know we were literally taken all her stuff up there all she had to do was physically walk upstairs but sometimes you gotta run in this situation so then we end up in a great situation wind up in a great room and then you can see now we can work now we can work now now we have a beautiful bright again now we can see beautiful eyes you know this natural coming in in studio audience you're seeing stuff a little bit more saturated but this imagery is unbelievable if you can work in a situation like this as opposed to ah very cluttered living room where shots are under exposing their shadows and there's things that are really detracting from the bride's beauty which you never want to do and I'm gonna tell you something I'm gonna tell you something right now you guys may already know this it doesn't matter how creative you are as a filmmaker or a cinematographer or a videographer it doesn't matter how creative your in the edit it doesn't matter if you're the best storyteller in the world it doesn't matter if you've mastered the art of time shifting it doesn't matter if you've chosen the best soundtracks for your film if the bride doesn't like the way she looks in the film she's never gonna want to watch it which means we have failed we have felt because we are very self conscious every time we get tagged in a photo on facebook right we go running there not to appreciate the quality of the photo we're like oh god what I look like in this photo right so you can antagonist self and things like that were just very self conscious you know when you're watching a film the first clip that comes up and you're in it you're like oh my god how did I look did they get my good side you do not look too heavy like right now I'm on creative life and I don't know what I look like I could look too fat or whatever you know that they may not be getting my good side but I don't know and I'm concerned because I can't see it but bill let me know later on and I have some friends that are watching this um jokesters and they'll let me know they've probably already tweeted me but but back to my point if a bride doesn't like the way she looks in the film it's done at that point and they've hired us because they trust us and I tell brides sometimes I come to the rooms they haven't started makeup and depending on the bride you know some brides are just beautiful as this and then some brides they may feel more comfortable if they had some makeup on first before you start shooting them things like that and I read you know you know because I know my rights I know what looks good and I tell them I said listen trust me I'm going to use anything that's unflattering suggest relax do your thing and things like that it's sometimes you need to put them at it because sometimes they may go into shock if it they see in the room too early they're going to shock they were like oh my god don't start filming I'm not ready oh my god the film's gonna be horrible you know so you gotta kind of like you know hey just relax I'm gonna film other things I'm gonna film details I'm gonna film the dress but I'm here just for the final touches and things like that so this is another bad situation you know she was having a makeup done in a corner with orange yellow lights and I was like oh my god we have to move to natural light the makeup artist is like sure let's let's move over I helped her move all her stuff and this is this is the same right and I haven't done anything I haven't adjusted my camera settings I haven't color grated I haven't color correct that I haven't done anything the only thing that I've done is go from a bad shooting situation to a great shooting situation now you can actually see her her green eyes you know beautiful green hazel eyes I can actually see them now here it's like you know dark and and now now I've got a gorgeous bride this is what she hired me for to make her look beautiful and I'm not doing anything extra to make her look good is who she is as a person I'm just putting that in the film I'm making sure that beauty makes its way to the film efficiency this is very important here one of the most repeated things I'm going to talk about during the workshop is efficiency because why these films that were producing are any of us producing long film still like over thirty minutes everybody's under thirty minutes twenty minutes in that range so what's the key to producing the shorter films because we changed the entire mind set off wedding videography did we not because the traditional mindset was sixty minutes ninety minutes two hours three hours and now we're just delivering twenty minutes right and the bride's parents are looking at us like we're crazy because they paid all this money and they get this fifteen to twenty minute film right where's the money going you were there all day all right do we get that where's the rest of the footage you handed us this twenty minute masterpiece of a film where the rest of the footage what are we paying you for you were there all day right efficiency because if we want to get away with creating these shorter films we can't just take a long film chop it in half and put her on a deviate d and delivered to the client right that twenty minutes has got to be like a thrill ride it's literally got to be the most amazing twenty minute wedding film they've ever seen in their life and the only way to achieve this is to load it with not only the obvious special moments that happen during the day but we're also going to load it with some visual eye candy some of these creative shots that were getting that we're achieving with the great composition the great use of light and all this but we have to be efficient remember in your ad it how long do you typically use a clip that has no audio is just a beaut clip you three seconds is a good rule of thumb perfect two to three seconds sometimes sometimes a second and a half two seconds if it's it's kind of being tied together in a little mini sequence my general rule is to shoot it for three to five seconds so that way if I use an imposed for three seconds at least I have some tail you know I have a beginning and a tale of like saying so three to five seconds remember don't get stuck on a shot and get tunnel vision for ten fifteen twenty thirty forty seconds because you're missing so many shots that you could've already like loaded up on for your final edit just kind of stuck on this one shot maybe waiting for something else happened a lot times we're anticipating shots right but sometimes maybe just as it happened you know but there's all these other things going on so just bear that in mind sometimes you just have to switch it up because if you're like me I do props for myself so I don't have another shooter kind of complimenting my shots it I'm just relying on myself to be efficient and get different angles so can I get the money I just wanna let you know that your wife is in our chat rooms oh great watching very nice hey honey she's the best she's the bomb I couldn't be doing this without her and I love you yeah she's honestly if she wasn't doing this I couldn't be doing this because way grew this together you know his husband wife team and really we were allowing each other and she's my main editor so without her I'd just be I would be buried in backlog and probably out of business right now so yeah and that's it so this is our tool this our tool this is our camera and generally when I'm in preps I'm just kind of I'm bouncing around and I'm looking for those three to five second shots strong shots that I can use aa lot of shots do we know what our shots are going to be when we going to perhaps do we have ah like a plan like of what things are going to look like and what our shots going to look like no because we just got there wouldn't even know what the room looks like so a lot of times were kind of achieving these shots based on what our eyes you're seeing maybe in the viewfinder right because we have this beautiful light and what happens with light light inspires art right do you sometimes look in your viewfinder and you're like oh my god look at the way the light's hitting my subject and I'm creating this incredible shot that you hadn't planned on creating that shot but you're just doing it so sometimes you're in there and you're you're trying to achieve a shot and you're getting shot say you hadn't planned on getting you're like oh my god this is crazy and then you're attempting some shots that maybe you had a plan that just don't work right so so there's a lot of unplanned shot there's a lot of plans shots but in the end you should have a lot of content from broader props if you put yourself in a good situation I'm gonna show you a clip right now I'm gonna show you a clip right now off a wedding that we had where I simply just asked for a high chair some good natural light I put the bride in position and I was able to achieve these shots caesar just raw shots have been grated or edited or anything this is just kind of what I have to work with as faras brought a prop stuff you know broader pop shots that I'm going to use in my film so I'll let you guys take a look ah can you give us some thoughts on this record so if you notice there's there's different things going on you have bridesmaids of messing with the bouquet you had the bride writing a letter you've had some some detail shots of the dress and the shoes and things like that and you'll notice in each scenario I had good lighting so you're always looking for good light no matter the shots you're always looking for the good lighting and ray how much rack focus do you d'oh just if I'm trying to transition from from one to another okay I just try to do little subtle transitions because it's really nice yeah and a lot of its just eye candy you know beautiful bride beautiful eyes you know so if you if you have a bride with beautiful features exploit them you know beautiful eyes exploit thighs beautiful figure exploit the figure it's just beautiful you could see the lighting and the lighting is not flat it's very dramatic you know so when you position the bride in the chair you want to make sure that that light's not so flat on the bride's face and will you have photographers in the room competing with you for angles they don't really compete because they're really I work with a lot of photographers that are kind of doing their own thing and they're looking for their own shots but I tell you when I set this up they're loving it because every shot that they're taking looks amazing you know they're shots are different but the lighting and and the dramatic latin that's coming across in the beauty of the bride it's the same it's just it's stunning all the way around for photography and video so when you when you set up these situations where the bride's gonna be in gorgeous lighting you're not only helping yourself you're also helping the photographer and you really want to get into the habit off working hand in hand with photographer because you're going to be there all day and let me tell you butting heads is just it's never the same it's never a good scenario for the bride if you have a photographer and video people working together to creative minds thinking of together yeah at the end of the day the person that's going to benefit the most is the bride she's just going to end up with so much incredible kant tent in her film and in her photo album this this wedding here I shall be very good photographer from south florida and we're kind of on the same page and how we use light and how we deal with the bride's in certain situations and he's creative I'm creative so like he's coming up with all this creative content I'll come with all this creative contact and sometimes he gives me great ideas sometimes I give him great ideas so and then at the end of the day just it's so easy to work a day like that there's no stress and and in the end you just end up with so much great stuff cool yeah so and you know the the common thing that you notice with all the shots is lighting the lighting is just and it's not hard to do this just literally the same spot she was doing makeup is the same spot she's getting address on so just set the stage for everything that you won't achieve later on and this is visual eye candy do you know what my film is going to look like when I start to introduce some of these shots on top of beautiful words being spoken about the bride I mean it's just my arsenal is just complete and that's what you want to do you want to just really load up on his much content that you can possibly gather throughout the day so that when you're editing you don't run out of stuff to use in the film which was divorce case scenario you know seeing you sitting there like I wish I would have filmed a little bit more just get as much as you can show up early if you can I try to show up early it's not contract that time but you know what that a little bit of time it helps me out all right hang it again broke is that a six shot just make sure they can't see you notice I was nowhere in that frame so you don't have any visual evidence that I was even there all right so introducing movement um I'm gonna need the model pot again before we get to introduce the movement I wanted to talk to you guys I want to continue talking about content um and kind of setting the stage because a lot of people last online is it directed is it staged is everything posed and I tell you it's not one hundred percent the only thing that is it's controlled I'm controlling my environment where the things that are actually going to happen happen you know if they were going to exchange gifts I don't tell these people to go out and buy gifts I don't tell people to write letters I don't tell people to write personal vows I don't do none of that if if it happens on the wedding day it happens on the way today if it doesn't happen on the way today it doesn't happen on the wedding day but if it does happen I want to make sure that there's what number one there's create lighting I need great lighting no matter what the situation is going to be whether they're exchanging gifts writing a letter writing their vows doing makeup getting in the dress I just need good lighting I need some natural light is what I'm looking for one hundred percent of the time so what happens you get the wedding day schedule and it says uh bride makeup starts at eleven a m and you show up at eleven a m and what has happened the bride is already done right how many times is that happen schedule says eleven but you show up in the bride's already done she's already off doing something else and now what happened you just lost maybe thirty percent of the content for your film because if you look at these highlights specially online they're loaded with prep shots right bride perhaps groom perhaps first look at thirty forty percent of those films is perhaps so imagine if you lose thirty percent of your content it's not a good situation it's it's a horrible situation so what I do is if the schedule says eleven a m what I started doing was showing up thirty minutes earlier but then we started happening was thirty minutes earlier there were still already done because of the hair finishes at nine you know the hair makeup or just just do your make up now because they're not thinking about wedding videography or the photographer they're just thinking about what they have to they can finish early and get to their next wedding they've just finished only I get to the next wedding so what I did with my bride to make it better for me I should look your makeup student start eleven I'm gonna show up a little bit earlier but here's the rule do not let them start your makeup until you actually physically see me in the room don't start makeup until you see me physically in the room because I can't afford to miss those shots of and the same way that I've explained this to you right now thirty percent of the content that I have for the film is the same thing that explain to the bride I say you understand if if I if I lose those shots I'm losing thirty percent of what I have to put into your film so now how much more important has that become to the bride ensuring that the makeup you know like how brides is like you can't start my fate you know ray's not here we're not starting makeup you know that type of thing and it's not even due to start yet you know schedule says eleven maybe I'll show up ten thirty now another good reason for showing up at ten thirty is what or earlier if you want to set the stage yourself because you don't want to show up at eleven and they're starting makeup at eleven but the stage is set you know the chairs already been position it's not in good light maybe it's in the bathrooms things like that you want to show up early enough so where you can become the set designer like we're in here and everything's kind of set for creative what we need to set this for our bride props we need the chair position in a certain way that's advantageous advantageous to our shots we need the natural light we want to be the ones to kind of set those things up and of course and I always ask the maker bars I said hayes is good for you and I'll have somebody send the check maybe un assistant just to check the lighting or all check the lighting on my hand just to make sure that I'm getting the best light in that a particular position so you want to set the stage and we'll get into that for the hands on portion ofthe broader perhaps setting the chair because there's going to be certain elements when you walk into a room that you're going to be able to use to make shots more interesting whether it's reflective surfaces whether it's foreground you know and as soon as you come into a room some of you know this you're already scanning the room and you're like okay I can use this I can use that beyond just the typical standard you know good composition good lighting camera mono pod type shots you want on that start using maybe some things that are in the room to go beyond that and start making your shots really pop on dad interest to your shots