Weddings - prepare for the unexpected!

No matter how well you have planned your movie, there will always be the unexpected.

I thought this wedding would be a “doddle,” after all it was the marriage of my nephew to his lovely bride at St Nicholas Parish church, Chiswick, where he is organist and choir master, he is on good terms with his vicar and has full cooperation from everyone.

I had the assistance from two club members, Penny Johnson and Ron Clements so had plenty of help. We used no less than five camcorders, My M10 in a fixed position to get continuity of sound throughout the service. One other stationary camera for an overall view — the others to get the best shots of the vows and cutaways. All this was splendid in theory but quite an editing headache. A prior sight of “The Order of Service” is imperative.

Could anything go wrong? We did not foresee a Rugby Match at Twickenham,
causing a tailback on the M3.

Lesson 1: Check events. There was a taxi patiently waiting to take us and the equipment from Roehampton to the church at Chiswick, this was caught up in very heavy traffic.

Lesson 2: Check with the AA for traffic conditions. At the church there was nowhere to park, so we leapt out of the taxi hoping we had all our bits and pieces.

Lesson 3: Leave extra time for unforeseen parking problems. With little time to set up we were at the church at last, only to fmd all the doors were locked. The organist and choir could be heard rehearsing while we were more than just twiddling our thumbs outside.

Lesson 4: Make prior arrangements for access — to check power points etc. We were now short of time so I prepared my DP 200 S-VHS Camcorder all ready to shoot, but the tripod fitting snapped and I had to manage

with the camera hand held throughout the proceedings — something I would not normally do!

Lesson 5: Thoroughly check all equipment. At the reception all went well, except the clip on the lapel mic snapped when the groom got rather excited during his amusing speech. However my assistant (YOUR CHAIRMAN NO LESS) leaped to the rescue!

Lesson 6: Make sure you have an assistant at the ready for a quick re-fix, (out of shot of course). Best of all was the skilled camera work by Ron and Penny, plus enormous help with the editing from five tapes.

Lesson 7: Be thankful you have such skills on hand, the benefit of belonging to a good film club.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU
PLANNING TO SHOOT YOUR
NEPHEW AT HIS WEDDING!!!

Jon