The audio of your wedding or event video is something that very few people think of until they experience it. When you interview a potential videographer you want to ask, “How will my movie sound?”
Most people are acquainted with a home-movie approach to video and become accustomed to it. That is, the audio is captured exclusively by an on-board microphone. This approach has many limitations. Servo noises from the camera itself are picked up. Operator handling of the camcorder often introduces noises. The voices and sounds of interest to the viewer are distant and usually sound tinny. Any whispered or muffled sounds are lost.
With professional videography there is a completely different story. Persons of interest will wear a quality UHF diversity wireless microphone. These are free from static and highly resistant to dropouts. If there is more than one person of interest additional microphones will be used.
Odd as it may seem, much can be forgiven or go unnoticed with the imaging of video. However, the audio that accompanies the video will make the difference between night and day. Minimally acceptable audio on a video will be a never ending annoyance to a viewer while superlative audio will go unnoticed. Professional audio for a video makes all the difference in the world in the overall quality and viewing experience.
One of the classic moments of a wedding is for the groom when he sees his bride walk down the isle with her father. We did one wedding where the groom got distracted just prior to this moment and, being nervous, didn’t realize his bride was walking down the isle until she was nearly there. The bride, of course, had trouble comprehending why her busband-to-be was pre-occupied with something else.
One of the extremely common surprises of a wedding day comes when it is time to place the rings. Probably zero percent of couples getting married practice placing the rings on each other prior to the ceremony. Consequently, it is quite common to actually struggle at the altar getting a ring to slide to its final position on the finger.
This is probably the classic wedding day milestone of all time. What all too few people think about, however, is what the dad might be experiencing during that time. In doing wedding videography we see it all too often. That is, when the bride glances to the dad half-way down the isle and catches his eye. The video is exceptionally powerful in capturing this as the dad struggles to maintain his composure. With the video capturing 1,800 frames per minute we see various peoples’ composures either momentarily change or struggle to keep from changing.
Up until that point various people have been around you all the day for the entire day. Now suddenly alone in your car you realize that nobody is waiting for you or expecting you to do something. It is striking when that moment arrives.
Some aspects of your wedding day can ONLY be captured by video. Consider your vows. It is common for couples to craft their own vows and carefully wordsmith them to death over a period of months. Without video those vows will only survive through the powers of your memory and any memementos you may have retained from that day on which your vows were printed.