Well apparently my comment from last night was removed and so I am going to try to recreate it.
Overall, the color was spot on, the focus was awesome, length of the clips were generally neither too long or too short, and, most importantly, their story got told.
The establishing shots of the hotel and beach area were fine except for the gratuitous shots of the hotel added into the more personal interior workflow. Personally I think this detracted from the overall watchability of the video.
My most serious criticism is that you used simple cutaways between scenes. IMHO, while this is a perfectly reasonable technique for "action videos" it is too choppy, abrupt and frantic for a wedding video. You are telling a love story. I would suggest using some soft transitions (i.e. "cross dissolves" or "cross blurs") between the scenes. These transitions allow for a smoother, softer feel and is reflective of the emotions of this kind of event.
Keep up the good work, you definitely have talent.
Ahh Jeff! I thought I saw your first comment and then was wondering where it went today - really appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback, especially this in depth! My responses below:
-I definitely thought I missed the color a tad bit - It was really hard for me to color correct to give it that "wedding feel." All I used was the color board in FCPX and was constantly playing with the exposure to give it that softer feel but was tough because I didnt want it to get washed out! Not to mention having to match it across different shots/angles where lighting changed - this was a huge challenge for me. Makes me happy that you appreciate the color considering the amount of time I put into correcting it... then fixing it again, and then once more... haha a lot more work when its your first video.
-Youre spot on about adding drone shots into the personal interior workflow - someone else even said the same thing and now that I re-watch, great call - my only caveat here was it was my first video in my wedding portfolio so while i tried to make it great for the couple, I wanted to show off my drone shots
but i think i made it clear in the beginning.
-Great call about transitions as this is probably one of my biggest takeaways and most common feedback response - too choppy for a wedding video. (If you watch other vids on my youtube channel JTCFilms you can see my action/travel vids are choppy, to the music and show off so many different scenes... but this wedding was not an action vid so will def make a change!!! <3)
-I also think staging shots in my next video will help a lot as ill be able to slow down some romantic shots and transition between them a lot smoother!
All in all, I think I was close to the wedding video feel, but not quite there.
IMO my biggest 2 improvements need to be more romantic slow motion staged shots, and not showing as many clips (which created the choppy/quick vibe) - which will mean slowing clips down and transitioning slower and more smoothly between shots.
Super grateful for the feedback as I dive headfirst into the wedding video industry. And of course I appreciate the kind words about having talent - hopefully just the beginning.
Cheers,
JTC Films
