A few weeks ago I posted on how I have been working on adding “fusion” videos to our services this year. You can read my post about why here: DSLR Video and fusion photography. I must admit that I knew there would be certain obstacles to get over but had a pretty solid idea about what I wanted the final project to look like and didn’t think it would present me with a ton of problems. Well, I was wrong. Way wrong. The final piece my client really loved and new brides I have shown it to have cried, but for me it is far from perfect. I’ll include the video at the bottom for you to take a look at, but it is my first fusion video so please be nice in the comments 🙂 A couple of things I learned with my first fusion shoot:
1) The built in mic isn’t good for much. I guess if you are in a totally quiet room and your clients are speaking loud then it might be fine but for scenes in the real world with background noise the mic picks up way too much of that background noise. There was no way to really fix it in the editing (at least that I know of) so some of the sound is very hard to hear. My next purchase before is going to be getting an external mic. In talking to my videographer friends so lapel mic seems to be the best way to go but that doesn’t fully work with my shooting style. I like to shoot on the fly and if an idea comes shoot it right then. I think having to take the time to put a mic on my clients will get in the way, so a good shotgun type mic that can stay on top of the camera will be perfect. Still looking at whats out there and might need to test a few out first. I’ll report back on what I can find for a good quality mic.
2) Tripods do really help. But I am still not a fan of them. I know tripods are needed at certain times but it another piece of equipment that I just have never been a fan of. It slows me down way too much and I feel restricts me and my creativity. I prefer to work without a tripod as much as I can but with video you really do need something to stabilize the camera. Some of the clips in this movie were hand held, most of the end of the night ones were. But they 
were very quick 5 second clips and the clients were moving also so it didn’t feel as bad. If I was trying to capture something for longer and that was stationary a tripod or something to stabilize the camera is a must have. For my next shoot I am going to look into either a monopod or a stabilizer rig. The stabilizer rig seems like it would fit my shooting style the best even though it adds some bulk to the camera. Looking around the Redrock rigs (image to the right) seem to be pretty good. They aren’t cheap though, this rig pictured is $975 on B&H so I might rent one out first to check into it.
Those are my first 2 things to figure out before the next shoot. I am having a lot of fun with these types of shoots and have many creative ideas in my head I want to get out there. I’ll post more details later, if you have any comments or feedback on fusion photography leave us a comment below.
Sharon and Dustin e-shoot from mark stagi on Vimeo.
