Filipino wedding videographer and photographer

Hi! I'm Mike Salcedo and I’m a Wedding videographer and photographer. I love my work and this is my passion.

Jon & Jo-Anne Wedding Video

For this charming couple, travelling is one of life’s rewarding moments.

Jon & Jo-Anne’s wedding reception details the couple’s collection of photos as they go from place to place.
They are natural travel buddies, shopping and food best friends, loving son & an obedient daughter to their parents, and most definitely good natured people.

This short video captures just how exceedingly happy they are with each other. We know enough to know they are perfect for each other. But what most people do not know is that Jon and Jo-Anne has began their journey way back in college. A journey which led to this beautiful wedding day.

Wedding Video Style 101

A good many different video styles outspread today’s wedding film scene. Filipino wedding videographers may well be too familiar answering questions like, “What is your style?” or “How will our wedding video would look like?” or similar questions relating to the end result of the wedding video. I get these questions a lot during client meetings, email inquiries from potential clients, and face to face interaction with some guests during the wedding and I am only too happy to respond and explain in detail. You see, it is reasonable to ask your wedding videographer these questions as they address some very basic concerns you may have.

As a wedding filmmaker, I care about my clients enough to help them make an informed decision on distinguishing differences of wedding video styles. After all, it is all about choices. The one important choice to consider when choosing a professional to capture the special eventful day.

Typical styles ranges from “documentary” to “cinematic”.

Marc & Mica’s Wedding

M&M’s wedding spells carefree, childlike fun

No bride and groom has been more creative than Marc and Mica. In this video, you will find bits and pieces of the couple’s creative personal touch. The look and feel is close to avant garde. It makes all things alive and youthful.
Video soundbites highlight the couple’s wedding vow. Each promise tells love to last till old age – enduring, always ready to begin or take up again, continuing and not changing.
Notice how the light in their eyes flicker while being together.

Marc and Mica has found true love and married with it.

Paint with Light

To successfully master professional wedding videography lighting, we need to understand it; measurement is key to that knowledge and interaction. The corner stone of every skillfully executed wedding video is measuring light.

On the previous post, we discover the three types of video lighting for wedding. There is also some mentioning of standard methods like the three and four point lighting technique. These lighting technique or methods are left entirely on your wedding videographer’s imagination and creativity. In today’s post, a lot will be discussed about measuring light in relation to wedding filmmaking. The two main questions this article will answer are why we need to measure light and how.

Like with everything else, we measure light for the following reasons;

Point of reference
Comparative purposes
Control and manipulation

The more we know about light, we discover approaches or ways which become more functional. Less effort even. We can better work on different ambient surroundings. Play out and setup desired or appropriate moods which fall within the parameters of the film stock/sensor. In other words, play with light.

Here we list down tools to help you measure light.

Sekonic light meter

Sekonic light meter

Light Meter

This is a handheld device to measure the amount of light. Mainly used to determine the proper exposure for a photo. It has a calibrated reflectance to quantify exposure. In wedding videography, light meter (a.k.a. incident meter) is used in order to determine the optimum level for a scene.

There are two general types of light meters: reflected-light and incident-light. Reflected light meter measures the light reflected by the scene while incident light measures the amount of light falling on the subject. Resulting data from the incident meter shows the averaged reading of all the sources of light falling on the subject. This reading will usually determine the aperture setting on the lens. Light meter measures lights coming from individual sources (key, fill and back light) in order to get the lighting ratio.

Reflectance meter

Reflectance meter

Reflectance Meter

From the description itself, the reflectance meter measures the luminance of the subject or the light it is reflecting. Various subjects have different reflectivity which needs to be measured. We take as example the reflectivity of black and white. Object in black color absorbs light (along with it is heat). White objects cast back light thus reflecting more of the light which hit upon it. This is especially noticeable in clothing. During colder seasons, people use clothing which are darker in color. Lighter colored shirts are normally worn during hot seasons like summer.

Note that DSLR cameras for wedding video shooting uses a built in reflectance meter to determine proper exposure.

A spot meter is a sample of a reflectance meter. We have here an image showing a spot meter. It typically measures or include an angle of 1 to 5 degrees. This is because they smaller acceptance angle. Other reflective meters cover much more angles than this or about 25 to 30 degrees. This means, spot meter allows reading specific or exclusive areas of the scene. Needless to say, spot meter does not represent the luminance for the whole area.

During wedding filmmaking, the wedding videographer can decide how reflective an object to be by interpreting the reading from a spot meter. Understanding and adjusting settings in accordance to the desired reflective output.

The tonality of the scene can best be explained with employing “The Zone System” or aided by a “waveform monitor”. Then again, those two are left for another story.

Let there be light (but not too much or too little of it)

Professional video lighting, especially on events like weddings, makes a huge difference to the picture quality of your video.

During earlier posts, you may have noticed how other important factors make for an excellent wedding video. We had articles discussing about sound quality, videos going digital, overall professionalism and what to look for in your wedding filmmaker among other things. Just as important is lighting.

The onset of High Definition (HD) technology expects nothing short of excellent picture quality and other remarkable features a digital media can have. This has a lot to do with lighting. I am sure you have seen videos on the internet where people’s face on the video are either over exposed, in shadow, full of white glare or uneven light imposing on the background. It does not matter whether the video is made in Standard or High Definition. This is due to poor lighting.

Understanding how light is measured is definitely an edge. Determining the lighting ratio gathered from individual light sources would mean getting a good register on the video shoot. Thus, wedding videographers, not only photographers, study light too. Three-point lighting and four-point lighting are the standard methods.

There are three types of video lighting being used for shooting;

Key Light
Fill light
Back light

There are several sources from the internet where you may find video lighting tips tutorial videos. Let’s go over quickly some of definition on the terms;

Key light

is the first and usually the most important light. It highlights the form and dimension of the subject. As the name suggests, key light is the principal illuminator. Your wedding videographer can decide whether to make use of hard (focused) or soft (diffused) during the shoot. It depends greatly on the desired setup.

Fill light

softens and extends the illumination provided by the key light, and makes the subject more visible. Fill Light are secondary light sources such as table lamps, or reflected and bounced light in your scene. With several functions for Fill Lights, you may add several of them to a scene or to angles which may well compliment with the key light.

Back light

(a.k.a the rim, hair or shoulder light) helps visually separate the subject from the background by creating a bright line around the edge of the object. It shines on the subject from behind. Hence, highlighting contours.

In virtually everything, check and balance sends the message across. The message is to get the desired lighting outcome. How do you exactly do that? In the next article, more will be discussed about measuring light. The answer comes with nuts and bolts of tools to enhance and help answering just that.

New Year’s Resolution for Wedding Videographers

1. Market! Market!

Marketing and promotion are lifelines of any business. Most importantly, YOUR business. No matter how busy you get to be, make it as your top priority. It can be as easy as letting people know the video coverage services you offer. They can’t make that conscious decision to buy – in this case, to book – if an offer was not made. Respond to inquiries timely and professionally. Link them up with references to the current projects you have on the pipeline. Also, if you see a good example of marketing or you come up with your own, write them down before you forget all about it

Promote services by advertising at minimal cost or for free by registering to buy & sell sites (Sulit, Groupon, Deal Dozen, etc ). These are online classified ads, buy & sell ads listings – free & easy posting for advertisement. Once posted on an online marketplace, your services will be indexed on their integrated search. Thus making their online community of buyers and sellers as your audience.

Stay visible and easy to get in touch with.

2. Tip top website page

Think Web 2.0. Touch up on your website and be more sociable. You can add plug-ins with direct integration with your social media. Template designs and content management system as that of WordPress makes it a breeze to redesign websites. If you are keen on details, you will notice I always have these small icons atop of everything I post. I make use Facebook “Like” buttons and Twitter to encourage my visitors to share. Adding categories and tags aid browsing through an otherwise cluttered information. Post updates, blogs or content on a regular basis. Fresh and creative content is always a good indicator that your site is active.

Your website is the show window for potential clients. Make it an attractive one.

3. Measure and improve

My Math teacher once told, “You cannot improve what you cannot measure”. Track your numbers and set goals. List down project timelines, video shoot assignments, confirmed reservations and resources. Lessons learned from previous video coverage teach you to improve and set realistic goals.

Track budget, time spent on a project, consumables, even inventory of equipment (you never know what you have until you clean your room). It will be easier to identify if something is lacking or which ones you need to put more focus on. Only then you will see what should be improved.

4. Span your network. Get friendlier.

Joining community forums, sites, discussion boards can be a very effective way to share – best practices, latest trends on videography, great advices on shooting sites and venues, good bargains on equipment and videography gadgets – and raise awareness on common interest you share with other people. These are virtual communities which is most probably the best thing about it! It’s as close as having a virtual support system while you are building your network at the same time.

5. Learn something new

Online courses, how-to videos, basic to complicated videography techniques and many other topics are available online. If and when you have the time, it’s good to keep yourself up to speed. Study new tricks, hot trends, and tips you may use on your next assignment. Mastering lighting techniques, tools & equipment improvisation are two favorite topics. You will always find something new and interesting to study.

New ideas often spring from learning new stuff. This we know all too well.

6. Stop and smell the flowers

Ever heard about micro breaks? These are tiny, little breaks you should take during your busy work schedule. Give yourself an hour or a day once in a while. You can make use of this time to pause work and do something you like (a power nap, short trip to the mall, a quick massage, or a fun activity). It’s likely that some of that pressure from work is put off during these micro breaks. Then come back to where you left work feeling refreshed and ready to take on the task.

7. Power of delegation

Learn how to delegate. Work becomes more efficient when you can delegate with confidence. On a wedding shoot, you may need assistance from someone other than yourself. This includes freelancers. Communicate the quality of work you would like to see. Think of how you can delegate more or less work to them. Be open to suggestions too. This will buy you time you need to put more emphasis on things or to try new ones.

8. Plan your work and vice versa

ValveOn Studio’s previous post was about planning and filming. This last resolution calls for planning your work and working your plan. Dedicate an ample time for business planning. Specify goals and start planning steps to achieve it. You may start with foregoing day to day tasks or resources. Mark off those you have already done and move on to the next. Let’s take for example planning for a new category of service offering or your marketing campaign. Plot out needed resources or tasks. Monitor progress and observe deadlines.

Sticking post-it notes works just fine for me. It reminds me of pending work to do and those I have already finished.

Now when I review the list above, I get the feeling that I may just have drafted my strategic plan for 2012. The plan is to be an outstanding wedding videographer. To me, this also looks like a huge amount of work. Heck, I have a whole year to resolve it.

Happy new year everyone!

Of Planning and Filming

Pre-planning can go a long way when it comes to professional wedding filmmaking. I always have a mental list of things prior to getting a task done – we all have. A wedding videographer’s list may seem unending with all the amount of work needed to produce a wedding video. But in reality, you just need to be prepared. I listed down here some of the most important lessons learned from my own experience as a Filipino wedding videographer.

Know thy bride and groom

If you must shoot a wedding, it is good to be fairly acquainted with the bride and groom. Besides the fact that they are the people who booked this wedding shoot with you, they are also the key people on the video. It is very important then to discuss with the couple their expectations from their wedding video. Address their concerns politely with as much details and creativity you can come up with. As their wedding videographer, let them know which parts of the ceremony are to be included, shooting style, or how the whole video will unfold. A beautiful wedding video stems from adequate knowledge and communication between the couple and the wedding videographer.

Have a good backup

Surely you have your own checklist of what to bring during an onsite wedding coverage, footages or wedding highlights must haves, an arsenal of shooting and lighting equipment, key contacts for the event and more. However, it pays to have a backup of the most basic of things such as batteries, chargers, tripod, videotapes and memory cards. Bring at least one more SSD card than you think you will need. It is always better to have too much memory cards than not enough.

Avoid using untried kit on the day. Be sure to test sound, lighting and camera settings. Come prepared and be ready to improvise as when applicable.

Study logistics

Take extra time to familiarize yourself with the wedding logistics (Church, reception area, etc). This should not only include time & venue. Expect traffic. By having mentioned traffic means to calculate travel time going to the actual wedding coverage. Arrive earlier before the wedding guests are expected to arrive. I normally do ocular visits to churches or wedding venues I am not personally familiar with. Wedding videographers should have a good visual image of the place on which the video will take place. If you have a good idea about the logistics of the wedding then you will be able to do better when it comes to shooting the actual wedding.

Be nice

A wedding, like any other important life events, is memorable. Wedding videographer often meets with other peers who are pretty much involve with making the ceremony a memorable success. These people includes official wedding photographers, wedding planners or event organizers even close relatives and friends too. Ensure you maintain professionalism and good vibes in and out of the event. Touch base with other wedding suppliers if need be. Needless to say, be nice and remain tactful always.

Just like an old adage says, “To be prepared is half the battle won”. Couple that with good attitude and dealing with everyone respectfully.

WEVA marks the spot: Filipino Wedding Videographer at the International Arena

Over the past few years, Filipino wedding videographers are being recognized globally on the annual event for Creative Excellence Awards Competition. Locally made entries are reviewed, appraised, and judged in parallel of those made in abroad by WEVA.

WEVA (Wedding & Event Videographers Association International) is a worldwide network of professional wedding & event videographers. Filipino wedding filmmakers are winning more categories each year on the most prestigious awards for the wedding industry in video production – the Creative Excellence Awards. Wedding videographers and event video producers assemble during the annual WEVA Expo to find out who are the distinguished winners.

A total of 15 categories, eight of which highlights wedding production, outlined this year’s most celebrated award for professional wedding films and special event video productions worldwide. Filipino wedding videographers were either announced winners or finalists in more than half of these categories. Our total country tally is 4 Silvers, 6 Bronzes, 5 Finalists. Philippines may have not bagged any gold award this year but we sure did in the past. Here’s a quick look;

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Finalist
2009	6	5	1	6
2010	5	3	3	5
2011		4	6	5

Filipino wedding videographers are international award winning filmmakers. For those of us who are in the industry long enough, this news came as an added compliment to boost our confidence to better our craft. A pat on the back for our dedication to the field. Only this time, the pat is done overseas

I am a proud Filipino wedding videographer.

Same Day Edit. Why need it?

Without batting an eyelash, I can tell you that Filipino wedding videographers brought the Same Day Edit to its new heights. It has become increasingly significant that audience expects it to be included in the program flow. The coverage is from the pre wedding prep up to the reception and everything in between. Let’s review some FAQs.

Q: What is Same Day Edit?

A: Same Day Edit (SDE), also called a wedding day edit, is a short video with footages of the wedding shot earlier in the day and is shown at the reception as a recap of the wedding. SDE footages are taken out of the wedding’s three main part: pre-ceremony, ceremony and post ceremony.

Q: Why include SDE during my wedding?

A: A video account of your wedding tells a unique story. Your wedding day is one of the most celebrated events in your adult life. Characterized by tradition, a wedding is marked by festivity oftentimes extended to longer periods. SDE offers a quick preview of what has transpired during your day. It incorporates highlights and footages from your wedding as they happen. A brief summary is being shown to participating guests, family members and friends making them very much involved in the celebration. That exciting and striking feeling seeing the event unfold before their eyes through a video presentation. They get to see themselves in it too if they get lucky.

Q: Is SDE budget friendly?

A: In a lot reasons, SDE may well just give value for your money. If your budget permits it, I suggest you include SDE to the video coverage package. The wedding video package means you will get a full coverage of your wedding. However, the complete footage may not be available after some time (depends on the agreed timeframe of delivery). On the other hand, SDE gives you the flexibility of watching a short but teeming summary of the wedding. SDE packages should be reasonable enough. Manage expectations by talking to your wedding videographer. Will the videographer you’re speaking to be the one who will be shooting your wedding? If not, make sure you speak to whomever will actually shoot. Ask questions relating to the quality of previous SDEs done in the past, budget restrictions and inclusions. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Q: What’s the big fuss about SDE?

A: The operating word here is availability. It means a lot these days. Your wedding videographer can hand over copy of your SDE video right away. The only question you need to answer next is in which way you will share it. Most Same Day Edit videos found their way to YouTube, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, multiply and blog portals. This way, even those people who were not present in your wedding can share the moment with those who were. The convenience of internet and everything being digital is uncompromising.

Overall, Same Day Edit is a short video to compliment the actual wedding. The wedding celebration in itself is the highlight of the day. Moments are captured and shown almost as real time and keeps the audience interested. The moments are relived through frame after frame of your wedding videographer’s creativity and hard work. Best of all, you can watch it over and over again and feeling a little bit surprised every time.

Bodivance TVC

There’s nothing quite like a challenge as when making the Bodivance TVC. This project required to have some parts of the US product version recreated. Color, lighting and texture were replicated to not fall far from the original look and feel of the US TVC. We surely did sweat a lot making the video. Bodivance made every sweat worth it!

Ramil & Eriza SDE

Theme songs are easily an inspiration when making SDEs. This is especially true with Ramil and Eriza when they asked me to make their song as the background music . As a videographer, there are so many to choose from but to this couple they made a conscious decision. Most often than not, I find myself picking the type of music to be used in SDEs. I was glad to welcome the change.

To Ramil and Eriza, this is your wedding, your song, your loving moment together. cheers!

A wedding videographer should also be a good audio man

Being a wedding videographer relates to mastery of producing good quality of sound. This is why wedding videographers should also assume the role of an audio man. Events like wedding mainly involves activity of speech which includes exchanges of wedding vows, well wishing, merry-making, candid comments and even singing!

This is noticeable especially when you are using a DSLR on videos. Cameras has built in internal microphones. However, audio can still be poor quality due to external factors which will be outlined later. Videographers rely on external or backup audio devices to capture good quality audio such as lavs, boom, studio, shotgun mic. Videographers can decide just what type of mic is ideal to be the man audio source. During sudden outburst of emotions or body movements, a lav mic may not be a reliable source when not positioned close enough or if there are heavy winds. In my case, I normally use a boom mic. This is to isolate issues like poor sound quality. more

Wedding videographer’s thoughts on Boudoir

Boudoir pictures are intimate photos. It is gaining such popularity nowadays as the perfect gift for fiancé and spouse. The word “boudoir” is French for lady’s, or sometimes gentlemen’s, private room, sitting room or dressing room. Photos, images and videos influenced with boudoir concept are sexy and intimate bathing or dressing in style. It is best to be taken by professional photographers with the exception of wedding filmmakers, and wedding videographers.

It should not limit your style only to what’s sexy. You can dress in anything that your fiancé or spouse would like to see you in. I personally suggest anything you feel comfortable while having your photos taken. It could be your favorite cocktail dress and pair of stilettos, those loosely fit boyfriend shirts, sweet colorful sun dresses or beach inspired ensemble, negligee and other items of lingerie, swim wear, even his favorite sports team jersey shirt. Or think of styles in which they do not usually see you in.

Tribute video to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was no doubt a visionary, a leader and a hero of our times. People like him come along once in a lifetime, and to say that he changed the world would be an understatement. In remembrance of him, I’ve put together Apple’s “Think different” video, remixed in appreciation of Steve Jobs. You gave us great music players, laptops and smartphones, in return the world immortalizes you. From the community of filipino wedding videographers,

Thank you Steve. You are iMmortal.

Trend Spotting: Save the Date teaser video

Save the date video is one of the latest trends in wedding videography. It has the words “fresh” and “modern” written all over it. In fact, it’s so popular, many wedding video packages has that option included as added value. Save the date teasers may involve scenes, loved ones like family and friends, places, stuff the bride and groom enjoys as a couple. Even memorable experiences happened within the relationship which they want to relive. This way, they can participate in a variety of romantic, fun, playful, unforgettable and even sexy scenes before their actual wedding – plus sharing it with everyone they know.

Most of the time, save the date video happens a month before the wedding . Or immediately right after the hectic wedding planning is done. Some couples wants to get it done as early as a few months ahead. Sessions can be done once a week depends on the concept the couple wants. It may well be extended depending on the destination of the shoot, availability of other “non couple” actors they want to include . Save the date teasers can last up to 3 to 5 minutes, preferably.

As a wedding videographer, I personally suggest save the date video to my clients for many reasons:

Trendy approach on sending a wedding invite.
More time to get artistic and creative by role playing.
Less stressful than wedding day video.
Save the date highlights best scenes as a couple.
Memories. Think about how your friends and family will respond when they watch.
Gift from friends. Wedding teasers as gift is a wonderful idea.
Fun!

Filming the knot: A different video

If and when you have decided on a wedding videographer or are still not sure about getting one, time to get yourself up to speed on why a wedding video is a must have. Some quick key points on wedding videography will convince you why.

A wedding video captures the sights and sounds of your day. It is strongly advised to book a good wedding videographer for your event to cover these. Photos, tons of it, is a good way to keep memories too as your photographer can take snapshots of the wedding. However, it cannot replace once-in-a-lifetime moments where the bride is walking down the aisle both smiling and teary eyed with the background music making her so, pouring your heart out stammering at some words while saying the wedding vow, the audience sighing and softly crying on their seats witnessing a beautiful wedding, well wishes from loved ones and friends, or the sound of glasses clinking together hinting a romantic kiss.

Why should you hire a pro to cover the day you seal the deal?

Everything is digital

As you may have noticed, most wedding packages now has the HD video footages, DVD copies (full, SDE highlights) and Web version of the wedding video. Just imagine the ease of sharing these moments with loved ones local or abroad with promises of much longer shelf life as opposed to traditional storage device such as analog VHS tapes, CD etc. You can easily plug and play with your mp4 player, iPod, laptops, or share it on your social network, send copies to people who couldn’t make it on the actual wedding day, upload on your blog, or save it on a thumb drive.

The quality of the High Definition format is awesome. You get to have high resolution footages and make duplicate copies without compromising quality. Just in case you want to relive the day that was, it’s as easy as a few clicks in an incredibly sharp and amazing clarity.

Team ValveOn Fun Video

Another task which Team ValveOn is great at doing is to plan for a break. We just had our CDO-Camiguin-Bukidnon trip a few days ago and reliving the days past with photos and videos our team took. Among the highlights were conquering heights with the Asia’s longest zip line, relaxing with the varying water temperatures of CDO’s cold and hot springs and the beautiful island of Camiguin.

We braved what CDO’s famous for: White water rafting And this was the best part of the trip. It was exhilaratingly fun. Extreme white water rafting video is a must see.

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