Ideas on Chinese Wedding Video

[kee]

Hi everyone,

Need ideas from you gurus out there.

I mostly shoot Chinese Weddings.

Typical day is like this :

1. Bridal Makeup & Hairdo
2. Groom arrive at Bride house
3. Haggling session for groom
4. Ancestral/Deity Prayers and Tea Ceremony at Bride's place
5. Leave bride's place to groom's place
6. Ancestral/Deity Prayers and Tea Ceremony at Groom's place
7. Lunch & Rest
8. Arrival of Guest at reception dinner in hotel/restaurant
9. Arrival of newly wed
10. Dinner starts with food presentation
11. Typical Thank you speeches (lacking contents, just thanking guest for coming...no personal stories)
12. Newly wed goes around table to table toasting.
13. End of dinner.

How would you guys edit it ?

Your insights are much appreciated.

Thanks

[lynn1102]

Where in this lineup does the actual wedding ceremony take place, or is it incorporated with something else.

Lynn

[AndrewMSV]

For a lot of the tea ceremony stuff where it's bad form to edit people out but too lengthy to include everyone, I most often do some type of picture-in-picture or multi-screen effect where I can show a bunch of people at once.
Sometimes I'll voiceover this montage sequence with a few pearls of wisdom and prosperity-wishes from the grandparents or whomever.

This sort of wedding is prime for some time shifting...

You can start with the presentation of the newly weds/bride. Then flashback to her getting ready and the groom games/haggling.
lead into the tea ceremonies and flash forward to the thank you's from the couple to the guests. Use the thank yous for voiceovers during the wedding ceremony.
From there, go into the reception and play it chronologically until the parting shot.

Just a thought.

[WindyHillsVideo]

Sorry Kee,

I don't have any fresh ideas for you. But I have to say, I love your Avatar!

[kee]

Thanks for replying. I appreciate it :)

A typical thank you speech could sound like this :

"Thank you for coming to my son's wedding. I am happy to see all of you can make it. I wan to thank you for the helpers who has helped in organising this auspicious day. Please have a wonderful night and enjoy the food."

Would you use that as VO ?

I am thinking of interview session with the couple. What say you ?

ANyone can post a full length chinese wedding ?

Thanks

[chucksav]

Where in this lineup does the actual wedding ceremony take place, or is it incorporated with something else. Lynn

The couple are married by receiving the blessing of their parents at the tea ceremonies. In California, anyone can get a one-day authorization to perform marriages, so one of the fathers or other close relative usually acts as the state's representative.

[imacron-usa]

i did two wedding in Malaysia ( 2003 and 2004 ). It was for the datuk's daughter and then son. ( What's a datuk anyway ?) What I remember from those two experiences was that it was a totally back-breaking experience. I remember we arrived 11pm, then our call time was 6am. worked till 12mn.

Initially, when the client ( the datuk ) went to manila. He saw my James Bond video and he wanted the same concept for his daughter, who was marrying a German. So off we filmed a damsel in distress, Mission Impossible, 007 ( all in one concept ) as a prelude to their wedding video.
Made sure that the other damsels are clad in bikinis to match the 007 concept.

While we filmed the daughter in an SL20 kompressor, the next wedding ( the son) entailed a more ambitious concept --- a chopper.

We had a lunch reception, a tea ceremony, and a dinner reception ( with speeches, cake cutting, and other traditions ).

I guess the concept is on a case to case basis, depending on your client. I've noticed that the younger chinese generation are easier to please with edgy concepts, while the older ones prefer the traditional. I'm actually pleasing two clients -- the couple and the parents ( who most of the time pay for the wedding ). Sometimes, we need to do two edit versions.

Moral: Delight the one who signs the check ( and gives the red envelope ).



dominic

[kee]

Thanks for the sharing Dominic.

Datuk is somesort equivalent to the title "Sir" in UK. The actual title is "Dato"..but we pronounce it as Datuk.

Another one is Dato Seri...that is more higher. The prime minister has it.

They are given by the Sultans and King. Malaysia is Democractic Monarchy country. There are 9 (can't remember if this is right) rulers that takes turn to be King every 5 years.

Back breaking experiences...yes you are right. 12 - 18 hours is pretty normal.

Dominic, by any chance you have a sample of that wedding to show ?

Thanks

[kee]

Hi,

Shot another Chinese Wedding today. The dinner was 8-course sit down dinner. No speech. I took shots of the decos, people, toast (no speech), departing of guest, table to table toast.

How would you edit this now ?

Thanks

Kee

[AndrewMSV]

Kee,
That seems hard to edit because so little is happening. I think you should revolve your montage for this sequence around the toasts. If you have any useable live audio, you should mix it in. Sometimes people's toasts at each tabel are actually worth hearing - other times it's just noisy and messy.
Again, I think the table toasts can be the central theme and you can intercut each table with some shots of the decorations you acquired and so forth. Mainly, just focus on people having a good time at a (hopefully) memorable venue.

I'd love to see how you solve this problem when your done with the edit.
Cheers!

[imacron-usa]

there's a chinese movie that you can benchmark your edit on. As i was going through my my dvd collection, i chanced upon an early work of Ang Lee --- Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

The story revolves around the father ( who was a respected chef ) and her three daughter ( who were leading different lives ). Similar to joy luck club, like water for chocolate, or chocolat --- where food is an integral part of the story.

The movie starts off with the father preparing sumptuous/exotic dinner for her three daughters. Since highlight of most wedding receptions is the dinner, you may use this as your handle in creating your edit.

I'll try to check out the malaysian weddings. Give me time. It's been three years since. Thanks for the heads up about the Dato. So have you done services for a Dato or the monarchy ?


dominic

[kee]

Thanks Andrew. Will try and will post for you to see.

Dominic, I'll check that movie out. I havent chance upon any dato yet. If I am able to get those, I will be able to charge at least 5K. Will wait for you on the Malaysian wedding :)

Thanks guys. You rock.

regards,
Kee