Best option for recording a wedding

[Michael CM1]

I'm going to record a wedding for someone later this year, and my brain thought up something other than the "put a tape in, record it, transfer it" option I used at my cousin's wedding.

I thought I could hook up a MiniDV camcorder I have directly to my MacBook Pro, open iMovie, and essentially have everything stream into iMovie instead of record first to a tape. I'm not sure if I want to buy a HDD camera for this, but I hate being limited by tapes since I don't know how long or what all I'm going to be recording.

I'm a little worried about this because iMovie has crashed on me in the past. If it does that when the "I dos" are handed out, I am afraid either the camera or laptop would get thrown about 80 yards.

So is this a reliable/plausible method, or should I keep my eye out for a good deal on a HDD camcorder?

 

[kjwebb]

Personally, I would stay away from direct recording into iMovie unless you are also going to record onto tape (basically give yourself a backup). Saying that though, I would even stray away from it altogether as having a laptop attached will limit the type of shots you will get.

With a wedding, you want to also continue having the camera recording and it's useful to have a second camera setup somewhere (even just for a wide shot of the room). Of course this does give you the tape-changing issue, but t apes are still the better quality option as HDD and DVD camcorders (even the HD ones) aren't as good compared to a miniDV camcorder.

There are also a few threads here and around the internet on recording a wedding.

 

[huntercr]

I'm going to record a wedding for someone later this year, and my brain thought up something other than the "put a tape in, record it, transfer it" option I used at my cousin's wedding.

I thought I could hook up a MiniDV camcorder I have directly to my MacBook Pro, open iMovie, and essentially have everything stream into iMovie instead of record first to a tape. I'm not sure if I want to buy a HDD camera for this, but I hate being limited by tapes since I don't know how long or what all I'm going to be recording.

I'm a little worried about this because iMovie has crashed on me in the past. If it does that when the "I dos" are handed out, I am afraid either the camera or laptop would get thrown about 80 yards.

So is this a reliable/plausible method, or should I keep my eye out for a good deal on a HDD camcorder?

No, don't do this.

I would not do the Laptop idea because the odds are against you of having a successful time doing this. It's dramatically more complex than it needs to be and you're counting on not just technology, but interoperation of technology. This is far more risky than just finding a dull spot in the wedding and changing out the tape.

Changing out a DV tape is less than 30 seconds. Practice this.

Go to the wedding rehearsal and ask the bride and groom for a copy of the wedding program ahead of time so you can study it a little. There are a few opportunities to change out tapes... people walking up to the podium when they do "readings", .. if it's a catholic wedding, you could change out when communion is presented to everyone else ( after Bride,groom, wedding party, etc ) It's not like people are going to want to get every single person taking communion on tape.

The thing is, the actual ceremony isn't usually more than 45 minutes. You've got an hour on a DV tape. Just make sure you don't start your filming ( or alternatiely change to a new tape ) until the wedding processional starts, and you're likely to be gold. Keep track of time and where you are in the wedding program. Once you get to about 20-30 minutes in, look for your change out opportunity if you think the wedding will run long.

As kjweb said, there's a few good "oh crap a wedding!" threads on macrumors from the past that are worth checking out.

Hope this helps!