Suggestions for sound capture at wedding

[David Thrasher]

There are a number of ways to solve the problem of good audio at an 
event like a wedding:

You could buy or rent a wireless microphone and have it hidden up front 
where the action is and recording on the camcorder that is capturing the 
master wide shot. A possible drawback to this approach is if it should 
pick up radio interference from other sources (CB, police radios, etc.)

You could tap into the audio from the PA system. You'll want to make 
sure that your cables are taped down good so nobody trips over them and 
disconnects them in the middle of the event.

Which ever way you record the sound, you'll want to make sure that the 
camcorder receiving this sound is running continuously through the 
duration of the action you are recording. Also, if it is all possible 
see if you could have some sort of sharp sound to use to sync to in 
editing. It helps immensely if there is a visual to go with it. That's 
why they use clapboards in movie shoots.

For editing in iMovie:

Lay in your master shot and write down the exact in and out points for 
the close-ups. Place it back on the editing shelf.

Place the camera 2 footage into the timeline and split the video at the 
points you wrote down. (the arrow keys help for jogging the video into 
position. Extract the audio on each of the closeups you are going to use 
and delete it. Place the selected closeups back on the shelf and delete 
the unneeded shots.

Repeat, if you have a 3rd camera.

Put the master shot back onto the time line. Extract the audio and lock 
it to the video. Split the video at the various in and out points you 
wrote down. Delete the video sections where close ups are to go and 
insert the closeups into the gaps.

That should hopefully work for straight cutting.

-Dave