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A couple of weeks ago we used our photographer’s thoughts post to answer a few of our reader’s wedding photography questions and we thought it was about time we did the same for the world of wedding videos. So if you have any more questions you would like us to try to answer then please do get in touch, but in the meantime here’s a few of the most frequently asked…
Some of the videographers I’ve looked at only offer highlights packages – should I look for one that offers full coverage?
This depends really on what you’re after but if you’re unsure I would definitely recommend watching a few highlights films – most people find they actually much prefer them. Whilst it might be quite nice to have the full ceremony recorded to look back on the feedback we tend to get is that a full un-cut film actually isn’t very exciting to watch and can on some occasions actually be detrimental to their euphoric perfect memories of the day. A highlights film is designed to capture the spirit of the whole day and enhance those memories, keeping it fresh and exciting and giving just enough glimpses of your day for your memory to fill in the blanks. Highlights films also tend to be much more interesting for your friends and family to watch too. If it’s something that’s really important to you though some videographers will offer packages to cover both.
My videographer says he uses digital SLR cameras for filming just like my photographer. Shouldn’t they be using specialist video gear to get the best quality?
The choice of camera very much depends on the type of film that the videographer is looking to create, but modern Digital SLR’s are actually incredibly powerful video cameras and offer better optics and quality than most video camcorders. In fact they’re so good they’ve been used in the filming of several hollywood blockbusters including Iron Man 2, Captain America and (so it’s rumoured) Harry Potter. These cameras do have their limitations and specialist video cameras work better for some people, but for creating wedding highlights films with lots of shorter and artistically shot clips they are very popular and are also very discrete making it easy to get amongst the guests without them feeling uncomfortable.
Do I need to arrange for my videographer to see the venue before the wedding?
Generally no, although some videographers may request to do so. Whilst it’s perhaps more helpful for videographers to see the venue in advance than, say photographers, as they will have more equipment to set up, most are quite used to walking into a room and finding the best places for their cameras and sound equipment on the spot. The placement of equipment very much depends on the setup on the day and often visiting beforehand doesn’t help in this regard. By all means discuss it with the videographer, but leave it to their discretion as to whether they need to visit in advance or not.
My Videographer has asked if I’m happy to wear a radio mic during the ceremony – are they going to record and listen back to everything I say all day? Will I need to turn it off until the ceremony starts?
Unless you’ve been specifically asked to turn your microphone on and off then it’s best not to touch it – with all the nerves most people forget to turn it back on again if they’ve turned it off and the videographer won’t be able to do so once the ceremony begins. Videographers have no desire whatsoever to listen to your private conversations and as the sound files tend to be quite large it costs them money in hard-drive space to store all of that unnecessary chatter, so generally the first thing they do is look at the visual representation of the audio file, look for the part they need and delete the rest. If they do capture something they shouldn’t then don’t worry – they’re professionals and they’re not going to share it with anyone else!
Why is wedding videography so expensive?
There are a lot of factors that go into the pricing for each individual videographer – in fact far too many to include in this short post, but above all you’re paying for quality – producing a high quality film takes a lot of time (often weeks of work!) and each individual clip requires watching, cutting to length, may require sound-work, will be colour graded and processed, rendered, exported… there really is a lot more to it than just filming on the day and all of that comes at a price reflective of the work put in, the experience of the videographer and the overall quality of the film that’s produced.
So that’s it for this week but if you have any videography or photography questions you’d like us to answer then leave a comment or drop us an email and we’ll see if we can answer some more in future posts!
