Wedding Videography
We Need a Wedding Videographer?
Great to hear. We do not offer Wedding Videography as a service. The video we do is mainly for proposals and stationary wedding ceremony recordings. When it comes to a wedding day almost all couples are thinking to add video in after they have gotten a photographer. We think this is in part because they are still figuring out their budget or because someone pushes to have it added at the last minute. In the end hiring a videographer can be highly impacting to the photographer depending on who you hire which is why we are writing this post.
In the past few years we have not been working with as many videographers so we do not have any direct recommendations so we are mainly focusing this post on some below cautions. We have nothing against any of the categories of videographers below but we have just found things that did not work well for our couples with the different type of people. You might do great with one of them but experience has shown they often have detracted from the wedding day so we think it is good to give some insider cautions. In the end we will strive to work well with whomever you hire.
Who We Recommend You Not Hire
Friend Videographer
You will get the best deal with the most availability which is great cause you are likely thinking to get them to record some stuff during the wedding day. This enlistment often produces the most impacting results because of a lack of experience or equipment to get the shot. Almost all people in this category get up in your face and distract from key moments. We have lost track of how many people went and parked themselves down in the middle of the center aisle right next to the family in the front. The classic was getting literally inches from the brides face with the camera as she was doing the cake cutting. Professionals are aware of their surroundings and know how to work well with others to achieve a collective success.
Big Company Videographer
You found someone available which is great. Little did you know at the time of booking that you were not actually talking to the actual videographer or seeing their work. It was a big company that took what was a lot of money to you and then turned around and outsourced is to someone starting off needing a gig for a couple hundred dollars. If they spent 2x time editing then they likely spend toward the wedding day then they might be making between $6-7 per hour of work. As you would imagine it is hard to live at that wage level and so expect slower work since they have another job. If they are not editing the work then the invested interest is low and whoever creates the video is working through less than ideal work. We have actually seen people say to missing a section of the day and key shots ‘I don’t care cause all I am doing is shooting it.’ Outside of that you also cannot have great equipment at that price so expect lower quality if they show up. We frequently have people who came to us as their photographer from a big company randomly canceled on them.
Budget Videographer
If the first two options do not sound like what you are seeking you go the route of finding someone actually running their own company. Solves everything – right? Well in this category we have often found the equipment used to be severely lacking. One of the reasons we do not do videography is because to use the true equipment is 30k+ for a body and a few lenses. Most videographers seem to use far less quality equipment. We have seen it go so far that the total new value of all the equipment used by a videographer was less than 1 of our camera lenses. The perk is that they are often going with the flow and like us taking charge directing the positioning and activities. In this category we think it is best to save the money as you may not like the end product because you will likely get what you paid. You also will not like the scope of the services they do or you will find the video a little choppy rather than smooth.
Cinema Videographer
On the other extreme of videography there is the cinema production level. We think most people want this level of work but around a third of the price. The reason why this is on our list is often couples have not considered in going this route how it will effect other services like photography as often videography can cut photography time in half. To illustrate, if you are not doing a first look then the cocktail hour 20 minutes quickly becomes 10 minutes for photography and 10 minutes for videography. Shooting both at the same time requires integration of the shooting flows which most cinema videographers have not been able to do as they normal trend to be very staged. We have found some people actually need dedicated time without us there. We love the real candid stuff and capturing real emotion so we find the activity focused nature of the production can detract from what most of our couples are seeking.
