5 Things I've Learned Filming Weddings
There are more than 5 things that I’ve learned filming weddings, but for the sake of a short blog and my ADD, I’ll keep it short!
Filming weddings is an interesting business. You’re tasked with making a video about a very important day in a couple’s life. Regardless of circumstance, you are in charge of making the day look happy, fun, and hopefully emotional (in a good way.)
One of the biggest compliments we can receive isn’t necessarily a raving review on the web or something like that, but when a bride says “OMG, I’m crying.. I’ve watched this ten times and I love it..” That’s the goal with these wedding videos, to incite emotion in a couple so that they relive their wedding day over and over. Sometimes that is hard to do because you have a different view of a
1. The bride and groom have a different perspective than you.
A few times while I’m in the middle of making a video for a couple, my mind races wondering how I could have done better on a certain shot or how i could edit a few clips differently to make it look more fun or dramatic. But I have to remember, my perspective is not the same as the bride and groom’s.
If you’re in this business or you attend a lot of weddings, you know that no two weddings are the same. Even weddings at the same venue are totally different. Different personalities, different colors, different flowers, different arbors, different families; the list goes on. So even though I may have one perspective that seems to not like a certain sequence or shot, the bride and groom are looking at their faces and friends rather than what I’m worrying about.
2. Wedding Planners/Venue Owners are your best friend.
If you’re a wedding professional at really any capacity, you know the absolute last thing you want to do is stress out the bride. Heck, even stressing out the maid of honor is almost a no-go.
That’s where a good wedding planner comes in. Often times when I’m trying to figure out when I need to be at the venue or where the couple is getting ready, I’ll tell the couple to just let me get in touch with the planner and I’ll stay out of your hair. A good wedding planner knows what’s going on and is there to help the bride (and you.)
Venue Owners/Managers, y'all.. become friends with them. They are awesome people who do a great job of keeping up venues and make your job easy. When the surroundings look nice, your footage is automatically better.. And if you become friends with them, that could turn in to more referrals, so it just makes sense. Currently I have 4 venues that refer brides to me when they book because I was their first videographer and I made clips for them for their social media. It's a relationship business..
3. Being a fly on the wall is the best policy.
I pride myself on being as out of the way as I can. I don’t want to make the bridal party uncomfortable, I don’t want to be in the way of other professionals (i.e. photographers), and being invasive never makes for a good shot or good candid shots. Sometimes it can be frustrating because others think that you are a photographer and will look at the camera and smile.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad people are happy to look at my camera or me and smile, but, to me, that’s not part of my job to capture that and so I RARELY include that kind of footage in the video I send to a client. I never want to say that one is more important the the other, but photography, in my mind, is more about documenting the day, specific moments, and getting even the smallest details. Video, on the other hand, is about capturing moments, and specifically candid moments of the couple and their guests. In my opinion, if you’re going to get a photographer, you should also get a videographer (shameless plug), even if you have to spend more money that you might want.
Which leads me to my next lesson:
4. Being affordable.
The amount of brides that have regretted to me not filming their wedding happens all the time. I am more than aware that wedding professionals can be expensive. I just got married myself and just thinking about the numbers of the wedding stressed my wife and I out. We were lucky to be gifted videography, but before that happened, I was looking at people in my own industry and was sweating at the costs.
I realize that our industry can be expensive, but this is a weirdly cruel business. Our industry has essentially two peak times throughout the year where we are more busy than we’d like to be, but for the rest of the year, booking weddings can be spotty. And with spotty booking comes spotty income. Our industry has to account for that so that the rest of the year we can pay bills and live just like the rest of the world that has a steady paycheck.
I am on the low end of the spectrum for wedding videographers, honestly. Just searching around for my wedding, every established business I looked at was no lower than $2,000. That seems like a lot, but think about how much time goes into planning, driving, book accommodations if needed, filming your wedding day, and then the editing time that goes into the back end of making the video. With the quality of product we deliver, I think our industry is doing just fine with pricing, but we have to stay affordable.
5. Weddings are fun!!
Like I’ve said already, I just got married myself! Katie and I had a super fun wedding (see here)! All of our friends and family were there, our ceremony was incredible. It included literally our favorite people on the planet, incredibly talent musicians and singers, and of course, Katie kept the dance floor popping! That’s the way weddings are supposed to be. Yeah, the real purpose is to profess before God and the world and dedicate our relationship to the Lord, but I also think weddings should be enjoyable. It’s an incredible joint of families and friends. Heck, I’ve had two of my groomsmen thank me for bringing them all together because now their friends.
When I’m filming weddings, I love when they are fun. When people are dancing with no abandon, when the bride and groom feel like they are the only people on the planet, all of that is super fun to me and I love being able to capture that when I can.
Well, y’all, that’s just 5 of the MANY lessons I’ve learned filming weddings. They are incredible days to be a part of, and the joy that you give a couple when you hand them the video is the best feeling. It’s part of why I even got into video editing in the first place, because I love the emotional response to footage over a photo.
Peace and love,
-ac