Brides & Grooms: How to Get a Wedding Video You Will Treasure

Your wedding day will be a wonderful experience, one that you will enjoy and treasure its memories. No matter how good the still photographs are, nothing will be guaranteed to recapture those memories better than a well-crafted video. It is worth taking the time beforehand to select a videographer capable of producing a video that will capture your wedding in such a way that you will be able to relive those precious memories for the rest of your lives.

Points to consider

You will need to be confident on the day of the wedding that your videographer is skilled at camerawork, will be able to communicate with you and your guests to ensure he can work efficiently, yet unobtrusively, and that he will record sound cleanly and clearly. He must be methodical, capturing not just the wedding, but the preparations (bride dressing, arrivals at church) and also the events following such as the reception, speeches and dancing. However that is just one facet of his work. A larger, unseen part of his work will be his subsequent editing of the final video and his skill at transfer to DVD; the quality of the final wedding DVD is wholly dependent on how carefully the video is prepared (transcoded) for transfer to DVD.

It is not difficult to operate a modern video camera. However to get impeccable results, that can be smoothly and seamlessly edited into a pleasing wedding video, does take considerable skill. Once your important day has passed there will be no second chance to get a better record, which is why it is vital that you make an informed choice of videographer. Unfortunately the wedding video field does have its share of ‘cowboys’, relative beginners, happy to charge a large fee for what may turn out to be an embarrassingly poor end result. This article will help guide you past the pitfalls, to ensure that your video has the emotional impact of your wedding, and for all the right reasons!

Pointers to getting a perfect wedding video

• Find a videographer who has had considerable experience in this genre –
ofind out how long have they been making wedding videos.

• Ask to see several examples of their work –

oit is important to be able to view one, or more than one, relatively recent video, all the way through. A show reel of the ‘best bits’ will not demonstrate consistent quality – only a full video will be able to reassure you.

• Find out how many cameras will be used on the day of the wedding.

oSome elements of the wedding day fall into a set pattern, but much of what happens is spontaneous, and it is virtually impossible to capture the unexpected using a single camera. Professional videographers will use a second camera and maybe even three. This not only enables a variety of angles to be captured, guaranteeing a more pleasing end result, but is also an insurance against a camera malfunction.

• Will a radio microphone (or more than one) be used?

oClear sound means getting the microphone close to the ‘action’ i.e. close to the wedding ceremony. Modern radio microphones are small and unobtrusive, yet are capable of delivering broadcast quality. Be very very wary of a videographer who intends to rely solely on the ‘onboard’ camcorder microphone, you will almost certainly be disappointed by the sound in the final video!

• How much will hiring the videographer cost?

oYou will have obtained quotes from your short listed group of videography companies – when you ask for the quote, find out how many DVDs will be included in this price, and also check how much it will cost to get further duplicate DVDs made in the future. Having viewed examples from your various videographers, the advice here is to budget for the best you can afford. It will not be cheap – if the cost sounds too good to be true then it very probably is! Bear in mind that you’ll be paying for one or two skilled cameramen on the wedding day itself, and then several further days of skilled editing time. Editing is a highly complex craft that can turn good video footage into a breathtakingly wonderful end result.

• Ask for references: Ask each of your prospective videographers to provide you with phone numbers for three or four recent clients for whom they have made wedding videos.

oReputable videographers will be delighted to provide such references, and their clients will be equally keen to share their experiences with you.

• Image quality: Over the past few years broadcast TV quality has improved dramatically, with high definition widescreen TV rapidly becoming the ‘norm’.

o We recommend you check with your prospective videographer that they will be recording in widescreen, high definition format – the images will be sharper and the colours more vibrant. Importantly this will ‘future proof’ your wedding video – shot on this format it will still look good long into the future, whereas ‘standard definition’ video will not age anywhere near as well, the results in comparison disappointingly wooly.

Having done your homework in your choice of videographer you will be able to relive your wedding day memories far into the future! We hope your wedding is a thoroughly enjoyable experience and wish you a long and happy future together!