Professional Wedding Videography is a rapidly growing segment of today's weddings. Wedding videography not only allows the capture of precious memories, but also the music, sounds and momentum of your wedding. Thanks to advances in technology, the quality of wedding videos has increased drastically. Videos can be delivered in a variety of video formats, such as standard DVD and even High-Definition DVD or BlueRay discs. Most wedding couples spend a significant amount of time in choosing their wedding photographer, and overlook the importance of choosing a qualified wedding videographer. Occasionally, couples may ask a friend or relative to videograph their wedding, but results can vary wildly; this approach is only recommended for a tight budget. A well-chosen professional can offer much greater video quality and artistic style. A videographer's synergy with your photographer could also play a key role in documenting your wedding day.
Ask for Everyone's Permission On Location
Before wasting valuable time on researching videographers, checking references, etc., research all of your wedding locations first. Check with your church and be sure they will allow videography on the premises for the duration of your wedding. Afterwards, continue checking with all of the venues you are booking for the wedding, reception hall, restaurants, etc. In some cases, you may need to pay various types of service charges to receive permission. If you decide to pay, don't forget to get a receipt and the permission to film on paper. This will be quite valuable in the event of a disaster; for example, a year later on your wedding day, the venue decides to change their policy and no longer allows videography on their premises, or your on-site shooting interferes with a higher profile event. Once you have permission from all of your venues, you can then proceed to book your videographer.
Start Researching and Booking Early
Wedding videography is similar to wedding photography in terms of booking. The best wedding videographers will be booked as much as a year or more in advance. With the exception of some slight fluctuation, the wedding season is busy year-round.
Most wedding couples book their reception hall and church a year in advance. You may feel compelled to reserve your venue even earlier. One common piece of advice is to book your videographer as soon as you reserve your reception hall. Aside from having a wider choice of videographers, there are other significant benefits to booking early. Your videographer will have the chance to visit the venue and determine the optimal places for cameras, microphones, and any other equipment he or she may need. Since technology changes at a tremendous pace, this ends up working to your advantage. Videographers tend to upgrade their equipment and software frequently. You will possibly end up with higher quality equipment on the day of your wedding, and ultimately a better wedding video. Since you booked early, you don't have to end up paying for all of the upgrades done during the year! The next step is to start planning for all of the possible issues your videographer may encounter on your wedding day.
Keep Your Videographer Happy
Your videographer needs to be well taken care of on your wedding day. They will work long hours, lugging around all sorts of equipment, all while trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.
When preparing your church and reception hall for your wedding, keep your videographer in mind. He or she will need an excellent parking space to quickly transport equipment in and out of the church or hall. This saves a lot of time and energy for your videographer, which is better spent on your wedding!
Your videographer needs to be prepared. Don't forget to provide any and all relevant information to help him or her film your wedding as smoothly as possible. Your videographer will need all of your contact information, as well as the contact information for your wedding photographer, planner, church, etc. Provide clear and concise directions to all of the locations; these directions should probably include additional backup directions, and even some gas station locations along the way (you can't be too careful). Of course, don't forget your Master Planning Schedule - if you don't have one already created, borrow our Master Wedding Day Planning Schedule Template. You might also wish to check out our various wedding photography and event planning related articles for additional tips.
Besides needing great parking space and information, you also need to feed your videographer. Yes, they need food, they are not battery-powered. The average videographer will spend as much as ten or more hours on your wedding day. Carrying and operating professional videography equipment and lighting takes a lot of energy. A hungry videographer produces poorer work! Reserve some table space or a nearby area so they can eat and drink when necessary. You don't want to separate your videographer from your guests, they need to be able to quickly position themselves if the moment arrives. If you are on a budget and can't afford to provide them with dinner from the venue, you can prepare a meal for your videographer, or even have him or her bring their own food. Now that you have provided your videographer with everything he or she may need, you need to start thinking about the working relationship between your videographer and photographer.
Get Out of My Way Please
This is an important area to keep in mind when researching videographers. The last thing you need is for your videographer and photographer jockeying for position and causing a scene or worse, an accident. The videographer and photographer should try to complement each other, not compete for the same imagery. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce potential gaffes during your wedding.
If you already have a wedding photographer chosen, you can ask him or her for a referral. Your photographer may be able to provide you with a wedding videographer that they have worked with in the past. Your videographer and photographer have to be able to work together seamlessly during the wedding.
Taken a step further, it's important to open the lines of communication between your photographer and videographer long before your wedding day. You can have them discuss and plan a wedding day strategy. They should both visit the various wedding locations and prepare accordingly. When your wedding day finally arrives, the videographer and photographer will know when and where to move around during the wedding, and to strategize on how to avoid shooting conflicts on scene.
Start Researching
A video of your entire wedding is a great memento to cherish with your family and friends. Hopefully, these insights have shed a little light on wedding videography. If you have decided to hire a videographer, you probably have a lot more questions. More upcoming articles are on the way to provide detailed tips and insight will be available to help guide you through the process of hiring a videographer. Stay tuned!
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