Now that Dolce has filmed over a thousand weddings, I feel like I’m qualified to talk on wedding-related topics with some degree of authority. The truth is, no matter how unique you’re hoping your wedding will be, there’s some constancy from one wedding to the next and we can graciously chalk that up to tradition. Being a nostalgic kind of person, I love tradition! But it’s also fun to be creative and to update tradition. Along those lines, I have something to say about music for processionals and recessionals. How about, instead of the ole’ standby (string quartet), you try out an acoustic guitar? Check out this demo video to see if it strikes a chord with you:
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Music by Olivera’s. Guitarist Brian Litz is playing the Allegro Maestoso from Handel’s Water Music orchestral suite.
The best things in life are free, but you can leave it to the birds and the bees…I want money,” so goes the song many of us remember and it came to mind this morning when a lovely coordinator we work with – Kelley Cannon – emailed to ask about tips. She wanted to know if it’s standard for couples to tip their videographers, and if so, what is the appropriate amount? Here’s what I had to tell her.
Honestly, we rarely receive tips and we don’t expect them. When we are tipped, it’s typically between $50 – $150 per shooter (and we do a happy dance in the parking lot on our way home). The best ‘tip’ for those couples who’d rather not tip us: provide a hot meal and a parking spot.
After shooting with our hearts and souls to capture the emotions and moments of the day and to ensure the family can revisit every significant moment in their video, it sucks to eat a BLT made the day before served alongside a stale cookie. It’s not always quite so bad, but it has been on occasion and those meals stick out in our minds like a walk down a pirate’s plank. A hot dinner or a divine vendor meal can really rejuvenate a shooter and have them feeling ready to take on the last part of the shoot with renewed vigor! And a parking spot can really take the edge off when shooting in a one-take environment.
Not having valet parking or an assigned spot can be a huge stress on any vendor. There’s no worse feeling than driving around the block searching for an on street spot or garage when you know the bride is inside putting her dress on or the processional is lining up. Yikes! While we do arrive early, if there isn’t a spot available for us, cruising the neighborhood is all we can do (I did have a shooter park illegally, halfway on the sidewalk outside a Cathedral in DC once, and they weren’t even ticketed, but that’s another story!). Spending $10-$20 on parking to ensure your cameras are actually filming and not driving around is a great investment.
The reality is, the meal and the parking spot guarantee that you get as much time in front of that camera as we can possibly provide. Months after, when you’re sitting on the sofa watching your wedding video for the first time, you’ll be thrilled to see all that was captured without you being aware of us. But you’d be really upset if your dad’s impromptu toast was missing because your shooter was out grabbing a burger or feeding the meter. If you can avoid this (and we know that sometimes you can’t), then it’s the best tip we can get!
If you’re looking for more tips on ‘tips’, ask Kelley for a copy of her “Wedding Gratuities Guide” here.
For more tips on how to reduce stress on your wedding day, check out our Less Stress series: Category “How to Reduce Stress on Your Wedding Day”
When I first started filming weddings in 2003, my vision was to capture timelessly elegant footage that would stand the test of time. I remember looking at the videos available to couples and finding them so cheesy. So many of them embodied multiple elements I found off-putting; tacky transitions, trendy effects and dated music. What’s sadder still? The current video market remains saturated with just as many bad videos!
The Bobblehead Videographer
The most obvious of the shoddy video options is what I refer to as “tacky transitions.” Tacky transitions include dissolves and effects thrown in to a video to make it seem ‘edited’; cartoon hearts and stars, bubble letters, page peels, glow effects and so on. This is the lowest rung of the video ladder with prices at their cheapest. But like momma said, “you get what you pay for”.
Then there’s the half-edited video. It’s sold as an edited video to unsuspecting couples, but read the fine print or wait until you get it in the mail and you find it’s barely edited. Here you have glorified raw footage, slapped down on the editor’s timeline, a song or two thrown on top, names at the beginning and end and maybe even a Highlight montage. The editor can throw this together in a day and charges rates comparable or just under those being charged by others actually editing a piece from start to finish. Once you get your video, you realize that what you thought you were buying was not what you actually bought. As momma said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
A video has to be a comprehensive whole. If it’s edited from start to finish and carefully worked on by a filmmaker, you should have a piece that doesn’t lag, drag or sag! The chapter formats vary (as soon as the viewer’s eyes start to glaze over, the next chapter should begin and be delivered in a different format), the live footage is filmed well and has great audio. The cocktail, behind-the-scenes details and dancing are fully edited too. Plus, you want to have excellent coverage of speeches, toasts and special dances. Included in the roster of effects you may see those limited to the Silver Screen; black and white, sepia, 24p film footage, 16mm film footage, some shots slowed down or sped up, cross dissolves, fade in – fade out dissolves and jump cuts. The effects should be expertly applied so that they blend in, not stick out like a sore thumb. Lastly, the more timeless the music, the less dated your film will be years from now.
So, as you shop around, how do you know what you’re getting? The fact of the matter is, if you really want to know what you’re going to get you have to ask to see samples of full length finished films. Anyone can piece together gorgeous samples for the web, but as momma said, “the proof is in the pudding” (this is one annoying momma!). When you watch the finished films that videographers have actually delivered to their clients, you’ll best be able to see what you’re likely to get too.
Time and again, couples ask me to quote a price for a second, unmanned camera during the ceremony. Is it a wise investment? Will it improve the quality of the video? Let me share the pros and cons of the option with you to help you decide whether or not this choice is the right fit for you.
The biggest advantage for having a second camera on site is that you get better coverage of your ceremony and that you feel you are getting ‘more’ for your money. If that second camera is unmanned, this gain is largely psychological, as an unmanned camera rarely captures worthwhile footage physically. Here’s why: while the shooter can anticipate positions and angles prior to the ceremony when they set up that camera, they can’t account for the tall groomsman that blocks the shot of the groom, or the shine off dad’s bald spot as he places himself right in front of the camera in his front row seat. Without a person to monitor the camera and correct the shot each time the ‘scene’ changes, the footage is rarely the professional shot you would have hoped for in your edited film.
For you, the biggest advantage of having a second camera is to actually get better coverage with it. The second camera can film the groom’s reaction when he first sees the bride, it can get a better angle on the readings, it can get gorgeous close-ups of the ring exchange or the couple’s spontaneous actions on the altar. Unmanned, there is no guarantee any of these shots will be captured because the camera would need to be turned, moved and adjusted to capture this shot list. Continue reading “Adding an Unmanned Camera: Is it Worth it?”
In tougher times it can feel wrong to splurge on a wedding. Brides and grooms look over the long list of expenses and wonder how much is enough? The truth of the matter is that people get married regardless of whether it’s the Roaring Twenties or The Great Depression. The economy of love never intersects with Wall Street. As such, today’s couples are still getting married, but today’s brides may be feeling guilty for wanting to spend money on a dream wedding. One of the areas in which they may consider cutting back that budget is on the filming of the event. A memory lasts a lifetime, after all. But cutting video can be a decision you may live to regret, and here’s why.
Most of those couples married in the Roaring Twenties and during the Great Depression had their wedding photograph taken. At the time, it was to great expense and was the height of technological advancement. I have my own tattered copies of relatives long since passed whose fresh flowers and wedding finery have long since disintegrated and yet, there in the sepia outline, in the faintest shadow of recorded light, I see my daughter’s chin. For this reason, these photographs become family heirlooms. What I would not give to be able to see a film of those long ago friends and relatives. To see how they moved, how they danced and laughed, to hear their voices and their declarations of love. To see myself in someone I have never met. This is my personal reason for wishing there were films of these long ago celebrations. But there are still others to consider.
When you are hosting the most expensive party you are ever going to have and it is the only time in your lifetime that all the people you care most about are gathered in one place together, wearing their best clothes and fullest smiles, it is truly a waste not to have a way to go back and see the fruits of your labors when you can best enjoy them: in the peace and quiet of your living room. A wedding day flies by with such tension and speed that it is over before you know it. All those details you spend months planning are unseen by your eyes the day of, when you enter each room last and move through the final hours in autopilot. Your cheeks will hurt from smiling and your stomach will be growling with hunger by the time the speeches start up. It’s really hard to remember what actually happened and what things really looked like. Case in point: the day after my wedding I was bemoaning the fact that I didn’t dance more at my own wedding. After watching my video, I realized I had danced with nearly every guest and for a large part of the night. It was all just too much to remember.
While photographs take a moment and elevate that moment to the status of art, you can never hear your father’s voice again in a photograph. You can’t see the way your mom danced or show your own child how your favorite grandma laughed. It won’t take years for you to regret not having a video. The regrets will start the day after the wedding.
Originally posted September 7, 2009. In the field of event videography, some of us choose the word “videographer” and some of us choose the word “filmmaker” to tell other people who we are. Why is that? What is the difference?
Certainly, the word “videographer” can have some negative connotations. It sounds less expensive, less talented and perhaps even less tasteful. But the word “filmmaker”, when applied to filming weddings (for Pete’s sake!), can sound pretentious. After all, I’m not Steven Spielberg and the average bride is not Meryl Streep (no offense, ladies). But now that nearly a decade has passed since I first turned my lens on special events, I realize that what we do IS, in fact…filmmaking. And here’s why.
Working in a one-take environment and creating a beautiful film is an art form. It takes experienced people with courage and vision to handle the workload. There are no do-overs for missed shots and there’s no downtime when special moments follow each other in rapid succession. Add to that the challenge of capturing the moments embedded within each event artistically and in a way that is usable for the editors. No crazy pans, erratic zooms, and 3-second shots here. Every shot needs to be controlled, framed, long and beautiful. At which point the editor must step in and create an engaging film which neither drags, lags, nor flies by too quickly. It’s not enough for the images to show what occurred. The images need to encompass a feeling, tell a story and tell it in a way that speaks of talent and style. This is why your uncle can’t film your event the way we can film your event!
I think that when I started out in this field I didn’t have the courage (and frankly the language wasn’t there) to call myself an event filmmaker and so I started the company as Dolce Video. But now I feel (and the language is there) that the term filmmaker is more apropos. I recently saw an excellent video discussion with some event filmmakers that really helped me feel more comfortable with the label “filmmaker”. Check it out here. (FilmFellas Cast 4, webisode 15). These people seem really cool and they’re doing what we’re doing. They seem like my kind of people, if I could be so bold.
I realize that my personal musings on this subject may not have helped you to decide which to hire for your event. To that end, the word “videographer” or “filmmaker” is not going to tell you what one person or a company of people does. The only way to know which to hire is to look at the work. If it looks like something you’ll love watching for years to come, you’re not going to care whether it’s called a video or a film. And that’s a wrap.
