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When planning your wedding you are going to make a lot of difficult decisions to stay within your budget and still have your dream wedding. One of these decisions is likely to be how much money (if any) to invest in a wedding videographer. In this article I will discuss some of the details of what you are paying for and what you should expect to get from your wedding videographer.
When shopping around for a videographer you will find a very wide range of prices ranging from maybe as low as $600 to as much as $5,000. It is also possible (sometimes) to get a wedding video done for free or conversely to spend tens of thousands with a top production company. The thing you need to remember is, as with anything else, you get what you pay for. So let’s go over exactly what that is.
Starting with getting your wedding video done for free. The first question is how. There are two ways to go about it. The first is to ask a friend or relative to videotape your wedding for you. There are of course many drawbacks to this method, the first being that you want your guests to enjoy the celebration and not be working all day. Other drawbacks are that they will not likely be using professional equipment, most likely won’t have professional sound equipment (if any) and possibly won’t even be using a tripod for stable shots. Other notable drawbacks are likely to be their lack of knowledge of composition and editing skills.
Moving on to the second method of getting free wedding videography, you can post an online classified ad requesting a film/video student to shoot your wedding for experience. This might get you a free wedding video but you will have more luck if you offer a couple hundred bucks. What you can expect from this approach is better (possibly professional) equipment, more footage shot, hopefully better sound and if they are also willing to edit the footage you might get a more watchable video than what your friend/relative would have done. The biggest risk here is that they might not show up, or that they might show up but never finish editing your video. If you go this route, make sure you meet them in advance so that you can determine if they are serious and mature enough to trust with the task. Again, offering some money will help lessen the risk here.
Of course, I don’t recommend either of these methods if there is any possible way you can hire a professional. It is a big risk to take with such an important day. Moving on, let’s look at what a professional wedding videographer brings to the table.
At the bare minimum, a wedding videographer should have two professional (or prosumer) cameras with which to film the ceremony. At the lowest price levels (anything much under $1,000) you may only get one camera, but it is important to note that a one camera shoot will look like a home movie. You need the second camera angle to be able to edit out camera zooms, movements and refocusing without missing any of the content. A wedding videographer will have a way to place a microphone on the groom to record your vows. This may be a wireless microphone or a pocket recorder with a clip-on mic. At any price level, if they say they will record your vows with the mic. that’s built into their camera, move on to the next videographer on your list.
When determining if the price is right for a particular videographer there are many things to take into consideration. Keep in mind that unlike most of your vendors, your videographers work has only just begun when the wedding day ends. If they are covering 8 hrs. of your wedding day they will likely be spending 40 or more hours editing your footage and producing your DVD. Take a close look at the details of your package to see what you are paying for. No two videographers package their product exactly the same way.
One thing you will come across is the terms cinematic and documentary style. These are very subjective terms and mean different things to different videographers so it’s important to both view samples of their work and to discuss their approach. A cinematic style wedding video in general will be more artistic, may involve more expensive equipment and more camera operators or it may just be edited differently. A documentary style video may cost less, is generally less creative in the editing and may not involve the use of the same type of equipment. Again this all depends on who you talk to, so if you see these terms go ahead and ask what they mean.
The most important thing when making this decision is simply, do you like their videos. If you like sample videos that you have seen online, ask them for a full length demo DVD. This will give you the clearest idea of what your paying for, and you will be amazed at the difference from one videographer to the next. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if they come in with steadicam operators, studio lighting and an 8 man crew, if you don’t like the product that they produce.
So in conclusion: Free Videography – a roll of the dice, but better than nothing.
Under $1000 – Expect quality comparable with a home movie but probably better sound, and it’s still a lot of hard work that you aren’t asking a relative to do for free.
From $1000 – $2000 – There is a huge variety of quality in this range, and it varies from city to city. Expect professional equipment, decent sound and competent editing, but watch the demo videos. Find out what the compromise is, less equipment, less experience, less skills etc. Ask around and read reviews if possible and make sure you are comfortable with this person.
$2000 -$3500 – Simply put, find a videographer you like. In most markets you can get whatever you need at this price whether it’s high definition, multiple camera angles or just a highly skilled videographer, so watch the demo videos and trust your instincts.
Over $3500 – There are some amazing videographers out there that make wedding videos that look like they truly belong on a movie screen in this price range. You should see the difference in their videos compared with the lower priced company. Expect high end equipment, multiple audio sources, high definition coverage, artistic editing and a beautiful finished product. Again, ask them what you get and watch the demo videos, then relax because you’ve hired a professional.
I hope this has been a helpful article for your wedding planning and at least raised some questions for you to ask your videographer, if not answered a few. If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of this in more detail just click through to my website and give me a call.
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Source by Jim Merchant
