Raw footage on DVD
 

Hi guys,

Do any of you provide the full raw footage of the wedding on DVDs as a option in your packages?

I (and I'm sure most of you have) been asked by the Bride and Groom if they can have the raw footage of the wedding event in addition too the completed Edited DVD. In the past (when asked) I have given them the raw footage on VHS tape (just hook up my Sony DSR 11 deck to the VCR and let it roll . . . ) - but I have had clients asking me if I could put it on DVD for them.

So does anyone do this? If you do - how?

Do you have a special DVD recorder or do you use your computer DVD burner?

If you use your DVD burner on your computer - do you have special software or a special configuration so the raw footage doesn't need to be digitized to the hard drive first? (Typically for a two camera shoot I can shoot 12-13 hours of tape which would take up a ton of hard drive space).

any hints?

Thanks
Ryan

I think it's ridiculous
 

I was just asked for this recently. I think it's ridiculous. I told the bride, "I guarantee that you will watch the unedited version only ONCE. If you ever do watch it again you will find yourself fast forwarding to the 'good parts' which, if I've done my job correctly, will already be in your edited video."

Having said all that, I am going to give her the unedited footage because that's what she wants and she's paying for it! However, there is still some part of me that doesn't want anyone to see anything less than my best footage.

Since I am downloading all my tapes to my BIG external drives anyway I am merely going to take each one, (I use FCE), drag it to the timeline and make as many DVDs as necessary.

I charge a ridiculous amount for unedited footage, because it's dumb for people to want this. They normally (and very quickly) change their minds when they see the price.

As far as I know you can't record directly to DVD on a computer without digitizing first. Now there are set-top DVD recorders you can buy now for around $100-$200 that will record just like a VHS VCR.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

Obviously you get better features when you pay more, but that model even has a 'DV' input so you can go right from your camera. This might be a good investment if you do this a lot.

I don't particularry like giving out "raw footage" either - but a lot of my competition here does and is doing it on DVD now (for about $25 per DVD). Thus I either offer this "option" (which may people ask for) and compete or risk losing clients.

I think it shows a lack of understanding by the general public of what it is that we do. Would someone order a steak and say, "I'd like to also have all the scraps you cut away"?

If it's a typical wedding, I sell the material for $150-200. If it's a large client, I provide it at no cost.

I think this is a great benefit to the client to supplement their edited work.

If you cut a long form edit then you probably feel like all the best material is in the edit and you only have scraps to offer.

If you cut a tighter edit then there's going to be a lot more material that will enhance what was seen in the edit. Instead of 5 sec. with one shot the client can view 15-20 sec. of it and there may have been something else said during that time that they feel is important but didn't make it in the cut.

I think the editing style determines which people like offering this option and which don't.

Ben

the raw...
 

I have not had any requests, partially because I bring my mobile desktop and show them raw footage with out the edit so they know what it starts out as. Then I show finished footage. The difference seems to eliminate that from the discussion.

I haven't had the topic come up of "can I have the raw" so I guess I am either lucky or doing my job well (well enough for someone that has only done 5 weddings). I expect that if I ever get the request I'll quote about $200 for the raw (pain in the butt to burn 8-10 DVDs of raw avi footage and takes hours). IF they balk then I might suggest a higher package and include it for free (somethign over $1200 may be). Of course for me, $1200 is a high package but for Mark VL that probably isn't even the low end. :-)

jason

When I hand out raw footage, I put a light watermark on it to help deter anyone from trying to grab the footage and edit it themselves. It's unlikely to happen, but just in case, my watermark is there. They could crop it out, but the footage would already look bad from ripping the dvd, then cropping would make it even worse yet. No one has complained.

I charge $50 per mini-dv tape, so most get 1 or 2 tapes at most.

I think there are some stand-alone dvd recorders you can get that will let you drop a watermark from an sd card or something on the recording. Not sure, but I remember seeing something like that. I should look into that.

Dan

Original footage isn't part of any package and is therefore an additional cost. I don't offer and have only once received a request. There, I quoted $400 for a dump to VHS only. That was taking into the account the time to remove obvious junk (like 20 sec of floor when I forgot to hit the pause button and similar stuff), moving that footage to a separate sequence and then exporting as "print to video".

My videos get everything that is worth keeping. The good footage that wouldn't fit anywhere else goes into a separate video chapter. There really isn't much purpose in original footage.

We offer the raw footage as an add-on for $50 an hour. I have found that going to a per hour rate as opposed to a 'buy the whole set' or 'pre DVD' rate really helps to get the couple to narrow down exactly what they want. I do find some raw footage, such as the preps, can be nice ot have, but most is a waste. By charging by the hour, most couples who start out wanting all the raw footage, end up adding an hour or two in a couple different chunnks and it only ends up tking 15 minutes to encode, burn, print a label, and keep the couple happy.

Raw Footage...!?
 

Just received an email this morning from a Bride who's interested in hiring me but they don't want the footage to be edited. Not sure if maybe they happen to work in the business or know someone who's going to edit the footage for them but I'm trying to figure out WHY...!? I feel like a peice of meat right now... all she wants to do is use me for the night...! ; )

What do you guys think? She wants a quote, I've already calculated my breakeven point. Just trying to figure out what to charge.

I would just amend the contract to include a "no edit, type of delivery" blurb, and stick with a hourly "Base" rate for the event with a seperate rate if they exceed the hours agreed upon.