1st wedding video
 

I got a chance to film a friends wedding and I have to say, it was really fun. This 1st video is the wedding preview or lead up to the wedding ceremony. The 2nd video (that I'm still working on) will be the ceremony and highlights of the reception. I would love go get some feed back from all of you that have been at this for a while. This is my first wedding and I have a lot to learn.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

I'm glad you said it was "really fun" - that's the real trick to all of this stuff! Video looks pretty good, I think you got lots of varied and interesting shots and cut together a nice progression. I particularly liked the staged shot of the bride turning to the camera at 2:35 or so.

A couple things I might consider for next time:

• Exposure on the inside stuff seemed pretty dark. The window highlights were blown out, but in this case I would say it's better to just let them go and expose for "brighter" skin tones and faces. A wedding is a happy time, so the shadowy look doesn't appeal to me as much. Might have been a bit blue as well - keep that dress white! :)

• You did a lot of camera movement, but it looks like most of the time you didn't have any kind of rig to support it. Make sure your movements are intentional, rather than just panning across the action. Use editing to get the different angles you gather from several individual shots. I like to use a monopod to keep things steady. Having a camera on a tripod or monopod will also help keep better focus on shallow DOF shots.

I'm sure that editing this first one you've realized a million things that you liked, didn't like, and should have done. Keep it up, it gets at least a little easier!

Re: 1st wedding video
 

I think the shots you toke give sufficient material to produce a nice wedding video but I have the same comment as Nate. Just a monopod would have made a difference, I also see you used a dslr and a fast prime judging by that shallow dof but it seems quite soft, even when sharp. But there where quite a lot of outside footage that was out of focus and on a big screen that really shows. Shallow dof can seperate your subject from the background which looks cool but it has to be spot on, otherwise it just distracts, I suggest closing down the iris more so you have more room for focus on moving subjects. Do you have a magnifying glass attached to your viewfinder? It makes critical focussing a lot easier.

I'd say you have got the feeling for nice shots but you just have to controll your focus, exposure and whitebalance better to make it stand out but for a first wedding I think it looks pretty good.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Thanks guys, I don't know when I'll do another wedding, but I will try and put more time into the details that you mentioned. I shot it with a Canon XHA1 with a Redrock adapter and never have gotten them fully dialed in. Thanks again for you help.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

That's like the size of a bazooka and you then filmed handheld? :) That explains the shakyness and sometimes out of focus images, the xh-a1 has one of the worst lcd screens to accurately judge focus (I know because I use one), a camera with 35mm adapter and a extra lens attached to it should also be on a tripod all the time if you ask me. then you are probably better off just using a simple Canon T2i on a monopod as it will give you much more freedom to move quickly to stage your shots and you will have a much sharper lcd screen to view your focus.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Focus and the wobbles are a definate issue there but an XH-A1 just on it's own and handheld is already a handful without a DOF adapter on the front!!

During preps my 2nd shooter has strict instructions to keep her backside against any open window so at least there is no backlighting issue so it's probably a good rule to keep. Even part of a window in shot in a darkish bedroom can throw exposure out a lot.

If I was shooting that I think I would have ripped off the DOF bit and just shoot it with the camera..bridal preps especially have little room to manuoever and certainly no room for a tripod !

I'm sure the bride will be happy as remember you are always over critical about your own work looking at exposure and focus while the bride just looks at the action and people!!

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

bazooka... that is the perfect description. It is a lot to manage in a room full of people. this was the first time I tried to use it hand held. After looking at a lot of wedding videos to find the look I liked, one common factor was that they were mostly hand held.... maybe I went a bit over board. I also think I over color corrected, the good news is that is an easy fix, unlike the over exposure.
Chris, thanks for reminding me of the right perspective. I have been picking this to death. It's good to the extent of wanting to do better next time, but not when it gets to the point I get discouraged about future projects. Your right, the Bride and Groom love it, and don't even see those things.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Times are changing, many years ago when I was shooting with just one Sony vx2100 and a cheapo tripod, if you didn't nail the focus exactly of if you footage was noisy or underexposed, when viewed on a small 4:3 crt tv, it all looked good enough. But then came those big *ss lcd screens and my letterboxed 16:9 vx2100 footage looked like crap.

Then came the first HD camera and any mistake would stick out like a sore thumb, very slightly out of focus footage suddenly became very obvious. Noise, that never seemed to have bothered anyone suddenly could cause a client to comment on it (happend to me last year with a sony fx1000/canon xha1 and sony xr520 ceremony shoot where it was too dark for the camera's - except the sony xr520 which produced the cleanest footage - but the fx1000 and even worse the xh-a1 had ants crawling all over the image because of the gain and the client made a negative remark on it, it was even more painfully obvious as the reception footage was shot with a dslr and that was a lot cleaner)

But like you said, it's more important to catch all those important moments, even if they are not perfect shot then miss a few but have cinema like footage, but it's no fun when a clients points out a mistake and they do these days. :)

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Noa

Sadly we are way too over critical of our own work especially from a techical point of view. Remember that doing a wedding is also a business venture and there comes a time when you just have to say "Ok, that's good enough" I have a competitor here who was telling me the time I allow for edits is too short and he "spends sometimes 2 days just perfecting a sequence of a few minutes"

It's all very admirable to spend 60 hours on editing your bride's wedding BUT if you are expecting to make at least $100 an hour then allowing for travel, consultation, delivery and the actual shoot itself you must ensure that if you spend say 80 hours total on a job you are returning $8000 for it!! I would say 99% of my brides would be over the moon as long as the exposure and focus was good, colour balance was good and I took out any bit that had soft focus or the wobbles!!! After all we are running a business so we also need to be able to produce a product within an economical time frame ...otherwise we are making a loss!!

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Same goes for all 'art' run as a business and getting too bogged down with any of the mechanics is the reason many folk eventually just give up,
authors, painters sculptors etc.

One way to approach this, is to practice disciplining yourself and plan your post editing schedule, allowing say, 10hrs for editing and just try to do it in 10hrs. .. but over 2 days, so you don't get too tired and panic. You might write out an editing schedule, eg: arrival at the church - 60mins,
ceremony - 120mins etc.

Then go back and 'fix' any glitches. Once you get this down, it could flow over to the way you plan and shoot weddings too.

Cheers.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Nice one Allan!!

Of course if you are doing it for fun then you can take 6 weeks to edit the footage but from a business POV you really do need to establish your hourly rate and divide it into your price for the wedding and that will give you an idea of how many hours you have "available" ....deduct the gig itself and the trip to see the bride and it's quite surprising how little time you leave yourself for edits and still stay competitive so being able to plan your edit as you say is vital..it doesn't have to be 10 hours straight of course but it's really pointless doing a shoot for say, $2000 and after normal expenses and the actual shoot and your 3 weeks worth of editing, find out that your would have been better off working at the hamburger joint down the road as you would have made a better hourly rate!! It really is also all about being organised too!!

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

In my opinion, I think that giving yourself limits and settling for a given quality is what will stop you from improving the most. Both on a personal and business level.

There is only so much quality you can get within the limits that you give yourself. And there is only so much you can charge for the quality you provide.

A person who charges $2000 for his work and cares about making a decent amount by the hour will necessarily make sure that they don't invest more than $2000 worth of their time/effort/money. The finished product that they deliver will ultimately be worth exactly $2000 as well. The client will be happy to know that they got what they paid for and the vendor will be happy to know that they got paid a fair price for the amount of work they did. It all seems to be fair and make perfect logical sense.

However, with that mentality, we are bound to always stay at the same rate and will hardly be able to charge any higher than our current price. It is not a bad thing per say. If we're comfortable with our current rate and are happy with the way things are, then there is no point in trying to change a formula that is already working. We all have personal goals and a different definition of success.

I know the way I am and I know that I will always try to push my own limits. Therefore, I tend to always try to provide my clients with a product that is worth what I wish I was charging, and not what I am currently charging. I want my clients to feel that they are getting something of much higher value than what they expect to receive, and not only what they paid for.

I think it makes a world of difference when you compare a client who is very satisfied with your work and one who is completely blown away by it. From a word-of mouth point of view, it will turn you from being highly recommended to being the one people will regret if they don't hire. When the perceived value starts to raise, the actual value will also go up as well.

Obviously, it doesn't always go up at the same rate. You will have time you feel like you're not getting paid much for all the work and effort. But I think it's part of what will eventually make your situation improve.

It's no secret that if we had to name the top 10 most successful people/companies in the wedding industry, they are all the ones who keep pushing limits and I am sure that they have all worked extremely hard to get where they are.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Long

It's always good to think that you can do better and if you do better you can, of course, charge more for your services. It's however still a tough issue to decide whther you can now charge double your normal price ... who makes that decision...do you say "I'm twice as good as I was last year so I deserve twice as much" or do you base your raised prices on what your friends and family believe or is it purely that you have more clients than work so you can afford to raise your prices...I understand that it's like art as Nigel says but who/what actually determines that your mromal $2000 wedding video is now marketable for $10,000??? Gosh I would love to charge heaps more BUT my market probably wouldn't handle it!!

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Chris,

To me, I think the best way to determine the price that we charge is really by looking at our own work.

I always look at my current work and compare it with what I did in the past to see if I am really able to see a noticeable difference. I also compare myself with other companies in my area. It serves as a good benchmark to see where you're positioned in your market.

I always think that if I need to use words to explain and justify my rates, it simply means that my work is still not good enough for the price I'm asking.

I may not be very knowledgeable when it comes to cooking, but when I go out for dinner, I can generally be able to tell why one restaurant charges more than another one. I may also not know everything about cars, but I can definitely tell why one is more expensive than another one.

I believe that the same theory applies to our industry as well. Brides may not understand every detail about videography and filmmaking, but when they shop around for videography services and compare portfolios and pricing, they should be able to tell when the difference is obvious and noticeable.

I think the best answer to your question is really to look around you. Do you think that your work is obviously standing out from the crowd? If it is, then brides should be able to understand why you're charging more than others. If the answer is no, then it's all about finding ways to get better until the answer becomes obvious.

And I don't really believe in not having a market in your area. It's more about being able to reach the desired market than not having one. Even in the poorest areas in the world, you will always find people who can afford eating out at nice restaurants and driving nice cars. Why wouldn't there be people who will be willing to pay more for better wedding videos as well? If you haven't found them yet, it could be because you haven't found a way to get to them yet, but it doesnt' mean they don't exist.

On a side note, when people talk about pricing, it always reminds me of a scene in Super 8 when the kids saw the train coming and screamed "PRODUCTION VALUE!!!". I think a lot of it reflects the reality of wedding filmmakers, let alone the entire film industry.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Like the "dual branding" thread, we are really talking two things here - one is "value" (or "unique selling proposition" in marketing speak), and the other is "market".

There is a wide range of clients that might be "in the market", with wide ranges of "budget", from $0 to ?? So too there are offerings at various price points, with various "value".

A "wedding video" consisting of a fixed camera set up at the back of the room is STILL a video, but what is the value? With practically every consumer device currently sold being able to produce "video" of some quality or another (some quite good), what does a "pro" bring to the table?

On the one hand the prospectve client must be convinced that they WANT a video (one could argue this is the first and largest hurdle), and that they can fit it into their budget. On the other side, the videographer must provide a service at a price that the prospective client feels is acceptable and within their budget (presuming hurdle one has been cleared.

From a VERY practical standpoint, if a business is to become/remain viable, there's a certain amount of "profit" that must be brought in, otherwise you may as well be a Wal-Mart greeter or a barrista... loving what you do only goes so far, and in the end, bills have to be paid. Your quality of end product may be the best, and maybe you can get $10K once in a while, but unless you can "sell" enough of a product in that price range, it's not going to make ends meet.

Realistically, particularly in this age of "infermashun", there's likely to be an expectation of price point (I believe this is typically quoted in the $1.5-2K range "average"). You probably need to at least have SOME package that meets the lower end of the market (to get 'em looking), and then it's up to selling skills and whatever superior quality product you can show off to convince them that your "champagne" offering is what they really want.

If $2k is "the market", and you have to do 5 weddings instead of one at $10k, plus there will be 5 more right behind them at that price, but none at $10K... you do what it takes to keep cashflow going.

And right now, frugal is "in" - take a look at the budget for the Zuckerberg wedding... considering the multi-billionaire status of the groom, it was "modest" and low key. It's all fine and good to improve your "craft", and seek higher $, but there have been more than a few postings about how business disappears of you go past the "ceiling" that brides are expecting...

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Thanks for that insight Dave

I can honestly see that if you provide a bigger and better service then the cost to the bride (provided it doesn't go thru the ceiling) is justified.. eg : You will get two videographers all day and all night plus we will cover not only all the events on the day, but also do a pre wedding shoot of you and your fiancee and then intimate interviews before the wedding with the parents too. Then we will film you leaving and follow your limo to the honeymoon hotel and finally finish up at 2am before you close the doors.

The scenario above is, of course, ficticious and not one I offer, but I could see how something like that could command a $5K price tag since you are shooting over maybe 3 days ...sorta like the BBC documentaries that show not only the day but all the planning from start to finish.

I KNOW I'm a skeptic but I fail to still see how a ceremony and reception shot with pro cameras over a 12 hour period can command prices from as little as the median $1.5-$2K right up to $10K???? Nigel has already said "It's art!!" but I would still feel a bit guilty jacking up my prices by as much as 5 times the norm for coverage of the same choreographed event (let's face it most of your footage IS choreographed unless it's a TV re-enactment) I shoot the speeches on two cameras with lot's of audience cutaways and I still fail to see how that can be transposed into a work of art....the only event I can truly see given extreme artistic flair would be the photoshoot and I'm not sure about Long, but here the photographer is already jumping up and down cos the bride has only allowed an hour for photos and I have already taken a chunk out of that and to create a masterpiece with the couple you would probably need a good 2 hours of creative shooting, which we never get!!

Maybe as videographers we need to say "Damn I'm good!! I'm going to charge $1000 an hour for my creativity from now on" ??

I must admit I'm still lost as to how to turn a 2K wedding into a $10K one with the same amount of work!

I really do appreciated your down to earth reply..now that makes sense to me!!

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Chris & Dave,

Like almost every industry out there, there is no doubt that the low-end, mid-range market is where most people belong. Not everyone drives a luxurious car, not everyone eats out at fancy restaurants, not everyone wears designer's clothes all the time, and finally, not every bride will have the budget to hire a high-end filmmaker for their wedding.

The truth is, if you're currently catering to the budget-conscious crowd, it is in fact very hard and scary to abandon that market and suddenly become a high-end company. Just like it would be to own a burger joint and suddenly wanting to turn it into a 5-star restaurant. You simply don't change that overnight. It takes time, planning, investment and hardwork to reach a certain skill level, to build a reputation, to reach a different market.

My initial post in this thread was not a magical formula suggestion to turn your business into a high-end company that charges 5 times more within 2 days. It was really only to address the behavior that one can have when it comes to the amount of time and effort they should put into their work. You can't just sit there and wonder why your business isn't successful if you don't even want to make some sacrifice and invest time & money to find ways to improve it.

There are so many ways one can improve their work and add production value to it. It all starts by being the critic of our own work and ask ourselves questions to find out what we can do to become better.

To give a few examples of elements that can add production value to our film (in no particular order)...

- Storytelling:
Do your films tell compelling stories that move people? If not, how can you improve that? Is it the way you capture it? Is it the way you edit it?

- Quality of your images:
Do every frame of your videos show outstanding images? If not, what can do you about it?

- Colors:
Are you a master of color grading? Are your wedding films colored as nicely as a holliwood movies?

- Composition:
Do you nail the visual composition in every shot you capture? Do you film from the best angles all the time? Do you cover enough angles to make your film look more creative and interesting?

- Audio:
Do you capture the best audio? Do you edit the audio properly?

- Soundtrack:
Does your soundtrack blend perfectly with your visuals? Does it help support or increase the emotion, flow and energy of your film?

- Camera movement:
Do you have any interesting camera movement in your films that can make your piece more interesting visually?

I could go on and on and I think there are infinite ways to improve ourselves and add production value to our work. We don't have to change everything at once and start increasing our rates by 5-10 times, but we can definitely start looking at one area that we can improve and start working towards getting better and slowly raise our price as the quality of our work starts improving and become more noticeable.

For example, if you currently charge $2000 for your work and most other videographers in your area are around the same price. And when you compare your work with them, it all looks about the same. Obviously, you will be all on the same level. Brides who shop around and compare your work will see no difference but the price.

Now if you started adding a bit more interesting camera movements to your films, let's say you start using a steadicam and do an amazing job with it and none of the other guys do. Obviously, your piece will have a slightly higher production value than everyone else around you. Brides will probably notice that there is something that makes your film more interesting to watch. If you start increasing your price by a little, your clients will understand that it's worth the little extra because they already start liking your work a bit better.

Imagine if you start improving every little aspect of your work and start increasing your rate as you get better and better, how far you can eventually go?

Re: 1st wedding video
 

I just had a Déjà vu, something tells me we already had this discussion before ;) but since we are at it, there is one thing I like to add in regard to storytelling, as that is often also used as a selling point. As I see it, you need a voice telling a story to back that up, I have seen several American trailers where the bride and groom write some kind of short letter to each other explaining their feelings and they get to read it in the morning? Often they read it out loud and than ofcourse it's bingo, you have got material to create your story, or when they have personal written vows, bingo again, and what about speeches, where the father of the bride tells personal stuff, or the brides sister starts crying during her speech.

I can tell you that I have done some weddings that are pretty boring with very little to no visual emotion, in church the vows are often standard church text and the groom gives a very short speech at the reception just to welcome everybody and that's it. How on earth are you going to create a story out of this, not even the best videographer in the world can work with 'air' only. For me this is just a series of events and you try to capture it as good as possible and ad some creative shots, just like a business event I often cover as well, you just show what happens and that's it.

As a videographer I think you should always be careful with what you promise, you can create visual art of someone's wedding but you can't create a story if you don't have the right material.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

It's definitely not a myth that using voice overs will help make the story become much more interesting. However, I've seen people done it without voice over and still delivered high quality work. You just have to be more creative and work harder at finding ways to tell stories with visuals and sequence your clips in a nice way... which is obviously easier said than done :P

But I think this really confirms how there is always room for improvement. Something I personally highly recommend is to invest in education. There are people out there who inspire us and are able to help us improve and become better filmmakers. Sometimes, we just can't quickly figure everything out on our own.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Noa

Yeah, I do apologise for turning this thread into another that was already thrashed to death!!!

When I was still shooting weddings on VHS tape (yep that was a LONG time back) I yearned to do weddings differently but never actually go around to it....a real story of the couple and their feelings their friends and family (on both sides) Most of the "documentary" would be much like the current BBC series of programs that we get here where the crew start with the wedding planning and the hassles of finding a venue plus of course their time together...that has a professional presenter who tells the story and it is really a interesting way to preserve memories of your wedding day rather than just do the day itself. Obviously this entails a lot more work than just turning up on the day and filming the wedding as the crew start filming probably a good month before the actual day.

I think it works mainly because the story line is traditional and the climax as in most stories is at the end..you get a slow but interesting build up and the last bit of the film is the actual wedding itself. I found the link but this series is one where only the groom organises everything BUT it does show how a really fascinating documentary could be made with a couple and very viewable too!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01glzjk

This could quite easily be a totally new market for weddings and the storyline content is far more compelling that just documenting the events on the day. I wonder if anyone does this for brides already??

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

That's exactly what I mean with real story telling, we have this kind of program in Belgium as well with the main focus on all the preparation of the wedding as they follow the couples around for days, even though the wedding itself is "the climax" it's the shortest part of it, and that weddingpart, which is the main focus for us all, takes up maybe 5% of the complete programm.

We weddingvideographers try to tell a story but we just have to work with what we get the day itself and honestly, it's not real storytelling, we just make or clients believe we do. We just cover a day and some have the art of doing it very creatively and if they are lucky they get a couple and family/friends that is very open about their feelings and only then you have something you can use to edit in a way that make it look like a story, but it's not a "real" story, and if you get a "closed" family that shows very little emotion, it just becomes a fancy looking documentary, no matter who films it.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Thanks Noa

I like your parallel thinking!! You have to bear in mind that on the day everything is rushed as they seldom leave any time for serious storytelling. Here it's all rush rush, the bride is already late, you have to be at the Church in time to setup and the ceremony itself is totally scripted so it does tend to be more of a record of an already carefully planned day all run to a schedule with times for this and times for that.

I think I am going to do some market research and response enthusiasm on brides to see how they feel about having a a real story so it would be more of "Our Wedding Story" and less of "Our Wedding Day"

I'm not a bride of course, but if I was, I would like to look back and see how the planning went, trying on bridal gowns, the guys deciding on suits and discussing the flowers. An intimate interview with the couple when they are relaxed and comfortable and all their thoughts and feelings would make something like this a story worth watching...definately also involve the parents from both sides too.

From a shooting point of view it's a lot more work with certainly more than one shoot if you include the couple themselves, the parents, the fittings and the rehearsal and more before you even get to the day but I still think it would work very well.

Have you or any other of your competition done anything like this???

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

No, there is no paying market for this type of documentary here, what we see on tv doesn't cost the couple anything, for the tv makers it's ofcourse big bucks because you do have a big tv audience that loves to have a look behind the scenes and I can only imagine the couple really likes to be in the centre of attention knowing thousands of people will be watching them very closely and sharing some very personal stuff. I've seen a cameracrew at work at such a wedding documentary and they really get up VERY close with their camera's, not like we try to do, to keep some distance, those guys breath in your neck all day long. They just care about getting the shot, no matter who's view they block. They also have a sound guy and one doing the interviews, he asks questions of which he knows the bride might start crying because that sells.

I gave up trying to do something new, adding something more to their day, it's just not rewarding enough and everything you add doesn't get paid for anyway. I do try to get my images and audio as perfect as I can because that's still my main goal everytime I do a wedding, I"m very happy when I see my footage and see that everything worked out really well but that's not all the time :) But at least I gave my very best but it frustrates me if I make mistakes.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Noa

Bear in mind what Long said a couple of posts back :

"And I don't really believe in not having a market in your area. It's more about being able to reach the desired market than not having one. Even in the poorest areas in the world, you will always find people who can afford eating out at nice restaurants and driving nice cars. Why wouldn't there be people who will be willing to pay more for better wedding videos as well? If you haven't found them yet, it could be because you haven't found a way to get to them yet, but it doesnt' mean they don't exist"

Brides here cry about spending $1.5K on a traditional wedding video but will happily spend $4K or $5K on a bunch of images on paper .... Doing a storyline wedding in a unique style might just attract brides that ARE prepared to pay a little more ... we are talking here about basically more stories and less wedding time itself so you would probably not need to stay to the end but allocate those 3 odd hours back into a pre-wedding shoot so the overall shoot time isn't going to be massively different BUT the concept would be totally different and most brides might just find the extra money if they were smitten with the concept...besides we are not talking huge amounts of money either.

Tell me seriously, IF you doubled your current price (to cover your extra shoot/edit time) AND brides were fighting to book you because of your uniquely different shoot concept and no-one else did anything like you wouldn't they find the extra cost ??? ... remember if you offer something unique it's value can be any figure you choose as brides have nothing to compare it with... brides pay $3000 for a dress they wear just once and never again...it's all value and desire and if you can create a scenario where she says "I have got to have that" then, like the wedding dress, cost doesn't even come into it.

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

I like discussions like this :) Anyways, some time ago I thought, "lets do a save the date, that should be fun" Its a concept that has not been established that well here. (you hardly see any STD or prewedding or whatever they are called videos on wedding videographer sites)

So I offered one completely free, was about 2 months on my site, total applicants: 2, I ended up with one great couple and they wanted a short film about the way they met, I spend a lot of time writing out every scene and every shot to get it all shot on 1,5 day, I thought, better spend more on it so I have a great demo. According to my standards it turned out pretty good, they were over the moon, showed it on a wedding forum and it has been viewed about 400 times now, so for me that should mean 400 potential clients as it was a private youtube link only accessible on that forum. the remarks the couple got on that forum was all like "oooh", and "aaah". If I compare what my direct competitors are offering, the few that do this, I'd say one can show the same quality, the rest looks quite amateurish and I can also say that this video is quite unique in a way that no competitor has done this type of effort in producing a "scripted" video. The video has been live for 2 months and my starting price for a video like this is about 620 dollar and going up from there depending on the hours I have to spend on preparing and/or editing. The numbers of new requests I have had so far: 0.
Would doubling or tripling my price make any difference :)

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Noa

I was thinking more on this guys lines..he tells the story very well and it's a joy to watch..no fancy camera work just clever story-telling!!

Wedding Documentary = 'Wedumentary' - YouTube

Admittedly you would have to intercut interviews done maybe the week leading up to the wedding for bridal prep but I do love his story telling technique!!

Chris

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Chris,

I'm glad that you are looking at other people's work to get inspiration and identify the things you like and evaluate the possibility to incorporate them in your own work. It's always a good thing to look for ways to get better.

What you said you like from Dan Perez's storytelling is one of the many things that will contribute to improving a piece and adding production value to it.

Admittedly, his camera work is not the most fancy and visually stunning around, but this only means that even if his storytelling is enjoyable, he still has other areas he could work on to make his work even better and again, add even more production value.

We just need to keep looking at what we do and what others do and try to find ways to improve all the time.

Obviously, like Noa's example, there will be times when we feel like we've worked so hard and invested so much to try new things but the return isn't as great as we would have wished; but I think that we shouldn't let things like that stop us from trying to get better.

The worst thing that can happen to me is to either think that I've already tried my best and accept that there is nothing else that can be done, or to think that I'm already too good and that there's no more way I can improve.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Yes, I see what you mean now, that however is a speciality of its own, you see the guy doesn't have that good video skills but I bet he knows what questions to ask and when. I do however think that something like this would be more possible to sell as a unique pre-wedding package as long as you can find people that are willing to talk that open in front of a camera. Maybe I"ll trow in another freebee at the end of the year to try this formula :D

Re: 1st wedding video
 

If you are interested in the pre-wedding interview concept, maybe this can give you some inspiration:

Luxmi + Rishi | Fresh Wedding Intro on Vimeo

Re: 1st wedding video
 

The prices here in the UK start from around £400($500) & I would estimate that the median price is probably well under £1000($1250). These prices are from full time video professionals never mind the prices of the weekend warriors making some beer money from their hobby & not declaring their income to the revenue. The quality at those prices is often pretty shoddy & the style is often incredibly boring with just a single static camera that zooms in & out to relieve the monotony. So it's not so difficult to stand out from the crowd with a more 'artistic' product but we are pleased to get £2000-3000 for a big wedding in London whereas we would charge half that for a local one here in rural Norfolk. We would love to be able to charge the equivalent of $10K but haven't yet met the right couple. It does bug me that the average price for hiring a wedding photographer is higher than that of the average wedding video. The price differential is even more drastic when you consider the scope for all that extra income from selling fancy albums to the couple & prints to the guests.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Those guys make very nice videos, it's a 3 man shoot so impossible to do if you work alone, like me, but what I find great as well is that everything they shoot intercuts so well together, which shows they all 3 understand how to handle their dslrs right and I"m sure they all 3 are using the same expensive canon lenses as well. Something like this can only be achieved if you can team up with other equally talented people. But as an inspiration source it can count :)

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Hi Noa,

I must admit that building a team and finding people who are equally if not better than us is extremely difficult. I am myself in a position where I am looking for people to join me for upcoming projects and it really isn't easy and takes a lot of time and training to make sure everyone is on the same page as far as style and skills are concerned.

But to give you an idea of how nothing is impossible if you really want to push the limits, check out this wedding that was shot solo here:
Carmen + Elton | Florence, Italy | shooting solo on Vimeo

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Yes, seen that one before, I think his grading skills are off the chart. I have not been able to make my dslr colors "pop" like he can or like in this trailer give it a cinematic tone. Wish there would be a tutorial for this.

Re: 1st wedding video
 

Konrad's work is one of the best. I definitely agree with you guys that he puts his work together very well. I attended a seminar with him and he introduced that solo-shoot piece to us. I think for a one person team he did a great job on that piece. He says you have to have great anticipation but at the end he said he would never do a solo-shoot again, just too hectic. I'm not sure if he was true to his word about solo shooting. I should ask him the next time I see, very cool guy.