How long is your....?

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

Our full film is around 16-20 minutes long (you can find a full film on our blog).

Danny, I thought that you also included the full ceremony & speeches as separate chapters on the disc? or do you now literally deliver only a single 16-20 minute film as the only video on a Blu-ray disc?

[Danny O'Neill]

Extra disk with ceremony and speeches in full but lightly edited. It's litterly the rough multicam edit on a disk. Only one copy and it keeps the parents happy and gives us creative freedom. I don't think anyone has ever actually watched that disk :)

Some couples opt to have all the raw footage instead of the extra disk. It's their choice.

[Chad Whelan]

We offer a multitude of choices from a 90 min doc style video to a 20-30 min short form style. You can get a package that has both also. I have found that a lot of people still want a long form video which is the reason why we still offer them. Of course in a perfect world they would have both but that is not always in the budget for most couples. I don't think there is one perfect answer, everyone wants something different which is why offering choices seems to work best for us. A quick word about Blu-Ray... we have been including it with every package for a couple years now. I think this day in age it should not be an upsell it should be a given. Most of our clients have a blu-ray player now. If they don't most will go buy one as cheap as they are. We of course offer dvd copies as well but always make sure they have a blu-ray copy wether they can play it now or not.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

Extra disk with ceremony and speeches in full but lightly edited. It's litterly the rough multicam edit on a disk. Only one copy and it keeps the parents happy and gives us creative freedom. I don't think anyone has ever actually watched that disk :)

Some couples opt to have all the raw footage instead of the extra disk. It's their choice.

I don't think that any couple is going to be happy with just a 16-20 minute short & literally nothing else when they know that you have been there shooting video all day with multiple cameras. Just as photographers will deliver an album with just 40 stunning images (their 'short form') they also deliver a disc containing 300-600 images that were taken throughout the day.

[Vincent Oliver]

I think you have hit the nail on the head Nigel, I don't think I could stand in front of a couple and tell them that they will get a DVD with 16-20 minutes of footage for their special day.

Last year I was flown out to Zurich to cover a wedding, I started at 7.30 am (grooms wedding breakfast at a coffee house) and finished the entire day at 3.30am (reception.etc.) I only stopped filming because I had run out of storage media. I can't begin to imagine what they would have said if I gave them a 20 minute production, the end result was a 2 hour DVD. The groom also asked if I could produce a set of DVDs with everything that was shot. This was un-edited footage which I embedded with a time-code overlay. Needless to say the couple were very pleased with the product and as a result I have shot two .weddings on the back of this. Having said all this, it did take a long time to edit the material.

I have looked at Danny's video (Andrew & Jessica) and technically it is excellent, however I have also noted that there is a lot of ambient fill in material - scene setting etc. At first I felt that the content was self indulgent with creative shots of scenery, but after watching the entire 20 minutes I couldn't help agreeing that 20 minutes was more than enough. The spirit of the wedding was beautifully captured without going Over The Top. I can imagine that this video will be played many times to friends and family without their audience dropping off to sleep. I wonder how many times my two hour production would be watched.

Maybe it is time for us all to re-think how we do things.

Nigel, I have also worked with photographers who give the couple a CD/DVD of images and never understood why anyone would want 600-1000 photos. I like the printed photo album book that are now so popular. I think Danny's 16-20 minute concept is to produce a video that is the equivalent of the coffee table photo album.

[Nigel Barker]

The album of wedding photographs is what is traditional from the days of film. Old school wedding photographers would rigidly pose the couple & their guests & shoot 2-3 rolls of medium format (24-36 photos) & every image would be printed & delivered in the album. With the advent of digital cameras has come the trend for reportage or photojournalistic style of wedding photography because it costs nothing to shoot 200 or 400 or 1000 images. Most photographers do sort & process those hundreds of images to a greater or lesser degree. Some photographers particularly at the budget end of the market just deliver on disc but if the couple can afford it some of the albums are absolutely beautiful. Peter Riding of this parish has some lovely examples on his website wedding albums and photo books by ashton lamont professional photographers The advantage that photographers have always had versus videographers is being able to deliver a desirable artefact (the album) that gives people the feeling that they got something for their money. No matter how nicely you package up a DVD or Blu-ray it will never have the same impact as a hand-tooled leather album with glossy pages as thick & stiff as plywood.

[Vincent Oliver]

I agree with you about a beautifully presented album v DVD case. However, the video itself brings everything to life, add a good music track and supply a box of tissues and you have an unbeatable combination.