Do you offer full service and speeches?

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Clive McLaughlin

Nigel, you say its not time consuming. Are you actually watching it through and choosing when to switch camera angles at appropriate times and checking for camera nudges or view blocks?

I find that even rushing through a service takes at least the length of the service and close to double. To me that is rather time-consuming.

But I guess I'm not doing it full time, so my time is tighter.

Compared to editing a 5 minute highlights never mind a 20-30 minute short form edit then it takes a fraction of the time to do a real time multicam edit of the service. The speeches can take longer edit to as you are looking for relevant reaction shots etc.

[Robert Benda]

I can understand either point of view, and cultural differences, but in the end, I simply ask what they want. If your clientele want the whole thing, I understand and it may even be why clients choose you.

For us, we started out showing couples what the shorter edits can look like and they loved the idea of not having to watch their cousin reading 1st Corinthians again. Our last shoot was the first to ask for the entire ceremony.

When we offer edits, we're offering something like a movie or TV show... we're trying to distill the day down into it's most relevant and impactful components. Best man does a good speech? Great, it's in. Pastor did a personal message? Wonderful. But if the Best man just mumbled 'thanks for coming' and sat down... no.

Or my favorite waste, when they use a song (especially recorded) for a candle lighting/sand ceremony, or some such, and are done with the activity, but the song is still going for another awkward 2 minutes while everyone just waits around doing nothing. I really don't feel the need to include that kind of stuff.

[Tim Gauthier]

Not a wedding video guy, tried it, disliked it. I would think that the couple would "ask" for the long form video, but in truth if you deliver a snazzy slick video, thats really what they are going to watch all of the time. They can record their own static camera pointed at the church recording everything. They're paying to get a video that shows them the memories of that day, why not record the highlights+things they miss being so busy getting married. Like the little cousin playing in his suit, or the bridegrooms fooling around.

Just my 10¢ from a non-wedding video guy.

(actually in all seriousness, this is what I've had in my head about what I would do if I offered wedding video, so your thoughts are appreciated).

[Peter Riding]

deliver a snazzy slick video

To me that is pretty much the definition of an unwatchable waste of money wedding video :- )

It may seem to them to be a good idea at the time ..... but do they really want to have their wedding record take on the appearance of a pretentious car advert complete with cod artistry?

Its important to appreciate just how narrow the target audience is. Why even bother trying to cater to the friends who don't really want to watch the video whether its 2 minutes or 2 hours long.

Wedding videos have a lot in common with wedding photo albums in that they are not going to be watched every week or every month or even every year. But when they do come out for viewing they really matter and the more content the better - though not necessarily every verse of every hymn obviously!

By all means offer a short if its necessary to get the business in the first place. But don't just leave it at that because longform offends your artistic integrity or because you were able to convince the clients they would never want it.

Pete

[Roger Gunkel]

Totally agree with Peter here, the wedding video is a record of what they may consider the most important day of their life! So Tim I assume that while they are busy getting married, you will miss the main events as they will be boring and get what you would consider to be the interesting bits that they are missing! That sounds like a great way to get no business to me!

Capturing the whole of the main events is not about setting up a camera in a fixed position, it's about using experience and imagination to carefully use pans, tilts, focus pulls and anything you can to keep it interesting. When couples view it in the future, they want to see part of their life history and all the characters involved in the day, no matter how boring you think it may be. By all means make an edited highlights version aswell, but don't make the mistake of thinking that is all they will want.

Roger

[Tim Gauthier]

Thanks guys! I don't do wedding video because of some bad experiences working with couples, I'd gladly do second shooter for a wedding guy but thats as far into that world I'd go anymore!

Thank you for the insight though!

[Rob Cantwell]

most brides here in Ireland would be similar to the UK, they want the full version for themselves and as a complete record of the day. (it's really only suitable for themselves and family) more and more are also asking for a highlights version (more suitable for showing to friends etc.) too along with one suitable for social media.
This is what I offer, it's all about the market you find yourself in i reckon.

[Tom Dowler]

I think it depends on the client.

The type of couple we enjoy working with and who really value what we do - they want a long cut that's watchable first and foremost and has some of the same aesthetic as the trailer cut.

This year we've steered everyone towards a 30 minute long cut. If they want longer because they want more of the ceremony or speeches in full, then they pay extra for it.

One interesting cultural difference between the US and UK though, is that here there tend to be fewer speeches - typically FoB, BM and MoH - you never get grooms giving a speech (which is a shame) and they tend to be on the shorter side - usually 3 - 5 minutes. So even if you include them in full, and include the key ceremony moments in full (processional, vows, ring exchange, homily, pronouncement, kiss, recessional) 30 minutes is plenty of time.

[Kyle Root]

I've always delivered the full ceremony full length, for 13 years.

Last year, I started doing highlight videos that were about 3minutes long to take advantage of social media (Facebook). I also started including it on the DVD as a menu selection. I've received a lot of comments that my couples really enjoy the feature, in addition to the long-form video.

A couple years back I had a client who I met with. She specifically asked for only a highlight video. At that point, I had never done one, and told her I wasn't comfortable doing just a highlight reel. (Additionally she and her mom seemed really "high maintenance" - for lack of a better description, and frankly I typically steer away from those kind of clients.).

Anyways, after that request, I started experimenting with that idea on my other wedding clients. Now I do it for all, as part of the deal. Once the full video is put together, it's actually quite easy to put together a highlight reel.

[Chris Harding]

But the important bottom line still is that the bride needs a full record of the day because to her the day was just a blur...shorten the speeches by cutting out stuff you think is un-important might (or probably will be) critical to the bride.

My attitude is always capture everything so at least you have a total record of the day...by all means do short highlights for Facebook and medium highlights for family but it's still always worth doing the full day even if they watch it only once!! I remember a bride who's Dad died shortly after the wedding so his speech (which I gave her in full) is a very precious memory!!

Chris

[Robert Benda]

Chris, we often do interviews with parents, grandparents, and anyone else they ask us to. Not for 'congratulations' but rather, story telling. If they're any good at all, I put them on the DVD on their own. My favorite example was one bride's grandparents talking about how they themselves met (a blind date). I figure the value of these has nothing to do with the wedding, but rather for the exact reason you ran into: these are important people and someday they won't be here anymore.