Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

90 weddings in a year? That would mean almost having to edit and finish 2 weddings every single week for an entire year and not being able to finish each wedding before the next starts could give you a backlog you never could recover from if the next year is equally busy, surely there has to be a dedicated second editor to handle such a workload? Or what if you break a leg, hopefully Steve is not a single shooter. :)

The deposit those high earners ask is probably higher then 1K, that they keep anyway if the client cancels the wedding. If all their clients would cancel in a year their income might still be higher then what most of us have to work a full year for :)

The 5K clients are on a budget so it's expected they will look for a cheaper weddingvideo but the 100K ones could easily pay you 10K for a film instead of 1k, for me it means they don't value film that much, I bet that in most cases they are paying 3 to 4 times as much for their photographer.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

No 2nd editor. Some of those Weddings are handled by a 2nd shooter - 8 of them. Some of those 90 are parties, few are Marryoke only, 1 is filming only - couple are editors themselves, some are Highlights Videos with Uncut Ceremony and Speeches. Some are just a Ceremony.

That said, if I have 4 or 5 days in a week to edit, I can edit 3-4 Weddings a week. Today for example, I started and finished editing a 45 min party video from the 20th April, a Ceremony and Speech from the 29th April and a long 90 minute video of an Indian Ceremony from the 20th April. Though haven't quite finished that last one.
Plus edited Guest Messages from another Wedding and created DVD Menu and Covers for 2 Weddings in readiness for final delivery - last ones to send out from my 2017 work. Oh and met up with a client in a pub to talk about their Wedding. Plus worked on some change of address forms for my banks and a few others (I moved just over a week ago), chased up some repair work and answered a tonne of emails (they were on fine form today - 4 enquiries). All in all a typical day for me. You should see tomorrows schedule :)

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

We've got a blog post coming up soon about the state of weddings here in the UK.

Using Google trends we are able to see the lay of the land.

For the past 5 years the number of searches for wedding videographer has only been increasing.

However. Wedding photographer has been on a steady decline and our photographer friends have reported around 30% less bookings lately.

Looking at other wedding related searches one of the biggest hit are wedding blogs. Google searches for them are half of what they were in 2012 as people move to social media for their wedding copying... Sorry, I meant 'inspiration'.

A good guide on how weddings are doing in general is the search for wedding dresses. This is the no1 wedding related search term and one every single bride will put into Google the moment she says yes. This is also suffering from lower volume. Almost half of 2012 levels.

But, video searches remain on an upwards trend.

But, most of our work comes from photographer referrals. Who are all down themselves.

Other interesting trends. Same sex and gay marriage are no higher. They peaked when the law was passed and quickly dropped back down.

It's not necessarily a budget issue. Searches for 'budget wedding whatever' are not up.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Ray Roman claimed a while back that his highest paying weddings where all in the UK and his startingprice is around 10K, Philip white is also one of a few UK wedding videographers that seem to be doing very well financially so to me it looks there is a (small) market for high end weddingvideography in the UK.

In Belgium that market is a lot smaller, the only way to get involved with big budget clients is to team up with weddingplanners that attract these type of clients, you will have to pay them a commision for every referral but they can guarantee more exclusive clients who get married in this country or most likely abroad.

Most of my referals also come from photographers, the good ones are booked full every year and from what I have heared they have not noticed any decline.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

That's hardly surprising as there will have been pent up demand from all the same sex couples who had been waiting 10/20/30/40 years for the law to change so they could get married.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I know I don't do that many weddings anymore, but I price myself kind of high on purpose.
That way, if someone does want to hire me to do a wedding, it will be worth my while.
Because I do other video work, it would be pretty stupid of me to do a wedding for $800
if I could be doing a corporate video shoot for $2500 that same day. I had a wedding request
about 2 weeks ago. They wanted me to film their wedding on top of a glacier. They wanted
music set to the video. They wanted to pay $1100. It costs me $345 to get a film permit to
film on national park land and then with costs to license a song and other expenses,
this job would not leave me with much over $500. At the same time, they were literally
flying a photographer in from out of town and paying to put him up at a hotel and so on.
When I see this kind of thing, I have to think that this bride doesn't value video.
If they don't really value video much, and just use any 'leftover' money to budget to video,
I'm not going to be the person for them to hire. I can do a lot of other video work besides
weddings, that will pay a better rate, so that's what I will do. Pretty simple really.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Ofcourse they don't, yet they won't have a issue finding a videographer who is willing to work for that price, those type of clients never bother me because they would never hire me anyway as I"m too expensive for them.

When I started out with weddings 13 years ago I charged a very low amount the first years just to build a portfolio and to secure enough bookings and enough booking I got, more then I could handle alone, it was not the quality of my work that got me booked, it was my low price.

it was clear video was an afterthought for most clients that booked me, the photog was always (much) more expensive. They where happy with the film I made for them but I never liked the feeling to come in second place after the photog, the clients put higher demands on the photogs but never bothered me because I was that guy they booked last minute with what was left over from their budget. Even many photogs treated me with not much respect as they also knew I was alot cheaper then them so usually they called the shots throughout the day without taking me into consideration.

Fast forward 13 years and I"m 5 times more expensive then back then, I get a lot less bookings now but I get the same priority and treatment as the higher end photographers who charge about the same as me. I notice a huge difference how the togs and clients treat me, they also ask my opinion and there is a much better cooperation and mutual respect, if I suggest something now people listen and I notice I have a bigger influence on the couple. As an example I have a wedding this weekend where the weddingplanner had suggested what the best way was to do their first meet, I did not like the idea and told the couple what I considered a better way to capture that moment for the film and why it was better and they agreed to do it my way, something that would not have been possible 13 years ago.

You should charge your time accordingly and also take into consideration what your market supports, doubling your price from one day to the next might result in no bookings so beside having good work to back up your higher prices you should also need to know how much you can charge before you will become too expensive. Never undercharge just to get the job, you"ll end up getting underpaid and having to compete with weekend warriors.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Noa, I am not sure you can totally attribute rising prices of your service to your assertiveness over the last 13 years. I too have become more assertive since first starting. It comes from experience and confidence in ones work, not a price tag on our website. Very rarely do I know the price of the Photographers work, and I dealt they know mine. I also work with a variety from family friends to top quality Professionals and yes in some cases I am sure I am being paid less, but in some cases I am being paid more.

Also the value of my work doesn't always relate to the cost being paid. If you charge higher prices, you are not necessarily targeting those who value video more, but those who are on higher income. Some of those who valued my videos the most didn't necessarily book my top packages, but rather whilst they booked well in advanced, and rated video highly, their low income prevents them from spending a fortune on their Wedding and video being no exception.

Now I do get a lot of last minute bookings I admit and I am sure my prices do help lure clients to me. But it's not the complete picture. A lot of my work comes from recommendations, just like most other Videographers out there. So I am being booked because of good work I did on a previous Wedding and not necessarily because of my prices. Which I am sure is true also of yourself.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Hi Steve

I tend to agree with you and raising prices significantly every year can also leave you with referrals from last years brides to this year's bride who wants to know " Why did Tracey only pay $XXX in November and you want to now charge me $XXX for exactly the same thing'? Brides do talk to each other and my main source of gigs comes from referrals too so I'd rather keep prices as consistent as practical and not raise prices purely because it's a new season..If costs have gone up, then sure, you have no option but isn't it better to cost accurately and if you want a classier higher priced bride then create a fancier package?

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

It's the difference how much the client values photo over video that sends out a signal how serious they take you and that has changed a lot between charging very low or much higher prices, in the past the client didn't particulary care much about my thoughts on the film because the photos would always get priority because they paid a lot more for that. Today there is an equal balance in importance between photo and video because they pay an equal higher amount for both of us which means they value both equally. Both mine and the photogs opinion matter now while in the past photo was always prioritised, even if my assertiveness hasn't changed that much.

Why would a couple with a higher income pay my price when they can book a competitor at half my price, they pay more, not only because they can afford it, but because of my work. If they just wanted to have "a video" they'd pick the cheapest they could find online and there are plenty to choose from. If they didn't value video more they would save on video so they could spend extra on a honeymoon.

In my country there is a quite large wedding forum for couples which discusses everything related to weddings, the photography section has over 6 times as much topics compared to the video section. The most asked questions in the photosections are; "what are good photolocations", "when is it best to plan in a photoshoot", "do you book a photog the entire day or is a half day sufficient", "good photographer wanted" and then you have the occasional question for a cheap photog.

The most asked question in the videosection is: "wanted; cheap videographer"...

In the past my name would pop up now and then in that forum but since I raised my prices I don't get mentioned anymore, this I don't mind because in most cases it's not a matter of not being able to afford me but it's because they spend most of their budget on their photog and I don't want to be the guy who gets booked because of what's left over in their budget.

To me that forum shows one thing which is that video is just not valued that much in my country and I don't want to contribute to that by charging very low prices just to be able to get a booking. Instead I increase the quality of my work and my price to a level where I meet couples (low or high income) who are willing to pay more because they see the difference and they consider it a investment.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

What is considered normal is to raise your prices a bit every year because of inflation, maybe like 2% extra every year, no client will complain about that. In my case it's different as I went from undercharging a lot to currently charging a normal hourrate and multiply that with all the hours I spend on a wedding, the price increase I made every year to get to my current level was sometimes questioned but I told them what I described before that I was slowly raising my prices to a level that not only is considered as normal rates to sustain a business but also reflected the value of my work. I charge more then most of my competitors because my work is better and I don't need to use fancy words on my website or show what gear I use to prove my point, I just need to show my work.


Today my pricing is at a level I can live with so price increases the following years will be a lot smaller.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I now have another source of income and have taken a step down in weddings. I charge more and just wait for the right client rather than taking on any booking now. I also do a lot more second shooting jobs now, especially second shooting on multi cultural weddings. No headache of having to directly deal with the asian / african / arab bride or grooms, but keeps me on my toes shooting something different.

What I have found by upping my price is a lot of annoyed referrals ... why did so and so pay this much and why am I charging so much now. As mentioned above brides talk to each other and certainly discuss how much they paid.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Annoyed couples because I raised my prices are the least of my worries and what if they talk to eachother? It's no secret that I raise my price, it's on my website so every can follow and see the changes.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Why should she take on the risk. Even if the videos on their website is as good as the other guy, doesn't guarantee the whole service will be equal to the one charging more, and most go by the maxim that the more you pay, the higher the quality, even with exceptions to that rule often occurring. Reliability and guarantee you won't let the couple down and deliver consistent work with your other videos counts for a great deal. Why referrals are often our best source of new work.

Besides you missed my point. A Bride who is well off and values video will most likely pay a top price for it. If she doesn't, she won't and be one of the worst customers. I've had a few like that.

However those on low income who do value video can't pay for a top priced Videographer. So they book me. It doesn't mean they value Video less, it's just they can't afford to spend £2000+ on video.

So my clients can range from high earners who don't value video to low earners who do and can't afford the big guns, and of course there are low earners, who don't value video, though they're more likely to get a friend to do it. I'd say the middle one is my most common for me.

Personally I get a lot of satisfaction filming Weddings by those who don't have tonnes of money to splash out on it. There's a market there and some good Weddings. Some of the rich ones I do can be quite bland. Those with less money tend to be more creative.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Its a weird industry and sometimes we do have wedding shoots where nothing goes right and we have to fight against lighting, technical issues and end up no being very happy about the way the shoot turned out even though we have done our best. Then the bride comes back with glowing reports about how she cries every time she watches it and gives you referrals from all her friends. I have one groom (yes groom) who's wedding we did 4 years ago and he will often refer us to new brides whenever someone asks "who can do my wedding" Their wedding was fairly run of the mill without any hassles yet he still enthuses about it ..they are having a new addition to the family soon and have already booked us for photos even though we don't advertise baby shoots! As Steve says you can have both low and high budget brides who can either enthuse about video or spend weeks picking it to pieces regardless of price. I guess it's the luck of the draw who you get??

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Blog post is finally up.

How to get your wedding business found in google

It's a shameless post for our new SEO business which is not actually for you video folks.

But it mainly talks about wedding related search trends and their decline for the past 5 years. We also looked at the office of national statistics for the official line.

The most interesting thing is the MASSIVE decline for wedding blogs. We dont show it on the post but we also delved into each of the major UK blogs. Rock my wedding, love my dress and the american style me pretty and those trends match the massive drop for the broader term. Probably part of the reason Oauth wanted to dith SMP.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Actually I've just had an enquiry from a couple whose Videographer has gone into liquidation. Assuming it's true and he/she just didn't decide just to pull out. Obviously some Videographers don't make it. I think some aim too high but lack the talent for business to make it work. It's not the first time I've heard from a couple whose previous Videographer they've booked has gone out of Business. I've had several enquiries this way.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

We've also had a couple of enquiries this year from couples whose videographer has cancelled and one who had also lost their photographer. I think some people come into the business with little experience, get a couple of cameras and think it is an easy way to make some good money. They soon learn that to do the job well takes skill, perseverance and business acumen.

Roger

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Hi Roger

Quite common here too. What is amazing is they close their doors sometimes just a few weeks before the wedding and the poor bride has to try and rebook someone at short notice. Sadly the industry here has no regulation so you can technically wander into a discount camera store, buy a cheap camera and wham..you are a professional wedding photographer/videographer (I've actually noticed once they discover their DSLR shoots video they offer both too!) until you find out it's all too much work so you simply disappear from the scene and sell your cameras on eBay leaving brides stranded!!

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Something I discovered the other day reading a few posts on a facebook group .... there are many so called "pro's" who hire equipment a day before the wedding.

So all year around they don't have professional gear to play with, they just hire them before an event and just shoot on 'Auto'

I'm getting quite annoyed by manufacturers making cameras really good in the 'auto' setting. Whatever happened to shooting manually and becoming a master of your craft.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

There can be good reasons for hiring gear a day before the wedding & it doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have any pro gear the rest of the year e.g. a backup camera body or two &/or extra lenses.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

The market has become saturated for sure and as our graphs show the actual number of weddings has gone down and continues to slide. So just means more competition. This must how the photographers have always felt :)

Hopefully this latest economic blip will thin the herd a bit.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Back in the days of film you had to be relatively skilled to take photographs. Now anyone can take halfways decent photos due to the dumbing down of photography (or democratisation of photography depending on your point of view). At least editing will always remain a major hurdle to the complete dumbing down of video.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Personally I think photography has become more saturated than video. I've seen alot of photogs who are almost more like 'friends/guests' shoot the wedding, moreso in an effort to get a port going. They claim to be pro's, but seeing them go thru the day its just spray & pray for some or trying too hard to get that photo for their port (had a photog send a bridal party out in 0 degree weather, wanted to take family photos outdoors too, I kinda recommended against it as we cannot send Grandmom outside). Then just color correct in lightroom using instagram style filters & effects.


While I admit photography is a skill set thru the day, and more leadership & posing of people, I feel video is a harder/more labor intensive day.. Carrying bags, tripods etc. Also, if there are any startups renting gear or new to it, they likely become overwhelmed at the amount of post production/editing it takes. And suddenly the $700 or $1000 they charged becomes alot less per hour. Add in the fact good editing takes a bit of talent & practice, and they're likely delivering a pretty shoddy final edit, it doesn't surprise me if many bail out.

As for quitting, how could someone not complete out their weddings? I could maybe understand if you had one way out (Fall 2019), and asked if they'd accept a refund and looking elsewhere, but I'd still feel obligated to shoot it if they didn't want to switch. I couldn't just say "I'm out of business", that's weak. (I get it when large national chains close like that, they can't continue to pay their staff. A few wedding dress companies have done that now & then. But not a 1 man show.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I"m not sure if appearing on the first page in google is that important for a videographer, a lot of my work is a result of photographer referrals so I find it more important to make good friends with most photographers I work together with. I say "most" for a reason because sometimes there are photogs I rather not work with again. I think it's rare that there is no photographer at a wedding but from what I hear from them maybe 2 out of 10 weddings they see a videographer so they can play a key role in assuring you get enough bookings every year.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I would imagine they've realised they had to go out and get a day job and either could no longer have that and the weddings or just thought "F' it!"

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Weddings haven't really dropped that much here in Australia but they have most decidedly gone from lavish $40K affairs to $10K to $15K which has affected a lot of the fancier higher priced venues. Brides seem to looking a lot more for caterers and halls rather than dedicated wedding venues.

On the video side there seems to be a huge increase in videographers and photographers .. mostly female that have done a uni media course and offering crazy stuff like full wedding photo and video for under $999 and they seem to pop up on Facebook Groups on a daily basis so there really must be a LOT of them out there without work!!!

I wonder if they are shooting on auto and just transferring images from card to USB? or are they doing full image editing and working for peanuts? I must admit I have seen them at weddings with just one entry level camera, cheap Thailand made kit lens and rely on the pop up flash!

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

The importance of page 1 depends on your marketing and referal source. Our no1 source has always been photographers. But as their work has been dropping and becoming more competitive then that source has also fallen off for us.

Most photographers we work with have all said the same thing. The past 2 years now they have seen a 30-40% drop in bookings. Thats 30-40% less to refer to us.

For us we like to have a number of lead sources. A friendly dj,lighting and production crew we know reminds us of the perils of putting all eggs in one basket after their regular venue which gave them 80% of their yearly work decided to start taking commission and without even giving them the chance went with another DJ. He was in such a pickle.

The only graph we didnt include on our blog post was the search patterns for wedding videographer. THis is the ONLY wedding related supplier which actually has had an increase in traffic over the past 5 years.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I know I have mentioned this before on past threads, but we still find wedding shows give us a constant flow of bookings. We avoid the big expensive shows as they have sometimes 100s of stands and thousands of visitor. That sounds great in theory, but if you are selling dresses or supplying suits you can take many orders, but videography and photography only allow for a limited number of bookings and the cost of the big shows make them uneconomic for us. We also find them just an impersonal leaflet collecting exercise for many visitors.

We rely on the smaller shows with generally 30-50 exhibitors and much more affordable.There are less visitors, but they have more time to talk and are much more likely to remember us. We also rely on very friendly and non selling conversation with visitors which seems to go down well and encourages them to talk longer. Many of the visitors are interested in the venue that is holding the show, so we try to show a wedding that we have filmed there to encourage conversation. It also means that the venue send visitors to our stand so that they can see a real wedding at the venue.

Sunday just gone was a good example, with the show being only £40 at a local golf club. It is way cheaper than any other we would usually do, but being local was worth trying. It was well run, visitors were slow but steady, but we had a lot of long conversations with couples. As of this morning, we have already taken 5 bookings from it which is amazing.

We also keep a blog on Facebook of clients we have visited, reports on our shows and of course updates on weddings we have filmed. It has been very popular with Brides, who particularly love waiting for the 20 or so pre delivery stills that we post. Our wedding page has brought us a steady flow of work and seems to be increasing gradually.

Roger

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Hi Roger

Glad things are going well for you guys when others around you seem to have suffered massive drop offs in business. I have seen many, many new "wedding expos" spring up lately (even over Winter) and it seems all seem to realise it's easy money for business starved wedding vendors. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these expo organisers are even ex-wedding vendors who have decided having a few expos a year is a lot less work than actually being a vendor. Shows obviously work for your market and then others rely on other vendors like photographers (I have found that so many photogs here are also offering video as well so that wouldn't be a good source for us) We do get work however from wedding celebrants as they are normally the first point of contact for a bride but I guess the UK is still more traditional and the couple have a Church wedding?

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Just going on the theme of this topic I have noticed that some photographers have either closed up shop or are turning to other adventures. I have worked with a great (and very expensive) photographer a couple of times and then he sort of vanished into thin air and I never ran into him at all at weddings. I found out a week ago that instead of doing weddings he now just does landscapes and then also hosts "learn photography" day sessions at a nice venue ... To come to think of it, it's not a bad way to put a few pennies in the jar either. He normally has 12 camera enthusiasts per session and charges $59.00 for a couple of hours wandering around a nice venue. (the event is mid-morning so the participants get lunch from the venue so I'm sure he doesn't get charged to use the venue ... "I bring you 12 lunch clients and you let them take photos in your gardens"

What would you do if the wedding video market got to the point where brides were booking cheap videographers that used cell phones and it just wasn't worth your while to continue? Would you still keep with video and do something else??

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I don't think Chris we need to worry too much about cell phone Videographers. Most who enter this craft will be using mirrorless or DSLR to film. In short we love our toys too much to settle for a phone. Those who do are simply looking for a gimmick to be different, but if it became commonplace, it's no longer a novelty item to sell. I clasify phone Videographers with those who also film some stuff on super 8 film. It's a little bonus extra. But requires too much work to be viable in the long-term for vast majority of footage filmed.

Most newbies who come in offer only Highlights videos. They see a good return for a short, easy marketable video that earns them kudos online because keeping it short means the quality can be reasonably high. However there are too many clients wanting something a lot longer and I can't see a drop in clients for me until the newbies stop chasing the Cinematic videos and embrace the longer documentary edit.

However as longer edits can mean more footage and longer hours to edit, and a finished video they can't always post online and earn respect from their fellow Videographers, it's not something I expect many new to the industry will choose to do.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I totally agree with this Steve!.

I delivered a video last week to a couple who booked early last year. They had completely forgotten that we supplied documentary video and had seen a number of recent friend's wedding videos that were cinematic short form. They were totally delighted that we had captured the whole day and remarked at how envious their friends would be.

Roger

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Thanks Guys

I actually find the trend quite amusing. In the past all we ever did was film documentary style on "proper" video cameras and covered the entire day then along came the first video capable DSLR's and the so-called "war" began and actually became quite heated if you remember and the in thing was to supply cinematic videos ... short and set to music and we struggled with crazy camera shoot limits as short as 12 minutes on Canon which made editing a mammoth task. It seems that everything has done the full circle now and the full day coverage is back in vogue and appreciated by brides too so those that are producing only a short cinematic highlight of the complete day will probably fade into the background.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

From my perspective as I have been getting busier and busier with work I have less time to post on any social media and forums and in fact anywhere else for that matter.
Just the reality.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Good news Hakob

Hmm if it wasn't so darn cold in Canada I'd love to go there and shoot weddings! We have a son and daughter-in-law in Montreal but when they start telling me "it's minus 35 degrees here today" I'm definately put off!!

Just for interest do you do long form or short form video??

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Not going to happen anytime soon, my impression based on my experience dealing with my own clients, following couples comments on bride/groom forums and looking at what the trends are in the videography world by following a facebookgroup with over 10k members for a year or so (not a part of that group anymore as I got too frustrated about the enormous amounts of ego and money driven attitude) is that either long form documentary and short form cinematic will continue to excist and have a place, the main difference is the pricing.

I think we have to be honest that most of us, including me, who react in this topic charge low prices for our work what is mainly documentary based and there is a hugh interest from couples with more limited budgets, this might give us the impression that cinematic will be a passing fad but this can't be further from the truth.

If in that weddingvideographer facebookgroup you mentioned that you charge around 2K you would be called out for dragging the entire weddingindustry down because you are undercharging, There was mostly cinematic weddings discussed and pricing ranging from at least 4K and upwards would be considered normal, the known guys like Ray Roman who charge 10K+ would often post but mainly to promote his workshops and to laugh at anyone who was charging low (like us guys here).

Allthough most deliver like 10min average highlights they do offer full ceremony or speeches, raw footage etc at prices higher then what we charge for a full day documentary coverage, weddingplanners who attract high end clients are often a keyfactor to team up with in order to secure these big budget clients.

More videographers that are interested in making cinematic films are able to charge more money for them because for a client it looks like there is much more production value and time spend to make it look this way, not all succeed in that, like beginners who want to jump on that train but miss the experience and/or talent to produce quality films with good images/sound and editing, if they don't succeed in selling at a high price they at least can finish editing quickly and move on to the next bride that one day will regret not having a full ceremony or speeches.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I would be very suspicious of that bragging. I've seen the same among wedding photographers always talking up the number of bookings they have & the prices they are charging & it's usually so much BS. It's funny how the guys who claim to charge the most spend so much of their time running workshops to teach others how to be as succesful. Workshops are obviously even more profitable than weddings or perhaps just easier to get bookings.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

And do you think that does not happen either with those who charge low? :) Everytime I see a videographer reach their moment of fame, they start with workshops to share their secrets, obviously there is enough money to be made to make it worth their while because those workshops do require quite some preparation, it's not only what they make paid by the attendees but after that when they have it filmed and then post in online for sale and boom, you have got a wordlwide audience.

Cinematic wedding is only gaining in popularity mainly because of these "big earners", wether it's all true or not doesn't matter, not to those at least who want to look for that same pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Hey Noa

Maybe your side of the world is different but here we have a typical example of well known videographers and photographers just vanishing from view and then re-appearing later doing something else for a LOT less money. Actually the one in question was a $7000 minimum photographer and apart from supplying a bunch of edited images on a USB the only other thing he did was show his un-edited shots on a screen at the reception. I would suspect he was killed off for charging way too much .. he teaches kids photography at monthly workshops now and you can be sure he doesn't make $7000 in a day.

Yes the guys who buy a DSLR with a few kit lenses from the discount camera store and shoot weddings for a fraction of what others charge do exist nowdays in great numbers too and although some are charging ridiculous prices which would only make them beer money, some ARE charging a more realistic rate than the "braggers" who are doing the "it's a wedding so I can charge 3 times my normal costing"

I have a photographer friend who is fully booked out for 2018 yet I see brides asking for someone to do their wedding on FaceBook groups and they will get 30 or 40 replies from photographers who obviously are scratching for work ... Apart from consistency, my friend is simply booked out because he doesn't charge an arm and a leg and based on his home and lifestyle he is doing alright too!!

When I was full time we were booked solid by mid year and often taking bookings in the following year and beyond and making a good living simply because our packages were fair and good value for money. That's why people like Roger and Steve are doing well!!