I’m so excited to be guest-blogging for Tami!  Since I know many couples ask Tami and others for wedding videography recommendations, I thought it would be worthwhile to share with you what goes into a wedding film, and how wedding films have evolved over the past 10-15 years.

Let’s start by being honest. Many engaged couples (and wedding vendors) will chuckle when they read the phrases “wedding cinema” or “wedding film.”  Why? Probably because of the antiquated notion of wedding videos that unfortunately for professionals like me, is still very much alive…

It goes something like this: the wedding video was a task you assigned to your uncle or a family friend, because (a) people associated little to no real value with it; (b) it simply involved positioning a handheld camcorder in the back of the ceremony site, and then later, invading people’s space (and privacy) by bombarding guests with table side questions about knowledge of or advice for the couple; and (c) it was never viewed as artistic, but instead valued simply for the ability to “playback” the important events of the big day.

Welcome to 2015, a year when I hope this antiquated notion finally disappears (or at least dissipates somewhat)!

While I don’t ever take offense to being referred to as a “videographer,” I do like to educate our couples & their parents, as well as other wedding professionals, about our craft, which is filmmaking.   My goal in doing this is twofold: (1) to improve relationships across the wedding industry; and (2) to enable couples to connect with a wedding cinema studio they love and embrace the creative process from start to finish.

So what goes into the production of a wedding film, and why do costs mirror that of photographers now? Here’s a quick and dirty synopsis of our workflow and creative process:

The Planning, aka: Preproduction

This is where your cinematographer gets personal. We ask about your love story and your wedding plans.  We want rough details and timelines so that we can best approach your day and begin storyboarding in advance of your actual wedding…

Are there people that make you uncomfortable? How large is the room where you’ll be getting ready and who will be in there with you? Who will be speaking at the wedding, and what kinds of stories might they share? How long will your ceremony be, and what are some of the most important moments or events of your ceremony aside from vows/ring exchange?  What type of vibe are you going for at your reception? What is your color scheme? What musical artists or genres do you connect with.

In addition to filming very candid moments shared by you and your family & friends, we also need to anticipate technical issues and/or address realities and restrictions such as low lighting, limited space, wind, and/or limited camera placement per venue restrictions, etc.  Why? Well in the case of wind, while it may enable your veil to flow gracefully and create a gorgeous shot for us and your photographers, it also makes for a very tricky audio capture if your ceremony is outdoors. Similarly, low lighting may seem romantic when touring your venue, but when you want to capture details and a first dance without on-camera lighting (and remember, we don’t use flash), low light is not so flattering.

Stephanie + Danny’s Highlight, showcases the beauty of that wind I mentioned above and the use of inconspicuous lighting at a reception:

Downtown Club Philadelphia Wedding – Stephanie and Danny's Wedding Highlight Film from Be Films on Vimeo.

We take great pride in our professionalism and ability to get the job done regardless of these restrictions, but a heads up is always helpful – it goes a long way to prevent day-of problems, as well as to enable more creativity. If we can anticipate the above scenarios, we can work with you and your other vendors in advance of the wedding to address and improve upon them.

Hence, we also like to know who else we’ll be working with to make your wedding dreams a reality, including photographers, musicians, dj’s, hair stylists, makeup artists, venue coordinators, event planners, florists, etc.  If we’ve worked with them before, we know they don’t have that antiquated notion I mentioned above, and that working with them will not only be possible, but also enjoyable and mutually beneficial.  It we haven’t worked with them yet, we like to reach out to them in advance of your wedding date and explain our collaborative nature, unobtrusive style, and our goal to put you, our mutual clients, first.

The Wedding Day, aka: Production

Just like Tami, we are with you for the duration of your wedding day. Our studio typically lets photographers take the lead, as we prefer to capture the intimate, “in-between” moments as opposed to posed portraits.  That being said, we will speak up when necessary.  We love collaborating with photographers like Tami & Ryan as it can really increase our collective creativity (and productivity) during the course of the day.

We “shoot to edit,” meaning that we are envisioning your film as your day unfolds…each bit of audio, every scene and the many sequences involving you, your family & friends is being mentally catalogued and referenced by us as we continue filming throughout the day.  Often, by the time we arrive at the reception venue, we have an idea of how we will craft your love story, and we continue build from there as we complete production.

The best compliment we can receive from your guests is actually one of surprise.  Because we strive to be unobtrusive, we hope they exclaim, “We didn’t even know you had videographers!” upon seeing your wedding film weeks later.

We, and your photographer, are likely the only vendors that continue working for you well after the wedding ends (to the tune of anywhere between 15-40 hours).  There is no greater feeling for us than to get home from a fantastic wedding and immediately start discussing the edit we’ve outlined in our minds, proud of what we’ve captured and excited to share it with our couples.

This part of the process is absolutely a labor of love, from choosing (and licensing) the audio tracks we will use to score your film, to painstakingly arranging the clips in the timeline, to selecting which live audio feed offers the best quality. Finally, we work on perfecting the edit with color grading, effects and titles.

And, to demonstrate just how powerful live audio can be, check out Sarah + Ben’s summer wedding (we had to address audio interference from wind and water in this film):

Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve Wedding Film – Sarah + Ben from Be Films on Vimeo.