Who chooses your music:

Choosing the music selection for your wedding film can get tricky.  From a creative standpoint, we LOVE choosing the music for your wedding film because we’ve seen your footage and are able to determine which music best fits the energy level, passion, and personality that shows through your footage.

But from a legality standpoint, if you want to share your film publicly online, such as on facebook, then we need to use music that we can license for this.  We can not use just any song found on itunes since there is a good chance we won’t have legal rights to use it.  However, we have a fantastic online library that we use to find music for most of our wedding films.  Everything you see on our website, or on our Vimeo page, has licensed music from the library.

Occasionally, however, we do have couples that are determined to use songs they’ve had their hearts set on, or perhaps the website doesn’t have the particular genre they are looking for, so if that is the case, then we tell our clients that we are more than happy to use whatever music they want as long as they are ok with their wedding film being DVD only, and no online sharing.  We can still provide a temporary online link that is password protected for you to email to friends and family, but we must keep it private in order to avoid any copyright infringement laws.

We wish choosing the music wasn’t a legal issue, but it is, and we want to abide by the law.  A great compromise is to let us choose a licensable song for your highlight film, and then you can provide us with a list of songs that we can choose from for your cinematic film, since the cinematic film is a little to long to share online anyway.  :)

 

Lighting is everything:

You don’t have to be a photographer to know that good lighting means good pictures.  The same applies to video.  For your wedding day, you really want to consider the lighting for

1) your preparation location,
2) where you want pictures taken, and
3) your venues for both ceremony and reception.

What does low lighting situations mean for video?  Usually it means grainy footage, and less detail in clarity and color.

Natural lighting (day light) is by far the best.  Whether you are getting ready at your house, a hotel, or at the church, find a place with a lot of natural lighting.  Makeup artists will typically do your makeup by a window, because they need natural lighting as well.  This is perfect for photos and video!  And don’t neglect the guys!  If you are wanting great looking pictures and footage of the guys, find a place with lots lots of windows and day light for them as well.

If you’ve already picked your venue, or you are very limited at the church you are preparing at, it’s not the end of the world.  Several things can still be staged over by a window to get some shots with great lighting.  And if you are not opposed to it, additional on camera lights will help tremendously as well.

Out door ceremonies or venues have the best lighting.  For all other venues or churches, find out if you can have additional lighting set up or turned on (however stage lighting may be too harsh).

Candle lit receptions are beautiful in person, but unfortunately, they are usually very difficult for both photographers and videographers.  The camera iris doesn’t adjust quite as well as the human eye in this situation.  Just know this in advance, if you are wanting video at your candle lit reception, we will need to bring additional lighting.

Reception dance floors also tend to be really dark (unless there is a live band or DJ that bring their own stage lighting).  Typically, we bring additional lighting (both on camera lights and lights on stands) to have for toasts, cake cutting and dancing footage.  The lights are not meant to be distracting, or to keep people off the dance floor.  If that were the case, we would turn them off!  But most often, the guests don’t seem to mind them, and it creates great footage, and allows for creative opportunities with silhouette shots, lens flares and more.

Discuss with your photographer or videographer about venue and prep location options.   If you’ve already chosen your locations, get their opinion about the lighting on your wedding day and see what needs to happen in order to achieve the best possible pictures and footage.  They will know what they need to get the best looking results and you’ll be glad you asked.  :)

 

 

Why do I need multi camera coverage:

When it comes to choosing a video package, a lot of couples don’t understand the benefits (or limitations) to the different coverage options that we offer.

The biggest reason why a couple would choose a three camera package is because they need multiple videographers in multiple places at once.  During prep, one would be with the bride, one with the groom, and one at the venues getting prep/decor footage, or doing something creative, such as a time lapse (of set up, or beautiful sky). Capturing the venue’s preparations and set up is a very unique perspective for the couple to watch in their wedding video.  This was a part of the day they did not see, and watching it come together can be really special.  These different scenarios are all happening at once, and during the editing process, your wedding day story truly begins to be revealed, from all the preparations till you leave at the end of the night.  The three camera coverage is the best coverage you can get day of, and also provides more hands on for quick setup and tear down before and after the wedding.  You will also have complete coverage during your ceremony with three different angles, which enhances the final edited product.

The two camera package is some what limiting in terms of being able to get footage at different locations, and is less than ideal for ceremony coverage, but it can still create a beautiful video.  With fewer videographers however, there will be a limited amount of time for filming preparations since the two videographers may need to leave early to set up before your guests arrive.  This means we may be limited in what we would be able to film (traveling from preparation location to ceremony, or pictures, etc)  Also, with only two cameras, there will be more roaming during the ceremony.  We still try to get the back shot as well as the two side shots (for editing purposes) but this requires us to be allowed to roam around.  Two cameras is the minimum we can offer for full ceremony coverage.  We want to stay true to the type of product we offer (with the different angles, and creative shots) and this can not be done with less than two manned cameras.

So there you have it!  More cameras doesn’t have to be overkill… it means having strategically placed videographers to truly capture the story of your wedding day!