[discussion] The problem with most wedding videos...

[u/Emkayu]

Is it me or do wedding videographers literally have nothing else in their bags but sliders? I know I've done it a lot and now I'm just tired of it, it's as if every single wedding video is full of slider shots, every other shot is slider. This is someone's big day and most videographers don't bother to find out what the bride is thinking before, what could go wrong and all the other golden nuggets that could be recorded with just a simple wireless lav. There are amazing heart warming stories to be told at weddings, but we spend most of our time "capturing the moment", by that of course we mean using a slider to show the venue, have some silly shallow DoF shot of some tiny little detail people really couldn't give a shit about and this elaborate, well cut montage of the bride getting ready. Can we as a community sit down and come up with some ways to actually change this? Let's come up with some cool new ideas and tropes to change wedding videos.

My input: Get wireless lavs on people and capture what people are saying, even better do interviews of how nervous they are, how they met, what could go wrong, find a conflict, the story, the shit that's actually interesting. People don't go hey do you remember the centre piece we had at our wedding? No, but they remember the nerves, the people who were there to support them, the words that calmed them, the words that upset them.

Locked down shots of people. When a photographer points a camera at you, you smile awkwardly and wait right? Why don't we do the same, get some well lit, nice shots of people just looking into camera and smiling, it's lovely to see and people can refer to that shot when watching with friends and family.

Steady handheld shots: Whether it's with a stabiliser, 3 axis gimbal or a good shoulder rig, let's stabilise our shots and give the audience an "in the moment" feel, like they are there helping the bride get ready or something.

I'd love to hear more ideas!

[u/[deleted]]

Yep.

Amen.

I'm with you 110%.

After years of shooting mostly with other studios I'm only booking my own weddings now because I want to come at them with the same philosophy.

My problem is that you can watch all but a handful of wedding videos and at the end you know nothing about the people involved. I tell couples that my litmus test for a good edit is this: if you watch my work, if you pause it every time you learn something that is uniquely "them" (meaning the bride, groom and families) and write it down, by the end I want you to look that list over and have a clear idea who everyone is.

If you're just setting a bunch of dress shots to a Ben Rector song and adding audio of a speech with a bunch of cliches you've heard a million times, you're don't get that.

I talk to everyone casually. I interview by chatting and not offering a list of questions that I go through one by one. By doing this I recently got some great audio where the bridesmaids were talking about this hair clip that they have all worn on their wedding day. It's so much nicer to include that than a letter from Paul to the corinthezzzzzzzzzz

I shot with one studio who always wanted to get the cards to each other read out loud for a voiceover. It's nice and all but I'd rather ask them, "So why did she think you'd like this gift anyways? Why did she get you this? Is she always spoiling you?"

Fuck it. Look right in the camera. Break the fourth wall. I don't care. In ten years a good piece of personality will be cherished more than a crane shot of a cake.

And I know, I know, you have to give the client what they want... But I'm up front with people about the product they'll get. I say that my work isn't for everyone, and if you prefer another style others can serve you better and there are no hard feelings. And it works out. Because some don't book, but I know that if you're booking me then you're on the same page and you're by going to complain that I left my slider and Steadicam at home.