FAQ Deliverables for modern Wedding Videos?

B

Budgieboots

Well-known member
To give some background,

For the past five years, I was subcontracted by a company to produce wedding videos. I shot them in HD on the Sony FS100, and gave them to the clients on a DVD with menus and buttons.

I am now going to start doing this stuff independently, and the FS100 is a bit long in the tooth now, so I was going to switch to shooting in 4K on the Sony FS5, or FS7.

My question is,

a) How do "normal" people today like to receive wedding videos?

My thought was giving them a USB stick with the edited video files as 1080p mp4s, encoded at 50mbps. A lot of people I know think DVDs are antiquated, and my understanding is, Blu-Ray is on the way out as well. Burning Blu-Rays presents it's own problems, since I believe some people try to play them on the XBOX ONE, and Playstation 4, but those machines won't play "non-commercial" discs in a bid to stamp out piracy.

b) Is it even possible to give "normal" people edited 4K footage and have them play it back without problems? What encoding settings would you use?


Thank you,
 
It is my understanding that high end wedding videos are now being shot and delivered in 4K via cloud and streaming services. A hard copy on USB stick is also a good idea.
 
There are no standardized "normal" people :-)

Even if we think DVD is dead it is not for some people. Some of the aunties and grandparents won't have use of a USB stick or they just want to watch the wedding on their TV and not on the computer. I would offer various media (stick, bluray, DVD) and let the client choose. Off course you have to charge for it but give them all options they need. my2cts.
 
Clermond said:
There are no standardized "normal" people :-)

Even if we think DVD is dead it is not for some people. Some of the aunties and grandparents won't have use of a USB stick or they just want to watch the wedding on their TV and not on the computer. I would offer various media (stick, bluray, DVD) and let the client choose. Off course you have to charge for it but give them all options they need. my2cts.
Click to expand...
Yup....what he said. I offer DVD, Blu Ray, USB stick(with HD file), as
well as Vimeo/YouTube link (sometimes with 'make original file downloadable'
enabled for out of town clients). Despite what I think, I still get by far, more
requests for DVDs than anything else. It almost actually hurts to downres the
beautiful footage into standard def DVD, but that's what the clients want so I do it.
 
I know plenty. Exporting to an HVEC is a great 'added perceived value' offering that costs you nothing to throw in and marks you out as different from the competition.
 
Clermond said:
I do not know any non-business client who is able to play 4K media on a 4K display. We are talking about wedding business.

(n.b. marriage by itself is not very future proof)
Click to expand...

Apart from the top end media and marketing agencies I've generally seen the 'home' user adopt new technology long before typical corporate clients. I've seen plenty of fried plasmas and knackered DVD players well past their use by date in boardrooms across the UK.

I have no experience whatsoever with wedding video but one can assume their requirements are no different to a top corporate client. I send out ProRes masters on USB Stick or SSD/HDD depending on the size.
 
I used to offer:
Vimeo link at 1080p, USB sticks with 1080p file, Blu Rays and DVD's,
all depended what the client wanted
 
David W. Jones said:
+1 There is a high end wedding market out there where folks pay 5 figures for a wedding video. These people expect a high end deliverable.
Click to expand...

I so agree.
I'm not in the wedding game but have shot weddings for friends and that my friends is one of life's biggest mistakes.
The wedding video business is just HUGE and growing. As mentioned you can charge big cake for these things and hire folks to follow your model.
Charge them up the ying yang but give the most options and highest quality possible. The money is staggering so don't cheap out on shitty gear and packaged cheese cut editing. Charge accordingly and churn baby churn. But offer every viewing option possible. Ask folks to name their preference when they order and delivery their needs
Deliverables cost nothing so why not offer the best quality and most viewing options possible?
 
Ben Scott said:
Exporting to an HVEC is a great 'added perceived value' offering that costs you nothing
Click to expand...

Most people wouldn't have the slightest clue what HVEC is. It's only buzz-phrases like "4K" or "UHD" that give them the perception of added value. Any of the codec stuff is just superfluous techno-babble to them. And if they end up having problems playing back the "latest & greatest" file type, it does cost you something because you have to re-export and resend a new version.

If you're doing USB deliverables, make sure you include several different file types including a fairly universal 1080p. mp4 (or get them to be very specific about what they need), because there is nothing worse than having to troubleshoot why someone cannot get a file to play and then re-exporting and re-delivering it. It's much better for them to be able to watch a 1080p version immediately than to have to wait to see anything at all.
 
I have no experience whatsoever with wedding video but one can assume their requirements are no different to a top corporate client. I send out ProRes masters on USB Stick or SSD/HDD depending on the size.
Click to expand...


You can't playback ProRes unless you have the necessary software and codecs installed on your machine, which makes ProRes a terrible choice for wedding videos!
 
deltoidjohn said:
Most people wouldn't have the slightest clue what HVEC is. It's only buzz-phrases like "4K" or "UHD" that give them the perception of added value. Any of the codec stuff is just superfluous techno-babble to them. And if they end up having problems playing back the "latest & greatest" file type, it does cost you something because you have to re-export and resend a new version.

If you're doing USB deliverables, make sure you include several different file types including a fairly universal 1080p. mp4 (or get them to be very specific about what they need), because there is nothing worse than having to troubleshoot why someone cannot get a file to play and then re-exporting and re-delivering it. It's much better for them to be able to watch a 1080p version immediately than to have to wait to see anything at all.
Click to expand...

Well yes, I meant giving them a 4k video is added perceived video, not saying it's HVEC. Cleary that's part of the conversation you have before delivering.

But SD, 720, 1080 and UHD versions on a clearly labelled stick is a painless thing to do.
 
I appreciate all the comments everyone.
This has helped clarify some things for me.
For the time being, looks like HD video file on a USB stick is the way to go for me, but it's been very informative and interesting to see what the higher end offerings are!
 
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