Feedback (Wedding Video)

T

TheDoody

Member
My ego is bruised, I recently took a stab at creating a Wedding Video and I thought that I was going to completly blow them away with alot of well shot footage but in the long run They HATED IT, I wanted to get some feedback with what I shot that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTqo7klTuIs

They said that is wasn't that well shot or edited, they wanted their money back and they wanted me to re-piece together the entire video all over again,

well you could imagine what I said to them, anyways check it out and tell me what you think

Thanks
J.Lee
 
I think the compression on Youtube sucks but imagine that is only a compression issue ?

I thought it was alright; what the hell do they want ? They'll be divorced in 5 years anyways.

It looked good. Not the best I've seen, but not crap like they are suggesting.

Hey man, live and learn. Keep working on it and you'll perfect it. You can't satisfy everyone.
 
The use of zoom in the middle kind of threw me off, but other than that it had a nice feel to it. Were they expecting sound maybe? Who were you dealing with, the parents of the bride maybe, or the bride and groom? Mainly the bride? Buddy of mine put himself through film school with wedding videos, he brought up the term "Bridezilla" once. Sounds like you ran into one.
 
It looked pretty good to me. But really, I wouldn't try to sell a service unless I had done it before so that the customer has an idea of what I'm capable of. For example, I want to start making music videos and doing the occasional wedding shoot, but I'm not going to try to market either until I've done a few music videos with friends until I think they're at a good enough level, and shot a wedding free for a family member. By not giving the client a reference of your previous work in the same area, their expectations may be too high.
 
That's much better then most wedding video's I've had to watch. I don't understand what they want. Most people I know just want their wedding taped, no editing or fancy stuff.

But I'd be careful... usually the a$$ holes in life have a$$ hole lawyers. So try to be kind when you tell them to go to hell.

I liked it.

EDIT: If anything I don't think their standards were to high, they were probably just expecting something, different. I'm not sure who would want more production value then that.
 
Two points I'd make mention to are the pace is a little slow and sometimes shots seem to drag a bit, the other is the shaky handheld look. It's more apparent with the overall shot pace but definitely became prominent after a while. I know the whole wedding scene doesn't really allow for tripod shooting but it may have helped in some shots.
Overall it looks pretty good and I think the clients expectations are too Hollywood!
 
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Not sure what it is, but the video feels kind of sad..Maybe it's the music, or the slow pace...

Other than that, I thought it was good. Well composed shots, and it was quite intimate.
 
wow they hated it? something is wrong with them, you did a nice job and put alot of time into that. I'm wondering what exactly they had in mind. I have done soooo many weddings were the couples just want the bare bones, 2 camera ceremony and a short highlight video of the reception. I've done several as well who really dig the cinematic follow-us-around-all-day type videos.

So i guess in the future, find out EXACTLY what your clients are expecting and give it to them. If they wanted something different that what you gave them, that's understandable, but if they wanted something better then they are crazy!
 
Well I should touch even more about this, I had 2 days notice from them about doing the project. But I was ok with it because hell I had nothing better to do on a saturday but sweat my butt off. The pacing was slow but I slowed the footage down a great deal because I was (very) shakey and slowing it down helped keep you from throwing up. The reason was so vauge from multiple angles from the (you guessed it, the bride, or bridezilla)

1.) Out of 4 hours of footage (Bride Prep, Photo Shoot, Wedding, Reception) I edited it down to about 50 minutes (with the exclusion of cutting up the wedding of course)

2.) Things weren't done the way they were supposed to be done in the editing process (even though before we went through exactly how were were going to peice it together and I had her sign a contract).

3.) You didn't get my husband doing that one thing that he did during the reception (huh?)

Even though I had not did a Wedding up to this point I was positive that the product would be nice and 100 times better than most of the area. I just didn't understand from her perspective what it was.

Thanks for the input, I thought for last minute I did pretty damn good, not Kubrikian but it should fly in the wedding arena. Although I do agree looking back that the paceing was dragging throughout most of these shots and the music was the best that I could get (Minus some Kenny Chesley, which there is nothing wrong with that). I will though from now on not get in the game so late and give (bridezilla) any opportunity to trash me.

BTW: the groom loves it and when I called him he says "It looked fine to me, I dont know what her damn problem is anyways"

Thank you bondage!

Lee
 
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I agree that it was slightly slow and felt sadder than it felt happy.

But... it definitely was not "bad" by any means. I'm sure the full res footage looks great. Don't let this bride put you down.
 
TheDoody said:
BTW: the groom loves it and when I called him he says "It looked fine to me, I dont know what her damn problem is anyways"

Lee
Click to expand...

Her problem is 1 of the following 2 common issues or maybe a combination of both:

1. Natural Born Bridezilla
2. PWD or Post Wedding Depression
 
The key to it is managing expectations. For instance if you're a car dealer and you need to sell a family a vehicle and you sell them a great one but it doesn't have a dvd player in it. Well if the family really wanted a dvd player in their vehicle then they will be disappointed not because you did a bad job but they expected something different
 
Well I see that sometimes in my family and it kills me because I would be like, "this man is just doing his job", but we still have to crucify the guy because he didn't deliver the DVD player, and he didn't even know that we wanted a DVD player.
 
Lee,

I hope I can make you feel better by stating that I think your work (above) is significantly better than many of the wedding videos I've so far seen while looking for a videographer to cover my wedding (see my posting earlier this evening in the Cafe forum)...

Best of luck,
Daniel
 
Contract...contract...contract.

A lady that I use to work with started up her own wedding videography business. She had a client hate her video and it ended up on one of those judge somebody tv shows before it was resolved.

I would recommend you have the client sign a contract.

Use something like:
Video production is a subjective art form. In the event that Client does not approve of the delivered project. They have the option to purchase the source footage to take to another production company. No re edits will be permitted. Our company reserves the right to terminate project, and remand all media assets to client.

Or set up a pay schedule. Charge them a shooting fee...TO BE PAID PRIOR TO YOUR ARRIVAL ON LOCATION, and charge them a project fee for putting it together. Let them know that the shooting fee is non refundable.

I have never shot a wedding, mostly because I refuse to. They can get really complicated because you are often dealing with people who have no idea what goes into a production and they often have unrealistic expectations.

Weddings are a fine production avenue, and I have colleges who make a nice living in the wedding circuit, but if you go there protect yourself. Never underestimate the overreactions of stupid people. The few hundred dollars you might pay for a lawyer to look over your client agreement form, could be a worthy investment.


Good Luck.
 
Maybe they wanted all those cheesy star transitions they usually use in wedding videos.

Sorry to hear about their lack of satisfaction, I think it looked pretty great.
 
i dont know what else to say that hasnt been said. i liked the video its better than the stuff i come up with. isnt funny though how the groom had no problems with it. from what ive experienced its usually the bride that gives all the headaches. they always want that hollywood effect video like they see on tv and the bride says i want that for my video and they always want the 3 hr epic. they want every second and min put to dvd. i aways say when u go to the movies you dont get 8 months of footage you get 2 or 3 hrs tops. i guess the best thing to do is ask questions get contracts and get a feel for what they want and if there is not enough feedback from them as there usually is, just give them the best product possible, which you did. well i feel for you man cuz ive gone through it before and might go through it again this wkend cuz i have a shoot to do. wish me luck. happy holidays.
 
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