how much do you charge for a wedding. CEREMONY, RECEPTION AND EDIT

DavidH977 said:
I feel as long as you capture romantic scenes and add some nice music, half your work is done. Going all out with steadicam's, dollies, etc i nice if you have it, but might be more work than needed. I too have seen videos from videographers who charged $2000 and the couple loved it! Who knows.
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And therein lies the kicker... anyone can capture a romantic scene. Most weddings, there are plenty of them. It's the *how* you capture them. All that gear adds to that. Someone shooting a nice, steady, smooth move on a slider or dolly or with a steadycam/glidecam of some sort is going to look a lot better than someone trying to go handheld all night.

I had a bad experience a couple of months ago with a second shooter who swore up and down that he didn't need any sort of support and could get nice smooth shots going hand held for both the preceremony stuff and the reception ("A tripod just gets in the way of getting the shots I want"). Foolishly, I relented and let him go without sticks. My camera never left my tripod all night. The difference was night and day. Most of his stuff looked amateur (I tactfully but bluntly told him that the next day). Shakey, unsteady, never really focusing in on a single subject for more than a second. 90% of it was just bad, amateurish looking footage. Plus, more than a few shots involved him getting right up on people and into their "bubble" and making them noticeably uncomfortable. Since I'm trying to get into weddings seriously (before I did them only occasionally and mostly as favors), and this was to be my demo for my new HD gear, I was NOT a happy camper. :furious3:

But... they were romantic scenes.

As far as price... I've seen a few people out here in the Seattle area charge in the $700-$1,200 range, but most that look even half way decent are in the $2k-$5k range. But, everything is more expensive out here. $2,500 here would probably be the equivalent of $1,200-$1,500 in the midwest.
 
Nektonic said:
Please, Deep is just being generous. There has to be at least a 100,000 or more DSLR threads here.
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It is an intriguing topic(s)!

And on a serious note to DavidH977, I don't think it would hurt to put one in your arsenal, provided you will be able to shoot with it. I don't know how big of an operation you plan on starting.
 
Mike, it sounds like this guy just went a bit overboard with the handheld.

There is a time and place for handheld IMO. Of course, it helps if the person doing the handheld camera work is also experienced at handheld camera technique. Anybody can hold a camera, but it takes practice to do it well. It took me awhile to get good at handheld, how to train my whole body to support the camera, and not just my "hands". Still though, I get tired after awhile, even though I've had lots of experience with the technique in various situations.

For weddings though, I usually use it for some pre-ceremony and post ceremony stuff, and then later in the evening for some dancing (not the traditional dance of course). I don't exclusively use it on those scenes though, as I like to have a variety of shots. Some handheld, some locked down, some with some slight movement, others with more dramatic movement, etc. One place I almost always use handheld though is the bouquet toss. It just captures the suspense and energy of that scene so well IMO.

Deepfocus88 said:
It is an intriguing topic(s)!

And on a serious note to DavidH977, I don't think it would hurt to put one in your arsenal, provided you will be able to shoot with it. I don't know how big of an operation you plan on starting.
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True, I am interested in a vDSLR myself. Just wanted to poke some fun at all the excitement surrounding these crazy new hybrid cameras.

Thinking of getting one myself. Should be very useful on a wedding shot, especially the low light capabilities.
 
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Nektonic said:
Mike, it sounds like this guy just went a bit overboard with the handheld.
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That's putting it mildly. :happy: Mercifully, I knew the bride, and knew her dad really well, and the couple is just ridiculously cool so it's not an issue with them (especially since I did it for cost for them just to get the demo out of it :))

There is a time and place for handheld IMO...
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Oh, absolutely. You're right, it does take practice to do it well. I've seen some really nice stuff done hand held. But, I've also seen a lot of real bunk as well that people pass off as acceptable, which I don't think does the industry as a whole any favors. Which is why I like seeing more and more stuff being done with steadycams and sliders and dollies and such. It ups the values and expectations of what a good wedding video can look like, and thus allows us people to charge more.

As a rule I personally just avoid handheld whenever possible. Sometime you can't. I just don't have that strong of arms, and I know I'm not that good at hand held for more than a brief period. I've gotten to the point where I'm faster and better on sticks than doing it hand held 9 times out of 10 anyways. Of course, having a good zoom remote helps *a lot*.
 
Yeah, I have done a few weddings, and have been doing more lately as other work has "Gone south" with the sh*tty economy, but, OMG, I would not think of covering a wedding and reception with my main camera on sticks.

I do pride myself in being a pretty good hand held operator, and I do use a heavy, but cheap, shoulder support. I like being able to make subtle adjustments to the framing with my body during a shot that, in my opinion, is almost organic in nature. Now, I have never been a fan of, or practitioner of the "NYPD Blue" style of erratic handheld shooting, so, I think that the way that I do it is very acceptable to my clients.

When shooting the reception main events (Wedding party introduction, first dance, father daughter dance, ect.) I am able to add a bit of dynamism by being free to move and follow the subjects with a handheld camera that seems to be pleasing.
 
Deepfocus88 said:
It is an intriguing topic(s)!

And on a serious note to DavidH977, I don't think it would hurt to put one in your arsenal, provided you will be able to shoot with it. I don't know how big of an operation you plan on starting.
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I need a second camera which is why I am thinking about a DSLR. I have an HMC150 which I would leave stationary on legs and then shoot with the DSLR. I wish I knew someone else who could help me out, but I don't.

On another note, I'm in Boston and I know for sure ppl are getting upwards of $2K. I need some of that money. People think my videos are good, however I know I still have a LOT to learn. I barely know the basics of video. This is why I stupidly charged so little for my first wedding. It was a friend so I didn't mind. I hope to get $1500 for my next wedding.

A good follow up question to the original post is: What is included in charging someone $1500 or more for the wedding video package?
 
DavidH977 said:
A good follow up question to the original post is: What is included in charging someone $1500 or more for the wedding video package?
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Depends on where you are. Since I think Boston is close in terms of costs of living to Seattle, I would think it would be similar in terms of packages. Out here that would get you probably a little bit of pre ceremony stuff, the ceremony, and reception. Probably two cameras, one of which un-manned.

However, it doesn't hurt to google. This might help as well... http://www.mybostonwedding.com/boston/videographer/
 
David G. Smith said:
Yeah, I have done a few weddings, and have been doing more lately as other work has "Gone south" with the sh*tty economy,
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Arrrgh, ain't that the sad truth. :Drogar-Thinking(DBG

David G. Smith said:
OMG, I would not think of covering a wedding and reception with my main camera on sticks.
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I like to do the occasional handheld. I work for one guy who lets me get creative, and another where it is verboten to take the cam off sticks.

True, I am interested in a vDSLR myself. Just wanted to poke some fun at all the excitement surrounding these crazy new hybrid cameras.
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I can't wait to get a 7D, hopefully very soon. I will also be using it as a still cam to take family pictures & such (justified purchase with the wife) But I still like my A1 and am holding on to it, no doubt.
 
Make sure you don't undercut yourself, because you'll hate every min of it. I normally just make up an hourly rate for preproduction, production and post. Also depending on what they want, but here in SW FL a normal package starts at about $1200 and I've seen them go for as much as $27,000 Just depends on what you offer and what they want.
 
In an effort to (hopefully) garner more higher-end wedding work, I am shooting a wedding for very little $$ in a few weeks. I plan to use my trusty ol' DVX100B for the wide shot in the back of the church near the audio board during the ceremony. Might use a line feed for audio on one channel and a wireless lav on the other. I want to use my new 7D near the front (on a tripod) where I can get closer shots of the bride and groom and maybe some face shots of their immediate families.

The DVX will be SD 24p and the 7D will be 1080/24p. My problem is that, for now, I only have an older G4 Powerbook with FCP 4.5 to edit on. I plan to give them a few DVD copies of the final edit. So, how do I get my HD video from the 7D into an editable downconversion on such an old system?

Thanks in advance.
 
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