I won't shoot weddings

Welcome back into the wonderful wedding scene Scott, haha!
I have a couple more coming up soon that I've convinced myself to look forward to.
I haven't used my FS700 on a wedding yet and don't think I will except for maybe the ceremony on sticks. The receptions are too much run and gun.

Scott F said:
Well I've probably been the most outspoken in terms of anti-weddingography rhetoric, but last weekend I went against my own good sense and worked on a two-camera wedding shoot. Not since 2011 had I done a wedding, but I'm not in a position right now to turn away work, and the pay was good on this one.

Well, I have to stand by my philosophies...for the folks that are doing this on a regular basis, God bless you. (or however you want me to salute you) This is a GRIND of a day. I was going pretty much straight from 2pm til midnight. (plus travel, of course) I really forgot about how much of a "one take" situation weddings are after shooting so much controlled content.

Someone out there will tell me otherwise (I'm sure), but I was shooting with an FS700 and this is not the right camera for the job. Very heavy combined with the sticks I was using. Wonderful camera when sitting static for 8 hours of talking heads, but for wedding run & gun...not so much. I think the DSLRS & similar are the way to go. (again, I'll leave that decision to the pros)

In terms of the actual "big day", NOTHING has changed. It's those darn toasts and speeches. People just love to talk when they have an audience! It truly sucks the life out of me. (The golden adage: Begin, be brief, be seated.) And the music......the music, the music, the music! It's always the same songs!!! Maddening.

So in closing, yes, I will reluctantly shoot weddings if called upon (I used to be pretty good at this!), but wow...I'm happy to be sitting in an editing chair on this Monday morning. NOT shooting a wedding.
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I have to say, from 2007 onto 2015 I shot weddings. I learned a lot from them, I'd even say it is what can make you into a pro, rather than pro experience in commercial work as you said (they are just both totally different beasts that when you know both sides, can really help you in the long run). I believe it doesn't pay as well as commercial work sometimes, its also sometimes a lot of work and it costs a lot of money to get started. Its only really worth it if you are going to do quite a few to pay off the investment of using the gear, which can cost an upward of $20,000. If you rented, you'd probably not make a whole lot of money unless you did a ridiculous a mount of them.

In the past, I worked freelance for a few companies where I filmed around 25 year making about $500 from each. Then I started my own business and priced wedding videos at around $2000 a wedding, then a year later at $3500 a wedding, then the last wedding I did paid $6000. Some people I know are filming weddings at $7,000 up to $10,000 and more a wedding. It also requires a lot of editing work and having a foundation or workflow is very important, and that goes for pre-production and production as well. Just to give you an idea, 1st year I did like 5 weddings, 2nd year I did around 15, 3rd year I did 25 and that was way too much for me to handle by myself, the year after I did around 12 and last year I did 1 because I was transitioning into other work. I personally was burnt out, I didn't feel the creative juices, I wasn't happy in the work I had done and it all seemed cookie cut for me.

So, weddings was an experience that I definitely appreciated having but I was never cut out for that line of work because personally, I think weddings are an insult for true love most of the time and its more a big show rather than what love really is. So thats my take on it!

heres some stuff I did in the past
 
I've done family weddings without anyone asking. Those were fun, as they also meant something to me simply because they involved family members.
I generally leave weddings to those who enjoy doing them for strangers. I've done 1 for a business colleague, and it was on a half-day cruise ship meandering around Manhattan. That was a horror, because the ship's engines were always running and I couldn't eliminate their constant drone. (Frankly, I think it was likely bad for the quests, too, as their conversation had to overcome the noise of the engines). The audio was horrible and I'd recommend never doing one on a ship. Also, it was cramped and tight, with no room to add lighting or store any extra equipment or even the bags for the cam and tripod. I was constantly getting dirty looks from the crew & wait staff, and seemed I was always in their way, no matter where I stood. The only saving grace was that the quests were all very nice.
I've heard of other horror stories, like the one where the videog, (who most often doesn't know anyone other than the b&g and maybe their parents), was shooting other guests and included some footage of "Uncle Joe" and "Aunt Mary", only to find out after editing that it wasn't "Aunt Mary" that "Uncle Joe" was paying attention to. The videog got a lot of flak from the customers who were angry for inclusion of that footage, even though he thought he was shooting extended family members. While it could be edited-out later, the initial instance set a less-than-favorable tone with the customers after the event.
IMO watching a video of a wedding is too close to watching a movie, i.e. viewers often feel they must be quiet to hear any dialogue, and it isn't usually done "at the kitchen table" like paging through an album of stills where people can comment, reminisce, and laugh out loud.
Lastly, weddings go fast, and people's memories of them are often foggy; some don't want to remember events exactly as they occurred, with their foggy memories being "better" than the actual occurrences. People won't forego still photos, but they seem more willing to pass on the video.
 
Just passing by and saw Dannay's post below. Congrats mate. I actually watched both which suprises me as watching other peoples wedding clips (unless I know them) feels painful, but it was worthwhile just to see how far you've come in a short time. Old one was OK, second one showed better composition, more interesting shots whilst staying appropriate, the edit was well timed and paced and the whole thing felt far more emotive. Great work.


DannayZay said:
I remember shooting my first wedding for one of my high school teachers (when I was 17) with a Sony VX1000. 9 Years later -- I'm still taking on wedding work. 2 years ago I began shooting for a studio that was much more focused on creative b-roll for feature and highlight films (opposed to some more traditional ways of capturing prep, portraits, main events, etc). I took all of the experience from lighting receptions and hiding lav's and directly applied it to my corporate work. This past February I finally got to apply my skills from the studio to one of my own clients. I now focus on creating story-driven highlight trailers.

Here is a little comparison of how my style changed in just over a year (and of course these are single shooter):

Newest Trailer:

October 2014 Trailer:
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Noel Evans said:
Just passing by and saw Dannay's post below. Congrats mate. I actually watched both which suprises me as watching other peoples wedding clips (unless I know them) feels painful, but it was worthwhile just to see how far you've come in a short time. Old one was OK, second one showed better composition, more interesting shots whilst staying appropriate, the edit was well timed and paced and the whole thing felt far more emotive. Great work.
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Hey thank you so much Noel, much appreciated!
 
I absolutely love filming weddings. 85% of my income is wedding work and the remaining 15 is commercial / non wedding work. I've been filming them for 4 years now and every year have slowly progressed. Now that I've dialed in branding for the clientele I want to reach along with figuring out gear that makes things simple and easy, its all about the client relation now and helping them structure their day that makes it easy for us. Granted there are times where you wonder why you stress and push so hard, but the end product is totally worth it.

Here's an example vid

https://vimeo.com/167742659
 
Even though ive sworn off weddings, i would rather take photos at a wedding than shooting video. I'm all about those artsy fartsy creative shots at weddings, but the video end is kind of bland to me. I've seen amazing wedding videos but I've never been compelled to make them myself.

If i had to shoot a wedding cause a friend absolutely needed me I'd say hand me the 5D3 and I'd hand over my fs700 for the day. At least until it's slow mo bouquet toss time. :happy:
 
Since this thread started, I've done 3 so far this season, as well as 2 engagement shoots. So far, all 3 have been smooth and without issue (knock on wood)

I always forget how long they take to edit. Especially the longer day ones with multiple shooters.
 
Prophetmatt said:
I absolutely love filming weddings. 85% of my income is wedding work and the remaining 15 is commercial / non wedding work. I've been filming them for 4 years now and every year have slowly progressed. Now that I've dialed in branding for the clientele I want to reach along with figuring out gear that makes things simple and easy, its all about the client relation now and helping them structure their day that makes it easy for us. Granted there are times where you wonder why you stress and push so hard, but the end product is totally worth it.

Here's an example vid

https://vimeo.com/167742659
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Brandon Rice said:
Yeah, I film weddings.... www.brandonricefilms.com
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DBP said:
Since this thread started, I've done 3 so far this season, as well as 2 engagement shoots. So far, all 3 have been smooth and without issue (knock on wood)

I always forget how long they take to edit. Especially the longer day ones with multiple shooters.
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Bless your hearts. Somebody has to do them. Way to take one for the team. lol
 
Reading through this thread ended up with me looking at the old wedding highlights i shot and dare i say, getting a bit nostalgic.....not that i could handle going back to shooting them, but it was interesting to rewatch them, their only 3 mins each if anyone cares to have a look, not up to the same standard as some of the work on here I'll admit but they ain't too bad
heres one from when i first started https://vimeo.com/33022351
and one from a couple of years later https://vimeo.com/108457881 password studio17
 
Are weddings still going for about $5k?

TubE, I sometimes look back at some old highlights too, funny how they progressed.
 
What I don't like about weddings is that it's always the same story. I would enjoy weddings if the bride and groom weren't my clients, if I could somehow tell the stories that I wanted to tell. There's always interesting stuff going on at weddings that I enjoy paying attention to, but it could never make it into the video. The two biggest rituals in human society are weddings and funerals. Both are ripe with drama and intrigue. But not the formulaic videos we produce.

As it stands today, every marriage is the same story.

Unfortunately the most interesting couples, the ones who don't make a big spectacle out of their weddings, probably would never pay enough to make it worth my while to tell their stories.
 
I've only done wedding videos for friends and family. Don't think I would do them otherwise, due to the low value people seem to place on them and some of the stresses others have listed. I'd probably be a second shooter though if the opportunity presented itself. I do like the high level of physical activity involved in shooting them.

One thing I do like about weddings that I don't think has been mentioned is that you're pretty much just selling the client psychological satisfaction. You aren't trying to convince someone that your services will increase their business's income or relieve some pain point, and then hope they see some results.
 
jeff9329 said:
Are weddings still going for about $5k?
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Sometimes. Still many brides are looking for someone who will shoot a simple recording of the ceremony for $500. They could ask Uncle Charlie, but he will likely botch it, particularly the audio, the most important part. That's not to put down Uncle Charlie. Video production is hard. It takes a lot of experience, equipment, and hard work to make even "a simple recording" of an event --- one that is steady, consistently in focus, and has clean and clear sound. Is anyone willing to take up this market? I bet they could be talked up to $750 or even $1,000.

As I mentioned earlier I used to do weddings. In fact, if you read my DVXUser profile, you'll see that they played a pivotal role in my career:

At 13 I was hooked, and from 1990 to 1999, I wrote, shot, and edited forty nega-budget lacklusters. After film school (SMU, it was okay) I took up wedding videos to make a living. They are the hardest kind of motion picture to make, and since documentaries were never my passion anyway, after four years, I burned out so hard I didn't want to touch a camera. Now, I'm a web developer. Maybe someday I'll return.
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When I did weddings in the early 2000s, most professional wedding videos were bad. Cameras had one LUT: video. Interlaced 60-fields-per-second motion, plastic skin tones, clipped highlights. If you stepped up to expensive news-style cameras and were careful, you might elevate your video to look like: a soap opera. The camerawork was bad too, since the field mainly attracted two types of people: (1) newbs and (2) businessmen. The newbs' camerawork and editing was sloppy and inconsistent. The businessmen's videos were consistently boring.

Something happened since I quit. The wedding videos I see online now are by and large impressive. The camerawork is smooth, even elaborate. The old video look is replaced by film LUTs and lots of bokeh. The editing is fast-paced, with a decent sound mix and beautiful music throughout. All the past cheesy video transitions are gone, replaced by understated effects like black-and-white and slow-motion. When I was in business, I looked at most other people's videos and said to myself, "I could do better than that." Now I look at most wedding videos and say, "I doubt I could do it that well."

But now that I have been watching quite a few wedding samples online, partially sparked by this very thread, a different dissatisfaction has set in: they are all beginning to look the same. I think that this is because they are still highly processed. The following effects add beauty: black and white, slow motion, fast-paced editing, dubbing a pop song over the original sound. But they also take something away. I read a quote somewhere of bride saying something like, "the video was gorgeous but didn't feel like my wedding." I am not a dark horse that wishes more movies were "realistic." I like happy endings! But even I am feeling nausea by the overpowering euphoria. The pervasive slow-motion smiling, underscored by an ever-building soundtrack, feels fake, like a really slick sales pitch, like a couple who says everything is fiiine. But we know that all couples have problems.

I don't know. I'm not saying I want to see a shot of someone getting slapped. But maybe less slow-motion, less black-and-white, more nat sound, less pop music telling me how to feel.

I don't know if you, Drew Ott, mean something similar:

Drew Ott said:
There's always interesting stuff going on . . . but it could never make it into the video. . . . weddings . . . are ripe with drama and intrigue. But not the formulaic videos we produce. . . .
the most interesting couples, the ones who don't make a big spectacle out of their weddings, probably would never pay enough to make it worth my while to tell their stories.
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I'm deeply intrigued by your comments and was wondering if you could take a paragraph to describe a made-up wedding video example, to illustrate and elaborate what you have in mind.
 
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combatentropy said:
I'm deeply intrigued by your comments and was wondering if you could take a paragraph to describe a made-up wedding video example, to illustrate and elaborate what you have in mind.
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It's hard to say exactly what it would be, because if I were really making documentaries about weddings, every one would be different.

But off the top of my head, it would be all natural sound like you said. No music. There would be minimal editing and long takes. I'd follow the stories of people who interested me, and probably not pay any attention to the people getting married.

My overall point is that I actually find weddings fascinating, but none of what fascinates me has ever made it into a video. Again, it's different every wedding so I'm not sure how to elaborate.
 
I cant tell if you guys are being sarcastic or not on how a wedding video should be done.

IMO a wedding video should be a documentary with long scenes and mostly just camera angle cuts to add different POV. The wedding video is not for the young bride and groom, but for the 80 year old married couple to look back at and see who was at their wedding and how everybody looked. I think all the crazy frenetic scene cuts will make the old folks heads spin and they wont be able to tell who or what is going on.

Go nuts on the highlights, but the main video should appear boring to the editor. It wont be to the married couple, especially 20 or 40 years later.
 
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