Wedding Videographers Please chime in....

A

aerosolcheese

Well-known member
A Friend of a friend saw some of my video work and decided that she wants me to fly to Barcelona with her wedding party to shoot their wedding. Most likely I will be bringing one camera. I have very little wedding experience, but I think thats what she is looking for. She wants something with some style and substance.... not your typical 60i wedding video. She already agreed to pay for my Hotel and airfare, and I am meeting with her on sunday to discuss details/pricing. The problem is... I am just a hobbyist and don't know what to charge for this service. I will be taking a few days off from my day job. If anyone out there cares to help a fellow DVXuser out please either PM me or respond here with some advice. Thanks in advance!!! - T
 
Hey no offense dude, but you aren't ready for that job... tell you what, since I try to be a very helpful member on the boards I'll go in your place. :thumbsup:


Seriously, it depends on how good of a friend she is and her ability to pay.

If I was to speak with total unbias then I'd say lost wages plus equipment rental and expenses. That is the friend price.

If cash isn't much of an object then I'd add about a grand for post production and miscelleaneous. It's hard to say without knowing the circumstances.

I wonder what most guys on this board charge for weddings? I would expect the bottom line price to be around $1500 for an easy to shoot, local wedding. (With some jobs topping $5K)

Do you have a reasonable wireless? If not I'd get a G2 and decent lav before you go. I'd have a reasonable plan to get good sound and then have plan B running at the same time. (Microtrack, or two mics, or something) Shooting with one cam you're already putting all your picture eggs in one basket... if something goes wrong with that you should have seamless audio to bridge some B-Roll or something.

When it all comes down to it your abilities to turn out a professional product should determine the price... but I didn't want to ask "how good are you". As you browse around the forum I'm sure you would agree that we have some members that are more likely to turn out gold more so then others.
 
Thanks for the info, man... This is actually a "friend of a friend." and the guy she is marrying owns 10 MRI clinics. So I don't think money is much of an issue. The reason she wants me to do it is because she has seen my work and loves my style.
 
Let's hope you get some replies from guys who've done several weddings. If you gotta' have this answer by TOMORROW then I'd do some searching on top of waiting for replies. This forum is slow on the weekends.

Video pricing is crazy. It's all over the board. Since you are a hobbiest by self-definition I would try to be reasonable. Keep in mind how much work went into whatever she has seen from you.

I've heard of some guys doing weddings for close friends for FREE (and the Bride and Groom have no idea that they're getting the most expensive gift from THAT guy in most cases)... after that if I really want to do somebody a favor, but get SOMETHING out of it then I figure expenses and equipment rental (which can easily be $600 in my case)... and you can carry this logic all the way up to full 2-3 cam coverage with 1/2" - 2/3" chip cams... and a wedding like that can top $10K+.

If this were me personally I'd probably do it for hotel, airfare, expenses plus $1500-$2000. And that would include me bringing everything I have to ensure a very good result. You need something like a G2 with a Countryman and some other guarantee of quality audio. A good mic well placed and a reasonable wireless with a lav on the groom. If there's going to be any soundboard for music or anything you may want to tap that.

If you don't have any of this audio stuff then I'd get half down and buy that stuff now. Make sure you know how to use it ahead of time.

You're going to get suggested prices all over the board, but in my opinion you should be reasonable since this is your first wedding (but ironically you can scare somebody away if you are too cheap)... and really you should think of everything you can to C Y A because there are no second takes.
 
Yo Thanx MATT.. where the hell were you when I was in STL? man I was there for a year... left in october... I thought My DVX was the only one there.
 
There's a bunch of us... but we don't talk to each other much... don't know why?

We have a thing in STL called the STLFilmwire and it's a good way to find some people to help out on local projects.

I got a notice to "apply" to help some guy shoot his sci-fi short for DVXuser TODAY! (shooting today... got the notice last week)

I was tempted just to show up just so I could be Mr. Klutzo on set... you know... pump up my own odds of doing better :grin: He'd have been like "who IS this guy!? he's ruined every shot so far!!"

:huh: Sorry boss! I'm tryin' as hard as I can!:cheesy:
 
I just agreed to do a wedding for my brother in law's sister. Like you, I kind of knew the client, and felt obligated to cut her a good deal. She's putting me up in a hotel for the night since the wedding is about an hour and a half away. I gave her a quote of $1500 and she was very happy with that price. If it were me, I'd follow Matt's great advice and quote somewhere in the $1500-$2000 range. And like Matt said, make sure you have your sound gameplan all laid out. Bad sound will absolutely ruin a ceremony. Getting a couple grand and a trip to Spain sounds like a damn fine gig.
 
John I wanted to say that also... see my opening line!

I had a lady that I shot for locally and after the very first day I met her she saw the footage/sound and asked if I could do some shooting in Florida... realize that I'm in the armpit of the USA so I jumped on it! 3 days later I was shooting stuff in Orlando!

I'd have done it for next to nothing... just for the adventure... but she still paid me around $500/day.

As I said this covers legitimate rental. I went to our best known local rental house, Bad Dog Productions, where you can get anything from a Varicam or Sony HD on down... and my production package is worth around $600/day according to them... so Mr. Cheese... you could go someplace between my bottom-line favor pricing of whatever your gear totals in rental... to John's super-favor pricing and write it off as an experience and do it for that alone.

You are in the precarious position of having to decide what is fair and what they will want to pay.

Not knowing the people it's iffy... I know that sometimes if I'm excited to do a job and I come across as being too cheap that the client loses confidence in me.

Let us know what happens.

EDIT: I should add that when I did that gig in Florida I had ZERO time to myself... about the only thing I could do at the end of each day is walk across the street from the convention center and talk to a cute Japanese girl while I had my same sushi dinner every night... okay so it was a bargain after all... but my point is that you MIGHT be 100% tied up with working the whole time... unless you can plan a couple days extra or something. In my case I really was working for 12 hours a day and there was no Disneyworld.
 
Hey thanks to all for the great replies. Fortunately my mother is a florist who deals with weddings quite a bit. Today she happened to be at the "bridal extravaganza" show here in houston and she had a videographer friend at the same show give me a call. His advice mirrors the great advice that everyone here has given.
 
If I were you I'd try and bring along another dv camera, regardless of what it is, and set it up and have a static b cam rolling at all times. It doesn't have to be a dvx, and if you have to cut to it there will be a noticeable difference, but not as noticeable as a dropped frame.

Weddings seem easy but have a way of throwing curveball after curveball. If you can, get to the place early and plan your shots. Make sure you know who is in charge of the lights so if you need them turned up you know who to talk to.

Make friends w/ the dj/host and ask him to let you know when certain things are going to take place.

As far as price? I'd charge at least $500. Only because you have no experience and you get a free trip to Spain.
 
Definitely need to make this a two cam shoot. A static cam, like Tim said, OR if she's REALLY wanting to make this a memory AND has the cash to pay for it (10MRI clinics backing), then I'd sell her on the value of having another person come with you.

You're going to have a lot of gear, and you can't be at all places at once. Have an additional camera there will be essential to making sure you have enough good footage and various angles to work with. In fact, if you do have a second person come with you (who'd probably do it for free - just cover food, lodging, travel, etc.), then I'd go with three cameras ... one static & two roaming.

Then practice, practice, practice on some of the looks you'll want to achieve for the shoot. See if you can find something online about the place you'll be at & perhaps research some angles/places ahead of time so when you get there it's not too much of a scramble.

My personal thought is that she came to you. This is an unsolicited approach because she loves your style. She already has confidence in you, so make this the best that it can be. May cost her more, but the end result would be that much better & you could get a ton of business in the future from referrals or simply the portfolio from it.

Charging? I'd just cover the lost days of pay, as well as rental & misc. expenses. Basically doing it for near free on the actual production end. I'd make my money on the post production though, and probably look at near $1K depending on what all you'll put into it.
 
I just took a look now to, prompted by KOVAROVA's post. You've certainly got some good stuff there, with a VERY unique look/feel to it. It's interesting that she saw this work & wanted to apply it to the wedding. I'm sure you'll try & capture a lot of the romance & warm details of it, but give it your own edge/twist as well.

It's be something I'd want to see the finished process of for sure. Would look forward to it.
 
hey thanks alot to all for the warm comments... I think the only thing stopping me is some kind of anxiety disorder. haha
 
Several things to consider........get to introduce yourself to all the important people involved ( priest, photographer, dj, wedding planner...ect...) Let them know what your plans are, where you plan on filming from, find out if there are any areas that would be " off limits". Make sure that you make yourself resonably hidden during the ceremony....the last thing anyone wants is a guy with a video camera distracting people from the ceremony.

Planning is the key because when the day comes things happen very quick, and its good to know what the important times for events are going to be. There is never a second chance to get a good shot at a wedding. Having a second camera rolling will give you so much more freedom not only in edit....you will also be able to get more creative and move around cause you know that the b roll cam is going steady...not to mention equipment failure :-(

Weddings can be real fun because everyone is in such a good mood....plus you always get to eat well too :)
 
hey thanks for the reply... it looks like it is ging to be a tiny wedding, but a big reception. 1/2 the wedding will be here in Houston, then off to Barcelona, Spain to film the vows being recited. then they wanted some footage of them holding hands on the beach/ things like that. The reception will be very large, and they wanted to show a 5 minute synopsis video of the experience in spain and the lsmall ceremony to show at the reception. I sent her a quote today, hopefully they'll accept it.
 
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