Videographers

Photographers are great, but they capture slices of your day. Videographers capture the whole day, sites, sounds, music, and voices.

Your wedding day is going to be stressful, busy, and over before you know it. I've often talked to brides after the wedding and they remember very little of the day. A wedding video is a great way to capture the day to relive it over and over with loved ones.

Warning: Geek alert. Videographers are the techno geeks of the wedding world. The tools of the trade include just about every new electronic device on the market and they're constantly drooling over technical magazines craving ever newer and techier toys.

You're less likely to run into videographers that are moonlighting as wedding specialists than with photographers. Unless they're in a television studio of filming rock bands, they probably are wedding and special event experts.

Style

Like photographers, videographers come in two flavors. These are photojournalists and artists.

While they probably won't be posing shots, the artists are going to be looking for the artistic shots, pans, and zooms. As they shoot through the day, in the back of their mind their composing a story of the day. Often they already know what activities they're going to shooting and how they'll be videographed. By the time they get into the studio the video is already mostly edited.

Photojournalists are recording the days events. Their videos are more of a historically accurate documentary of the days events.

I can't say one is better than the other, it all depends on your taste.

Equipment

There are a few technical questions to ask. For more detail on each one just follow the link.

Cameras. Like photographers, almost anyone that buys a video camera thinks they are a videographer. But quality here varies a lot.

A ccd is the electronic chip that actually 'sees' the scene. The best pro-sumer, or cameras used at weddings, have three of these, one for each primary color. They're combined at the end to make an image with better accuracy and color consistency.

Wireless microphones. This is important for the service, where you want to clearly hear everyone speaking. A wireless mic allows the groom or officiate to wear a microphone that sends sound directly into the camera or other recording device. There are two types, those that use the VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency). The UHF frequencies are less likely to have problems with other transmitters bleeding in to the receiver's sound. Multiple channels to switch to in case of problems is also good.

Hand microphone. When interviewing guests, the reception room can be very noisy. The videographer should have a good hand mic to hand to guests as they give their comments and blessings at the wedding.

Editing stations. Modern computer programs have really leveled the field between editors. Mac Apple computers and PC add-in cards tend to be most reliable for keeping colors accurate, but there is very little difference these days. Just make sure they're not just doing a tape-to-tape editing known as linear editing.

Number of cameras. One is good, two is better, three are just starting to get in the way.

Two cameras allow one camera to move or shift views while the other camera keeps recording, allowing the editor to cut back and forth without losing a second.

Some videographers brag about multiple cameras and set them up on tripods throughout the area. While this is fine in a very large church wedding, the cameras are more likely to end up as a background in all the video scenes and photographs than they are to improve your final video.

References

The same rules apply to videographers as to photographers. Review some of their work, ask for references and actually call them, and look for memberships and peer review in groups like the Association for Wedding Professionals International and WEVA, the Wedding and Events Videography Association.

If you can afford it, I recommend two cameras at least for the wedding service. Two cameras aren't as important for the reception, but are still a nice feature to have.

After the Wedding

Most of the videographer's work starts after the wedding is over. He or she will take the tape back to their studio and start editing it into a final product.

Videographers are notorious for delivering videos late. In their support, they're trying to put together video shot at 30 frames, or photos, per second as well as keeping it in synch with sound. It's very tedious work, but they still owe you a final video.

If they're running late, call and ask frequently, but don't be rude. Just ask for a certain time when it will be finished, and call on that date to follow-up.

Today videos are usually delivered on DVD, but most videographers offer both tape and DVD. Technologies are still changing, so view the DVD immediately and call if you have any problems viewing it. Your videographer can help you work through any issues.

There are still some problems with the life span of DVDs. They aren't the glass masters that professional movies come on and some types can degrade over time. Ask for a master DVD or tape and be prepared to make backups on new disks over the years.