What’s the Point?
One of the biggest frustrations of mine over the years of wedding filmmaking has been the self-imposed limitations of style. Recently I filmed a wedding for another company - we call that associate shooting - where a really powerful moment between an older family member and the bride occurred. It was awesome. I was personally moved, and it wasn’t even one of my couples (meaning I didn’t really know them prior to the wedding). Regrettably, I had the sense then that the moment wouldn’t make it into the film. Sure enough, when the final product was delivered it wasn’t there.
The reason it didn’t make it is simple - many wedding films are templates. From a business standpoint this makes a lot of sense because its easily repeatable. It’s also something you can teach to novice editors.
Start the film with a drone shot, a few nice detail shots, a nice sound bite from the officiant, a couple nice shots of the couple and BOOM we’re in business. I used to do this a lot, so far be it from me to throw the first stone. And to be clear, this isn’t “bad,” it’s just not anything I want to do. Back to the moment in question, it needed some time to breathe - but that doesn’t fit the mold of an edit that’s really just a bunch of moving images slapped together like a slideshow (ok I’m getting heated, apologies). It ended up on the cutting room floor - it didn’t make the film.
This is a matter of opinion, of course, but if we can’t include real moments in our wedding films then what is the point? The elder family member will not be with us forever, and when they were overwhelmed by their emotions because the little girl they remember from birth is now a bride standing in front of them, how do we not use it?
A Change of Direction
When I first started as a wedding videographer I did what everyone else did. It’s also important to note that the wedding videography industry isn’t really that old. There are a few OG’s out there, but for the most part it wasn’t until the DSLR revolution that enabled filmmakers to capture events in glorious HD that the industry really took off.
I often would film something and think, “this is great, but we’ll never use it.”
But it’s not my day. None of it is “mine.” If I’m telling “your story” shouldn’t I be telling the whole thing? When one of my bride’s decided to light up a joint after marrying her husband at 12,000 ft in Colorado, that was part of the story.
But then I learned something from somewhere I didn’t expect.
If you really dive into my website you might discover my “Home Movie.” I love filming my travels and then putting together little videos by which to remember my journeys. The strangest thing happened, however, when I went to edit these films. I love the beautiful images - and there were plenty - but what moved me most ended up being the most stupid moments possible. My wife nearly falling off a rock she was posing on, her knocking over a perfectly crafted cairn, me watching two cars locked in a heated stare-down on a one lane bridge…the little moments, sometimes strange and awkward, were the ones that seemed most memorable. Perhaps they display our humanity more than the incredible postcard pictures we all seem to gravitate to most. I happen to want both the incredible sunset shot and the time I walked in on the groomsmen taking photos of themselves in their boxers.
Candeo Films - Award Winning Wedding Videographer.
Is this working for my SEO?In my opinion, there’s really nothing more interesting to photograph than the human face.
I believe in representing people in a good light - I’m certainly not talking about using clips of you stuffing your face with filet mignon in your film. Instead, I’m talking about the little glimpses into your personality that come out when you’re around friends, family, and loved ones. The dumb laughs at inside jokes, the voices of grandparents - all these small moments, however, are just part of a larger mosaic of the life you’ve cultivated for yourself, your partner, and the people closest to you. Wedding films at large seem to like putting couples into a lovely romantic box. I’m most excited about painting a complete picture of your wedding and your relationship - I want the laughs, the tears, the real moments between you and the people you love to be there. I believe that because I’ve lived it with my own home movies.
Candeo Films Wedding Videography is based in Asheville, North Carolina and Houston, Texas.
Candeo Films Destination Wedding Videography. Candeo Films Award-Winning Videography.
Cinematic Wedding Video. Documentary Wedding Films. 4k wedding films. Drone.
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