Saturday, January 29, 2011

Kristin and Tony’s Awesome Short Takes Video!

Granted, I am a bit prejudiced when it comes to winter weddings. Our anniversary is December 14th, so I have personal experience with this and I have practiced what I preach! Haha! I love the coziness, the warmth of a burning fire and the “fuzzy blanket feel” of tons of candles and soft lights. But I have to tell you, our wedding at Aberdeen Manor on December 30th was over the top! Kristin sent me the link for her "highlights" video this morning, and honestly, I am blown away!!


Kristin & Anthony Wedding Trailer from Studio This Is - Jason Monroe on Vimeo.

AWESOME!!!! They had Studio This Is for their video and photos. Jeremy Bustos, the owner, is an incredibly talented photographer. He has a great eye for the unique.

Did you see their ring dog, Wilma, dragging the little flower girl to the front of the chapel? Kristin and Tony never would have seen this without the video! It was the talk of the ceremony, SOOO cute, but because Tony hadn't come out from the side door yet, and Kristin was at the "end of the line" , they would have missed it! There are so many moments during your wedding day like this. So many things that fly by, or that occur when you can't see them. Isn't it wonderful that it can be preserved and saved for you to see later, over and over if you want to? The other thing about it is the REALITY of it. A still picture of this happening would be cute, but it could never convey how funny it was, not in the same way that the video does anyway. Hearing the guests laughing, seeing how the flower girl stumbles down the aisle behind Wilma, the surprised look on her face, and the funny expressions, all of these things would be missed in a still photo.

Here is what Kristin told me about her video in a note she sent me yesterday: “Boy, I gotta tell you, I almost didn't do video either and a few weeks before the wedding I changed my mind and I'm SOOOO glad I did! You're so right, I would have completely missed those moments like Wilma and the flower girl plowing down the isle! I just love it!”

And this is just over the highlights! I can hardly wait to hear what she has to say when she gets the full video back!

While you are looking at this, notice the up lighting around the ballroom, and the “pin spotting” on all the tables—awesome!!!

We’ll talk more about lighting options!!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Photos and Video - Not the Same Animal

When it comes to YOUR wedding, don't make the very common mistake of looking at photography and videography as the same thing; as an either/or option. BOTH photos and video have their own special uses and purposes. They are totally different, other than the fact that they both involve images.

I attended a seminar on videography a couple years ago, and they talked about a study that was done where they asked couples what the five most important services for their wedding were. BEFORE the wedding, video was named in only about 25% of the answers. But AFTER the wedding it was named in nearly 80% of the answers! Obviously there was a lot of people that wished they had gotten a video for their wedding!

It flies by in a nanosecond. Just as you wouldn't think of having your wedding without someone to take still photos, a video should be just as high on your priority list. If you can't afford to go with a fully edited, high tech video, at least have a professional take raw video, so that later on you can pay the additional to have it edited into something beautiful. If you don't have the video, you can't do it, ever.

Incidentally, did you know that an average wedding video requires about 40 to 50 hours of editing time? The price you pay for having someone take a video of your wedding is not just for the few hours that they are at your wedding. The largest portion of the cost is those hours and hours of editing time! If a video costs $1500, that works out to about 30 dollars an hour. Looks a lot more reasonable, doesn't it? In addition, professional videographers can easily have 30,000 to 50,000 dollars tied up in their equipment. Professional high definition cameras that are able to take high quality video in low light situations (and who wants a searchlight on constantly during their reception?) are really expensive, and good videographers are constantly having to update and upgrade their equipment. Looks like an even better bargain, doesn't it?

Because of the improvements in equipment, video doesn't have to be any more intrusive than still pictures. Just as with your photographer, people notice them at the very beginning, and then they kind of fade into the woodwork as people get used to them being there. After 5 minutes, they don't notice the photographer OR the videographer.

We have some awesome videographers on our Faves List. I hope you will really give video serious consideration when it comes to planning your wedding!