Making a compelling wedding video as opposed to a collection of B footage

Each person with a camera is trying to capture something or create something with it. The ability to tell a story is the difference between a boring wedding video and compelling wedding film. The first is the one made by a cliché videographer or uncle bob holding a camcorder and the latter is how a film maker would look at the day to get shots that intertwine together to create a story.

From the very beginning at Zenith cinematography we knew we didn’t want to fall into the trap of recording CCTV footage of the day and just applying music to it. It is easier and you can still charge good money for it but we felt it just was not why we started doing in this business.

A wedding film is not a music video where you see people but only hear music in the background instead of their voices. This can work for small parts of the film but it doesn’t help to tell a story nor does it have much of a narrative. Images are powerful but sound is equally important, imagine watching TV without sound but just music in the background, it just wouldn’t make sense. There are times on the day such as the morning preparations, where the bride is panicking, the clock is ticking, and the mum is running around making sure everyone is ready. These are great opportunities to tell a story. The trick is to always keep your eyes open as well as your ears so you can compose great shots and capture audio that will help you later on.

The day is full of little stories, don’t be lazy and keep filming one thing from one angle only. Once you have your shot, film the action from a different view point or move on to find another story.

You don’t need 10min. of the brides make up if you are only going to show a few seconds in the film. As a rule of thumb we use the 3 shot rule, each story is told by a establishing shot, usually a wide angle shot, a medium that tells what is going on and a close up of the action. This edits nicely and gives the cinematic feeling that we try to achieve in our films. This is what is meant by filming for the edit as opposed to capturing CCTV coverage.

There are two places where the day will give you audio and good images, the ceremony and the speeches in the evening. Capturing these is vital as it will help you during the edit as something to fall back on when needed.

The ceremony is something that we often use in our films as an anchor point. By showing it chronologically but interspersed with other footage of the day it gives our audience a little bit of prediction on what is coming next which we feel is necessary when using time shifting techniques and going back and forward with our story. Unless you want to confuse the viewers by manically going back and forward on your film. The moral of the story is that even when using time shifting with your story, you don’t want to go over the top or you will lose the connection with your viewer.

The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that a wedding videography is a story and you should be able to make it compelling enough to engage viewers from start to finish.