Wedding videography

Wedding videography is the documentation of a wedding on video. The final product of the documentation commonly called a wedding video is also being referred to as a wedding movie or a wedding film.

History

Wedding videography can trace its roots back to before the advent of the modern video camera through 8mm and 16mm films. Over the decades while film was the only way to capture moving pictures a few enterprising individuals would take out the family 8mm camera and film the weddings of friends and family. These film cameras were limited by their short load times for the film, high cost of processing and the fact the majority of them could not record sound to the film. But there were a few individuals who had turned the documentation of weddings into a business.

1980 saw the introduction of the first consumer camcorders by Sony, with other manufacturers soon following suit. With the introduction of these first camcorders wedding video documentation evolved from something for the rich or celebrity into something for the masses. Early adopters were primarily hobbyists who, at first started recording the weddings of friends and family, then went on to do jobs for pay.

The early days of professional wedding videography was primitive at best. The equipment was generally of low technical quality. Cameras required bright lights, had fuzzy pictures, poor color saturation and mono audio recorded with cheap microphones that didn't reproduce good audio quality. The cameras were bulky with the camera being a separate unit that connected to the video recorder via a cable. Many wedding videos weren't edited in post production and those that were, were primitively edited at best, usually just removing the mistakes. If titles were added you were lucky if they were legible. Generation loss (the copying of a copy, and so forth) was also a major problem with analog video tape. Each time you recorded the video to a new tape, it caused errors to build up and picture and sound to degrade.

From its earliest days and through the 1980s Wedding Videography had a negative reputation of being an interference on the festivities. The bright lights required to produce a quality image were damaging to the mood many brides and grooms wanted to have. As the market expanded, it was flooded by many individuals who had little experience and technical knowledge, which left the consumer with fallen expectations. And the consumer technology that was available to the wedding videographer could not match up with broadcast quality at the time.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the state of the industry began to shift for the better. Videographers began to get orgainzed behind regional and national orgainzations, the largest and still active organization being Wedding & Event Video Association International (WEVA). The manufacturers woke up to the fact that there was a market between the professional level and the consumer which became known as prosumer. With this realization the manufacturers began to listen to the wedding and event videographers and introduced products that specifically met the needs of this niche market.

Towards the mid 1990s, the manufacturers introduced the next evolution of cameras with digital cameras which removed the last of the technological barriers that had impeded wedding videography since its inception. The cameras were small, mobile, worked even better than the already good analog cameras on the market in low light situations and allowed the videographer to be discreet and not an intrusion on the events. These prosumer digital cameras have also been adopted by broadcasters and Hollywood. Many television shows and several movies have been made by the likes of Spike Lee, using these cameras. (Sony VX1000, Canon XL1, among others.)

Post production took a major leap forward with the introduction of advanced tools like the Newtek Video Toaster in the early 1990s. The introduction of the lost cost Video Toaster lead a few years later to the introduction of several relatively inexpensive non-linear editors (NLE, computer-based editing. The next revolution in post production was the introduction of the burnable DVD in the '90s which removed most of the problems caused by copying multiple generations of the same video image. Videos were now able to be recorded digitally, edited digitally and delivered digitally. The resulting product when properly done could look as good as the most expensive Hollywood productions.

As the 1990s ended Wedding Videography had exploded beyond being just the documentation of weddings. The majority of Wedding Videographers prefer to add the additional term of Event to their description of services, so it is now Wedding and Event Videography. New offerings like Love Stories, Photo Montages, music videos, family biographies and such appeared. Anniversaries, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, graduations, etc were also being documented in large numbers on video. The skill levels of the industry had progressed, post production took on the skill and quality of Hollywood movies and television shows. The consumer began to have options as to what they wanted in a video, as post production techniques evolved the long form videos which could run 2 to 3 even 4 hours in length, saw a new highly edited and polished form appear called the short form video which ran as little as 10 minutes but on average 30 to 40 minutes.

Present Day

Ironically the progenitor of video, 8mm, super 8mm, 16mm and even 35mm film stock is enjoying a revival within the Wedding Videography industry with some studios offering a combination of the video formats with the film formats and others offering film stock only production.

Another major shift in how wedding and event video is produced and delivered is occurring with the introduction of High-definition video Technology. Still in its infancy, its impact at this point is not known. This is mainly due to the lack of a viable consumer delivery format for High-definition video.

Typical styles

Common styles range from "journalistic" to "cinematic".

Video Journalistic style is typically described as a documentary of the event. Segments are edited as they occur to preserve continuity. This style of editing will produce a polished documentation of the day as it unfolds. Also can be referred to as Documentary Style

Cinematic, the term is defined as making a movie or film. Within the wedding videography industry it has taken on the following meaning: It is captured and edited for the dramatic effect and mood. It is usually presented with a particular style and "wow" effect that may not be present in a "mere documentary" of the event.

Storytelling a video that relies on sound bites recorded pre, during or in post, usually from the bride and groom. These sound bites are then added to the audio track for dramatic effect and to push the story of the day forward.

Short Form Wedding, is a video of the day that has been edited to fit within a time frame that is no less than 15 minutes and no longer than 50 minutes. Some videographers consider anything under 60 minutes to be short form, but according to the entry form for the [http://www.wevafiles.com/expo2006/ceawards/entryform.pdf WEVA Creative Excellence Awards] it can not exceed 50 minutes.

Traditional, is a catch all term for styles that do not fit with above. Traditional tends to look more like a family shot video, it can be edited, but usually lightly. Everything is edited in a linear progression and usually in its entirety. These videos tend to be 2 to 3 hours and even longer, in length.

Wedding videographers are not limited to using just one of these styles, you can find different amounts of styles in every video.

Types of Video Productions

Wedding video has grown in recent years to encompass myriad video production offerings. Some are produced to be shown at the wedding or are delivered after the wedding.

Engagement Video: A video documenting the groom asking the bride to marry. Quite often filmed without the bride's knowledge.

Invitation DVD: Some invitation printers will include a DVD disc in a slot in the printed invitation. The DVD shows the couple and/or the parents on camera inviting viewers to the wedding and reception. The DVD is usually produced by the same videographer who films the wedding and may include footage from a Concept Video.

Photo Montage: (also called video scrapbooks) includes but not limited to still pictures displayed on a video. Can also include sound bites and video footage, but is predominantly still photos.

Love Story: Traditionally an interview of the bride and groom about how they met, what they are like together and what their plans for the future are. Quite often the interview is inter-cut with romantic footage of the couple frolicking together or re-enactments of what they are talking about.

Concept Video: Typically a short film that incorporates to tell a story about the bride or groom or both. Quite often not related to the couple's real life.

Same Day Edit: (Also called a wedding day edit or wedding encore presentation) A short video produced from the footage of the wedding shot earlier in the day, usually only incorporating footage from pre-ceremony, ceremony and post ceremony, that is then showed at the reception as a recap of the wedding.

Bridal Elegance: A video shot in the style of a fashion shoot that depicts the bride in her wedding gown. Can be done before, during or after the wedding.

Highlights: A chapter on the final DVD that shows highlights of the ceremony and reception. Usually running under 10 minutes, highlights videos may be uploaded to YouTube and other social networking websites. The shorter highlights chapter is popular to show friends, while family might watch the full-length wedding DVD.

ee also

*Video production
* Event videography
* WEVA
* Wedding photography
* Newtek
* DVD
* High-definition video
* Super 8 mm film
* video
* videography

External References

[http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?CategoryID=48&ArticleID=11439 8mm film usage modern day]

[http://www.pro8mm.com/pro8_pdfs/Press/WEVA_Members_Shooting_In_Widescreen_Super_8.pdf Additional 8mm info and usage]