So you’re in the market for a wedding video and you need to do some research on which wedding videographer or wedding video studio to choose from. Hopefully you’ve landed on this page first to get the best advise.
Well lets look at the factors first
- Budget
- Quality “not” Quantity
- Style
- Package Details
- Rapport with Videographer
- Reputation
Lets break these down further
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Budget
Probably the foremost on newly engaged couples minds. And fair enough! We all want to know what things cost. But probably not the best factor to base all your decisions on. The PRICE is important and of course you should build a budget for your wedding, heck we’re not all part of the Kardashians.
When comparing prices please remember that you should not base you decision solely on this factor alone. You are not purchasing a inanimate object but more the factors outlined below. So to set a non realistic price on video would mean you are railroading yourself towards compromising on quality.
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Quality “not’ Quantity
Quality should be a very important factor to your decisions. Remember that price is important but a cheap priced video may equal a cheap quality video also. Your wedding day only happens once and those moments only occur at that moment in time. So it can only be recorded, ‘the once’.
Why mention quantity, well we often come across couples whose priority is quantity (length) over quality. Often basing your decision on quantity (or length) may not necessarily give you a quality result.
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Style
Many and varied in flavour. From the traditional documentary, to the modern story based short film. MTV music video to effect stylized productions, every wedding videography studio, producers a unique style. First and foremost you need to connect with that style and envision yourself in that manner. Styles can also reflect cultural requirements and more often fall under the ‘Documentary Long Form’ style. Like clothes fashion, wedding videography has its fashions and is currently in the ‘Short Feature Film‘ style. This is vastly different to documentary in that the feature film is built around the audio grabs recoded on the day to tell your story.
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Package details
Package contents will vary between studios and of course so do the styles as mentioned above. Some studios will build custom packages to your requirements and others will have preplanned packages designed to incorporate different options. One things to note when looking at packages. We all love bargains and we all want freebies but as was mentioned above, do not compare the contents of a studios packages against another. ‘Why’ I hear you say, the main reason is, ‘artistic impression’. How do you price that! If this is not a factor in your decision process then quality and style would not matter either. But if Quality and style matters then package contents between studios should not be compared.
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Rapport with the Videographer
This may or may not be important to you but think about this first. Your wedding day will be long and out of all the vendors associated with this day, who will be with you the longest. Yep, you guessed it, the Videographer! So think again, how important this is to you and who you would want there helping you enjoy your day.
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Reputation
Not a huge factor but is still important in many eyes. Most big better known studios also have big advertising budgets and great business plans. The smaller Videographer can often compete with quality and price but not on the marketing scale. So make sure you look around and not be lured into the clever marketing.
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Conclusion
Above are a number of small factors and a lot more that weren’t mentioned. Ultimately you are deciding on an investment to hopefully see out your days and beyond. And yes I did use the word “Investment”, the same as you would invest in any important memory. In the years to come and the memory fades what do you have left from your wedding day apart from some photos. How do you relive that emotion, laughter, tears of happiness, excitement. Our lives are surrounded by all forms of media and video, so remember that despite cost being a factor, quality, style, packages, reputation and rapport do also. It just depends on the order. Choose your wedding videographer carefully and remember, they are there to work for you.
If you missed our last related post you can check it out here – Why use a wedding videographer
The post What to look for when choosing a Wedding Videographer appeared first on ThE WeDDING VIDeO iNDUSTRY.
