One of the common obstacles that we face in securing a wedding booking is the opinion that videographers are intrusive. I totally understand where this common misconception comes from, if you are not as close to this industry as we are then it is easy to imagine a wedding videographer with several cameras in your face throughout the entirety of your wedding day, telling you what to do and how to do it, asking you to do something again as the shot wasn’t quite right, taking you away from your guests to do extra scenes, making your guests feel uneasy with a drink in hand, preventing you and your guests from just being yourselves, and who would want that? These thoughts alone are enough to put anyone off a videographer. The truth is, we pride ourselves on our ability to be unobtrusive and unnoticed during your day.
We film in a documentary style which means we record from a factual and authentic viewpoint, capturing events as they happen and trying not to stage scenes or moments during your day. The beauty of a documentary style wedding video is that it allows you to relive your day as it happened whilst capturing and bringing to life the atmosphere and emotions of your day.
Without trying to sound too much like ninjas we try our best to stay in the shadows and blend into the background to help make you and your guests feel at ease. This allows us to do what we do best. Using industry leading HD cameras, we utilise an effective optical zoom which allows us to put considerable space between us and the subject of our footage. Taking this approach means that 99% of the time who ever we capture has no idea that they are being filmed which is ultimately how we capture the true and authentic feel of your big day. Of course, there are moments throughout the day where we do not need to adopt this approach due to the nature of the scene we are capturing, for example the ceremony, speeches or cutting of the cake.
Our unobtrusive filming style is more appropriate when wedding guests don’t expect the cameras to be switched on, let me elaborate on this. During the wedding ceremony, speeches or even the cutting of the cake the Bride and Groom are aware of the guests that surround them and generally can remember the feelings and emotions from those precious moments. Unfortunately, what the wedded couple do not experience are the other moments during the day that they were unable to be part of as they cannot be expected to be everywhere at once, and this is where a wedding video really comes into its own. The type of moments I am referring to are guests drinking at the bar, arriving for the evening celebrations, private entertainment such as magicians, singers, dancers and lots more. There’s an endless pool of vendors and providers that couples hire when planning their wedding. A lot of the time these providers are booked with the sole purpose of entertaining the wedding guests. We see this as an opportunity capture the emotions of your wedding guests which otherwise you would not have the chance to see. I’m probably moving into another topic here which I am planning on covering off in an upcoming blog so I’ll leave it there for now and bring it back to client perception of intrusive videographers.
I took a call from a client a few days ago who was looking to book us to film his daughter’s wedding a few days later. Fortunately, we were available so we confirmed the essential details, prepared our equipment and had a great day filming. One of the first questions the client had was something like “Do you film like ‘Uncle Derrick’ having the camera in guests faces?”. Firstly, it was refreshing for a client to question our approach head on as we then could put their mind at ease. I explained that our style of videography was ‘documentary’. This is where we capture the day as it happened without staging any events or requesting that the wedded couple do something again as our shot wasn’t quite right. This is exactly what the client wanted to hear and what many potential clients are worried about before booking a videographer to cover their day. One of the main advantages of this style of filming is that we go unnoticed for much of the day. We can capture the emotions and atmosphere of a very special day and during post production (in the studio) we are able to bring that to life in a way that no one else can. I’m sure everyone would agree that the best pictures or videos are the ones where the emotions are natural and real, not set up or asking your guests to say the usual “cheese!”.
Using our unobtrusive style, we can capture the real emotions of your day; the preparations, ceremony, reception, speeches, right through to the first dance. We are sure that when you look back on your wedding video for years to come you won’t remember us in the background but you will remember the many emotions captured during one of the most special days of your life.
If you have any questions relating to this blog post or would like to arrange a call to discuss your wedding and what we could offer you then please email thestudio@em-pro.uk or call 01495 366110. Please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
Best,
Lloyd @ EMP.