Picture Worth A Thousand!
I've been married 9 years and can only think of one time we've taken out the wedding album whereas every year we look at the video. Why do still photographers often make several times the money that wedding videographers make? Our equipment costs a lot more, our training covers more disciplines and the editing takes more time. I produce broadcast TV and non-broadcast video and have only shot a few weddings because they seem to be more trouble than they're worth. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture (with professional audio) ought to be worth a lot more don't you think?
Because the stills album in actual book form is even faster and more non-linear than a DVD. You go right to the photos you want. I understand some high-end video wedding guys are now handing out video ipods to the couple, with the video, stills, and whatnot already on it; this seems to be very popular to take along and show folks as a "brag book".
what I question. Today, I will go over to the Disney wedding pavillion, where they charge more money to shoot a wedding than most of the "professionals" on these forums charge for a real video shoot.
You have wedding photographers that "work for free", and you have guys that KNOW HOW TO CHARGE. Same in private production - be it corporate video, commercials, features, etc. Some guys KNOW HOW TO CHARGE, and some morons "give it away". You will see a professional with a HVX-200 or Sony XDCamEX charging 10 times the amount (and getting it) over a "kid" whose mom bought him a Panasonic Varicam, and is booking himself, with the Varicam for $300 a a day, and whining on Creative Cow how much a FW800 drive costs.
It's all about who you are dealing with. There are still photographers who work almost for free as well.
I used to think Wedding videography was the bottom of the barrel.... and after doing only ONE (Many years ago) I vowed to NEVER do another as long as I was not starving or homeless. Then I found the folks at StillMotion. They do some of the best wedding work i have seen.
Take a look:
So what I learned from this is.... it is HOW you approach your job and if you have a true passion for it and a touch of brilliant creativity, the sky is the limit.... Oh, and I bet they make a h*ll of a lot more than the wedding Photographer.
Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
Can anyone do a quick tutorial on how to embed video into your posts? I pasted the embed code, selected, and ten clicked on the code button but alas, it did not work.
Thanks.
Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
[Richard Cooper]"Can anyone do a quick tutorial on how to embed video into your posts? I pasted the embed code, selected, and ten clicked on the code button but alas, it did not work."
The first part was right, but you need to just skip the code button part –then it should work; like this:
There are a few good wedding video companies out there, but I always wonder if they are really making any decent money. These guys seem to have 3 or 4 people on a shoot, plus all the gear; Steadicam, mobile system for edit, plus all the editing back at the studio. Having a nice finished product is one thing, but actually making a decent rate is another.
They do a LOT of these videos.... over 100 on Vimeo alone and I suppose that they must have a proven system and a regimented workflow that keeps them efficient....
"Hey where do I get one of those!"
Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
As Jason pointed out, just embed the code into your post. You do not need to use the CODE button in the posting mechanism, which is intended for Adobe Expressions, XML, Java, CSS or other things that people want to get help with.
Dan..you said it in the first line...a picture is worth a thousand words.
When people look back at their weddings they remember more dreamy memories, not the mechanics of the ceremony. Photos capture this way better than video in this instance. Many wedding videoographers cover ceremonies as events, not missing anything, leaving nothing to chance and nothing to the imagination.
Photography is more impressionistic, a great photographer can run rings around a great video person in this particular niche. Sort of like a great movie compared to a reality show. I don't think I have seen a wedding video out-drama a well done wedding photo album.
There are some video producers who shoot weddings like a movie, with music, angles, drama, etc. This is better but I still think given a choice, for weddings most couples would choose a good photographer over a good video person. And because a photographer can instill much more drama in their work on what is an emotional day, they can charge way more.
I added professional commercial photography services to my studio years ago, I always tell people if you are a director with a good eye who wants to charge higher rates for a fraction of the workload compared to video, give photograph a try ;)
Yea thats a Mormon wedding video. Mormons mary inside the Temple so there is no photography or filming of the ceremony. This makes for lots of cheesy wedding video.
There are no "technical solutions" to your "artistic problems".
Don't let technology get in the way of your creativity!
[Christopher Wright]"There's that word again.
Seems like an obsession... "
What word?
Christopher,
Come on dude, take the time to highlight what you're talking about and then hit the "Q" button so we have a reference to who and what you're referring to. I know you still remember every keyboard command for Edit*, so hitting the "Q" button isn't asking too much, is it?
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
And thanks for the edit* kudos!
Can you believe FCP actually finally has non-rippling speed changes in the TL and snapping to separate Audio track and Video track markers?? We are finally getting there!!
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Yep, shooting Mormon wedding videos is a whole different animal since there's actually nothing to shoot. What ends up happening is a montage of them outside of the temple, and then vid during the recpetion.
I never based my rate on others'. This is no exception. While I have had many a fussy mother of the bride hang up because she could not afford my rate, never have I found myself piggybacking a still photog while asking myself what I was doing there.
It's $4k. Don't like it? Get unlce bob to shoot it.
easy enough.
well, if you do find yourself doing a wedding, as I did for the niece of my uncle, there are plenty of good examples on the web for inspiration. That video posted by Richard Cooper is really nice, and seems to be worth the money it must have cost.
Makes me want to get married again to get such a video. Let me rephrase that, since I am still married. Makes me want to...oh never mind.
The same uncle videotaped my wedding, which I then edited together with 2 other videos and a bunch of stills. Now if I only had a functioning 1" machine, I could transfer that to DVD. Who knew 1" wasn't going to be around forever?!
[Mike Cohen]"Who knew 1" wasn't going to be around forever?!"
Actually had a call asking for a one-inch dub, not too long ago...instead of the good 'ol BetaSP dub we had sent them. And they seemed genuinely surprised when informed that one-inch machines hadn't been built since long before their children were born.
And this was a TV station.
Made me wanna sic Bob Zelin on them.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc. fantasticplastic.com
