Value

What questions to ask your videographer?

1. What is your storytelling style?

This is a general question to ask a videographer and a great opportunity to discuss things that you would like to see in your video edits. More importantly, any special requests that you might have of the videographer can usually be handled with this question.

Our Style is something difficult to define because we feel like styles with regards to videos are difficult to define. What we can say is to look at our work and then understand that our style can be defined through the way in which we handle you as a customer and you can rest assured that we can meet any style or or video edit type that you’re looking for. In the end we are your partners in this process and we love to hear feedback as from our couples on what they expect as a finished look for their video edits.

2. How does your pricing work?

Many videographers have an hourly charge rate and many also have a flat rate fixed fees. There’s really no wrong answer to this. It’s all about what works for both parties.

Our pricing structure is tailored to fit your needs and we charge based by the amount of moments that we are there to record for. For eg.. our base package consists of ceremony and reception coverage. On average this could amount to 5 or 6 hours day, so with that you’ll get a fixed rate from us. If you wanted a wider scope of moments to capture such as getting ready moments of the bride and groom, the first reveal or something else in between then thats when we go into our bag and offer you different packages with additional fees to capture those moments. See our price sheet here for an example. All that to say, the more moments that we are there to capture equals additional hours which in turn would bump up your costs. We never ask for half up front, but we do ask for a $500 deposit of the total cost to secure us for the date and then the remaining balance when once you approve of final edits.

3. Have you shot at my ceremony or reception venue before?

This is great, because any videographer that has familiarity with the venue can be a plus for you and your partner. It takes the pressure off from the couple and can make them feel more relaxed knowing that the videographer knows their way around and can even be someone to lean on for vital information regarding your wedding setup.

4. Will there be a second shooter, a stationary camera, or any other backup cameras for our wedding?

We live in a covid world now, so having this question in mind is great for you to ask your videographer. With that said, many in person events are operating differently which could result in you having to be more mindful with how many total persons including your vendors are at your wedding. Generally speaking most videographers shoot sometimes by themselves or with a second shooter or someone to operate any cameras mounted onto a tripod.
In our case, we’re a husband and wife team so you’ll get the both of us at your wedding managing 3 cinema cameras. In typical cases, one of us will be on a gimbal while the other manages the two cameras mounted onto a tripod. In a Livestream setup, Shana will run an operate the livestream, the audio and manage all the feeds as well as manage the switching views for your online guests. Meanwhile, I’ll operate the 3 cameras all mounted on heavy-duty tripods and making sure that the views and angels are all set, that the picture is in focus. Not to mention, making sure that all the other variables that may arise during a live production do-not hamper what you paid us to delivery to you and your online guests.

5. How long have you been filming weddings? How many do you average per year?

Experience matters and this is great to know this of your videographers. The more weddings shot and the more scenarios that a team has been, the more likely they are to effectively navigate through live day of issues.
We’ve filmed a handful of weddings over the past year, all of which has been successful and were hungry to film more. What we hang our hat on is mastering the intangibles of professionally live-streaming your event with a very high degree of quality and professionalism. Although we don’t have hundreds of clients under our belt just yet, we do have a ton of experience in other mediums such as film and media production.
With that in mind, you can rest assured that we know how to bring those same cinematic principles to weddings. After all, most wedding video coverage and edits are delivered in ways inspired by the film and media production industries.

6. How well do you work with other vendors? Such as the Photographer?

We cant speak to how other videographers work with vendors and photographers, but this is an important question to ask. The last thing you want is for everyone to be clashing or getting in each others way. How we work with them is pretty straight forward, we introduce ourselves, we ask them basic questions about where they’ll be setup and then we all execute. Thats it. Doing this helps to not only break the ice but it keeps things in sync especially with the photographer. Usually photographers are doing the most movement at a wedding so letting them know where our cameras will be setup helps them to avoid getting right in the frame of our cameras. Last thing you want is a photographer constantly in the center of your wedding video, blocking our view of you. Additionally, we also try to not be in their way as well. All that to say, we’ve never had any issues dealing with other vendors and videographers and because we work with them in other productions it always feels natural to get in sync with them on your wedding day.

7. How will you record the audio from our ceremony?

This is a great question, almost all professional videographers who are shooting weddings should be recording with and external recorder device. If thats not the case with whoever you’re hiring, then you might want to raise that red flag. We record with external wired and wireless audio devices which means you’ll get crystal clear audio from start to finish. If you our your spouse prefers to not be mic’d (even though its recommended), thats fine too. We can simply connect our recorder to the external speakers used at your ceremony and get all the audio thats coming into the mics used at your venue.

8. How long will it take to receive my completed film? How will the film be delivered?

No rights, or wrongs with the answer you receive from any videographer. Some will say 2 weeks, some will say 4 weeks, we’ve even seen some videographers with a turnaround time of 6-8 weeks. All depends on what was agreed upon in terms of deliverables and how said videographer works in post production.

We as for 4-6 weeks to provide you back with edits for the standard wedding videography and about 1-2 weeks to provide you back with a cut of your livestream edits. Keep in mind, this could all be provided sooner but we tend to stick with the timeframes mentioned above.

9. Are you insured?

Why not? No harm in asking this and no harm in not asking. Some venues might require any vendor apart of the event to be insured, it’s generally pretty simple for a vendor to get coverage for that day.

We can produce insurance if needed by the venue. This is standard procedure in some cases and not a big deal for us to provide. Just let us know and we’ll make it happen.

10. What kind of packages do you offer?
We know that this is a hot question to ask as it does help provide some insight as to what the videographer you are dealing with is capable in providing and at what cost.

We have a base price package with various add-ons. We found that charging the hour can be to messy and sometimes puts us in a position to be stretched thin with the amount of time spent during your wedding day and time spent on editing vs the costs at the end if we charged on an hourly basis. Instead of an hourly charge we have a fixed flat rate for some initial wedding coverage that captures key moments such as the ceremony and reception. However, we also have add-ons that consists of capturing additional moments such as first looks/reveals/getting ready moments. Maybe you want us to stick around for the cake cutting or garter toss, or you want drone footage, or maybe you want an engagement video shoot announcing your upcoming wedding. All weddings are different in terms of flow and interests. Maybe you don’t want all of that footage or maybe you do, all that to say the more moments that we capture outside of the ceremony and reception speeches, first dances, and toasts, the longer we’ll be required to be records these moments. In turn, that means the more it adds to the overall costs. Even then, all add-ons are at a flat rate cost and we give the options of picking two of seven add-ons for one price. Our livestream price structure is a bit different but similar. Nonetheless email or call us so that we can begin our collaboration.

Wedding Ceremony and Reception Videography
Wedding Livestream

11. How long will you be there on the wedding day? Is there an extra fee if we are running behind on time?

Essentially this is something that you get to dictate in certain cases, the more things you want covered and captured the longer any videographer will be required to spend with you on your wedding day. Some videographers set their own limits, and tell you how many hours they are available for. This can be a little nerve wrecking and might create a little tension on how you conduct your business that day. Cause lets face it, somethings don’t always go right on the day of an event and some things do.

In our case, we don’t bill extra if you’re running behind. Were taking the pressure off there and as described in point #10 everything is baked into our costs and whatever you agreed to pay is what we will stick to charging.

12. How do you handle making corrections to the final product? Is there an extra fee for added content?

Great question, many videographers will charge an extra fee for a single revision or correction. This depends on who you’re dealing with but we recommend asking this question. This can lead to addressing all concerns at the beginning stages of post production or even addressing any concerns right before they even hit record on the camera.

We handle corrections by allowing 3 revisions if necessary. After that and additional charge will be required. Added content such as sound effects or added music can happen, but also at an additional charge. Lastly, and not something that we haven’t seen before, but additional footage post ceremony will have an additional charge. Yes, we’ve had someone ask us to shoot additional outdoor footage weeks after their ceremony. Stranger things have happened.

13. How do we handle payment? Do you offer payment plans?

Very straight forward and basic question to ask. Many videographers have several ways of handling transactions. Doesn’t hurt to ask them what ways they process payments.

We make it easy to process payments. We send out online invoices which allows you to make your payments via debit or credit card. Super easy and simple, once paid we send out digital receipts and that’s all there is. Usually the $500 deposit is the first invoice that goes out and then the final one after video edits are finalized. If you’d like to do payment installments we can do that as well. Just let us know during the agreement process.

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