The Guide to Styles of Wedding Videography: How We Match Clients’ Style
When working with a new video editor for the first time, a videographer may have a lot of questions, and the main one is – How can the editor replicate my style?
To tell the truth, in order to fully match all expectations in the first project, it’s desirable to have the ability to read minds, or at least a crystal ball. 😅 But over the years of work and thousands of completed projects, here at Bride&Groom.video we learned to hit 9 out of 10 targets from the first time.
In this article we’ll explain the steps good editors take to fit the videographers’ style, describe differences between styles of wedding videography and show examples of our edits in all of those.
Steps we take to match the client’s style
A good editor will always ask questions before starting their work. We have a brief form that we ask videographers to fill out in the beginning. It consists of four main parts:
- Examples of the videographers’ previous films
- Music preferences
- Color correction examples (and/or LUTs)
- Technical requirements for video export
All of the parts are important, but the first one – previous examples – is crucial. Brides are choosing videographers by looking at their portfolio. The better we match the style, the happier videographer and newlyweds will be.
As for the music, we can choose it ourselves, using our subscriptions to music licencing resources Musicbed, Audio and SoundStripe. But for the first order, it is preferable when the client chooses the music for the film or at least gives recommendations on musical styles.
What we look for in wedding videography examples
Given the examples, we catch the general mood and style in them. There are no rigid industry standards how to name wedding vifdeography styles. Inside the Bride&Groom.video team we distinguish three main styles.
1. Cinematic style. Life – action – emotion.
This videography style is characterized by activity in everything. The essential thing is not the story but the dynamic emotion. Dynamic is the best way to describe this type – fast frame change, constant camera movement, and no static. Static is allowed if it is necessary to show positive emotion through laughter, hugs, smiles, or the object movement in the frame (bride and groom passage, a child running on the lawn, etc.). Such a video contains a lot of background noise: laughter, birds, water, the ticking of the clock, and much more. Any object that can be voiced is voiced (preferably to the music tempo).
Why does history not play an important role here? It’s because we do not tell but only show. At the same time, you can ignore the song’s words, show vows as the primary point, and add amusing moments from reception speeches and jokes. For such a video, even film bloopers are suitable when the couple/guests do not know they are being filmed and behave as realistically as possible. Of course, staging poses are necessary, but they are accompanied by camera movement. It is possible to use effects like Super 8, scratches on the frame, or highlights. Movement phase transitions and other interesting transitions, as well as gluing purely from the operator work, are encouraged. The chronology is not essential; the video can be both in chronological order and in a chaotic style.
The main thing is constant dynamics and emotion, deep viewer’s immersion to such a level that when the film ends, they will want to watch it again, and every time will see something new and notice new details.
2. Documentary Style. Chronology – storytelling – classics.
Usually, such videos are edited chronologically, except for introducing the couple at the beginning as a mini-intro. The basis of the video structure are speeches and song lyrics. Here we tell the story with words and video. Vows are the central part. In such a video, there are slow frame changes and flat frames; shaking is rarely allowed. We are making a cinematographic clip. An ideal example is when the groom in the vows tells how beautiful the bride’s eyes are, and we show how the bride looks into the frame in close-up; the bride says what a caring father the groom is, and we show how he plays with kids. The whole wedding video is built on such moments. Essential musical accents: at the song’s climax, we need to put the main moments of the wedding (the first look, the bride’s appearance, the kiss).
There is also a lot of slow motion in the video, excluded direct speech, and specific exclusion frames. Speeches of guests/relatives – sincere wishes for a happy future, stories from childhood, the wisdom of parents, and we confirm all this with video accompaniment. The second part of the film is more active, but we still focus on the lyrics and the story. For part of the dances, we use more cheerful music. Telling the story with the words of the story’s characters while being an observer is the goal of this video type.
3. Artistic Style. Epic video.
It is a mixed type of the two above. This type is usually used in teasers because this style is complex for the viewer to perceive in 5-8 minutes of viewing. It is accompanied by a heavy emotion. What is a heavy emotion? The frames seem to drag the music along, and the couple looks pathetic, superior, and separate from everything else. All attention is focused on the heroes of the day. The use of flashes, effects, reverse, and fasts are possible in a moderate amount to emphasize the musical composition. In principle, this style can be used for 5-minute videos, but the number of speeches in it will be minimal.
The main thing in the video in terms of technique is the beat, the rhythm, and the feeling of the frames that visualize the music. The main idea in the video is that the couple is separated from everyone, creating their own reality where only they exist.
Once we’ve watched the examples, learned music and color grading preferences and know export requirements, we are ready to get the ball rolling. It’s time to bring our editing experience to the table.
But what will happen, if you received the video from your editor for a review, and it’s not matching what you was expecting in your mind?
Rounds Of Corrections
No worries, all respected editing companies offer several rounds of corrections (usually one or two) for free. After watching the video you can leave comments and your editors will apply changes to the edit. Then you review again, and if some minor things are still there, the process repeats.
It’s really rear in our experience, but sometimes even after two rounds of corrections videographer wants some changes. Other companies usually give up here, but for us it’s important to get to a perfect result and a satisfied client. So we’ve impemeted an unlimited round of corrections for our first-time client videographers.
The funniest thing, that the most picky and challenging clients become our clients for life then. We are proud to share a testimonial from one of such clients, who we’ve edited more than 50 wedding projects since 2019 for.
💬 “I’m so happy with how you’re doing videos! In the beginning, I just wanted to fire you as you were too far away from what we wanted. But you were too persistent – No, we’d like to fix it, send us the notes of what we need to do. And when you guys got back with another round, I thought, Oh, that’s a lot better.
Then, we did a couple of more rounds, and it got better and better. A lot of weddings were approaching, and, to be honest, I didn’t want to look for another video editor because I didn’t want to go through it all again. But in the end, I was so excited, like a couple watching their video for the first time. And I was like, OMG, I can’t believe it’s our work – you guys edited it so well! It was really cool!”
Jeff Baas, Owner at Montage Media, Michigan, US.
Conclusion
In any case, even if, after reading this article, you are still afraid to outsource the editing of your projects, remember – the worst thing that can happen is that you will lose several hundred dollars and your time for communication.
But on the other hand, there’s a big chance you will get a reliable partner for many years. This cooperation will free up precious days and weeks of your life and offload your work schedule. Agree, it’s worth it!
