In micropolitan and rural areas like southwest Montana, wedding videography is still a fresh market.  There are only a handful of professional Montana videographers who specialize in weddings; they vary widely in what they charge and what couples receive when the weddings video(s) are finished.

brock-heads-togetherMany couples expect a beautiful wedding video that captures their day to be around $1,000 since the videographer simply presses record and then creates a disc or streaming video in the weeks following the wedding.  Wedding videos that tell a story are much more involved. They require a careful, trained eye to artfully capture the emotions of the day, tell the story with personal interviews, and edit the video in a thoughtful way that speaks personally to the bride and groom’s story.

A professional wedding videographer needs about twice as much gear as a wedding photographer and their editing workstations have to be very powerful to quickly edit HD or UltraHD video.  Videographers also fill up hard drives rapidly and cannot readily backup to the cloud yet because of massive file sizes and the speed limitations of most internet connections.

Editing time for wedding videos varies, but for videographers capturing the wedding day with multiple cameras, there will be a minimum of 20 hours of editing time to create a concise story. Documentary wedding videos take 30-60 hours to create.  Videographers that promise wedding videos in a few weeks rather than a 2-6 months are likely not telling a story, but merely creating a music video that allows them to quickly cut and paste their favorite visuals from the day. A completed wedding wedding story will have hundreds of clips layered together.

microphone-by-freestocksdotorg-public-domainWhile photography and videography both require visual skills to capture an event, recording good video also requires sound recording experience.  Without good sound, you may as well hire any Joe off the street to record your wedding with a smartphone.

When investing in a wedding videographer, make sure to look for someone who can capture your story in style and record the moments you never want to forget.