Doing the double dip, shooting photos and video of a wedding, is no small task. We talk all the time about wedding photos and how to create beautiful images that your clients will love. But we don’t cover wedding videos nearly as much, so today I have some great tips for you on how to shoot beautiful wedding films that your clients will cherish for the rest of their lives.

wedding-film-tips-2

[Product Highlight: Learn To Shoot Better Outdoor Portraits With Our Natural Light Workshop]

Griffin Hammond, former host of the now defunct YouTube Channel, Indie Mogul, actually makes a good living on freelance video work, and a good portion of that is wedding videos. Recently, on his personal YouTube channel, Griffin released this great video on ‘How To Shoot Beautiful Wedding Films’. I found it really interesting and helpful and thought it was worth sharing.

10 Tips On How To Shoot Beautiful Wedding Films

  1. Bridal shows and business cards are a good step, but the most powerful tool is word of mouth.
  2. Offer to shoot your friend or acquaintances’ wedding, or offer to do it for a stranger at little to no cost. Getting something for your promo reel is the key.
  3. Broadcast to the world that you are a filmmaker that wants to shoot weddings, regularly – without spamming – post on your Facebook and other social networking sites that you are looking to do some weddings and eventually someone will take you up on it.
  4. Tell a story, record as much as possible and give yourself options when it’s time to sit down at the editing table.
  5. Quick interviews with the bride and groom are a great way to add a personal touch to the film. Overlaying that audio with b-roll of the wedding party getting ready is a great way to move the story along.
  6. Glidecams are great tools for getting perfectly stable and steady ‘in motion’ shots.
  7. Setup and many cameras and microphones as possible. It is better to have to cut stuff away than to not have it at all. As mentioned above, give yourself as many options as possible in the editing room.
  8. Be prepared for things to not go as planned. It is always great when they do, but you need to be prepared to go with the flow if things are not exactly as planned.
  9. 5 Hours of footage turns into 1 hour of edited footage.
  10. Deliver as high quality downloads as well as on DVDs (or Blu-rays, if you are just that cool)

wedding-film-tips

What are your thoughts on Griffin’s tips for creating wedding films? Do you have anything that you would add to the list? Share your thoughts below to join the discussion.