I'll bite :)

Pretty horrible video. Just lots of arty shots with no story. Audio levels are so wrong. They seem to have been late or missed covering vital parts of the wedding and then tried to fudge it.

Bob.

Bob, if you haven't, read the "comments". Maybe you did too?

G

I find all wedding videos extremely boring... I've watched many and haven't seen one that I like, this one included. (;

I guess it's like "art" if you don't know what to look for it's just a canvas w/ paint blotches on it. Can someone enlighten me as to what to look for in a wedding video to makes them so interesting to so many here???

[I]"Bob, if you haven't, read the "comments". Maybe you did too?"[/I]

I did [I]after[/I] I'd watched both cuts.
TBH the comments didn't surprise me :(

Bob.

I have never been able to bring myself to attempt a wedding video for money. I did my niece's wedding video and it turned out OK. My main fear is the dreaded M.O.B. (mother of the bride.)

"I guess it's like "art" if you don't know what to look for it's just a canvas w/ paint blotches on it."

To a rather great extent, art that has to be explained has failed.

Yes, there are cases where an artist intends to say whatever he/she wants, without explanation, and expects that the majority if the audience won't "get it". But, these are rare cases, and even more so in commercial art.

I suspect the average wedding video is watched around 0.85 times and then put on the shelf, never to be viewed again.

In my opinion wedding videos, videos of kids, babies, etc are "record keeping" videos. They aren't quite like other videos which are aimed at a broad audience. These videos are for the people in the event and really just need to capture the part of the event the participants want. You can inject art into "record keeping" videos/photos if you are very careful to first make sure you capture what the client wants.

There are two categories of videos I never do: weddings and porn.

I have done several ceremonies, but that is where I draw the line. Mothers-in-law surf the net looking at all the expensive wedding videos they can find, then want that quality for $100.

Artful porn... there is a challenge. Weddings...NEVER!

Edit:
I watched the full 15min of the wedding and just want to give my very personal opinion. I wouldn't like that video either. While it is done very artful and professional it doesn't represent the wedding as such. To me it feels more like a commercial for the company that did the video rather then a wedding video. Aside from missing the ceremony or other important events to make this a "complete" wedding video, it doesn't feel romantic to me. As I said, this is my personal opinion and I am not taking the brides side as I don't know what was contractually agreed upon. I just feel that with all the effects and well thought out shots, the video art and professional work overshadows the event.

My thought is that if i did weddings, which i don't, i can't see myself agreeing to show wedding highlights at the reception, at least not professionally. That's just too short a time period to edit together anything polished that i could feel justified in charging professional rates for.

About the only circumstance i'd be willing is if i was doing this volunteer for a family member or close friend, and they were doing everything on shoestring budget anyway. They'd be briefed that it would be really rough, and i might even throw together a minute or two of samples of what it might look like, just to make sure they'd know the sort of presentation they'd be getting.

I'm also kinda torn between wondering who would want to watch the highlights right after having been to the wedding itself, vs. who would ever want to watch them later?

I think the most cruel thing anyone can do is to make a friend watch their wedding or vacation video. I'd rather be water boarded.

don't care about the video, her opinion, or the filmer... did this REALLY have to go to a "Law suit"? REALLY??? did she not know what to expect hiring that team? Did they plan out expectations in advance? Did she talk to them about a possible "better" edit? Is she more worried about a video than if her overpriced marriage will last longer than the standard 2.5 years before they dig out the pre-nup and begin seperation?
My god, people are truly insane these days.

...IMHO ;)

[I]"Did they plan out expectations in advance?"[/I]

According to the article, Yes.

She was promised certain things which the producer failed to deliver e.g. a camera crane and five camera operators, one of who would speak Russian.

The article also mentions that Igor Boshoer has serious cred having worked on Wolf Street. Maybe he did but according to his LinkedIn profile he's a VFX person specialising in pipeline engineering and Python.


Her main complaint was about a short film to be shown at the reception that told a specific story, how her and her fiancé met. It's not clear if either of the videos offered up are the video in question. Her complaint includes the producer expecting her fiancé to dress in drag for a scene in this short film. Someone, most likely Igor, really failed to do their homework.

Bob.

The interesting thing to me is they paid $12.8K for the video. Is that the going rate for wedding vids??

I did my first and last one for my dad's Army buddy's kid for free... I did not attend the wedding and used only video my dad shot w/ his p/s camera... I took it on just for the challenge and to see what's involved in doing a wedding vid..

The only way I "may" do a wedding video would be only for a good friend. But w/ the stipulation, if the bride's not happy w/ it the video our friendship could come to a quick and bitter end... ((;

The video looks fine to me but I'm a casual observer. This is the difference between what a playwright or actors expect and what an audience sees. I see a wedding video, they see something that didn't go as they planned or maybe doesn't represent what actually happened.

Sometimes there's very bad communication between clients and producers. The client may not know how to ask for what they want and the producer may lead them away from plain descriptions. For example, I remember a dispute in which the client said they wanted something of the same caliber and quality of a previous shoot (performed by a different company) when what they actually meant was that they wanted it to cut with footage from that previous shoot. They ended up with interesting footage that differentiated itself from the previous company's video and wouldn't intercut. Was this the client's fault for trying to sound smarter than they were? Or was it the new producer's fault for not asking the right questions?

The problem with wedding videos, it seems to me, is that most clients are first timers and have unrealistic expectations about the cost of production and the value of the end product. Wedding videos are vanity projects. It's not like you can spread out the responsibility like you might in a corporate or commercial project. There's no return on investment that makes it worthwhile even if it wasn't quite what you visualized, and you weren't spending the boss's money. Whatever feelings of success or failure there are come down on whoever handled getting the video made. They take everything very personally.

Rob

Here's what I'd do: I'd give it to them for free and get on with the next one.

Some of my biggest disasters have been weddings:

1. In college (1970), I agreed to be the photographer for a small wedding in the big church on campus. I took my Nikon F and big old Honeywell strobe there a week in advance and took a roll of B&W, just to make sure I knew how much to increase the exposure. [Remember, with manual exposure strobes, having to measure distance, set the aperture, and then after all that, compensate for lack of reflection when in a big room or outdoors?]. The tests turned out fine, but I was fooled by the wider latitude of my B&W film, and when I switched to Kodachrome -- the most unforgiving emulsion when it comes to exposure -- for the actual shoot, I ended up with very, very dark photos.

I gave them the photos as a wedding present and didn't charge.

2. The day after 9/11 I got a call that a huge wedding at the most elite venue on the Monterey Peninsula (Stonepine) was hosting a wedding in three days, but none of the east coast guests could make it because the airlines weren't flying. Could I stream the wedding? This was 2001, and streaming from a remote location that only had dial-up was out of the question. So I hired an assistant and we went out there to do a simple two-camera shoot that I would then put into downloadable format and post on an ftp site. My camera worked fine, but the guy I used (who was head of the company who was going to host the files), turned out to have far less knowledge of his camera than I was led to believe. His video was over-exposed by two stops.

I gave them the video as a wedding gift.

I've done lots of other weddings, and even though almost all my work is event videography (or restoration work), there is something about the one-time, never-to-be-repeated (well, for some people ...) nature of the occasion that magnifies any failure, whether partial or complete, and makes the likelihood of bad feelings or lawsuits far more likely.

I have great admiration for those who can make a living doing this and still retain their humanity and good spirits.

...they paid $12.8K for the video. Is that the going rate for wedding vids??

Some vanity projects are a lot more expensive than that. Obviously, if you're trying to make a living then you want to land bigger weddings where people have the money to show off.

Rob

I live in the Midwest but have a daughter who lives in the metro NYC area. From what she has described, the cost would be reflective of that area.

Over forty plus years of doing a wedding here and there for family and friends I have seen a tremendous change in expectations. It seems more brides are performing for the camera. Anymore, it is with great reluctance I agree to shoot a wedding -- in which case, I have no business doing it for their benefit or mine.

tom

The last three weddings i've attended probably had a *total* budget in the range of $600 up to $3600. Yes, you read that right, one of them was $600. That was all the money that was to be had. $150 went to the church and pastor. $400 to the caterer for food for 40 guests (the bride worked for them at the time), and $50 for ... everything else.

That was the one wedding i've recorded in the past 25 years. I was photographer, videographer, DJ, invitation printer, and assistant decorator, all gratis.

"That was the one wedding i've recorded in the past 25 years. I was photographer, videographer, DJ, invitation printer, and assistant decorator, all gratis."

And I wouldn't mind betting that was the couple who had the best wedding of all of them (to say nothing of the good time had by the guests).

I have never been to a low budget wedding where it hasn't been a truly memorable day - and for all the right reasons.

(Of course i may just be posting this as the father of a girl who is getting married within the next 18 months)

Done lots of projects, never weddings.

Two years ago a family friend's daughter was getting married. Would I do it? "No," I said, "I don't do weddings?" "Please?" "No, I wouldn't do a wedding for less than $12k." And I was serious.

That quieted things down--for a while. Then the bride-to-be asked. With tears in her eyes.

Damn. Not fair.

So I did the wedding, with two cameras, a decent product was delivered. I didn't charge a cent.

But from now on, $12k, and this time I really mean it.


EDIT: For "****" read "D a m n."