Documentary Wedding Videography FAQ'S

Similar to a documentary photographer, a documentary wedding videographer does not direct or alter the scene in front of them at all, instead preferring to capture natural imagery just the way it happens.

Some videographers do ask for “couple time” in order to create some posed imagery as part of the filming process. Documentary wedding videographers however typically do not direct any of the action of a wedding day and capture the story candidly as it unfolds.

Personally for us, it is important for our style of filmmaking that our couples stay in the moment at all times and so do not pose or directly interfere with any moments at all on a wedding day.

There are various factors that go into the decision of whether having two videographers is appropriate for your wedding. Typically, your videographer is already likely to be working beside at least one photographer and so sometimes having only one videographer can be preferable in order to limit the number of cameras around you (and the potential for getting in one-another’s shots). However videographers are at times more likely to have additional equipment to set up (e.g. sound recorders or camera tripods) which can take them away from the action for certain parts of the day and so it is often preferable to have a second videographer to continue shooting whilst any setup is taking place. The length of film being provided is also a factor here as longer films may require an additional shooter to provide additional angles and allow filming to take place in more than one place at a time (e.g. during the bride and groom prep).

For us personally, we recommend two shooters for our longer feature films and for larger events (or weddings with lots of planned activities). For our highlights and film short packages we generally recommend that one videographer is the ideal fit in most circumstances.

Drones can offer some truly unique angles on a wedding day and are commonly used by some videographers to showcase a wedding venue from the air to set the scene for the wedding. As with all tools of cinematography though their use is a stylistic choice and not fitting to every style of film. It’s important to note that the use of Drones is highly regulated and for commercial purposes should only be carried out by a qualified operator and subject to aviation restrictions (which often incurs an additional cost). In some situations drones can also be fairly noisy and distracting and many videographers choose not to use them for these reasons.

Here at York Place we generally don’t use drones principally for stylistic reasons. Our films are based on creating a sense of intimacy and offering to some extent a ‘guest’s perspective’ on the wedding day and so we try to frame our imagery around more natural camera positions. Consequently we feel that the use of drones in most cases is likely to be inconsistent with our style of filming and break the intimacy of the wedding videos that we strive to create.

Sound and music are incredibly important parts of virtually any wedding video. It is often the music that sets the tone of the film, the pacing of the action and in some cases even the style of the edit. A well-crafted wedding film will generally use sound and/or music to heighten and lower the emotion or excitement at the appropriate moments in tandem with the visuals and is an essential tool in the film editor’s arsenal. A great piece of music can look fundamentally wrong when paired with visuals that don’t match the tone or pacing of that particular part of a film. Consequently, whilst some videographers will look for input on the choice of music for a wedding film, many will not for creative reasons. 

It is equally important to note that the use of any music is subject to copyright restrictions which, in most cases, will restrict your wedding videographer to the use of pre-cleared royalty-free music and mean that many of the more well-known popular tracks may be effectively unobtainable due to the high expense and time consumption involved in licensing popular music. 

At York Place we massively value the impact that great music can have on our films (and slideshows) and therefore we want to ensure that musicians and artists are properly rewarded for their contribution. For us personally we actually see these apparent restrictions as something of a creative opportunity. The music you listen to every day can easily become synonymous with more than one thing – e.g. perhaps the song you played as you got ready for your wedding day might later become the theme of a TV advert and its constant repetition in this new context changes the meaning of the song for you. A well known song is also likely to come with different connotations for different people, e.g. other family members. In using pre-cleared music created by incredible emerging artists from specialist film websites, we can create a soundtrack that is truly unique to your wedding film and to you as a couple. One that can act as a spark to your memories equally as powerful as the visuals themselves.

For some filmmakers it can be important to have filmed in (or at least previously visited) your venue prior to a wedding day. This is usually principally the case where there are logistical concerns in terms of the placing of tripods, jibs, gliders etc, or where the style of the videographers is to include a significant amount of directed imagery and additional time may be needed to scout potential backdrops and locations in advance of the wedding.

Documentary wedding videographers however tend to use minimal additional equipment and do not direct or pose the scenes within their films and so in most cases will not need to have previously visited your venue in person. Indeed due to the spontaneous nature of the documentary style it can in some cases be counter-productive to have planned camera placements or movements in advance.

For us personally our films are all about people and reflecting the unique individual personalities of our couples and so are unable to plan shots in advance. Therefore for us it is never necessary for us to visit a venue in advance of a wedding.

Whilst it is a good idea to think about how well the styles of your wedding photographer and videographer might align, professional photographers and filmmakers should always be working together to ensure that you the couple get the best possible photos and videos from your day.

Documentary wedding videographers tend to work quite well alongside a broad stylistic range of photographer as they do not require additional time for posed imagery and do not tend to use bulky equipment which can otherwise be in the way of photographs. However it is important to remember that the documentary style is based on capturing spontaneity and so to get the best out of your documentary wedding film you should ideally look to choose a photographer who works in a broadly similar style for the majority of the day.

Whilst we of course share an overarching style with our fantastic documentary wedding photographers Dom and Liam and so work seamlessly together, at York Place Films we’re fortunate to work alongside a wide range of different styles of photographer and work as flexibly as possible to accommodate any photographic requirements.

The wedding ceremony and (in most cases the speeches) are of course key parts of a wedding day, and many couples therefore like to have them captured in full.

Having them captured as one, long edit allows you to relive these moments as many times as you like and so they can be really beautiful memories that many couple enjoy watching time and time again.

But there can also be some drawbacks to having full coverage which are also important to consider.

One of the reasons that wedding photographs are so emotive and powerful is that they show only a tiny fraction of a second – a perfect moment that sparks your own memories to fill in the blanks. Short-form cinema does the same – showing you the most evocative highlights of your day to bring back memories – to evoke the feeling of the moment rather than the literal historical second to second record of exactly what occurred. Naturaly you can watch your short highlights as well, but watching something in full doesn’t just remind you of the moment, it reshapes it through the camera’s lens.

The act of capturing something in highlights form vs consistent covrerage is also a factor. When a videographer films for full covereage their number one concern becomes not the artistry of the shot but the consistency of it. The filmmaker cannot change position or take a risk because there must always be an angle to cut to – a pressure that doesn’t exist in the same way for highlights films. There is also an impact on the type and amount of equipment required in order to ensure that alternate angle always exists. Whilst these factors tend to be less of an issue for speeches, where there tends to be more options for camera placement, for ceremonies it can be extremely challenging to obtain more than one consistent angle which will impact the filmmaker’s choice of shots.

So when it comes to choosing whether to have speech and ceremony coverage there is no right or wrong answer, but it’s important to understand the potential implications of either approach. For that reason full speech and ceremony coverage is generally not included by default in our packages but can (subject to restrictions) be added as an additional extra).

Whilst once upon a time there was little choice for the wedding filmmaker but to carry large cameras and rely on bulky rigs to stabilise the footage, modern equipment has changed the landscape of wedding videography entirely. The amount and size of equipment is now squarely in the hands of the videographer and their individual style, techniques and the look they wish to create.

For some videographers the increasing availability and affordability of Hollywood-esque equipment might well mean that their rigs have become bigger over time, with motorised dollies creating movement, multiple accessories mounted to their cameras and even full-sized cranes sweeping across the room.

For others though (ourselves included) the vast improvements in technology have taken things the other way, allowing videographers to create incredible, cinematic results with the very same cameras that your photographer might be using, and with little other equipment needed at all.

Whilst we always have multiple backups in play at any one time, at York Place we like to keep our equipment as minimal as we can and focus on staying discrete and creating a guest-like experience as we capture the day. Our cameras are hand-held as much as possible, we don’t alter the mood by introducing additional artificial lighting, and even our sound equipment is kept as discrete as possible, using small tie-clip style mics and hidden backups to ensure that your wedding day doesn’t begin to feel like a film set.