Over the last 5 years of photographing weddings I've seen all sorts of crazy shenanigans from the videographers:
- the one who circled the couple like a shark 3-5 times at key romantic moments
- the one who brought two assistants and all three of them crammed into the room where the bride was getting dressed.
- the one who refused to move his tripod - preventing the wide shot of the church that the bride had requested
- the one who insisted on walking backwards down aisle inches away from the bride's face, blocking the view of the groom
- the one who brought two huge lighting rigs to the reception killing the ambience of the chandeliers and candles
- the one thought he was on a movie set vs. a wedding and made the couple restage/repeat everything three time to make sure he "got it"
It's one of the main reasons why I ask couples if they're planning on video when I meet with them. If they're thinking about it I suggest they look into one of only three that I can happily recommend. Yes - out of all of the videographers that I've seen at over one hundred weddings, there are only three that I'll recommend.
Of course, done well, wedding films can be spectacular! You don't notice the video being recorded and it complements the still images perfectly.
Think of your grandparents, maybe you have a couple of grainy black and white images of the day they got married, maybe you're lucky and they got a wedding album. Now imagine you had video of their wedding day. Imagine being able to see them moving and being able to listen to them make their vows. That video would be priceless.
I know it's tough to stick to a budget when wedding planning but I would suggest putting (good) video ahead of things that will be forgotten like the letterpress invitations, the basket of flip flops, the candy bar - all awesome things but no one ever looks back and says "I wish we'd spent more on flip flops"
And the point of all of this? Well, I wanted to share with you one of my three video recommendations! They're Melissa & Tom of Long Haul Films, they're a husband and wife team and they just "get it" when it comes to weddings and marriage. Exhibit A - here's their 2011 highlights video and if you watch it all the way to the end and don't get a little lump in your throat or a tear in your eye then you are heartless! Do you hear me? Heartless :)
Here they are in action at a recent video shoot interviewing some of my previous wedding clients (check back at 1pm today for the official screening of the first of six mini films about Leah Haydock Photography):
Tom is British, just like me! And his background is full of film magic including a master's degree in feature film production from the prestigious Goldsmiths College in London. Melissa also has a creative background in all sorts of digital and social media strategy, marketing and with Tom she founded the most awesome blog on marriage called "The Long Haul Project."
In my opinion, Tom & Melissa are story tellers at heart, whether it's one of their short films, documentaries, commercial films or a wedding video - they're able to tell the story in moving pictures and sound.
As an example, here are some of my favorite pictures from Eunis & Jeff's wedding at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, MA last year. And then I'm going to follow them with the trailer video by Long Haul Fims which is just perfect as you can actually hear the vows and watch the choreographed dance routine:
And here's the video:
I'm very excited to be working with Long Haul Films at quite a few weddings in 2012, if you've been waiting to find the right team for your wedding film then you should totally get in touch with them! I can promise that they'll stay out of my pictures and I'll stay out of their video :)
Contact info:
www.LongHaulFilms.com
(617) 259-8900
info@longhaulfilms.com
And....drumroll please....check back in just 2 hours for the world premiere of the first in a series of short films that Long Haul made about Leah Haydock Photography....
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