A Place for Every Shot and Every Shot in its Place
Requesting only the unedited raw footage from a wedding is like walking into a five-star restaurant and asking the chef for the ingredients instead of the meal. In the world of cinematic wedding films, raw files are just the beginning. The real magic happens in the kitchen, or rather in the editing studio. This is where both chefs and filmmakers turn raw ingredients into art.
Why brides hire a videographer
The most common feedback I’ve heard over and over again is “we didn’t want to hire a videographer at first but we’re so glad that we did because he captured our day in the best way possible.” And that last part, “in the best way possible,” is key. You can look through my reviews and see variations on this sentiment. What this means to me is that simply viewing the footage recorded on your special day isn’t enough. Sure, it’s nice to kick back with a couple bags of popcorn and maybe some sea salt or cardamom to really bring out the memory sensory experience and watch the 2 to 4 hours of raw footage like a mini movie marathon. But, when I edit your footage I take the absolute best 5% of your day and present it in a way that tells a story that wasn’t there in the raw footage itself. Watching unedited footage from your day is fun, just like eating popcorn. But watching a professional edit from your wedding day is a completely immersive experience that will show you a side of yourself and your partner and your loved ones that will leave you with the same feeling you get from a good French Onion Soup. “Is this really just cheese and onions and broth? How is this possible?”
Why photography is not enough
Many couples can’t afford to hire both a photographer and videographer, and that’s ok. That is actually why I offer my services as a photographer who also records video. I am one of the few photographers that can offer the option to have both full photography coverage as well as some video coverage at the same time while acting as the sole photographer. Photography is great but it simply cannot do certain things that are only achievable in video and the same is true in reverse. A photo cannot truly capture motion. Video cannot always preserve a very narrow slice of time in perfect detail, although I would argue it’s getting very close to being able to do that using the way that I film. For the best value on your day, consider The Cinematic Look package from Bywater Lens. And to really make sure you get the best of both worlds, you can hire me as your photographer filmmaker hybrid and add one extra camera person just for the Ceremony to make sure those moments in particular are captured perfectly.
The place for raw footage is in the studio, where it is prepared, cut, refined, and finished by yours truly into a film. The place for a wedding film is safely in your computer, on your hard drive, and also backed up on my massive storage solution. Of course I will always offer the option to receive the raw footage from your day as an add on to any other package, but not on its own. Even delivering the raw footage requires time color grading and syncing audio.
Editing a wedding film is a fundamental part of the process and my job with Bywater Lens is to carefully bring out the truest, most emotionally satisfying flavors contained within your personal French Onion Soup recipe until what occurs on the screen is greener than green, sweeter than sweet, and more real than real.
