Your Wedding in motion

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be priceless. Wedding videography captures the emotion and joy of the special day and is becoming a must-have in weddings nowadays, writes Allan olingo

Imagine you seated at your couch and the only evidence to show you actually got married is the wedding band on your finger! You were so excited that you couldn’t remember the sequence of your wedding. All the planning, the endless sacrifices and efforts, but you don’t have a single recollection of how things went. What a pity!

Now imagine having a wedding video. Watching this sequence over and over again gives you a chance to relive the memories that keeps you smiling. Everything is perfect: Your family, friends and relatives seated comfortably, the floral arrangements looking divine, the music is in key and there you are, walking down the aisle to the arms of the person of your dreams. Simply divine!

Wedding videography is now a must-have service in any wedding occasion. One of its most important components is how the video is shot and what style the videographer uses.

According to a wedding planner, Sylvia Ombungu, to avoid disappointments, entrust this service to a professional wedding videographer rather than an amateur with a video capturing device.

"The best person to ask for advice on this is your wedding planner and also referrals. They will have a trusted videographer so that you will have one less thing to worry about," Sylvia offers.

Wedding videography involves planning, shooting and editing according to the requirements of the couple getting married. To have the videographer execute their part, it is, therefore, important for the bride and groom to meet him/her weeks before the wedding, to ensure the sequence of event is effectively communicated to the videographer.

"This meeting is key in finding out the events to be covered and making a complete list of the events and times to enable the videographer capture all the details," says Sylvia.

Sylvia says video editing is very important and good quality editing will make a huge difference.

"It is important to ask the important questions: How long will the final product be? Can titles, captions be included? Will music be added? Can couples do narrations? What’s the final price? This will help make the video more romantic and suit your tastes," says Sylvia.

Budget

According to wedding videographer Herman Kariuki of Skypix Productions, the final product a client wants determines the cost.

"If you are going to use a home made camera instead of a professional camera, then the price will be different. Other determinants include the duration of the shoot, the number of cameras and editing," says Kariuki.

Sylvia also advises those couples who have budget limitations to go for options such as asking for the wedding to be covered, but not edited.

She says: "Instead, get the "raw" footage, save it and get the editing done later when you can afford it. The most important thing is to capture the day."

Technical bit

When it comes to the real technical issues, Kariuki says one should demand at least two things from their videographer; a good audio output and white balancing to avoid video goofs.

"The audio element is one of the most important elements of any video work that is often forgotten. Audio problems will turn viewers off," says Kariuki.

To ensure this problem does not occur, Kariuki says other than getting the microphones close to the audio source, one should also constantly monitor the audio feed and listen through a good set of noise-cancelling headphones.

"You need to capture the joy in the wedding, the songs, laughter and ululations and these audio combinations are what makes the wedding videos interesting," he offers.

White balance is another critical technique in shooting.

"Your videographer should be able to understand how to balance the lights coming through the windows into the venue, from the fluorescent tubes and even the outdoor lights. The best colour correction is done by shooting each setting properly then editing it to suit the need," says Kariuki.

When it comes to editing, Kariuki says the client’s taste dictates the way the editing will be done and most of the time, this process can take up to two weeks depending on how long the wedding video shoot took.

Voice over

"We do a first draft and send it to the client who will then guide us into how they want the clips to run. This includes the kind of background music to use and in which clips it will be used," says Kariuki.

"We capture the days events and package them in a very candid way. It’s one of those clips you will always play and never get bored mostly because all the sequences have been captured," he says.

Kariuki says that couples can choose to do voice-over telling the story of the events as they unfolded that day.

"The sound bites will play over the video and the bride and groom will record what they want to say after the actual wedding takes place," he offers.

It is also important to let your entertainers know that the video is important to you, because the video shots will turn out better with nice, ambient lighting.

So get out there and get a professional to capture the important moments you will always want to relive!