When you spend time with people you really like, good vibes simply flow. That’s why I make a point to talk about chemistry and vibes with couples interested in wedding videography.
Here’s why I chat about it: One of the biggest factors in creating an awesome wedding day for you and your guests is the people — i.e. the wedding pros — you surround yourself with.
Your video team will spend most of the wedding day in your orbit, sometimes being as close as over your shoulder during prep or as far away as 300 feet when piloting an aerial drone. We always want to be as unobtrusive as possible — you know, the proverbial fly on the wall — meaning we’ll stay out of the action and let it unfold as naturally as possible for as much of the day.
But the reality is: We’re fairly close throughout the day. Because of that, we want you to be as comfortable with us as possible.
Find a Videographer: Why Meetings Matter
That means we want to meet you! Preferably in person and over drinks, but via Skype if we can’t gather in the real world. In-person and online meetings not only help YOU figure out if we’re chill enough to hang at your wedding, but also helps us determine if we want to work with you.
What? Sweet Pea doesn’t work with every couple that comes a callin’? Shocking as it sounds, we don’t.
Most of the time, it’s because the couple just doesn’t like our creative process and want to “manufacture” nearly every moment of the day. That’s not our jam, as we prefer to film events as they happen organically. So, that’s really a mismatch of “style” rather than personality. So, if I’m being very honest, I will tell you that we have met a few couples who cringed when we described our journalistic-documentary approach. We could tell our inquisitive nature was simply too intrusive. And we knew if we filmed that wedding, we’d be frustrated not getting the kind of access to story we want.
We both swiped left, so to speak. And that’s OK.
Thankfully, those good vibes — when our energy matches and we’re laughing about the same things — happen all the time. Most couples have already done a ton of research checking out our work and our “about” section and have a pretty solid idea of who we are and how we operate. Then, our easy going nature and our crazy devotion to our craft (and our couples) usually rule the day.
Find a Videographer: The Team’s Vibe
The other key vibes couples should consider is the chemistry among the video team members. Great teams have a flow that’s apparent, and bring calm to a crazy busy day. You don’t want videographers barking at each other or being a distraction during your wedding. It’s our opinion that videographers and photographers should be almost unseen and unheard on a wedding day. (There are a few exceptions to this rule, but that’s another blog conversation!).
Being spouses, Dean and I have a smooth working relationship. Maybe that’s from our ballroom dance lessons this winter. Ha! But in all seriousness, having done so many weddings together, we anticipate each other’s needs, and we simply flow with the action of the day.
Truthfully, it wasn’t always that way. We’d have to bite our collective tongues during stressful moments when things weren’t going exactly as planned. We were too green and not used to working with each other (again, another blog post down the road. LOL!) But it’s easy now. We’re both easy-going, happy and passionate filmmakers who have developed a rock-solid shooting style and plan for a very challenging day.
So on to the advice portion of this post:
Your Video Team: 3 Ways to Click
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Check out their website: First, critically review their work and make sure it’s worth your time to contact them. Then, read their “about” section. You should get some very big clues on how they like to operate and what their personalities are. If not, you may want to ask a few more personal questions during your face-to-face … which is next.
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Meet in person! There’s no easier way to figure out if your personalities are a good fit. Does your energy match? Is humor or reverence important? What about volume — loud or quiet?
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Make them list their most important goals on a wedding day: If your vidoegrapher’s most important goal is to rock the “cinematic” epic shots during portrait and video sessions that go for more than three hours and race around to five different locations, but your primary goal is to perfectly capture your grandfather’s serenade at the reception, well, then, you might have a chemistry mismatch. As the client, YOUR goals should be those of your videographer, but you’ll find as you interview companies that a studio’s style and approach might not be as flexible to match yours.
There you have it. We hope this advice helps you swipe right with the perfect video team for your wedding.
Cheers!