Think Giant.

Our job as videographers is to show you at your best.  But there’s definitely some things that you can do to help us make you look even better.

1.  Act natural and interact with each other. You don’t have to wait for the professionals to pose you and tell you what to do.  This is your day, so let us see some of what you’re really feeling, not just how we want you to look.  We prefer to get a more candid look of your day, so it’s great to get some real interaction between you two.  We’ve also noticed that it’s sometimes hard to act natural or lovey dovey with your mom or dad standing right there.  It’s okay to tell them to go away, in a tactful way of course.

2.  Relax. This is a wonderful day, the best day of your life, but it’s very easy to get caught up in little things, especially those that you have no control over.  If you’re stressing out about time or the weather, it’s going to show in your demeanor and attitude, which we are capturing on film.  Obviously we’re going to cut out shots that aren’t flattering, but it’s so much easier to make a great video when there’s better shot selection while editing.  One of our favorite videos that we’ve ever produced was on a day in April, probably expected to be a pleasant day by the couple.  But it was snowing and sleeting and windy and cold.  Instead of complaining and worrying about the cold, they kept their spirits up, enjoyed the fact that they were now married and turned what could’ve been a stressful couple of hours into a time of celebration and fun.

3. Outward appearance. I think every bride is gorgeous and glowing in their own unique way.  A lot of time and effort goes into your appearance on your wedding day, from the dress and accessories to the hair and makeup.  Don’t hesitate to ask your hairstylist or makeup artist to come for touch-up work after the ceremony.  And please don’t ruin a perfectly good shot by chewing gum!  I know you’re staving off hunger and want to have nice breath for your new spouse, but it’s very unflattering to see someone chomping away on a piece of Big Red.  Use breath mints if you really need to.

Next week’s tip: Integrating your style and story into your video

Tip # 2: Music Selection

Tip # 1: Choosing Your Videographer

One of the biggest parts of what makes a wedding video great is music.  Music has a way of connecting with people on many different levels, so it’s so important that the music you pick for your wedding video does that for you as a couple.  Here are some good general rules when trying to choose the perfect wedding soundtrack:

1. Lyrics–Pay attention to the lyrics of the song.  On many occasions, We’ve had couples choose songs that are not appropriate for weddings.   Many songs can have a great sound and beat, but with closer inspection of the lyrics you can find that rather than a song about love, it is a song about breaking up, cheating, or even someone dying. Sometimes the best lyrics are no lyrics at all. A powerful instrumental track can be just as meaningful as a  song with lyrics, and it will allow more of the natural sounds and voices of your wedding day to shine through.

2. Pacing–This is really important in the editing of the video.  I would advise against choosing a song that is really slow all the way through.  Just makes for a really dull video, even if it’s great footage.  Listen for good beats and speed changes.

3. Avoid trendy songs.  These are the songs that you love when  they first come out, but a few months or a year later, you feel like ripping out your ears if you hear it on the radio.  There are songs out there that tend to stand the test of time, so go searching and find one that you connect with.  It may be a classic, or something more current.

4.  Variety. Not every song has to be by Michael Buble.  Change it up with songs from different genres and tempos for different sections of the video.  It makes the video much more enjoyable if there’s a change of pace and mood.

When we ask for music from our clients, we prefer to get at least 10 songs of varying tempos from the couple, and then we’ll choose what works best for each section of the video.  Obviously if you have a particular song that is especially meaningful to you both as couple, and important to the theme of the wedding, be sure to make that known.  We also have a suggestion list that we’ve put together to help out couples that are having a hard time thinking of songs beyond those that they’ve just watched on other wedding videos or heard on the radio.  Feel free to email us if you’d like to take a look at it.

Next week’s topic: Wedding Day tips to make you look good in your wedding video.

Last week’s tip: Top 3 rules for choosing your videographer

We love great wedding videos! It is the best way to truly remember all the sights and sounds of your big day. A good wedding video not only helps you remember how things looked and sounded but also how you felt on that day. We would like to share some tips each week this month, to better help you have a great wedding film. Starting with choosing the right professional videographer. ( which may or may not be us)

Tip #1:     Top 3 rules for choosing your Videographer:

1. Their Personality

You would not invite a total jerk to your wedding, so why hire a person to film your wedding that you don’t like? Your videographer needs to be someone that you actually like and feel comfortable around. If you are not happy with the person behind the camera, your wedding video can really suffer.

2. Their Work

Next, check out their work.  Every bride has a different style, and so does every videographer.  Make sure you find someone that matches what you want in your wedding video.  When watching recent work of different videographers, pay attention to the quality of the video–the shot selection, lighting, editing, and overall professionalism–not to the song selection or the couple in the video.  Remember, the wedding video is more about emotion, and not just pretty shots.

3. Their Price

So you like the person, you like their work, now what’s their price?  Make sure your wedding video budget is accurate compared to the current pricing trends.  Producing a quality video takes hours of work, and most full time professionals charge more than minimum wage. In Utah’s current market, you can plan on spending at least $1000 for a good quality wedding video.  Most importantly, don’t wait until the last minute, when your wedding budget is so depleted that all you can afford is a $50 Craigslist slideshow.  If wedding video is a priority, reflect that in your budget.

Unfortunately, most couples have this list upside down.  They find a videographer that has a really great price first, later to find out that their work isn’t that great and they didn’t enjoy working with them.  Your wedding video experience deserves to be awesome!  Don’t settle for anything less.

Next week’s tip: Selecting music for your wedding video

We are so excited about the upcoming year! Every year we have a great opportunity to work with fabulous couples and families, and last year was no exception. For those brides looking for a great wedding video to remember their wedding day, we put together this awesome trailer to showcase what Giant Brothers can do for you or someone you know that is getting married. We travel all over Utah and the United States, specializing in LDS Temple films. Feel free to contact us if you would like a full Demo DVD, or have any questions. Thanks!

Today I am blessed to celebrate my 9 year wedding anniversary with my incredible wife DeAnn. I want to thank her for being an amazing best friend, mother, business partner, nurse, taxi driver, cook, hostess, video editor, trivia guru, hot date, phone book, listening ear, teacher, and about a million other things. I love you so much babe!

In my office, I have an photo of us shortly before we were married. Whenever I get discouraged, I look up at it and can’t help but smile, and I know that she supports me as her husband and as I follow my dreams as an event filmmaker

She is truly the inspiration behind everything I do, and Giant Brothers Films would be nothing without her help and support.

original photo credit:  the amazing Miyo Strong of Busath Photography 2000

We are so grateful and honored to win an International Award for Post-Ceremony Production at this year’s WEVA’s Creative Excellence Awards. This association is for wedding and event videographers from around the world, so to have won two of these awards (the first was a Gold Award in 2006) with such massive talent out there is amazing. Thanks so much to Kylee and Jason, the real stars of this winning film!

You can also check out thier awesome Love Story Film & Bridal Film

Technorati Tags: utah, lds, wedding, video, mormon, salt lake temple, giant brothers, WEVA, CEA, award

This will just be a short post to talk about the option of a pre-wedding film.  Many couples love the idea of a same day edit, and showing the temple portion of the wedding film at the reception that evening.  Sometimes, though, that’s not possible, usually due to time constraints if your ceremony time is later in the day.  A easy way to overcome this is to shoot a pre-wedding film– the bride and groom, in formal wedding attire, at the temple, or any other location really, but on a day prior to the wedding.  It can be a lot more fun and relaxed and you can go anywhere you want.  And then we have it edited and ready to present at the reception or dinner.  We did this for Whitney and Steve, who are getting married tomorrow.  I’ll be posting the video on Monday.

So I thought it would be fun and helpful to do a bit more informational posts about wedding and event videography along with posting videos of my recent work.  For this post, I wanted to talk about the presentation of the wedding video at the reception (or dinner, luncheon, whatever).  From the many receptions I’ve been to, the most typical way to show the wedding video is to have it on a TV, playing in the corner of the room.  Sometimes it’s on a nice large TV.  Sometimes it’s on a laptop.  Sometimes it’s on two TVs in separate corners.  And this usually works well for the average Utah wedding reception, where there’s a line of people coming and going, and the guests can watch the video at their leisure.  The problem is, the wedding party–most importantly, the bride & groom  – doesn’t get to see much of the video because they are graciously greeting their well wishers. 

One really great idea that I try to promote to my clients is the Cinematic Presentation of the wedding video.  I will bring a nice projector, screen–usually at least 72″, and audio equipment (if needed).  Then at some point during the reception, everyone stops to watch the video together, including the bride and groom.  I think this is a great way to showcase the new couple and their awesome day together.  Plus it gives them a chance to stop and eat something while they’re watching it.

Last night we held our 7th annual UPVA Creative Excellence Awards at the Megaplex 20 in South Jordan.  It was a really fun night, and I’m proud to bring home 4 awards.  Here’s the winners:

1st Place Bridal Spotlight Production – Kylee Bird

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1st Place Date Production – Cami & Braden

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2nd Place Wedding Reception Production – Kylea & Eric

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2nd Place Love Story Production – Rachel & Skyler

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I couldn’t have done it without such awesome clients. Thanks everyone!

Here is our brand new 2009 Weddings Trailer! It was so much fun to put together. Thanks to all our awesome clients from this last year.

It’s Your Day. Think Giant.

Technorati Tags: utah, wedding, video, lds, temple, giant brothers, trailer, wedding films