Think Giant.

Of the 6 UPVA awards Giant Brothers received last week, here’s the 1st place Date Video Production, courtesy of the Veronica & Scott wedding. I love doing date films, they’re one of my most favorite things to film. To just see a couple relaxing and having fun, and being able to capture that is great. So, enjoy!

This is an award I was really excited to get.  I put a lot of effort into making my new wedding demo each year, and it can be really hard because I have such great clients to show off.  So here’s the demo from last year, that recently earned an award in our UPVA Creative Excellence Competition.  (Don’t forget to see our NEW demo from this year here)

We had a great time last night at the 8th annual UPVA Creative Excellence Awards.  With such great talent in this state, we feel honored to have won 6 awards.  We’ll be posting one award winning video each day, so be sure to check back to see all of them.  Here’s the 2nd place winner in the Bride and Groom Production, starring the amazing Whitney and Steve Olsen!

Our last wedding video tip is all about integrating your style and story into your wedding video.  I’m sure you don’t want your wedding video to be a copycat of all the others you’ve seen.  After all, this one is about you!  As such, it should reflect your style and personality.  Here are some tips to ensure that your wedding video is unique to you:

1.  Find out your style. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the fairy tale-princess-slow motion wedding, and 10 being the rocker-MTV wedding, where would you rate yourself?  Every bride pictures how they want their wedding to be.  If you can see it clearly in your mind, that will help you know what your style is.

2.  Meet and Communicate with your videographer. Wedding planning can be crazy and busy. In this age of cell phones, email, and the internet, it’s so much easier to plan everything online or over the phone without having to drive all over the place meeting with people.  But there’s no better way to convey your style and personality to your videographer than meeting with them in person.  If we can get a better sense of who you are, then that’s going to come out in the video.  Don’t be afraid to mention specific things you want (or don’t want) in the video.

3. Music. We discussed this in length a couple weeks ago, but we’ll mention it again briefly here.  The music sets the tone for the video.  So once you’ve found out your style, make sure your music selection matches that.

4.  Date/Love Story Film. We love to do the date and love story films.  They’re fun and casual and much more effective at bringing out your style.  They showcase the spark between you two as a couple.  If you’re unsure about which one is right for you, you can read an earlier post here discussing the differences and how to choose between the two.  Below is a great love story we did that captured the couple’s personality:

Tip # 1–How to choose your videographer

Tip # 2–Music Selection

Tip # 3–How to look your best in your wedding video

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

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 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

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!

We are excited once again to have a booth at Salt Lake’s Premier Wedding Show. It is next Saturday, January 17th at The Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Drop by and see us. We will be on the second, or Mezzanine level. There is so many great wedding vendors there, and you can’t beat the location. Drop by and see us!