Even though you may not have ever stopped to think about it, the work of a wedding videographer certainly does not end once the wedding day is over, it is actually just the beginning. After a hectic workday spent diligently capturing the entire day long happy occasion on video, recording all those special details of the day and getting interviews from guests, the videographer goes home to begin the real work of editing the raw video and creating the immortal wedding day masterpiece for the bride and groom.
Once I'm done shooting all the raw video of your special wedding day, that same night I begin the process of inputting all the hours of raw video footage into my editing computer system. The process is slow, as the editing system captures the footage in real time; meaning that if there are three hours of footage, it will in fact take three hours to capture the media. So, in actuality it takes longer to capture the footage into the editing system than it did when I first filmed the footage, as I sit in front of the computer and watch the footage in a slowed motion speed, stopping it when I believe there is a change of action. For example inside a "bin," which is a fancy word for a video folder, I create a clip and name it "cocktail hour." There might also be another clip bin for "cutting the cake", and so forth. As you can see it is a slow process that needs to be accomplished before even beginning to stage the wedding into a "story line."
After I have finished inputting the footage, I need to input all of the music that I will be using. I like to ask the bride and groom what type of music they like best. For example, I had a bride and groom who were very fond of Brian Ferry's "Slave to Love" and I used that song along with some other Brian Ferry music to create their DVD. I had to find the music, so I began the process by locating the songs and then inputting them into the computer system, thus creating a bin for all of the music. The graphics I use are state of the art. I go through the list of graphics, finding the art that adds a unique element to your wedding video.
Once I have finished inputting all the necessary details, I can then begin the task of processing a draft of your wedding DVD. I like to interview the bride and groom prior to their special day in order to include the interview in the DVD as the starting point to their story. It is a "wedding story" that starts with the happy couple talking about how they actually met and fell in love. It is a story that then proceeds to the details of how they declared their love for each other in front of family and friends, and it is a story that ends with the beginning of their new lives together.
I remember when I got married, and how anxious I was to get my Wedding DVD, and this is exactly the reason why I provide the bride with a Wedding Trailer two weeks after the wedding. This way she can get a glimpse of her special day, in order to share it with family and friends via the social networks.
The DVD creation process usually takes about 8 weeks to complete, after the wedding day.
