Why are Wedding Videographers Expensive?
If you’re looking at hiring a wedding videographer, I wouldn’t be surprised if your heart skipped a beat at some of the starting prices. You might even catch yourself saying “All they do is press record right?” But that’s only a very small part of what we do. If I wasn’t in the filmmaking business, I would be saying the same thing.
Don’t get me wrong, wedding videography is expensive. There’s no other way to put it. But trust me, there’s a good reason behind what we charge and in this post, I’m going to break down some of the expenses videographers can incur.
Gear
Let’s start with the gear. This is probably a wedding videographer’s biggest expense. Most videographers will use between 3-5 cameras for a wedding, especially if they're filming the ceremony and reception. Each of these cameras has to have a lens on it (which can be the same price, maybe even more than the camera body itself), as well as some sort of tripod or stabilizer to hold it in place. The other essential parts to a wedding filmmaker’s kit is audio equipment to capture what was said and lights, as often the venue is dimly lit. Some equipment is bought and some is rented. Also, don’t forget that videographers need to carry around and protect all of their gear and camera bags add up as well. Lastly, in post production, a wedding videographer needs many reliable hard drives to store all of the footage and a high quality, fast computer to edit the video together. Of course, new gear doesn't need to be purchased for every wedding. However, as technology improves and expectations rise, our equipment needs to be updated every few years to keep up.
I’ve learned many keyboard shortcuts to make editing faster, but cutting together a polished wedding video still takes many hours.
Time
Depending on the package, a wedding videographer might be present at the wedding between 8 and 12 hours. Then, the most time consuming part of the project... editing! This also varies between the amount of video that needs to be produced. Most couples will ask for a highlight film, a ceremony film, and a speech film. Editing time for this could be around 40-50 hours as we have to go through all of the footage that was taken, cut together the ceremony and speech film, and create a unique highlight video that fits your style of wedding. That's a total of at least 40 hours from the start of the wedding to the final product.
Editing Programs + Music
Now, let’s talk about two other expenses that videographers are subject to. Editing programs. Some of these programs charge a monthly fee and others are just purchased once. And, music licensing. Similarly, some videographers pay a monthly subscription for a music licensing website while others pay per song licensed.
I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit wedding videos.
Skill + Passion
Lastly, you're paying for skill and passion. You could hire a videographer with the best gear, computer, and editing software, but if they don't have the skill or the passion, their videos won't compare to someone who does. I love making videos and telling stories through film. I can confidently say that my wedding videography business is built on a passion for filmmaking. If you have any questions regarding wedding videos, contact me through the contact page. If this post helped you out at all, please share it to help someone else!
