The ask
Film the day without becoming part of it. No posed shots, no directing guests, no photographer and videographer elbowing each other at the top of the aisle.
The problem
The standard wedding film is a three-minute montage set to a licensed track, which is lovely once and then never watched again. The bits people actually come back for (the vows, the speeches, the moment a parent loses it) get cut for pace.
You only get one take at any of it. So record everything, and decide later.
How it was done
- Audio taken from the registrar’s desk and a lapel on the groom, not from a camera at the back of a stone church.
- A locked-off wide running unattended through the whole ceremony, while I worked a second camera for the close stuff.
- Speeches recorded end to end, including the pauses.
- Everything else (confetti, the band, the dancing) shot as documentary, not staged.
- This one was a single shooter. A bigger day, or two things happening in different rooms, gets a second one in.
What came back
Three films: a four-minute film of the day, the speeches in full, and the band.
Why it matters for your job
Weddings are the hardest version of event filming. One take, terrible light, no second go at anything. Everything you learn there goes straight into conferences and launches.