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Choosing a Professional Videographer

Posted on December 16, 2010

Remember the old saying; You get what you pay for? Or how about;  If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is? Well, you’ll want to keep that in mind when selecting a professional wedding videographer.

How much should you expect to pay for a professional wedding videographer? Well, about the same as you would expect to pay for a professional photographer. However, that word “professional” gets kicked around a quite a bit doesn’t it? So then, how do you know if you’re really choosing a professional videographer, or  just a “want-a-be” professional?  Well, for starters, you look at and compare their work, just as you do when selecting a professional photographer. Now If they don’t  seem have much work to look at, well that should be a yellow flag. Don’t just settle to view a collage of the videographers “best shots” arranged in a demo reel, if you have to ask, then ask to view some real wedding videos, like the ones they actually give their clients.

Here’s just a few aspects you should keep in mind when comparing videographers work? First of all, pay close attention to the picture quality, is the scene to dark or too bright? Is there too much or not enough contrast in the overall scene? Are the colors crisp and do they pop out of the picture or are they just sort of dull and lifeless? If so, these are indictors that the videographer doesn’t take much time if any  in post production to color correct his or her work.  Also you’ll want to watch out for those video effects and transitions.  Does the videographer use them discreetly or does the video cry out “THIS IS A VIDEO EFFECT, or THIS IS A TRANSITION, DO YOU SEE ME?”

The audio is just as important and sometimes more so than the video. Can you hear the bride and groom recite their vows clearly, or is there a lot of background noise or echo indicating that improper or insufficient audio equipment was used when recording the event.  Perhaps you don’t hear any natural audio in the videographers samples at all, that may indicate that the audio is very poor and they’re trying to hide that fact. That’s why I like to display various wedding edits from each wedding in my video gallery  (such as the short ceremony edit) so you can hear the quality of the captured audio.

You should also expect a professional videographer to display their work on their website, or invite you to their studio to see their work in person. Since I work out of my home studio, I choose to show my work on here on my blog via Vimeo and you’ll find some of my older work in my gallery on my website where you’ll find more than 90 different client videos from more than 25 different weddings. So before you “only” compare our prices, please take the time to view our work. You owe it to yourself because you only have one chance to do this right.

To inquire on our availability and pricing, please visit our website where you’ll find our packages and pricing page. Or, give me a call and together we’ll customize a package that’s right for you. You can call me anytime between the hours of  10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday – Sunday, at (270) 312-9760 or use our Reservation Request form to send me your contact and event information, and if you would like for me to call, please indicate when would be a good time. Otherwise, I’ll email you a personalized link to our packages and pricing for you to customize your package and request a written quite.

Professional Blu-ray Authoring

Posted on December 12, 2010

If you’re a videographer or cinematographer currently shooting and editing in HD and are looking to outsource your Blu-ray Disc Authoring, send me an emil using the contact form here on the site and I’ll be happy to get back with you asap.

I use a hardware encoder to encode HD content to H.264 for Blu-ray disc authoring. The major benefit of encoding H.264 files verses MPEG files is the fact that I can put about twice the amount of content on a Blu-ray disc with the same or better quality then MPEG.

Generally, I encode the H.264 files at 20 MBps which will allow me to put approximately 3.5 hours of video on a single 25 GB Blu-ray Disc. When a lessor amount of video is required to be authored to Blu-ray I can increase the bit-rate all the way up to 40 MBps however I recommend to keep the bit-rate at or below 30 MBps to insure compatibility with older Blu-ray players.

I can design the menus using both static button menus with music in the background and pop-up translucent menus. The Content is authored to Verbatim White Hub Printable discs with your label design in full color.