There are some people within the greater community of videographers and filmmakers who look down on wedding videographers and wedding videos. They think that it’s less serious and less respectable than “real” videography or filmmaking, and that people only do it for money. While I obviously don’t agree with this, I think this illustrates an important element of wedding videos that some people may focus on more than others: storytelling.
When I make a wedding video, I set out to make a video that tells the couple’s story. In this article, I’ll explain how I approach that mindset.
Characters
Every story has its main characters. In the case of a wedding video, you and your partner are the main characters of your story. As a videographer, thinking of the couple as the main characters helps me to shoot the video in more of a storytelling mindset. I want to follow these characters throughout their wedding day, see what they’re doing to prepare, and know what brought them to this point.
Scenes
Every movie has scenes, each one of which moves the story forward. When I shoot a wedding video, I think in terms of scenes. Fortunately, most wedding days follow a pretty standard timeline, and that timeline creates a sort of built-in structure for the scenes in the video. Each portion of the day serves as its own scene, and the moments that happen within those scenes make up the overall plot.
Sound
I can spend a lot of time talking about sound, because it’s possibly one of the most important parts of a wedding day. There are many ways in which sound can help you tell a story:
- Dialogue: While you may not think of it this way, anything you say is technically dialogue when you think of your life as a story. On a wedding day, capturing dialogue from some of the bigger moments (like the first look or the reading of the vows) is a great way to help tell the story.
- Ambient Sound: Ambient sound helps set the scene and immerse the viewer into the story by sharing the sounds of the actual location at which the wedding happened. Sounds like the wind blowing through the trees, cars driving by on the street, maybe a stream running nearby…the ambient sound adds an extra layer of immersion to the wedding video.
- Music: Music possibly has the biggest impact on the story of a wedding video, as music can greatly influence the emotions that are communicated in any given scene. One scene could come across as somber, heartfelt, happy, energetic, or any other number of feelings just through the choice of music.
- Silence: Silence can be powerful in its own way. Sometimes I like to just let a moment speak for itself, without adding any music or additional sound behind it. Moments like a first look or a reading of vows can sometimes be more immersive with less sound, rather than more.
Interviews
While interviews aren’t the right fit for everyone, they can be an incredible way to tell a couple’s story in their wedding video. Interviews can cover all sorts of information about a couple, such as how they met, how they started dating and got engaged, the things they’re looking forward to on their wedding day, and any big dreams they have for their future together.
