Wedding Cinematography Frequently Asked Questions

We know planning a wedding comes with an overwhelming amount of questions and often can be a stressful experience. We want to make sure that your experience with us is the most simple part of your wedding day! Don’t see an answer to your question below? Contact us, and our wedding coordinator will answer your questions!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIDEOGRAPHY & CINEMATOGRAPHY?

Videography is the capturing of an event, but cinematography is the art of designing a piece of film that is movie quality. We strive to create films where you and your partner are the main characters in your work of art! For an even more in depth breakdown, read our Wedding Videography versus Cinematography Guide.

WHAT IS A TEASER TRAILER/SOCIAL MEDIA TRAILER? 

A teaser trailer is a 30-60 second sneak peek of the wedding day, cinematically edited. It is specifically created with social media in mind! It focuses mainly on you and your new spouse, and highlights the most beautiful scenes from your wedding day. This short trailer is typically ready within one to two weeks after your wedding!

WHAT IS A HIGHLIGHT FILM?

The Love Story of your Wedding Day. This is the longer film where our team gets to expertly and creatively craft a film that brings forth all the emotion of your wedding day. Our creative films range from 3-5 minutes, 5-7 minutes or 8-11 minute options. We focus on the most beautiful, cinematic, and unique moments of your wedding day and weave them all together to tell the story of your best day ever. We strive to ensure the music, voice-overs, and scenes perfectly reflect your love and your wedding day. 

WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY STYLE VIDEO?

Our documentary style video is a long form video of the ceremony and major events of the reception. There is no cinematic editing here where we cut back and forth to different parts of the day. Rather, this is shown in real time exactly the way it happened. We use angles from a few different cameras at the events to show you some different perspectives throughout the video.  Since we cannot fit entire speeches or first dances into a highlight film, this is where you would get to see the entire 10 minute speech by the father of the bride or watch your entire 5 minute first dance. These videos vary in length but are typically about one hour long. Length of ceremony and speeches can affect the length of of this video.

HOW DO YOU CAPTURE THE VOICE-OVER?

Because having a backup of the backup is important to us, we do this 3 different ways on your wedding day. 

Firstly, we will ask you to recite a copy of your vows or messages (audio only) to us during the early part of the day. This avoids any background noise such as babies crying during the ceremony. 

Secondly, right before the ceremony, our team will be placing tiny discreet recording devices on the most non-visible locations we can find on the officiant and groom. These recording devices will pick up everything said between the 3 of you guys during the ceremony. 

Thirdly, our team will also professionally record the sound coming out of the soundboard, speaker system or PA system that is set up by the DJ or venue. This gives all the music being played during the ceremony and reception as well as backup to the other two sources mentioned above. Additionally, we transfer the last recording system into the reception as well to ensure we get all the good soundbites from the speeches and toasts during the reception. 

Afterwards, during our post production process, our team professionally synchronizes the audio recordings with the matching video clips to create a premium visual and auditory experience. 

HOW MUCH TIME DO I NEED FOR MY WEDDING DAY?

The morning of your wedding sets the foundation for the entire day and the experience you have with our team. We do not want you to feel rushed or overwhelmed from the start of the day. That said, our coverage will begin approximately two hours before the bride is scheduled to get dressed (according to timeline). We like to stay until all the events are done and the dancing begins so we can get some of that party vibe footage for your film. Sometimes this means 8 hours, sometimes it means 10 hours, and sometimes it means 16 hours (Indian Weddings). Knowing that we start 2 hours before the dress goes on will help to calculate how much time you might need. 

DO YOU HELP POSE AND GUIDE THE COUPLE?

Absolutely! Ensuring our couples look and feel amazing all day long is important to us. We will guide you towards the best light, place you in the prettiest locations and give you suggestions and posing tips to bring it all together. 

AFTER YOUR WEDDING DAY

After the wedding is over our post production team spends countless hours handpicking the best footage from your event. We review any notes and take any special requests into consideration. We then use modern editing techniques that emphasize the emotion of your wedding day and couple that with a completely customized sound design of all the music and soundbites used for that extra special touch that only One Story Weddings can offer. We strive to deliver the highest quality cinematic wedding films available. Our films will not only document your wedding day, but our experience, professional techniques and creativity will excite you, move you and make you fall in love with one another over and over again every time you watch it.