Wedding Videography is an increasingly crowded profession, and therefore I aim to provide unmatched value for money, with services starting at just £350 fully inclusive. Please visit my wedding video showcase site to see example clips, or read on below.

When booking your wedding video, there are a number of essential questions that I recommend you to ask your videographer;

As the cost of professional video equipment has reduced (and the quality of domestic video cameras has increased), a lot of people with an interest in video production have set themselves up as wedding videographers, often seeing it as a "paying hobby" which allows them to indulge their interest.

On the other hand, I am a full-time professional video director with a degree in Contemporary Art and over five years of full time experience producing and directing all kinds of videos, from weddings, parties and christenings to training videos, educational DVDs and dramatic feature films.

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Beware of advertisements promising your wedding will be filmed with "two cameras". This often means one camera operator and one camera stuck on a tripod giving a static image.

When I film a wedding, I always provide two camera operators to ensure the best coverage and camera angles throughout the day.

In my own research (i.e. watching wedding videos made by other companies!) I was amazed  by how many are still filming using the old fashioned 4:3 screen ratio. This means when viewing the DVD on your 16:9 widescreen TV, the image will be stretched horizontally making everyone look fat!

Unless a customer requests otherwise, all my weddings are filmed and edited in native 16:9 widescreen, using the latest High Definition cameras.

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Many wedding videographers are very strict on the hours they will work (you can tell, as they will offer "packages" that state how late they are prepared to stay). I have heard stories of brides being asked to pay an extra £50-60 per hour in order for the videographer to stay and film the first dance, because the speeches ran on longer than expected.

You will never experience this sort of behaviour from me. I stay to get the job done no matter what.

If you're looking at DVD examples provided by different videographers (or watching online clips on their websites), what should you look out for? Again, in my own research I have been staggered by the unprofessional camerawork and editing that I have seen in some example videos.

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Finally, we come to the really important question - how much does it all cost? You might imagine that the higher the price, the more skilled and in demand the videographer must be. Unfortunately that is not always the case. One tactic used by videographers who are short on work is to increase their prices rather than decrease them, precisely to give the impression that they are offering a higher level of service than their competitors. In addition, many wedding videographers insist on being paid in full before they will turn up at the church.

I actively aim to charge less than other wedding videographers, because having recently got married myself, I know only too well how the cost of things can add up, and I believe everyone deserves to have a beautiful wedding DVD, regardless of how wealthy they are.

If your videographer has a positive answer for all of these questions, and displays none of the above-mentioned bad habits in their example videos, then congratulations! You must have booked me!

For an informal, no obligation chat about your plans for a wedding DVD, please don't hesitate to call me on 07985 789315 or e-mail contact@steve-lawson.net.