Most couples pick a videographer by watching trailers on Instagram. Trailers are the one thing every videographer gets right, because they are sixty seconds of the best shots cut to a loud track. They tell you very little about what you will actually receive. Here is what to look at instead.
Watch a full film, not a trailer
Ask for a complete highlights film from a real wedding, ideally at a venue like yours, in similar light. Does it hold your attention at minute four? Can you hear the vows? Do the speeches sound like they were recorded in the room or through a phone in someone’s pocket? A trailer hides all of this; a full film cannot.
Listen before you look
Bad audio ruins more wedding films than bad pictures. Ask how the ceremony and speeches are recorded. The answer should involve a microphone on the groom or celebrant, a feed from the DJ or a microphone on the speaker, and a backup on the camera. If the answer is “the camera mic is very good”, keep looking.
Ask about the second camera
The ceremony happens once. A single camera means every reaction you did not see is gone, and a single card means a failure takes everything with it. Two cameras on the ceremony and speeches is the minimum, even on a one-filmmaker booking, and the cameras should record to two cards at once.
Ask what happens to the footage that night
You want to hear about two copies before they leave the venue and a third somewhere else. You also want a contract that says what happens if footage is lost, because very occasionally it is. A videographer who has thought about this will have a clause for it. One who has not will look surprised.
Ask about the music
If they offer to use your favourite song, ask who is paying for the licence. A chart song cannot legally be put in a wedding film without one, and the platforms will mute or remove the film if they detect it. Careful filmmakers licence music from production libraries and will show you the sort of tracks they use.
Then ask about delivery
A date in writing is the sign of someone who has a process. “Around three months” is not a date. Six to eight weeks for a highlights film is a realistic promise for a small studio; anything much faster usually means a template edit, and anything much slower means you will be chasing.
None of this is about how expensive the kit is. It is about whether the person has thought through the ways a wedding film goes wrong and closed each one off before your day.