Wedding Cinema 101
There is A LOT to unpack in this blog, so I really hope you'll read through to the end. Many questions you might have will be answered and I think you'll learn alot about the pricing model that photographers and cinematographers use for weddings.
Remember back in the day when you'd go to a wedding and you'd see the big ol’ camcorder on a tripod at the back of the building while you were making your way to your seat? Those days are long behind us; just a distant bit of nostalgia. If you’ll allow me to be blunt, everything about that nostalgia is no longer a reality.
The camcorder of yesteryear required almost no knowledge of video in order to operate.
The camcorder of yesteryear costed a few hundred dollars brand new, and tapes costed only a few dollars for a 5 pack.
Many potential clients get hung up here. Times change and things get more expensive. That camcorder that costed a few hundred dollars has been replaced with a cinema camera that costs somewhere in the range of $5,000 for the camera alone, not including lenses. That 5 pack of tapes that costed a few bucks has been replaced with a CF Express card that costs $750.00. The stationary tripod is still around, but so is the gimbal stabilizer your cinematographer uses (or should be using). That gimbal costs somewhere in the realm of a thousand bucks or so.
So why do clients still want the rates of the days of the camcorder while wanting to enjoy the cinematic quality of the cameras of today?
This question is surprisingly easy to answer, but there’s more than one answer. One is harmless while the other is a bit more sinister.
(Harmless)- The client isn’t incredibly familiar with all of the intricacies involved with cinematography.
(Sinister)- The client doesn’t respect the cinematographer or their work enough to justify paying what they’re asking. Many clients will try to bully and disrespect their way into a contract with a cinematographer. (If you’re the cinematographer reading this, you need to run far and fast. This isn’t going to be someone you want to work with, I promise you).
Here in central Arkansas, there is another explanation as to why clients think that many cinematographer’s rates are high…………and that explanation is saturation. When it comes to photography, there is so much market saturation with newer and budding photographers that charge $800-$1,000 for a wedding (disrespectfully cheap). This causes clients to think that $800-$1,000 is normal for wedding photography, when it absolutely is not. If you pay $1,000 for your wedding photography, please don’t be upset when you get your photos back…actions have consequences, good work isn’t cheap and cheap work isn’t good.
Unlike the saturated photography market, there is actually a LACK of reputable cinematographers in the community. This is why the reputable cinematographers in the area have rates that many consider “high”. The rates aren’t high, the cinematographer is simply charging their worth, and there is nothing wrong with that. The concept of supply and demand is applicable in this situation. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that cinematography is just “shooting video”. Please understand that when shooting wedding video, for every 1 hour of footage i shoot, only 30 seconds or so of that will be usable footage at the end of the post-production phase. This is why most cinematographers return a 4-5 minute video of the day. In 5 minutes, i can capture ALL aspects of the wedding (B/G getting ready, ceremony, reception). You do not have to have the entire day recorded in order to have all of the memories of the day, being up front here, it’s actually an unrealistic expectation.
