Wedding Top-Tips for Booking your Perfect Wedding Videographer
Welcome to the wedding supplier Q&A series where every Wednesday & Sunday afternoon we’ll be speaking to a London based wedding supplier and uncovering information to make planning your wedding easier. Each supplier has been hand picked because of their awesome personality, love they have for their couples and knowledge of their industry. I’ve also tried to find suppliers that are unique to give you a taste of what’s possible.
This week we’ll be speaking to Julie & Danny from Minty Slippers, the wedding videography team. I wanted to interview videographers for the series who shared the same values that feature in my own photographer – the art of storytelling and the importance of moments. After experiencing the Story of Naz & Brad which brought myself and my girlfriend to tears I knew Julie & Danny were the ones. If you’re wondering if a videographer is something you should consider for your wedding then read on.
1. Tell us a bit about the story behind Minty Slippers & why you do what you do?
We’ve met so many really cool people along the way and heard some of the most interesting stories. It’s these people that makes us just fall in love with what we do. For some people weddings are a new beginning, for others it’s a continuation of where they are and for some it’s just a piece of paper, but for our couples it’s always a story that someone has to tell. That’s something that motivates us to continue doing what we do.
We started out by chance and our business grew very organically. Ironically, Danny was an usher at a friends weddings (minty couple number 1) and when it came to the edit, we got really excited about what we could create. This was our first taste of filming a wedding and it was something that we both really enjoyed. Soon, word got around that we filmed weddings, and before we knew it, we had a business to run.
Like most others, we did start out by looking at what other suppliers in our industry were delivering, and it was usually a long form, i.e. 2-3 hours of footage cut into a film. We instantly felt that there must be a more modern approach to producing a record of a wedding day, and decided we’d add our own twist, and produce films that were incredibly watchable, and also connective to the audience. We certainly didn’t want to make films that people left on the shelf for years and rarely watched.
The questions is, do you really want to watch all the hymns in your wedding film? We can cut a Catholic ceremony down to 90 seconds and that’s really all you need to see to understand that the couple are now married, which is very similar to Hollywood movies. You don’t need an hour and a half. We realised by doing this you can make the video shorter and more watchable and people started to really like this.
We looked a lot at trend setters over in the US to try and provide couples with a service that no one else was at the time. For example we started using still cams with photography lenses allowing us to start using shallow depths of fields (i.e. Make the background blurry to get rid of any distractions). This was unheard of in the UK at the time. Also, depth of field means that for us as storytellers, we can direct the viewers eye to the part of the frame we want them to look at. It gives you more control of where the story goes.
2. What are your Top-Tips for a couple considering a wedding videographer?
- If you’re booking anything longer than a highlights video always ask to see an example of a full length video. A lot of suppliers will show you what they want to show you, for example 2 minutes of their absolute best work ever. You should ask yourself are they consistently that good? If they can’t show you can example what what they are selling, then don’t take the risk going with them. There should be no confusion over what you are getting for your money.
- Give as much information as you can to your wedding videographer beforehand. With this information they can make sure they don’t miss any of the important parts of your day and best represent your story.
- Try and book your wedding videographer a year to 18 months in advance, especially for the peak summer season. We only do 30 weddings a year and those get booked up fast. If it’s important to you, book it early.
3. I love quotes, do you have any favourites?
[Julie] “Don’t panic.” – Phase on the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
That’s my favourite one. It’s been in my memory from the moment I watched the film. It’s my ethos these days. What ever happens it’s not as bad as dying so ‘don’t panic’.
[Danny] “Be excellent to each other” – Bill & Ted
