What cinematic wedding videography really means

Hello people!

This is Paul and this time I want to talk about something what people usually call cinematic wedding videography. What this term means and what’s the difference between cinematic wedding videography and documentary wedding coverage.

Term “cinematic” means something that tells a story using filmmaking techniques. Techniques that develop a story, show the story from different perspectives and keep people visually and psychologically engaged. Cinematic wedding videography requires understanding of cinematography, wedding schedule and what kind of shots needed for the final video. For example when we’re shooting a groom preparation we’re not just covering the process of putting the jacket on from one angle, but we capture different types of pieces of this process – closeup of groom’s eyes looking down to his fingers, fingers reaching to the buttons on the jacket, texture of the fabric, clock showing the time, sound of passing cars outside of the room, clouds passing by and so on. In case when we have all these small pieces it is possible to create a cinematic sequence for viewers to fully immerse into the viewing process.

Same approach is used for every part of the wedding: preparation, ceremony, bridal shoot, grand entrance, first dance and any other.
On the other side there is a documentary wedding coverage. Easiest way to explain what it means and feels like is just to imagine a news reportage from the opening of a mall. We see crowd, we see people, we hear sounds, we understand what happens but we’re not connected and there is no immersion.

Another important moment here is the additional camera equipment that help to create a story. Different shots require different camera moves and these camera moves should be achieved in a proper smooth cinematic manner without any shakiness or random jerks. Sliders, gimbals, drones, monopods, tripods, shoulder mounts are just few of the whole list of equipment that needed to make a proper cinematic video. Otherwise you will get a boring documentary reportage from the wedding shot handheld or from a tripod for the whole day. Yes, it still can be a nice video, but not cinematic.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Please let me know if you have any questions and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates.

Thank you
-Paul