All Videographers are not the same.

All Videographers are not the same.

• All Videographer’s equipment is not the same.
• All Videographer’s editing equipment is not the same.
• All Videographers do not produce the same quality results.
• All Videographers do not charge the same price for their services.
• All Videographers do not have the same "creative eye," approach or desire to capture your wedding day events the way you want.

To ensure the best quality, forget about equipment, forget about sales pitches, forget about price, they are all secondary to the individual shooting and editing your wedding. 

The individual you hire to shoot your wedding must have a "creative-eye" to capture the big and small events taking place and the willingness to go the extra mile for you. They must be able to anticipate the love and joyful emotions of the bride, groom and guests. Then with the raw footage, assemble a finished tape just for you. There are only a handful of videographers in the country able to do this; ‘Jolly’ Jim Worzala is one of them. How may I serve you?

For the most part, you will most likely rely on a friend’s recommendation or the sales pitch given you when visiting a Videographer’s studio. If you are satisfied with your friends recommendation and the end result of their video, then this is the best way to choose a Videographer. Providing, you also have the same Videographer, equipment and editor producing your video. Just choosing the same video studio is no assurance you will receive the same results; this is especially true when it comes to the "creative eye" and the willingness to serve you. Most Videographers just do it as a weekend job; they have nothing to gain or loose except a part-time paycheck. I do video full time and also do corporate assignments. A few studios do produce good to high consistent quality work job after job.  

It is the "creative eye" of the individual Videographer that counts most when video taping your wedding and the editing to make the master tape. 

Editing the master tape is almost always done by someone other than the Videographer who shot your wedding and who knows nothing about you or your wedding other than what is on the tape they have to work with. Some studios even make you wait up to four or more months for your edited tape too. Good individualized editing takes 30-40+ hours for each full wedding.

If you can find a Videographer who shoots your wedding and also does the editing on high quality Non-Linear equipment, chances are excellent you will be very pleased with the finished tape. For example, Jolly Jim’s Videography / Jim Worzala.

What you should look for in a Videographer are:

1. The "creative eye." How well does the Videographer capture the day’s events? Some part-timers are good, most are .... Look for wide-angle, medium, close-ups shots and high and low angles. Medium and close-ups are best and they should tell a brief story by capturing those perfect expressions of love, joy, excitement and tears of happiness on your wedding day.

2. What is the overall quality of the tape? Do the reds look like they are diffused? Reds diffuse with all equipment, even the most expensive ones; but some equipment deteriorate reds more than others; especially during editing and duping; namely from near amateur equipment. All tapes do not record video and audio signals with equal quality results—I use only newand the best: Panasonic Master Series for DV and double coated Fuji H471S S-VHS tapes.

3. Are the images sharp? How often do they go out-of-focus? Images should always be sharp or re-focused quickly unless special effects are being used. This is true for zooming too; but expect to see some; it’s not like shooting a movie with retakes, it’s live video and expect to see some focusing adjustments during the video if the unexpected is to be captured.

4. What is the sound like? Can you clearly hear your vows? A lapel mic should always be used on the groom during the ceremony. I use the best on the market: Sony’s UHF. But audio can be affected my many things.

5. How steady are the images? Do the images bounce around a lot? Some movement is unavoidable when a camcorder is hand held, but for the most part the camcorder should be mounted on a tripod and dolly during most of the wedding sequences.

6. Is there a lot of zooming? Zooming should be kept to a minimum. It is better to fade from one scene to another by having a medium or a close-up shot than to just zoom in on the subject. But it’s nice once in a while. It’s a special effect and it should be used sparingly. Fades and dissolves should be smooth from one scene to another.

7. How much should you pay for Videography? Only you know what you can afford. Some Videographers charge ten thousand dollars and up, while others charge only a few hundred dollars. Price is not the way to measure quality—personalized service and craftsmanship combined with quality professional equipment and a creative eye to capture your special moments are. For high quality, work expect to pay. 

8. Why should you have Videography at your wedding? Memories. Memories. Memories. As you grow old together and memories start to fade, you’ll always have your video tape to refresh your memories and show your children and new friends. Photography captures a split second in time, Video captures the movement and sounds of your wedding day. Long after the meal is forgotten and the last bill is paid, the video will be there to remind you with all the sights and sounds of the love and enjoyment of the day.

9. Why should you choose Jolly Jim’s Videography / Jim? Individualized attention to your needs and quality that only one person doing the entire package can offer you. 

Note: Your ceremony coverage is dependent on the constraints placed on the Videographer by the cleric and where the camera is allowed to be set up. Many do not allow the camera on the altar which is usually the best place to shoot from providing flowers do not block the view. Some insist the camera be set up only in the choir loft; workable, but not the best place; while others place the camera at a side aisle, a poor camera position, but the most popular. I prefer to shoot the processional at the front pew and then move to the back center of the aisle for the services and recessional. Please clarify this with your cleric, it’s your wedding video—you deserve to have what you want on your wedding day. 

Remember: Low light levels in church or hall produce low quality video results with most video cameras; especially with less professional cameras; audio is affected by surrounding acoustics, other radio wave frequencies, etc.; that's why a UHF system should be used. One great camera operator is better than two average ones most of the time. If you have any questions, please call me.

10. Is the camcorder a sufficient professional broadcast quality one? Although any camcorder can be considered ‘broadcast quality’ (no set standard) like in Funny Home Videos or spot TV news items, they are not the same quality as professional broadcast quality camcorders used by TV stations like JVC’s KY D29UCH and other high end cameras costing over fifty thousand dollars. There is a big difference between quality of high 8’s, Sony's PD150, DSR250, DCR-VX2000, Canon XL-1, JVC-X3B and Panasonic AG456U which most Video studios use compared to my professional broadcast quality Panasonic AG-DVC200 or Sony's DSR300AL camcorder. 

As far as the difference between Digital and S-VHS, a high end Digital camera will be the best; only if the final output is to a DV tape, DVD or additional copies will be made from the master tape; although it will be hard to tell the difference if both are edited by a high end industrial Non-Linear Editing (NLE) system (which I use). If the output is to VHS tape using an industrial grade VCR (which I use), there will be no discernible difference as long as the images are edited in a high end NLE video computer system and a high quality camera is used to take the images (which I use). 

Which one would you like your wedding shot by? 

Digital to NLE to DV tape or DVD is best (note: not all DVD disks can be played on all DVD players; presently a DVD disk is only compatible with about 60% to 80% of the older players; new players, about 90 to 95%). Digital to analog system to VHS tape is very good when using industrial equipment, if not using industrial VCR's, the quality will suffer; but digital to digital is best. S-VHS to NLE to VHS tape is very good. S-VHS to analog system to VHS tape is okay to poor. To obtain high quality, first it must be recorded on a high quality camera, edited on a high quality NLE editor and finally be put on either a high quality DV tape, DVD disk, S-VHS tape or high grade VHS tape; in that order.