13 Wedding Videography Styles to Pick from over 30 Great Videographers
Wedding videos are no longer bland 4-hour actual day videos with blurry images and cheesy music. Modern videographers are much more skilled then that. With so many portfolios to view, picking the right person to recreate your “happily ever after” story is no easy feat. That’s why we selected a sample of 7 popular video styles and techniques for you to enjoy. Please sit back and let your creativity flow!
image courtesy of: http://www.perfectweddings.sg/featured/wedding-videographer/renatus-cinematography/
- ‘Non-traditional’ moments
The traditional wedding video focuses on the bride and groom as they take the next big step in their relationship. While the day is about you, without the love and support of their family and friends, your big day wouldn’t be possible. Mark and Pearlly’s videographer chose to add clips showing their family and guests throughout the day. Seeing the shots of their smiling relatives, especially their nephews, is bound to make you smile. Just imagine seeing everyone’s smiling faces as they celebrate your happy day on the eve of your golden anniversary. This is when you will truly appreciate including such footage in your own wedding video!
Full video: https://vimeo.com/83010593
Feat. Mark & Pearlly (One Button Films)
- Voiceovers and interviews segments
Editing techniques have certainly come a long way. You can opt to have recordings of your loved ones used as voiceovers for certain parts of the video or simply showing them talking in front of the camera in-between each scene. Their heartfelt messages are certainly things that will never fail to leave you teary-eyed at the end of the day. By including the interviews with Pei Yein’s siblings and mother, Kevin and Pei Yein’s videographer was able to create a heart-warming video. You can certainly adapt this idea to create a unique two video collection containing messages from both your families. They will be the few mementos you’d want to re-watch together for years to come.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGpsZWAoUHs#t=44
Feat. Kevin & Pei Yein (Lovorth Weddings)
- Attention grabbing introductions
You don’t have to start off your video with the morning preparations anymore. Couples can choose to have their favourite clip at the very beginning with a voiceover playing in the background – usually one of the spouses saying their vows or the masters of ceremony addressing the newlyweds. The usual opening scenes are the couple entering the getaway car or the couple giving a toast at the banquet. How about doing a fun prelude for your video like the one in Eric and Shana’s video instead? Their water battle supposedly filmed a day before the wedding grabs your attention immediately and keeps you riveted until the end where it cuts to the actual wedding video.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0mP5oRIP6U
Feat. Eric & Shana (Lovorth Weddings)
- Aerial Shots
Aerial shots are usually filmed using cameras attached to a drone (a flying robot). Most couples would request for romantic shots filmed from above, but Oliver and Weiyen requested something different – a race sequence! The heart pumping music and crazy lights later fade away in a dream-like manner as Oliver wakes up after receiving a phone call from Weiyen. The scene then changes to him opening his cupboard, which marks the start of their wedding video. But that’s not the only time segment that has aerial shots! You can see more examples of aerial shots in the later in the video and be inspired.
Full video: http://pwimages.com/images/articleimages/wedding-videography/trend-4.png
Feat. Oliver & Weiyen (Unique Weddings)
- Stop motion
A typical stop motion save the date video will have pictures, captions, music and some sound effects, but hardly any talking. The interesting thing about Joel and Xinhui’s pre-wedding video is they have chosen to blend both stop motion with moving film clips to create a fun and dynamic video. This strategy helped them skip through the second part – the retelling of their blossoming relationship – so the couple could proceed to the re-enactment of their proposal before their audience loses interest. Thus, after watching their video, you can’t help feeling it was short and sweet. You should definitely consider mixing these two mediums to create your own quirky save the date video.
Full video: https://vimeo.com/76271533
Feat. Joel & Xinhui (Renatus)
- Wedding animation
Do you enjoy watching animated films? Here’s a chance to star in one! You can see yourselves turned into cute cartoon characters just like Aaron and Meiyue. Their video starts with their student days in NTU and showed how their relationship grew from there. It ends with their actual photos taken after the proposal being flashed on screen. The amazing thing is that their narrator had a very minor role throughout the video, as it was the couple themselves who moved the story along by recounting their thoughts and feelings at each key moment. Their inside jokes and teasing made the entire story even more memorable for their friends and family. Wouldn’t it be fun to see your friends and relatives nodding and laughing too?
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPmE531oZ3w
Feat Aaron & Meiyue (Mojo ideas)
- 3D Montage
Your videographer can make your photos 3D in many ways. Sometimes it’s done by juxtaposing your cropped images against a background or having the frame surrounding your pop out from the background. Simon and Iris’ they have a mix of cropped out images and photos in frames throughout their video. Their videographer even included animations to like young Simon in his judogi kicking down a wall of bricks before that photo transformed into one of him showing off his medals and trophies. Such a montage with all the pop up effects and moving photos will be much more entertaining for your guests to watch than the traditional 2D version.
Full video: https://vimeo.com/34819489
Feat. Simon & Iris (Light House Studios)
- Mix video clips with still images
This lovely video featured by us weaves the actual day photographs with footage filmed during the ceremony to create something that is a cross between a wedding montage and a highlight reel. Greg and Andria’s videographer used photos to show what happened on that day and only added moving clips for certain key moments. This mix of still and moving images helps stagger the pace so the video didn’t feel too long even though they recorded most of their solemnizer’s speech. This style would certainly be interesting to adapt provided you can find a videographer willing to take on your project.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J7nKoIEuxw
Feat. Greg & Andria (Andrew Barron Vimeo)
- 4K/Ultra HD video
4k, also known as ultra HD, is a new resolution standard designed for digital cinema and computer graphics. 4k videos mainly involve film-making techniques, sometimes with plot lines, characters, conversations, moods and soundtracks. Unlike the “silent movie” era whereby only pretty images were arranged in chronological order and emotional music was utilized as the backdrop, the 4k movie will aim to capture how people felt, what was on their mind and what others were saying. More importantly, the married couple’s vows, which express both an intent and a promise to each other, would typically be included. Wedding vows hold paramount significance in expressing the marriage couple’s love and commitment to each other. Appropriate soundtracks are also utilised to convey the mood and atmosphere of each little yet significant moment on the couple’s big day. The 4k movie should also be compatible with the wedding’s theme.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpB_9qIx_b4
Feat. Ash & PS (www.filming-art.com)
- Same day edit wedding video
A same day edit wedding video, an all-time favourite, refers to a short video of snippets from the wedding shot earlier in the day. Usually, a same day edit wedding video would only comprise of express highlights from pre-ceremony and ceremony shots due to the time constraints. It is very popular among couples as it illustrates a brief recap of their important day and also because the video would feature their loved ones in joining them to celebrate this joyous occasion. Keeping same day edit wedding videos simple and sweet would make it the perfect wedding video to show at the reception or to kickstart the wedding banquet!
Full link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB3giMKfZBw
Feat Andrew & Kailin (Studio Five Weddings)
- Timelapses
A timelapse video is actually a series of photographs taken in intervals over an extended period of time. The photographs are subsequently compiled, in sequential order, to make short clips. Timelapses show the passage of time, for instance the fluid movement of clouds, and they also aid in transitional clips from one scene to another. The action in a scene is speeded-up and the camera is either static or moving very short distances, whereby the movements are under the control of a motorized rig that is typically capable of subtle movements. It essentially helps in storytelling and increases the quality of the video since it involves images from a perfectly still camera. Usually, a wedding videography would encompass not just timelapses but also short clips in-between to incorporate the intimate moments from the pre-ceremony and ceremony.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCZrFmTfBQQ
Feat. Lion Quays Wedding team
- Hyperlapse
Hyperlapse videos are a variation of time lapse, they are able to record time-lapse videos in an even broader range of motion, over considerable distances with controlled changes in both motion paths and camera angles. As such, hyperlapse involves timelapse over smooth glides and massive speeds, in addition to the rapid progressingg of time. Hyperlapse wedding videos in the recent years have been popularised by the release of Instagram’s Hyperlapse app in 2014.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbJ6n0M4mKM
Feat. Carla & Nick (James Heffernan)
- Slow-motion
Slow-motion videos have recently been re-popularized again due to the availability of this utility on smartphones’ cameras for instance, iphone6. Sweet gestures are being amplified and happy moments are being extended, evoking a more emotional mood. It could also be used to complement the joyous atmosphere or a particularly significant moment of a couple’s wedding ceremony. However, we do understand that having the whole wedding video played in slow-motion may be slightly overwhelming or unbearable. As such, a fun suggestion of ours would be to have a slow-motion photo booth at your wedding to capture those precious moments for both yourselves and your beloved guests. In addition, slow-motion videos also evoke nostalgia when they are rewatched, thus serving as great memories for the wedded couple.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yPVmc221nc
Feat Stephanie & Ryan (GC Photobooth)
- GoPro Wedding Videography
The GoPro is boundlessly versatile - it can be brought anywhere and mounted to anything, it is compact, extremely lightweight and promises images and videos of satisfactory quality with some models of GoPro being capable of 4k videos, and the list goes on. Be it your underwater moments from your beach vacation, or even your proudest sky-diving achievement, GoPro never fails to have these candid and precious moments covered. With these seemingly endless prospects of it, GoPro has naturally garnered popularity as a tool for wedding videography in the recent years. It does not have to be the main medium of your actual wedding videography but it definitely enriches the contents of your wedding video as it allows you to revisit the moments of your big day, from various perspectives.
For a start, the GoPro could facilitate ‘pass-n-go’ whereby it is mounted to one of the accessory poles and passed to the guests to record their thoughts and feelings about your big day. They would then pass it to the next guest when they are ready. We foresee that you would be all over the place on the day of your wedding hence this ‘pass-n-go’ recording would allow your guests to convey their heartfelt blessings and well-wishes to you since you would probably not have the time to catch-up with them. Also, one of GoPro’s forte would be capturing time lapse, hence you could rely on it to relinquish all the treasured moments of your wedding in a matter of few minutes. Individual shots that have been missed out on by still photos could also be retrieved from GoPro’s timelapse function. Lastly, you could embed the GoPro in almost any space for a unique perspective of your big day. For instance, the GoPro could be hidden in the wedding bouquet, on an axle, to record an exclusive view of the bride and groom exchanging vows and wedding rings.
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bi7-qkXchM
Feat Katie & John (Kyle Johnston)
We hope you feel more inspired after watching the wedding videos that made it to our short list. There is no right or wrong when it comes to your wedding video, so you simply have to focus on a particular style or technique that would do your love story justice. After all, the way you retell your story is the reflection of a couple’s personality.