Editing a wedding film – what’s involved

The day goes by in a flash for couples – but I spend multiple days editing the footage before they see the highlights film!

 

Wedding days are jam packed with joy, excitement, and once-in-a-lifetime moments that just HAVE to be captured on camera.

Which means to say by the end of the day, I have A LOT of footage. Especially given that some moments – like speeches, or a ceremony – are captured on multiple cameras to get all angles of the moment.

I enjoyed my wedding as much as the next person, but trust me, you don’t want to watch all of that back unedited. It’d probably take longer than a day!

That’s why I put so much effort into crafting your day into a 15 minute highlights film, which is there for you to watch whenever you want to.

But other than cutting down the footage, what does the editing process look like?

 

Editing between the cameras on multicamera moments

 

I shoot events like ceremonies and speeches on two cameras for two main reasons:

1. To make sure you can see everyones faces – it’d be a pretty rubbish ceremony video if you could only see the face of one of the couple!
2. So that I can make edits, without losing any of the flow of the video. There’s always some awkward moment where you’re waiting for everyone to sit down at the start of the ceremony, or for the microphone to make its way over to the next person. Being able to cut between two cameras means I can take this out, without the video looking jumpy.

So the first part of my process is often editing these multi camera moments; cutting to the camera that has the best shot for a particular moment, and removing any slow bits.

Another part of this is switching between microphones. If you’re speaking during the wedding day, I’m mic’ing you up! But you don’t want to be using the registrar’s microphone to hear grandad making a speech, so I spend quite a bit of time switching between the different microphones.

 

Colour grading the footage

 

Footage doesn’t look good straight out of the camera – I’m always wary on wedding days of guests asking to look at what I’m filming!

Without being too technical, the footage I capture looks a bit grey initially – but it means that I can change it a lot in the edit, boosting the colours and altering how bright or dark the image is.

Plus, wedding days don’t happen in controlled conditions. You’re inside, you’re outside, it’s started raining, the DJ’s using a spotlight – by being able to change the colours in the edit, I can make sure the colours look the same throughout.

Take a look at this little video I filmed with my family – you can really see the difference colour grading makes to the footage.

 

 

Editing the wedding film to music

 

Music is so important to the final wedding film, adding the warmth, emotion and party vibes to the video!

Depending on how much of your wedding day I filmed, there could be as many as 6 music tracks during your wedding film.

I have access to a high quality music database, and songs from here are fully licensed, meaning you can upload your highlights video to social media without fear of copyright.

And I don’t just choose any old song, I spend a long time choosing the track which is absolutely perfect for the emotion I want to get across for that moment.

Plus I offer a soundtrack matching service, meaning I’ll find a song which is super close to what you chose for walking down the aisle, or as your first dance.

Once I’ve got the right track, I then edit to the beat of the music – which means that the next clip always starts on a beat of the track.

Trust me – this makes a massive difference!

Editing a short trailer / instagram reel

 

Of course, all of the above takes a long time. And my experience was, the wedding day kinda doesn’t feel real until you’ve got proof that it actually happened? Maybe that’s just me!

But what I’m saying is, I don’t keep you waiting until your highlights film is ready for you to see any of the footage from your wedding.

I’ll produce either a short trailer or instagram reel (your choice!) for you to watch and share, which will be with you within five working days of your wedding.

 

 

As you can see, a lot of work goes into editing your wedding highlights film! If you’d like to have a chat about getting a professional wedding video produced, then get in touch. You don’t have to have all of the answers about what you’re looking for – I’m about as far from a pushy salesperson as they come, and sometimes discussing your ideas with a professional can help you decide what you want.