Songs For Your Wedding Film - Why Your Wedding Filmmaker Should Choose It

Over the years, we get many couples who want to be involved in the post production of their films. Usually, couples are very excited about the final product, and want to be able to have a hand in it in some way. Generally, we get requests for certain songs, usually the couples favorite(s), that they have in mind to plug into their film. This isn't uncommon and while it's appreciated, let me explain why there's a better way.

Our process for producing a wedding film is extensive. First, there's pre-production, which is everything we do to prepare for the wedding day. Within that, we have our couples fill out a questionnaire to find out what makes them unique both individually and together. We ask what they like to do for fun, what's important to them about their wedding day, and what kind of music they like. Notice, we asked what kind, not which songs. More on that in a bit.

Secondly, we discuss the flow of the wedding day as a team. Each wedding day is going to be unique and, as a team, we prepare for every detail of when and where to be, and how we are going to capture all the moments as they unfold. If there's a song we've already determined to use, we may want to film a wedding in a certain way in order to match the music with the flow of the film.

After the wedding day, we start our post production. We cull through all the footage and find out which clips are going to work best for the feature film, and then the short film. If we haven't decided on what music to use, we first look at what types of music our couple likes from the questionnaire, but more importantly, which type of music matches them based on the footage we have. Songs have flow to them, and we have to match that perfectly with the ambient audio from the wedding, to parts of the music which makes the most sense.

Additionally, we tend to gravitate towards songs that are not as mainstream. We try to help up and coming artists by purchasing their music and rights, as well as finding the most obscure of songs to plug in. We definitely don't want to be labeled as mainstream and constantly finding fresh music is a challenge, which we embrace.

Also, we do consider ourselves artists. Like a painter and a blank canvas, he is left alone to stroke the brush as he pleases, so he may interpret what he sees in his mind and translate that. Your wedding filmmaker should have that same attitude. While there are certain techniques and fundamentals that are the foundation of every wedding, having fresh eyes and a blank canvas should be a top priority. Every wedding filmmaker will determine your film in a unique way, but they also need that trust and confidence from their couples to be able to pull off a well polished wedding film.

However, once a filmmaker gives in to letting a couple choose their own music, we have found that it often won't end there. You need to maintain that respect as a professional to be able to have your creative freedom and not end up with a nightmare in the post production process.

Finally, my favorite example of allowing us to pick the music is of a bride we filmed last year. The couple are friends of the company, so we wanted to do a great job, especially because we knew this bride was very particular. :) There was a song that I heard a few months prior to the wedding that I felt matched perfectly. We ended up using it for their short film.

Flash forward a few months later we are all hanging out and her phone rings. The ringtone that she had was the song we had used. :) She hadn't heard the song prior to the wedding day, we picked it based on our methods, and they loved it. To us, that's an example of the ultimate satisfaction we receive in being able to create a piece of art that leaves a lasting impression.
-Joshua