Max-Out Your Mini Movie
If you are considering booking us and getting our best value & most popular package (the mini movie), here are some ideas to consider. We want you to get the most out of your mini movie package, just as we want to showcase our best work through the mini movie video. In order to do this, we suggest including certain aspects into your wedding day such as having a card reading, a good-timed formal portrait session, toasts, exceptional lighting for bridal prep, and finally, a first look for bonus points. The mini movie is a 15-20 minute video, and with that means the need for extensive and immersive content. We've discussed the positives of why you may want to include a card reading in our blog a few months back, so for now we will just address the importance of it in a mini movie. When the bride and groom choose to read cards from each other the morning of their wedding day, it adds a great contrast to the repetitive cut away shots of everyone getting ready.
Having coverage of the bride and groom reading and reacting to their cards and/or gifts is something that turns an average video into a superior one. Another suggestion to include in your mini movie is to have a formal portrait session that is lengthy enough to get movement into the video. When the photographer is taking formal portraits of the bride and groom with family and friends, a 10-12 minute frame is ideal for us to get enough action footage to include, rather than just still video of picture taking. We also suggest the obvious, toasts during the reception; but good and meaningful content! It's a bore to watch person after person reciting words, but when you have toasts that are exciting and heartfelt- that makes for a good mini movie. We like to include the funny & mushy content into your video if given the opportunity, so make a great toast or two or three so that we have more to work with. Our fourth suggestion to include in your mini movie is making sure you have the best lighting possible at your bride and groom prep locations. All you need is natural lighting! Have your hair and makeup artists set you up in front of a big window, and you'll be sure to have excellent shots of getting ready. This portion is crucial for your video, we like to use these shots to open your mini movie and set the tone. We dread working in yellow lighting without natural light given off by windows, so keep in mind to get ready in a room with as much natural light as possible... the bigger the window the better!
Finally, our last suggestion is a bonus. A first look! Again, we've written about the reasons we urge our couples to have a first look, so feel free to check out that blog post, but we HIGHLY suggest it even more if you choose to get the mini movie package. Doing a first look will give your mini movie the extra content it needs to break it up smoothly and run seamlessly. This gives the viewer exciting content to look forward to; something that evokes emotion rather than just shots of scenery, picture taking, getting ready... you get the gist. Don't get us wrong, all of those extra shots are highly important as well, but having greater content such as card readings and first looks will truly make for an outstanding mini movie. Not to mention, when couples decide on a first look, this means they can socialize (and drink!) after with friends and family at cocktail hour rather than running around stressing about spending the time getting all of your pictures done. Those are our top tips for maxing out your mini movie.