In my last blog we talked about what wedding videographers do, and today we’ll talk about how to choose the best films for you!

Unlike photography, we can’t just deliver a thousand video clips and call it a day. We have to edit them together into the story of your love. There’s so many different films you can choose from and they all have different names (confusing, right?). I’m going to break down and link examples of the kinds of films we and other video pros offer so you can decide with absolute certainty what you want! Consider this your definitive field guide to wedding video lingo!

The Highlight Film: the crème de la crème *chefs kiss*. This baby right here is the one everyone wants. This is the short film you will post all over social media, the one that will make you cry, the one that will live in infamy among your friends and family. These films are 5-7 minutes long and contain pieces of the whole day complete with a voiceover and music. You can order extended films up to 15 minutes, but generally we keep them short and sweet.

The Ceremony Film: this one is pretty straight forward, it’s just the ceremony start to finish! This film is in real time typically starting with the seating of the grandparents and ending with them walking out.

The Documentary Film (the ‘Snyder Cut’ if you will): this is the film of choice for those who want it all. A documentary film contains all the usable footage from the whole day, chronologically. These films usually come in around 45 minutes and are the quintessential ‘home move’ of your wedding day.

The Reception Film: you guessed it! The reception film is a film of the reception documenting entrances, dances, toasts, cake cutting, bouquet/garter, games, grand exit, etc… we will sprinkle in some of the open dancing time for guests, but this film focuses on the reception events. We edit these in real time so you don’t miss a thing!

Teaser films: teaser films are optimized for social sharing. They are just under 60 seconds so that they fit on your Instagram. It’s just a little sneak peek of the day to get everyone excited for your highlight film!

RAW Footage: RAW footage is all the footage from the day in individual clips. Think like the camera roll on your phone. It’s all the clips that weren’t usable for one reason or another and all the different camera angles unedited. RAW footage can be fun to flip through, but it is not an edited film.