The best wedding videographer in the world
Your wedding day is one of the most important and cherished moments of your life. You will want to capture every detail, every emotion, and every smile so you can relive the magic for years to come. This is where a skilled wedding videographer comes in. In this guide, I will share some of my knowledge to help you in your quest for the “best wedding videographer in the world.” We’ll also provide you with some valuable outbound links to renowned videographers, cinematographers, and wedding resources.
What Makes a Videographer the Best?
The title of “best wedding videographer in the world” is subjective and can vary from person to person. However, several factors can help you identify exceptional videographers:
- Creativity: The best videographers have a unique creative vision that can turn your wedding into a cinematic masterpiece.
- Experience: Years of experience shooting weddings allow videographers to handle various situations and capture every special moment.
- Technical Expertise: A deep understanding of camera equipment, lighting, and editing software is essential for crafting high-quality wedding videos.
- Reputation: Look for reviews and testimonials from past clients to gauge a videographer’s reputation and customer satisfaction.
- Portfolio: Review their portfolio to see if their style aligns with your vision for your wedding video.
Top Wedding Videographers and Cinematographers Worldwide
- Jose Ortiz Films: Based in Puerto Rico, Jose Ortiz is known for his storytelling and cinematic approach to wedding videography. His work has garnered international acclaim.
- Ray Roman Films: (More on Ray below) Ray Roman is a world-renowned cinematographer, known for his luxury wedding films. His portfolio includes celebrity weddings and events across the globe.
- StillMotion: This Canadian-based company specializes in storytelling through cinematography. Their emotionally charged wedding films have won numerous awards.
- Love Stories TV: Love Stories TV is a platform that showcases wedding videos from around the world. It’s a great resource for finding videographers based on style and location.
- WeddingWire: WeddingWire is an excellent resource for finding local videographers and cinematographers. Their extensive database allows you to search based on your specific location and preferences.
Tips for Choosing the Right Videographer
- Meet in Person: Arrange a meeting or video call with potential videographers to discuss your vision and get a feel for their personality.
- Review Contracts: Carefully review the contract, including payment terms, delivery timelines, and any additional fees.
- Ask for Samples: Request to see full-length wedding videos, not just highlight reels, to ensure their style aligns with your preferences.
- Check Availability: Top videographers often book well in advance, so check their availability for your wedding date.
- Visit Venues Together: If possible, visit the wedding venue with your videographer before the big day to plan shots and lighting.
The search for the “best wedding videographer in the world” is a personal journey that involves evaluating creativity, experience, technical expertise, reputation, and portfolio.
Remember, the best videographer is one who understands your vision and can capture the essence of your love story on film. With the right choice, you’ll have a wedding video that’s not only a cherished keepsake but also a work of art.
I guess with creative areas like film making and photography this gets a bit subjective… there are Facebook groups and Internet forums full to the brim of wedding videographers taking advice and inspiration from each other… but for me I have, from the start, tried to give these and social media in general a wide birth… partly because I think they all with or without realising it end up taking inspiration from each other and having the same look or filming the same way as each other..
For me, we should start right at the top, with the academy award nominated cinematographers…. one of the things I do every year is to order and watch the films nominated for on Oscar for their cinematography… these guys are at the top end of the film industry and you would think would be the best….(I am not so convinced but more of that later)… why would you listened to Tom, Dick or Harry on Facebook, when the worst best work is available?
’The Shape Of Water’ – the cinematography on this was by Dan Laustsen, and there are some eye openers as to how he lit and coloured this film here. This film was nominated for so many Oscars I think it tied Titanic and I assumed it would be totally amazing…I found the film ok… the take away from the cinematography was for me.. the long shots with brilliantly choreographed camera movements… panning around to reveal and follow the subjects… I think this would be very hard to pull off at a wedding…it also seems to me that some of the camera movement isn’t perfectly smooth… I think they are still using steady cams in Hollywood when they should be progressing 😂
La La Land – The cinematography on this film was by Linus Sandgren and this actually won the Oscar in 2016 for best cinematography. The main take away from this film for me, from a cinematography point of view was the brilliant camera movement…
Sicario.- A film about Mexican drug cartels…the cinematography on this one is Roger Deakins… regarded by many as the best ever cinematographer… this was nominated in 2015 for best cinematography but did not win.
The Tree Of Life – cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki….the best film I had seen for the cinematography… and hit me with the saying that ‘you should be able to press pause at any moment and you could hang the frame on your wall as a poster’… lots of fades to black as well… which is also something that seems to be popular… there was a sequence in the section birth of life that stood out to me with rather than fades to black had lighting come on to reveal the actors… I did however find the film slow going…
Vittoria Storaro – One of the all time great DP’s of Hollywood, working often with Francis Coppola on all time greats like Apocalypse Now is a cinematographer that one must have the highest regard for, however and I say this in the most respectful way, I am not sure how much of that 70’s to 80’s era applies to today. I think we almost have a different set of tools today, and although lighting and compostion haven’t changed, with modern equipment we are able to have different choices with things such as camera movement and special effects.
After watching the work of these top Hollywood cinematographers a few things dawn on me…. 1.. most cinematic wedding videos take lots of inspiration from music videos and not cinema…you never see speed ramping or such fast pace editing in Hollywood feature films…and 2… that the top wedding guys really are putting out good work…maybe with the dawn of new tech and cheaper, better, smaller and simpler cameras and gear, you will get small time film producers bringing out stuff to match Hollywood…I wonder if in the next 10-15 years a YouTuber or wedding guy will win an Oscar for cinematography…I would imagine the Oscars and Hollywood could never admit this or be seen to…
Riccardo Fassoli – for me one of the best… I think Riccardo probably ticks lots of peoples boxes… lovely shots and lighting.. but brings to the mix camera movements and the music video speed ramps that I guess the majority of people like… he has a great taste for music and understands that the emotion of the speeches is probably the most important thing of the wedding film..
Philip White – I have trained on one of the Philip White weddings workshops with him and have a lot of respect for his choices… again lovely lighting and composition which I think he gets from his photography background…this guy ticks the ‘pause at any moment and take a picture for your wall’ box… he understands weddings and capturing people naturally… he specifically uses minimal equipment so people don’t know they are being filmed..which allows him to capture natural reactions and moments…
Maru films – widely regarded as one of the best… but for me, and I hope they don’t take this personally if they ever read this.. the films I have seen suffer from very shaky camera movement and I just can’t watch them…
Jerry Ghionis – one of the best wedding photographers in the world… I guess if cinematography is direction of photography… top photographers are a perfect place to take inspiration for lighting and composition… Jerry for me has probably been one of the biggest influences on my work… his understanding of light.. I would say puts him on par at least with the top Hollywood guys…his understanding of using light to flatter certain body shapes and looks, evoking emotion, posing naturally makes him a master..
Ray Roman Films – Ray is mentioned among the greats, and I can see why. He uses Canon cameras, and the colours are very saturated and have a unique look… it is not a look I have chosen to use, but I can see its appeal and it for sure looks lovely. For anyone wondering, the Canon cameras have a more accurate colour to them, and the Sony’s I use a less accurate look, however I choose them exactly because of that. I want that somewhat stylised film look to my films that I think this colour science gives them. I wonder if Ray will ever read this, but I do think there are certain ways he is using the camera that let his films down, but I am not going to give that away for free. If you like his films, go contact him.
