Welcome back to another installment of “Getting to Know” different wedding partners I know and love working with. Last week was Judith Campbell – Event and Floral Designer. This week, I talked with a wonderful wedding filmmaker- Dave Williams of Cinemacake. This is not your typical wedding video but a cinematic experience of your special day.
Tell me about Dave Williams. How did you become a cinematographer and begin shooting weddings?
I starting shooting with my father’s Super8 camera as a kid and through my teens, when video came to the masses in the late 70s and early 80s. A few careers later, I found myself selling for a big pharmaceutical company where I asked another rep in my district if could shoot her wedding. I charged $800 and then spent the next $7500 just getting ready for my first professional shoot. When that production won a local award and helped me sell my next ten weddings, I knew I had something. That was in 2001. I have not looked back.
You just changed your name from DVideography to CinemaCake, why?
For years, clients have told us that until they saw what was possible with a wedding and event filmmaker, they had only seen videographers with big cameras and bright lights, asking people to “say something to the bride and groom!”. Who wants that kind of production going on at one of the most important and beautiful days of your life? I didn’t blame them for not doing ‘video’ at all. The name change from DVideography to CinemaCake was an important move for us. Understandably, many people don’t want a ‘wedding video’, but an unobtrusive filmmaker is another animal altogether. Our new name really reflects the way we operate and the type of client we attract. Plus it sounds so delicious!
CinemaCake is NOT just another wedding videography company, what sets you apart?
CinemaCake is a small group of artists who know how to capture and tell a story through filmmaking. Making movies is our passion. We constantly challenge each other, communicating throughout the entire process, as we create an emotional movie. We know how important it is to make it fun, beautiful, and interesting to watch so it won’t gather dust on a shelf. We want our movies to be watched hundreds of time for generations.
At CinemaCake, we work very closely with our clients and our trusted affiliates to create an atmosphere that allows us to operate almost invisibly. Also, with special low-light, small high definition DSLR cameras, and a professional audio engineer, our film crew can operate silently and efficiently to get the most authentic moments with no camera awareness. Most importantly, our personalities mean we can be interactively unobtrusive with no bright lights.
Video is often overlooked or relegated to barely any budget, why is it important for brides to have video or in your case a film?
We do our best to find the bride who says “I don’t want video.” When we hear that, it usually means they may not know what is possible. Without a wedding film, couples like Bill and Holly would only have a memory and some snapshots of one of the most emotional speeches we have documented this year.
(If playback stutters, be sure HD IS OFF in the upper right corner of the video.)
Sometimes you can’t appreciate something until you don’t have it. Often we hear stories of brides who decided to not document their weddings but then AFTER the wedding, they regretted that decision. Brides can look forward to seeing so many fun experiences they could not see on the day of the wedding. The tunnel vision that occurs in the hustle and bustle of a crazy day guarantees that many things will be missed. Our most common feedback when clients receive their films is “Wow – I didn’t even know that happened!” And the long term benefits won’t even be realized until kids and grandkids come along. Only THEN is a wedding film truly priceless. I often ask clients who are deciding, “If I told you I had a movie of your grandparents being married, what would that be worth to you?” Our own wedding video is now 17 years old and several of the people in our video are now gone. But their voices, their body language, and their personalities are preserved.
Now that the bride understands that video is an important part of the day, what should they look for when hiring a wedding filmmaker?
A great film has great audio; not just imagery cut to pop songs, but real moments like a reading, or a heartfelt speech. Sometimes a few quiet words during the bridal preparations can make the difference between a regular wedding video and an emotional wedding film.
That the film captures important moments and tells a great story. The internet now gives any filmmaker the ability to put full HD examples out there to see. Brides really need to look and listen to the work. Many high-end filmmakers will even travel, so if you find the right artist, ask how you can make it work.
Anyone who walks into Best Buy and buys a palmcorder can call himself a wedding videographer. There are no other qualifications. However, an experienced filmmaker not only brings the right tools and skills, but also the experience. Shooting is only a small part of any production. Dozens of hours are then spent in post-production, including design, editing, color grading, and audio mixing.
What are some questions the bride should ask?
I created a list of 10 REAL Questions You Should Ask Your Videographer. One of the most important questions to ask is “May I see other clients’ movies and read what they had to say about you?” Once the skill level is evident, the really important thing is how your personality gels with your filmmaker. A good relationship with your filmmaker will make all the difference in the world.
A few others are: How will my movie sound? How do you handle lighting? How do you vary your shots? How do you plan to tell the story of my day? How long will it take to get my finished movie? Are you ‘preferred’ by the other companies I’ve hired? How do you get your shots without being ‘in the way’? What do you do to make sure our movie is unique to our personalities?
