So sometimes people have weddings and *gasp*, they don’t hire a professional videographer. Now, a lot of my clients are videographers and what they do is definitely valuable. If you can afford one, the memories they capture will (hopefully!) be very precious to you. But sometimes, it just isn’t in the budget. (I didn’t hire one for my wedding either. But then again, my husband-to-be made our wedding cake and our DJ was my Macbook, so it was that kind of affair.)
Luckily, we live in the age of the iPhone and point-and-shoots that can take pretty okay footage. Here is a video I edited together recently for just the sort of bride that had thoughtful friends and family who shot a bit of video of her special day.
[vimeo width=”584″ height=”438″]https://vimeo.com/49397432[/vimeo](Bride is Kim from Kim’s Kitchen Sink.)
Now, this is heavily stylized and filtered. Why? Well, part of it is aesthetics, yes. The Chet Baker song that was chosen really lends itself aurally to a vintage effect. But also on the practical side, the footage that was captured was the right aspect ratio (aka not widescreen HD) and was very shaky. So I downscaled the frame rate from 30 to 24 to add extra vintage flair, applied my filters and flickers and scratches and voila – footage and editing style match made in heaven.
Thinking of editing together your own existing footage to music? Maybe not even a wedding, but some family footage by the seashore or a birthday party? My number 1 tip – pick a song with the right tempo. If you have a lot of footage with plenty of visual dynamics, an up-tempo jam can definitely work. But if the amount of video you have is sparse, you will need to go with a slower song. Your edits will have to be longer between cuts, and a quick-paced-ditty will seem really weird.
Fancy stuff like filters and motion graphics are nice. But in the end, the most important skill for doing your own editing is pacing. Choosing the right shots at the right time goes the farthest at telling your story.
