Just out of curiosity,How long should your finished wedding video be? Obviously it is going to depend on the lenght of the day but I was curious about the average length everyones videos were? Too short and the client might fill like they didnt get enough for there money and too long is well...boooring. Does any one ask the Band G how long they expect the video to be?How does everyone breakdown there videos time wise( getting ready ,ceremony,reception etc) Thanks ...Trev

90 mins on average, just like a real movie. Navigation via chapter points can help with the "boring" parts.


John

2 hours or LESS. (Since that's how long the standard VHS tape is in standard speed). When possible, I get it down to 80 minutes or 60 minutes (the two lengths of MiniDV Tape I use)

Condensed edit---45 to NO MORE than 60 minutes, averages around 50.

Break down is a bit dfferent on each wedding but generally I try for;

opening bit-about 2-3 minutes
ceremony - about 8-12 minutes- depends on the feel and flow
reception coverage- cocktail hour,intors,speeches,cake cut,1st dances, garter/bouquet (if they do it), group dancing:
about 30 minutes
Highlite package which has my version of the formal session and the goodbye shot about 3-5 minutes depending on the music.
These time can and will vary slightly as will the way the footage is put together depending on how it feels and flows.


Don B

One thing to do is try to get a sense from each customer what they expect. I heard reference a while back to a survey in which the majority of brides indicated they wanted to see more video rather than less, and I know that's how I feel about it. But it's obviously not convenient to sit through hours of footage on a frequent basis, so having a condensed (recap) version of the whole event is one way around that. Thanks to DVDs it's also easier these days for viewers to pick and choose what to watch and fast-forward through the slow sections, so if you give them more footage they can decide what to do with it.

I typically include the entire wedding ceremony and all the key moments of the reception, plus some reasonable amount of dancing footage, guest interviews, etc. This means that for a wedding with a long ceremony I'm easily into two discs for the finished video. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the video I received of my wedding was only about 25 minutes long and didn't include much straight footage of anything, so it was really just a long recap. That's too short.

Bride & Groom Interviews: 45 minutes to one hour.
Introduction with titles: 90 seconds.
Same with 20 to 30 image photo montage: 5 - 8 minutes.
Pre-Ceremony activities in B&G's respective dressing areas: 30 minutes.
Pre-Ceremony activities at wedding site only: 2 - 5 minutes
Entire ceremony, processinal through recessional: 30 to 50 minutes
Formal Photos: 3-5 minutes.
Reception (all traditional activities including dance sequence): 30 to 45 minutes.
Closing image montage (still and video): 3 - 5 minutes.

The B&G interview/love story is usually presented on a separate disk. Some of the above items are options, or are not included in all videos.
I always deliver the complete ceeremony without editing of the audio track. Same for toasts and any public commentary at receptions.
That said, my shortest complete video was about 25 minutes. My longest was one hour fifty minutes.

<<<-- Originally posted by John DeLuca : 90 mins on average, just like a real movie. Navigation via chapter points can help with the "boring" parts.


John -->>>

Boring parts tell you you should trim it down to make more entertaining. If you find it boring, and you shoot it, think how their friends will think.

<<<-- Boring parts tell you you should trim it down to make more entertaining. If you find it boring, and you shoot it, think how their friends will think. -->>>

Generally speaking, I would agree. However, some sequences we as editors might think as boring may well be important to the family, and should not be cut. The challenge then, is to find a balance. Would you agree?

Davi, as a shooter and editor, I find the toasts boring. By your definition I should cut them out. I'm betting the bride and groom and family want to see them, though.

Davi


I put quotation marks around the word boring.You obviously didnt read the orignial post.

Posted by Trevor Troup.

****Too short and the client might fill like they didnt get enough for there money and too long is well...boooring****

I am trying to point out that chapter points let the client navigate better if they are bored. Most videographers end up with less footage because they dont shoot enough candid and cut to much out of the afterparty. When I started working with a pd-170, my total amount of usable footage doubled. Most clients are happy with 90 mins because its about the same length as a commercial dvd.


John

I always do 2 hours or less but no less than 1 hour

1 to 2 hours.

I don't edit down the speeches. There is some editing down of the service (1 verse of hymns or just intros to them if that's what the b&g want)

And Davi, you didn't answer the question of the thread.

Jon

Don't forget the power of a Deleted Scenes section.

I edit my main programs down to 45-60 min. It depends. But the client still gets extended cuts of the ceremony, speeches, dances, etc.

Leave stuff in for posterity, or because it doesn't quite fit the mood you're going for. But who says it has to be left in the main program?

-Cesar

From 60 to 70 -min here



www.franklinbencosme.com

I won't go into great detail (unless somebody would like me to)
but Indian weddings - 5-7 hours - all on video!

Sunny makes a good point. Traditional catholic weddings are 45-60 mins long(with mass). The final project would have to be atleast 90 mins to have good coverage considering the longer cerimony. I have a feeling most keep it at 60 mins or less because of compression quality issues.


John

I won't go into great detail (unless somebody would like me to)
but Indian weddings - 5-7 hours - all on video!

Wow..that is a lot..do you charge more when you do Indian Weddings? I have a set price for my packages but are usually for traditional weddings like Catholic weddings. I think I have to think twice before I do such wedding.

Around 90 minutes. They are shot and edited as documentaries so the pacing and flow is dictated based on how the events actually transpired.

I have to admit I have been working to make them shorter. I have never had a client say that the edited result was too short, however I have noticed that some long-form two-hour shows were a little too much for the client to watch, and these folks are the ones who put it on the shelf and don't watch it that much. DVD release has made it easier for viewers to skip around, but that doesn't address the issue of pacing and timing.

An excellent reference I read on the subject called Innovative Concepts of Event Video Production, by Dr. Art Polin (www.artpolin.com) explains that you don't have to watch all four minutes of a dance to know how they danced. Also, you don't need to see the elements played out in real time. For example, slowmo dissolves of the bridesmaids at about 3-7 sec each are enough to give the viewer the idea. I have even seen 10-minute wedding videos that encompassed the couple's entire wedding experience. The TLC Wedding Story approach is a good example, to.

Now that I'm in HDV, the logistics of shooting and editing make show time management even more imperative.

If you want to learn more about the pacing, editing, and timing or your videos, take a seat next to the screen and watch your clients as they watch what you have produced for them.

40 to 55 minutes and it has zero to do with compression issues. I've been doing short form for almost 6 years now and it was done out of self preservation. I got extremely tired of doing the long form epics (remember this goes back to tape only days and way before that when we did lineal editing) I got so tired of doing the same thing over and over again that I started doing short forms just to keep my sanity and giving that along with the epics to the clients. Once I realized they liked and seemed to prefer the short form more than the other I started offering it as an option, that lasted for about 1/2 a season, I then made it my normal edit. It takes a bit longer to edit it (to make it right and make sense) but my clients still seem to like it and frankly so do I. Over the years I've refined my packages a bit but it's still short form all the way baabbby!

Don

Well there really is no time the finished video "should" be- it really depends on the style of production you are creating. My finished weddings are averaging 30 minutes, as I am interested in making the video as engaging and well paced as possible. You can always give the client the raw footage if they want to see various events in their grueling entirety.

The art in it is the ability to abbreviate the day while capturing the essence of the moments, feelings, and action in a way that DOESN'T feel abbreviated.

For our base package weddings videos which typically involve being on location for about twelve hours (11am to 11 pm or so) we'll shoot about nine one hour tapes in total of raw footage using two cameras and then edit that down to video that is about two and a half to three hours long (about two 90 minute DVD's). This includes video that has been edited lightly such as the reception speeches to video edited heavily such as the highlights music video.

I will have a 3 1/2 hour feature on a DVD when I am done.
Most of my Wedding DVD's will be around 2 1/2 to 4 hours total, Ceremont, Reception, montage, Interviews, etc. my camera guy always comes back with 5 hous of footage.


Makes my life hell at times.