On average, just how long do you take from the time you shoot a wedding ceremony and reception until you deliver the finished product to your client?

I'm not so concerned with what you do in post as I am curious about how long it takes from shoot to delivery.

I know there are all kinds of variables and that is why I'm just wondering what your average is.

Jeff

if its early in the season I tell the B&G 8 to 10 weeks and try to deliver in 6
Later on when I start to get backlogged I tell them 10 to 12 and try to deliver in 8 to 9
Since I do more than just weddings it's important for me to allow enough of a time frame for the other work that really needs to be rushed out.
As long as i give the couple a time frame and stick to it they are generally fine with it.
I do know guys though that can bang it out in 2 weeks-of course it's not really what I'd call editing-they're basically laying off from tape to DVD with a bit of cleaning up - no color correction no real creative work of any kind but that's what they do and I guess there's a market cause they seem to be making a living at it.

Don

Hmm, I am guessing somewhere between 20-30 hours for me. 10 hours for production, 9 hours in post, and a hour or so designing /producing dvds - I have an epson r300....

With that in mind, I make an estimate based off how booked and when the video will be delivered.

Regardless of how long it takes me, I alway tell the B/G that I aim to deliver the dvd's in 3-6 months which gives me some padded time. On average, I would say 3 weeks from shoot to delivery.

"I do know guys though that can bang it out in 2 weeks-of course it's not really what I'd call editing"

hmmmm.....(feeling very insulted by Don! cheers mate!)

Takes me 2-3 weeks, AND i have a full-time job! (and I'm sure other people on this forum are the same, even with a backlog?)
I do everything from colour correction, multi-cam, audio enhancing, creative effects, after effects stuff, interactive menus, highlights clips, rendering over night etc etc..

I use Premiere Pro 2, maybe i'm just getting quicker at it?

My point is, it's down to the individual how long it takes them to edit, but it is CERTAINLY do-able in 2 weeks. You'll get quicker over time....practice, practice!

Out here in Los Angeles.....many of the "desired" wedding videographers who work at it full time, lets say they produce anywhere from 35 to 45 wedding vids per year are on about a 12 to 20 week delivery schedule, these would be 1 & 2 man operations. I fall into this catagory.

The actual editing of my clients videos generally take less than 4 days to fully edit with color correcting, audio sweetening, multi cam shoots always, etc. Every video is "custom" to suit clients taste and personalities....no template type editing which I have seen plenty of out here.

If I were producing less than 20 weddings vids per year.....the delivery times would be much faster. I state in the contract 12 to 20 weeks......and can be longer due to unforseen cicumstances. Never been an issue with clients...so all is good. I am busy year round....with very little breaks during the winter. The weather stays pretty nice out here year round so weddings keep going during the winter months.

I rarely only shoot a ceremony and reception...almost always shoot video bios of the clients prior to wedding day.....and pre wedding preparations of both bride and groom. Wedding day is usually no less than 10 hours from start to finish with two cam ops.....4 cams at ceremony and two at reception.

I'm a newbie, so I can't speak from much experience on this, but Joel Peregrine developed a pie graph showing how much time goes into each part of the process (pre, pro, post) It's based on his experience of course. He offers the graph on his blog (joelperegrine.com) in a variety of formats (.doc, .pdf, .psd) to show to prospective clients so they understand what they paying for -- not just the time they see us, but many hours when they don't.

Might be worth a look. Check out joelperegrine.com and click on the "What goes into creating an event video?" link. Some other good stuff on this blog too.

Regards,

Bill

Richard,
I did not mean to imply that it can't be done OR that a quick edit is not a good edit nor did I mean to insult anyone and if I did I'm sorry-what I was trying to say was that these particular people really don't edit anything in the time they work on the project-frankly they might be as well off doing a complete in camera edit on a DVD style camera and handing it the client at the end of the night.

I'm also not implying that it takes me 6 to 10 weeks to edit 1 wedding but it does thake that long t oget it into the schedule to edit-once I start it's about a 40 to 60 hour process but I also shoot 40 to 55 weddings a years and doing corporate and industrial work all year long so I have to have a very flexible editing schedule.

Once again Richard no insult intended.
Don

"I do know guys though that can bang it out in 2 weeks-of course it's not really what I'd call editing"

hmmmm.....(feeling very insulted by Don! cheers mate!)

Takes me 2-3 weeks, AND i have a full-time job! (and I'm sure other people on this forum are the same, even with a backlog?)
I do everything from colour correction, multi-cam, audio enhancing, creative effects, after effects stuff, interactive menus, highlights clips, rendering over night etc etc..

I use Premiere Pro 2, maybe i'm just getting quicker at it?

My point is, it's down to the individual how long it takes them to edit, but it is CERTAINLY do-able in 2 weeks. You'll get quicker over time....practice, practice!

I'm with Richard on this one, this is mostly a workflow and individual experience kind of thing. At the beginning of the season I average about a week. I would hope what I am offering is what you would call 'editing'...

8-12 weeks stated up front. Usually done in 4.

Richard,
I did not mean to imply that it can't be done OR that a quick edit is not a good edit nor did I mean to insult anyone and if I did I'm sorry-what I was trying to say was that these particular people really don't edit anything in the time they work on the project-frankly they might be as well off doing a complete in camera edit on a DVD style camera and handing it the client at the end of the night.

I'm also not implying that it takes me 6 to 10 weeks to edit 1 wedding but it does thake that long t oget it into the schedule to edit-once I start it's about a 40 to 60 hour process but I also shoot 40 to 55 weddings a years and doing corporate and industrial work all year long so I have to have a very flexible editing schedule.

Once again Richard no insult intended.
Don

Don,

I can "bang out" a wedding in 1-2 weeks but it's certainly not an "in camera edit" as you put it. Videography is my full-time job. I use Final Cut Pro and I'm good at it. I think you need to choose your words more carefully.

I believe some videographers equate longer delivery times with higher prices and shorter delivery times with lower prices. If you can fool your clients with that BS than more power to you.

Joe

All rigthy everyone-perhaps the choice of words wasn't the best but PLEASE ENOUGH!

I'm not impling that an edit done in a short time is not any good-I'm only responding to the question the poster asked-how long from the end of the job to the finsihed product is done and I mentioned I know some hacks that get it done very quickly-I should have also said I know some hacks that take forever-much longer than I do.
I too am full time in the business and as I stated before my editing schedule is flexible - most of the corporate /industrial stuff comes before the weddings and once I get started on the wedding it could be interupped-but in general it's about a week of editing to finish.

Appearantly I did not make myself clear about the fact that an edit done in a short amount of time doesn't make it bad nor does one that takes longer to get to make it good.
I do not equate longer delivery times with higher prices or quality it just what it is and in 35 of being self employed in my own business I do not employ the tactic of fooling clients with that BS as you put it. Like yourself I'm sure, my clients hire me based on quality and craftmanship not BS.
Don

Yes....lay off of Don, he has been at this for a very long time with much success.....much longer than just about anyone on this forum.

Try to stick to the topic.....the rebuts do not help the original poster's question.



All rigthy everyone-perhaps the choice of words wasn't the best but PLEASE ENOUGH!

I'm not impling that an edit done in a short time is not any good-I'm only responding to the question the poster asked-how long from the end of the job to the finsihed product is done and I mentioned I know some hacks that get it done very quickly-I should have also said I know some hacks that take forever-much longer than I do.
I too am full time in the business and as I stated before my editing schedule is flexible - most of the corporate /industrial stuff comes before the weddings and once I get started on the wedding it could be interupped-but in general it's about a week of editing to finish.

Appearantly I did not make myself clear about the fact that an edit done in a short amount of time doesn't make it bad nor does one that takes longer to get to make it good.
I do not equate longer delivery times with higher prices or quality it just what it is and in 35 of being self employed in my own business I do not employ the tactic of fooling clients with that BS as you put it. Like yourself I'm sure, my clients hire me based on quality and craftmanship not BS.
Don

some of our clients dont see their video for 5 months! on average... 3-4 months.

some of our clients dont see their video for 5 months! on average... 3-4 months.

Mark, I will be cruisng around your island in less than a month on a Norwegian Cruie Liner......can't wait to see Hawaii!

edit.. what is it? what do u define it as?
Do u trudge through all your footage and neatly trim off the fat, or do you review every single second and draw out a cohernt story which takes us from a to b...

now how long should the edit be? shoud you include the full ceremony across multiple cameras? What about the speeches? do u run 2 cameras there as well? and with your final edit, did you just include the best bits of the best bits, or did you include guest interviews, slideshows, preshoots, etc etc what about the food? What about the hangers on at the bar? What about the relatives from afar?

there is no right or wrong way to edit, however one must consider all the variables with the different TYPES of edits we do..

Me, i do longform.. average 90minutes though to 2 to 3 hours depending on the speeches and the cultural requirments... point is, that the ENTIRE piece is FULLY edited...

So whats a long version to you? Is long version simply the raw footag? Or is it a "lightly edited" version? And how do u market this to your clients? Do u not tell them that its minimal, or do u tell them that its virtually untouched? Or do u edit the whole piece as a n entire feature?

hmm.. now then.. highlights.. do we want a quick 7 minute piece which mkes 95% of clients hankering and wishing that it just went that wee bit longer, or do we break down each segment down to 3 to 5 miutes. keeping the cohesion of the day in tact without jumping back and forth.. or do we give the clients what they pay for?
Do we focus on the art or the substance of the day? How much art can we fit if we want to include the substance?

Do we set a precedent for ourselves and for the industry, or do we tag along and do what everyone else does.. do we edit our work the same way we edited our previous jobs? or do we continue to experiment at each job which comes to pass?

editing an deliveries are all based on what you and your business requirements are, based upon the your target and actual market

As for editing for me in general, it usually takes 14days at 16hr shifts to deliver a full feature length edit from start to finish.

then 1 day for the short version (15-20min short version), half a day for highlights(less than 10minute edit), half a day for audio checking (both) half a day for image extraction, half a day for disc and case design, and one full day for disc prinitng and coverslip printing, cutting and packing.

NOW.. in my case, its not the edit which takes time, its GETTING TO the edit.. as an examle, if i have 5 weddings in one particular month, it would take at least 70days before i even look at the last job for that month.. 5jobs x 14days (70days)
Now double that if we add in the month prior... which means that it would take 40days before i can even get the FIRST job of the month following the previous.. so 40 plus 70 = 110 in essence, ti would take 110days to get the the last job for that second month...

i state 16 to 36 weeks..
And for the price i offer my work, people are more than happy to wait for quality

I work a fulltime job on top of my video, so my turn around is longer, than if I was doing video 5 days a week.

But, I can knock out a long form edit, which is mainly documentary/jounalistic style, in 2-3 weeks. A short form edit, which makes use of music, voiceovers, and creative story telling, will take me 4-6 weeks to knock out.

My long form edit, will be 60-90 minutes in length.

My short form edits will be 30-45 minutes in length (not including highlight video or some additional bonus features, if there are any). Short edits are definitely more work, but, I prefer them, as do my clients. I love being able to take a full (60-90 minute) catholic mass and be able to compress it down to 15-20 minutes.

My goal is always about 10 to 12 weeks depending on how much of a backlog I have.

I will however be lightening my load though, I'm going to send my extra edits to Don. (poking fun Don.)

We don't cookie cut anything either. We do custom graphics, special effects etc. This is what people like about us. I had a special effect that took me several hours to key frame. So it really depends on the wedding.

We could all agree that lighting, chaos, audio anomelies can all make our edit time vary.

I'm a videographer based in the UK and I cover mainly Indian weddings which are often intesively ceremonial.

On average, a typical wedding spans 2-3 days and usually the eventual film I provide is anything from 4-8 hours long! Usually across 4 DVDs or 2-3 dual-layered DVDs.

I edit it fully with titles, transitions, highlights, motion menus & extras and the actual editing can take between 2-6 weeks, but it can be many months before the project arrives on the editing table, so I usually quote anything from 3-6 months for final delivery.

We do a high percentage of multi-cultural & inter-racial weddings which is good because they often have many ceremonial traditions giving us more footage to play with in post than we get from stock Anglo weddings.
We shoot everything with 2 cameras and do no more than 25 weddings a year with some corporate work during the quiet months to keep the bank happy.

Our couples get a fully edited main feature running about 40mins and also a fully edited documentary going for about 1-1.5 hours. Anyhow, just like Sunny Dhinsey all our productions come with titles, transitions, highlights, photo montages, motion menus & extras.

We spend an average of about 40 hours editing each wedding and quote the clients a 3-4 month turnaround from wedding day.

:)

I'm a videographer based in the UK and I cover mainly Indian weddings which are often intesively ceremonial.

On average, a typical wedding spans 2-3 days and usually the eventual film I provide is anything from 4-8 hours long! Usually across 4 DVDs or 2-3 dual-layered DVDs.

I edit it fully with titles, transitions, highlights, motion menus & extras and the actual editing can take between 2-6 weeks, but it can be many months before the project arrives on the editing table, so I usually quote anything from 3-6 months for final delivery.

this is why i no longer do Indian weddings at my standard prices...
not to offend, but i have found the clientelle are far more demanding in teh sense that they believe theyre entitled to standard pricing when the wedding itself is far from standard.. i love doing them, adn there are some incredible shots to be had.. and i definelately would NOT use one camera.. considering the length of teh grooms ceremony at least 3 to break the monotony...
and wireless mivces are pretty useless as the battery life wouldnt last as long as the ceremony itself..
I think the last one i did the grooms ceremony went for abotu 4 and half hours, the brides arrival went for another 45minutes, then thre was teh ceremony at teh grooms home which went for 90minutes, then another one before the reception started which went for an hour from memory...

I say 10 weeks. (usually deliver in 6-8)
40-65 hrs. edit.
10 hrs. author/design/package.

I generally say two to three weeks and that is alot of editing. I too work a full time job and spend about 4 hrs a night on the edit and authoring. I'm cutting on FCP and a G5 Imac..

^^ I'm with Greg on this one. It took me a while but I am getting the hang of it.

For 4 hours of footage to go thru, It takes me about a week (25 or so hours) to trim/minor colour correction the footage down to what I consider a concisely edited 2 hour movie, divided to about 14 chapters or so.

From there it may take me 15 hours to have fun cutting and colouring with MB a highlight reel, I'm picky as hell. So about 40 hours total or 2 weeks as I have a full time career.

I get weddings in 2 ways.

1. I shoot the wedding.
2. I get raw DVCAM wedding footage from a client to edit.

When I get the raw DVCAM wedding footage, I pump out about 4 a week on average. (in a 7 day work week)
This includes titles, small 21 picture montage, seperate Ceremony/Reception disc, and includes, ceremony, reception, highlights, interviews, Montage.
My client likes them edited a certain way, so the cookie cutter edits allow me to pump them out real fast. I know how their cameraman works, so it is just easy. I get a nice flat rate for this, and this is my bread and butter.

If I shoot the wedding, about a week per job, as I shoot in HDV and we all know it takes longer to render, and export via Compressor with HDV.

My wife and I work together to make this happen. I dump all footage to the cluster, once done she does a basic layout in FCP with the laptop (usually while in bed) while streming off of our network. I go back, put in transitions, titles (we have 3-4 dozen templates we made for titles ready to use that we have created), a proof, then it goes to DVD. My wife proofs the DVD while I do something else. We split workloads, she scans images sometimes, does work in Motion for titles, or burns copies, etc.

Because we work from home, we work till 3am sometimes, I will import footage and go watch Lost, make dinner, then go back and get to work.

Rinse, repeat.

We have a nice workflow, own 2 cameras, one HDV, one SD, 1 server, 7 TB of storage, a laptop, NTSC monitor, a few Decks, and DVD printer, Lightscribe cluster for multiple etches, and 5.1 on the main editing station to test the 5.1 we mix for the projects.