To give Raw footage for Wedding?

[Lukas Siewior]

I can't imagine going through 6 hrs of tapes to cut out all unwanted shots, and then burn on dvd's. That's like another whole project. I also tell my customers that they are getting everything on their copy anyway. My customers usually want to get full-length production.

[Steve Elgar]

Hey Simon.
Go with your gut instinct, and the majority view of most here, and that is to say NO. I've been shooting weddings since 1979 (now i'm showing my age). and have never been asked for original camera footage.

[Galen Rath]

There are a lot of conversations at weddings that can get inadvertantly recorded, sometimes in the background, that you don't even notice on the tape without careful listening, that you really wouldn't want to get out and cause conflicts and unhappy situations for guests. You don't need to be a contributor to that kind of "invasion of privacy" situation. In the end, situations like this caused by completely unedited tapes will just give another reason for guests to scorn the videographer.

[Dan Shallenberger]

I'd like to throw in my two cents here too. I mentioned to a photog once that this bride requested the raw footage, and he was shocked. He said that no one has ever asked him for the shots he didn't include in the proofs, and he would never release them anyhow, for any price.

I too am a crazy shooter, starting recording before needing to, ending it way after needing to, and leaving the camera running in between shots a lot. That's a lot of crazy movement that would require some Dramamine to watch. I personally will agree to it for a fee, but I only release the footage they might care about, and they know this ahead of time. So, I give them only the leftover shots from prep, guests entering the church, uncut ceremony and fast dancing (of which it edit down drastically). The dancing footage with ambient audio is 90% of what my clients want to see anyhow, NOT every detail from every tape. I'm thinking about just adding that as a feature, uncut dancing and communion. I bet with that, nobody would ask for raw footage again.

My two cents.

[Simon Denny]

Good points Dan about cutting the uncut to something extra.
My client wants it all, every second that I shot.

[Mike Watkins]

I shot my friends wedding video a while ago, as a wedding gift(aka free)...Got them the final dvd, which included 2 highlight videos, wishes to the bride and groom and the ceremony. Now they are asking for the raw uncut footage to be burned to dvd... I have cleaned my hard drive and would have to re-ingest footage, and go through the whole process again( 3 hours worth of tape). just to get raw footage on dvd.

Should I ask for a fee in this situation? Should I just say no..

Didn't mean to hikack the thread.

thanks,

Mike.

[Tom Hardwick]

If it's for a friend, then there's no question of payment. You could say you've binned the junk. But for a three hour load-up, and hour to cut out the very worst and another 2 hours to MPEG encode to DVD I'd have thought they'd be delighted.

[Chris Davis]

Originally Posted by Mike Watkins

Should I ask for a fee in this situation? Should I just say no..

I would be frank and tell them exactly how much time and work it would entail. If they were my good friends, I'd probably do it in my spare time and at no cost. If they were casual acquaintances, I'd probably say no.

In the case of a customer, I couldn't see charging less than $500 for the raw footage. That's because I'd have to sit and watch every minute to make sure I didn't make an offensive remark to my assistant, myself or anyone else. I'm actually a solid professional when I shoot and not profane in any way, but I might let a remark slip out like "those bridesmaids dresses are not very flattering..." or something like that.

[Clarence S. Walker]

Originally Posted by Tom Sherwood

I want to disagree with you whole heartedly as someone's wedding video is not a piece of wood or a story that was written, those aren't good comparisons. Although my carpenter, who built my kitchen cabinets, did leave me extra knobs, hinges and an extra cabinet... which I will one day hang in the garage, maybe.

I'm editing a video for a friends wedding and I don't see a problem giving them an uncut version. I do like the idea of taking out the absolute bad shots, like a shot of the ground while the camera is still running or what ever, but any shots of the bride and groom that don't make my edit are still valuable to them and at no harm to me.

So I disagree for the most part, but I know there are some pretty dumb and naive people out there who could be turned off by bad footage. They don't understand the craft. However, good footage hits the cutting room floor too. But, then I think wedding videos should only be short films not feature length.

Tom:

I think the answer might be for us to do what Spielberg would do, and that's to provide a "Deleted Scenes" section on the DVD.

I've done this for three clients in the past. Short, 10-20 minutes. Good shots, that didn't make the cut. Nice audio that opens ups scenes, that otherwise don't fit into the context of the story you're trying to tell.

No bad footage, embarassing language, or boringly long scenes.

I, or course, charge more for this additional feature.

Clarence

[Louis Maddalena]

I do not give raw footage to a client unless they request and pay for it before the wedding. This way I know that the raw footage will be going to the client after the edit and instead of shooting the floor when I move I might keep the focus on the bride and groom only it gets shaky. This way while they are watching the raw, they still have something to look at. Also, you never know what somebody will say near you that might get them in trouble with the bride if she hears them talking on the raw footage (I've heard the DJ's complain about the client more times than I can count).

[Tom Sherwood]

I'm with ya Clarence.

This has been a good discussion. It seems which ever way you go with it, whether you give the whole "raw" footage, all shots that are of the bride and groom, or nothing at all, you should have this worked out before the shoot. That will save you a lot of time and headache in the end... You could filter your own comments and maybe pass on warnings to others that you will be rolling the whole time and the couple may hear any and everything. And really save time as you edit.

When I edit for our shorts I always delete the footage thats a total loss that way when I go back and do extras for the dvd I already have some stuff in mind and I don't have to sit through all the garbage footage again.

[Lance Watts]

Originally Posted by Tom Sherwood

I don't see why you can't give them the raw footage. Its their video, not yours. They paid you to shoot the wedding and they paid you to edit the wedding.

Wrong on all counts. It's their wedding. It's my footage. My wedding clients pay for a professionally crafted film of their wedding day. The raw footage belongs to me and I never provide it to clients, at any price. I'm an artist - not an ENG shooter.

Originally Posted by Tom Sherwood

I want to disagree with you whole heartedly as someone's wedding video is not a piece of wood or a story that was written, those aren't good comparisons. Although my carpenter, who built my kitchen cabinets, did leave me extra knobs, hinges and an extra cabinet... which I will one day hang in the garage, maybe.

Wrong again, Tom. A good wedding video IS a story. The raw footage is merely a collection of materials that a talented editor uses to assemble something greater than the sum of the parts.

[Tom Hardwick]

'The raw footage is merely a collection of materials that a talented editor uses to assemble something greater than the sum of the parts.' Good point and well said Lance.

I shoot a few weddings where I simply hand over the raw footage to an editor and I'm always fascinated to see what he /she makes of it. Of course I always try and 'shoot for the edit' but even so it's interesting to note that all my hard work is only seen as a bucket of raw from which to draw.

Shots that I may have worked long and hard at get binned - others that I might have erased at the time get used. The fresh eyes of the editor can certainly see a different film in there.

tom.

[Kyle Root]

We never use to give away the raw footage. But over time and some 10 years of shooting dozens and dozens of weddings with 2-5 cameras, 4 hour dance recitals with 3 cameras, and 12 hour marching band competitions with 3 or 4 cameras, the miniDV tapes started taking up a LOT of space.

A couple years ago, we started including the unedited footage with our wedding packages.

You could always raise your price, say $100 if including tape, or now days, more than that to do some sort of file transfer from solid state media.

[Peter D. Parker]

Looking at this from a slightly different angle, if you provide them with an edited DVD and for what ever reason they end up with the raw footage, what would be your reply if they come back to you and say, "Hey, why didn't you include this shot on the DVD?" or "Can you not add these shots?... OK you might say "Well yes I can include them but at a price" they might then decide that they haven't had full value from your editing.

I've just read the above and I think I'm ranting here, must be my age, but you get the idea.

Peter