I feel as though I’ve started nearly every blog post with a line about how the wedding industry is a massive money eating machine with jobs and businesses from every single aspect of your wedding. I can’t seem to talk about it enough. But I think it is fair to then turn the question on us and ask “Why do you film weddings? Are you no different than the massive money eating machine?” I’m not real sure anyone has or will ask such a question, but I think it is a fair question to address, because I would prefer future couples to read articles such as this and learn a little bit more about why we are involved with filming weddings. Are we just in it for the money? Is it just an easy industry to get involved in?

I felt inspired to take to the blog after having read an interesting article about why stories matter. I found it through a fellow UK vendor (whose work I’ve recently admired and desperately want to bring to the States). The web site put me off at first, being named “The Vagenda.” As a male I felt as though I may have been creeping up on territory that was going to bring the hate against all men ever. But I ended up reading a very inspiring article that really got me thinking about why Outone, Andy and myself have invested our time, money and skills into this business we proudly call A Peachy Life Productions.

Stories matter. And we love to tell stories.

To be clear, weddings are not our only gig. We are interested in music videos, commercial videos for businesses, and even looking into the prospect of filming a documentary. Our minds are always exploring new ideas for filming, but the center piece of our company is weddings and it probably will be for a long time.

Weddings, for the most part, have a story to tell. For some critics, it’s the same old story, but I challenge that by stating the very real fact that every individual person in existence is a unique vessel containing a wide ranging substance sometimes called a soul. When you marry two folks of such diverse nature, you create  unique relationship and therefore a unique story to go along with it. The story doesn’t have to get swept up in hyper romantic imagery or words, it can be as subtle as a twinkle in the eye of the groom as the bride walks down the isle.

There’s a story in every relationship.

The challenge on our end is capturing this story and telling it in a compelling way that doesn’t suffer from redundancy. We also cannot let it get white washed by cookie cutter methods when it comes to filming and editing.

Masters of the art form like Jason Magbanua and Still Motion consistently tell fresh and engaging wedding stories on film. Not all of their films are sheer perfection, but there is no doubt that they have an eye for telling a story.

A developing concept in the Videography arena has been the same day edit, a staple of Jason Magbanua and local peers such as Key Moments Films.

I see nothing wrong with the concept and I have been thoroughly impressed by a number of Same Day Edit films by both JM and Key Moments and others. It’s pitch is nearly perfect, have the beginning of your wedding day filmed and then edited together for a highlights reel that gets shown during the reception. It’s an opportunity to refresh your memory on what just occurred, as it is likely the time may have flown by for the newly weds and their guests.

Why doesn’t A Peachy Life Productions offer a Same Day Edit? Well, it just doesn’t mold very well with the style we are going for.

More power to our peers who have mastered the form and make fantastic Same Day Edit videos. For me, I need to gloss over every shot before deciding on where it should go. There’s so much thought that goes into how the footage should be arranged.

What part of the story do I want to tell?

Does the footage represent our couple?

What music will we select for their film?

Needless to say, a lot of thought and discussion goes into the creation of our films. And we review every single shot. All of them.

This is what takes time when it comes to turning around our product. It’s unfortunate, but we just don’t feel comfortable putting out videos that are lacking. That’s not to say anyone else is doing that, I really do not pretend to know how others work, that’s just our philosophy on it now.

Along with the release of our highlights trailer online, I have decided to dedicate a lengthy series of blog posts that put the wedding day into words, an inspiration from our friends across the sea at The Wedding Report.

The main point I am trying to arrive at is that we love to tell stories. We love to film. So we love to film weddings because there’s always a great story to capture and tell the world. Stories matter, even if weddings happen a million times a year.

The financial part is merely a means for keeping us going and replenishing and improving our gear to continue to improve our craft in the future.

I’ve been negligent this week for the blog, my apologies to our readers. Stay tuned for more content this coming week.

 

Featured image and all photos provided by the talented Catherine Ann Photography, located in Tampa. Like her page on Facebook.

 

-APL