TECHNICAL : Why not HD for everyone?

Northeast Horizons might not be for every couple. Maybe our style is not what you are looking for. Maybe we are booked on your date already. Maybe you weren't planning on having your wedding filmed at all. One thing that is certain though, no matter what video company you use, whether is us or someone else, you need to have your wedding taped in HD. Its time has come, and the equipment for videographers is more than affordable. You walk into any Best Buy, and just attempt to find a TV that is not widescreen and High Definition. You might not even own an HDTV now, or for sometime, but you will. Maybe its 10 years from now, but you will own one. Why would you not want your wedding captured at the highest possible quality? Part of the problem is the way that many videographers try to spin the HD story....."Most of my brides don't want HD"....."there is no way for the couple to play HD"....."HD is too expensive". All of the previous statements are false.

Most brides do not think they want HD because that is what their potential videographer is telling them. They will tell you there is no way to play it, and it is too expensive, and that is just untrue. The issue is, most videographers do not like spending the money to upgrade their equipment, because it costs money. Sometimes lots of money. Unfortunately, that is the cost of being in this business, and the brides and grooms deserve that respect. The HD turn of events started over 4 years ago in the wedding videography business, which was more than enough time. Now for the 2008 season and beyond, HD is affordable for videographers, there are numerous ways to deliver the HD products to our clients, and it does not have to be all that expensive. If your potential videographer is not willing to work in HD for you, they are basically telling you that they do not want to invest back into their business to give you the best possible product they can, and you should be wary of that.

There is no more excuses for boring, grainy, ugly wedding videos that give this business a bad reputation. The technology is there that wedding videos should look like your wedding photos, only in motion. You may not book us for your wedding, but even if you don't, please make sure the videographer you do choose gives you the respect you deserve, and is upfront with you why they might not create High Definition.

How much control do you have over your final video?

The real answer is you have as much control as you want, even down to we can quote pricing into you package where you can come sit in our editing suite with us, and be the director. BUT......before you make the decision on how hands on you would like to be in your project, ask yourself this, "Do I really want to get bogged down into little details of my wedding video?" When you hire us to take care of your wedding film, we assume you do that because you like our style, you have met or talked with us, and you trust us with our professional knowledge to create a beautiful piece for you, without bogging you down with issues that you should not be concerned with. Think about it this way.....are you going to call your catering hall and tell them how to cook the chicken, or fold the napkins? No, you probably will not. You trust them to do what they do. This is the best way to deal with us, and probably most of your vendors. Find people and companies you trust, then go ahead and enjoy your day. Hopefully, this is your one and only wedding you will have to plan in your life, but remember, we do hundreds of them. This is our life, and you are in good hands. Little do you know, you have extreme control over your final product, and more than you might realize. On your wedding day, your girls will have beautiful dresses picked out by you. You will have flowers and a color scheme that will tie the day together. You will choose music and entertainment with your band/DJ. All these details add up to a flavor and style that becomes your own, and your wedding video will reflect this. We use music suggestions you give us, along with color palettes and moods that comes through on your wedding day to help us shape your final product.

Pre-Wedding Consultation

All of our packages come with a pre-wedding consultation where we can go over the list below and show you examples where necessary. This can be done either in person, or over the phone, whatever works best for you. General Info:

• Contact info: We will need addresses, phone numbers for all addresses, and any other contact information needed to get in touch with you. It’s always best that we have contact information for the couple as well so that we can get in touch directly in case of weather changes, etc.
• Itinerary: We will need a detailed point form itinerary of all events happening on your wedding day. This includes all the events at the reception: time of speeches, time of bouquet toss, etc. Please merge this section with the contact info section so that we know where all your events are located. Please note that we require one hour of setup before the ceremony for video and 20 minutes of setup for photo. A ceremony program will be helpful as well.
• Special requests: If something out of the ordinary is happening at your wedding and you would like to make sure that it gets covered, please let us know. For example, if you are wearing your great grandmother’s necklace and would like a shot of it, please tell us. More than likely, we will notice it anyway, but the better prepared we are, the better the video will be. Note: “bride coming down the aisle” is not out of the ordinary and will automatically be captured. Please keep your special request list down to 5 or fewer items.
• Dinner at the reception: Will dinner be provided for us or should we provide our own? Please note that coverage will be interrupted if we need to provide our own.
• Size of your bridal party: Please let us know how many of you there will be, how many groomsmen, bridesmaids, and flower/ring children. Also, please specify whether they will all be standing during the ceremony or sitting.

Video:

• Audio at the ceremony: We will need to know about instruments, singers, and any readings that will be at your ceremony to make sure the audio is properly captured. Please make sure to note what kind of audio there will be (reading, singer, organ etc) as well as the location of the audio (ex. reading at the podium, organ in the balcony). Please also let us know whether your ceremony music will be played by a person or a stereo. Please speak with your officiant before the wedding day about wearing a microphone. Your officiant may tell you that they will already be wearing mic, however this will not provide good audio for your video, and our microphone will not interfere with any in-house mics.
• Speeches/Lighting: Will your speeches all be at a podium? Is the microphone for the speeches provided by the reception hall or your DJ, and will it be wireless or corded?
• Music selections: Please provide us with several song selections for each part of your video. You may want to leave some of the decision up to us. Highlights montages are best done to instrumental and dramatic music, which is often hard to come by. If you would like to have input, please provide at least 3 songs per section (3 songs for the preparations, 3 for the dancing footage, etc) or a master song list of at least 20 songs. Often couples will provide a list of 5-7 songs they really like and ask us to use their music if it fits and otherwise use our own discretion.
• Video style: You have probably seen several of our highlights montages. Some of them are slow and romantic, while others are a bit more upbeat. Please let us know if there is a certain pace you prefer and also feel free to note down any specific highlights clip you particularly enjoyed. If you want to make sure that other portions of the video are a certain style, such as the preparations being fast and fun, or the credits being slower, please note that here.
• Ceremony style: You have the option to have your ceremony shown in two styles: documentary and cinematic. In the documentary style, we keep about 90% of the ceremony as-is so you can watch it years later and see it as it really was. Most of our couples are going for the cinematic style, where the ceremony is cut down to the most important parts - the vows, rings, etc. and the editing is much more dramatic. A cinematic ceremony will be about 30-40% of its original length which makes it much more artistic, and entertaining and is often viewed many times more than a documentary style ceremony. The cinematic ceremony also fits better with the rest of your video as it has a faster pace and is more powerful. Please let us know which you would prefer.

Photo Restoration

One of the most overlooked issues in moving to a more digital future is saving and archiving all those old photos that are laying around the house, in the attic, and down in the basement. Here at Northeast Horizons, Photo restoration is one of our most popular services. In order for your baby photos to fit into your nice new HD wedding production, we will spend the required time to restore those photos, and make them look new again. We also provide these services separate from our videos, and can provide you with cd's, dvd' s, and prints of your old photos, restored to today's standards. Click the above photo for a close-up of an example of what photo restoration can do for you.

Love Story Shoots

Clothing
It’s always great if you can choose clothes for the interview that really suit your personality. Comfort is the biggest thing to consider, don’t worry about being too casual or too formal.

Music
It is always preferred if you can bring a list of 10-15 of your favorite songs that we can use throughout your love story. Try to find a mix of different styles and artists so that they will fit with the various parts of your video. If the songs are really old or rare, please bring a CD down with you.

Questions
We have a list of questions that we start with and adapt for each couple and situation. If you want to think of 2-3 questions that we can ask your fiance without him or her knowing, that can always be a fun way to make them more comfortable and to get some really candid answers. To be fair, you should also give him or her the chance to come up with a couple of surprise questions too! It’s always best if you try to avoid talking about any of the questions before or after the interviews since the entertainment and power in a love-story comes from how candid they can be.

Childhood Photos
We usually suggest bringing down about 60 photos total; 20 of each of you growing up, and 20 of you together. You can also skip photos of the two of you together and use more childhood photos since we will also use your engagement photos in the presentation. Try to avoid pictures that are similar and try to find pictures in really wacky situations or with really odd expressions, haircuts, etc. since those always go over best with the crowd! If you can scan the photos and bring them down on CD, that is always recommended since it gives us more time to fix up your photos before using them in the love-story. If you’re scanning your own photos, try for a minimum of 300 dpi in JPG format. If we will be scanning your photos, please prepare to leave them with us for at least a couple of weeks.

Timing
Plan for a good half day or 3-5 hours. Sometimes it works best to do the engagement video portion and then take a break for lunch or dinner before going back to the interview portion. Don’t worry if you’re nervous about speaking - we can always start over and there is no rush. We have worked with many couples with many different personalities and have yet to have an interview session that doesn’t go really well!