Inside Wedding Videos - Past

We've all seen a wedding video at some stage or another and we probably all agree that we've seen at least one awful one! I have no hesitation in admitting that I had an impressive list of excuses when friends used to ask me around to watch theirs. Poorly produced video by hobbyists masquerading as professionals has held the industry back until the present day. It is no coincidence that the wedding videographer is not held in the same high esteem as a professional photographer.

To understand this phenomena we need to look back to the earliest days of wedding videography.

Some of us are lucky enough to have some Super 8 film footage of family events and what not, but it wasn't until Sony made video cameras available to the consumers in 1980 that we became accustomed to the Video Man... and his microphone cables... and his blinding light... and his home video looking footage.

Let's be brutally honest, the vast majority of the video pioneers were amateurs who had no motion picture training, no understanding of shot composition, thought cinematic language was a foreign tongue from Scandinavia, and brandishing (necessary) lights that were powerful enough to trick birds into morning song .

But, nevertheless, video was a novelty back then and seizing upon this market demand, coupled with relative accessibility of primitive video equipment, individuals with an interest in motion picture began to set themselves up in a professional capacity.

In an industry with no governing body and hobbyists with no training, film experience, or technical ability, the Video Man was beginning to form a negative reputation with his dissatisfied customers.

In 1995 Sony released the VX1000 - a 3CCD camera that was compact, discreet, and offered better picture quality. It was the start of a technological boom which would see new low-light cameras offer broadcast quality pictures, non-linear editing suites which allowed editors to flex their creative muscle, and new delivery formats like DVD to replace the degradable VHS tapes. Nowadays, you can watch your wedding video on your mobile phone!