Being who I am, being in a situation is not enough, I must try to understand my situation. I’ve been a wedding videographer for more than a year now, and I have been trying to articulate the varied skills required in being a videographer for weddings.

To be a mediocre videographer, I just needed to get the basic skills, basic framing, what are close ups, medium shots, and long shots, and how to use a varied assortment to bring the audience through an event. In other words, I just need to be an average cameraman. Technically, I must have to ability to hold still shots, as well as simple panning movements. I would also need to watch out for sounds, making sure I have the levels right, to capture the sounds of the moment.

To be a better videographer, I would have to be able to edit well too. Sensing the flow of events, choosing the best moments. Someone was quoted on the Discovery Channel series American Choppers as saying the team of editors is THE most important element in a reality TV show. I fully agree with that. A good editor can make “sucky” footage good, but good footage, excellent. A good editor needs to have an understanding of music as well, learning how to use sound to tie the whole video together.

To be an excellent videographer, there is a combination of everything, the ability to capture the precious moments of the wedding in a “true” manner, and do even better than that, in a BEAUTIFUL manner. When there are insufficient moments, an excellent videographer is able to work with the subjects to create some sequences.

In other words, to be excellent in what we do, we have to be good:-
Cameramen
Editor
Director
Director of Photography
Sound Engineer

and above all, an Artist, meaning all of the above but at a higher aesthetic level

We have to be able to pull together different genres of audio visual media out there, from movies, to TV dramas, to reality TV. The video is good when it is able to tell a story,
tug at the emotions of the audience,
making people laugh and cry,
feel awe and warmth,
be entertaining,
be beautiful.

I am in awe with the people at the top out there. Christopher and Swee Foong are definitely there in my books. I cannot compare good wedding videographers with any other people in the audio visual (TV, Film, Advertising etc…) industry, in my opinion, wedding videographers are a class of their own.