Frequently Asked Questions

Haha! Well remember we are a film company…but we would usually answer that question by asking you this: In the future, what do you honestly think you’ll look at more? 100′s of still images, or a wedding video that you can cue up anytime right on your TV, laptop, tablet and phone. Let’s put it this way, my wife and I looked long and hard to find the perfect photographer for our wedding, and we did. He took the most amazing pictures that day. We have one above the fireplace and maybe there are a couple on page 3 or 4 in an old Facebook album, and that’s it. We wouldn’t even think about asking our friends “hey you guys wanna come over and watch a slideshow of all my wedding photos” but we most certainly would ask “hey you guys wanna check out our wedding video?”. It’s just something that people want to see. It’s not like in the 1980′s where video equipment was clunky and expensive and not all that great, it’s the exact opposite! It’s affordable, it’s HD and it’s here for you now. So yes, we tend to think it’s important.

Wedding magazines and websites have done a good job blurring the line between these terms. To make it simple, videography may refer more to a flat, broadcast TV type of recording. Videography spends less time editing and sequencing and focuses on total coverage. Cinematography is more movie-like focusing on creative camera movements, clever use of lighting and meaningful sequencing to help tell a story. With cinematography, much more time is spent in post-production editing, cutting, color grading and creating perfect audio. SkyGuy Media has a bent towards cinematography but can facilitate videography as well, or both, if needed. In fact, most of our packages include both, a feature film as well as a documentary style edit for total coverage so you get every moment from every angle. But, for search engine sake we do like to use keywords on our site like St. Louis Wedding Videographer Come read a little more about us.

Yep! You’re probably looking for one of these: http://SkyGuyMedia.com/Initial-Questionnaire http://SkyGuyMedia.com/Scheduling-Questionnaire

We can. We will. But we’d rather not. Sort of like the question above, we think that sometimes photography at a wedding can get out of control and end up stiff and cheesy real quick. Example: “Hey let’s all hold hands, jump in the air and yell “YAY” at the same time”. Meh. What we’d like to do is capture you being you, not you being us. Trust us, 5, 10 and 20 years from now you’ll appreciate that we didn’t interfere. Now, if you need some help warming up to the lens or pointers on do’s and don’t’s, sure no problem, we do know how to direct and in fact if you want full direction we are comfortable doing that. But we like to be the fly on the wall, it’s more intimate that way. With all that being said, it’s actually not uncommon for us to help in the direction of a ‘first look’. We’re really good at that, so we sometimes step in.

No, in fact we have very little if no direction at all (see previous question) so we wont ask you to stop, start, pose at all. We are not noisy. The sound of a shutter on a photographers camera can get quite loud, especially with more than one photographer. The same goes for camera flash, it’s bright and distracting. We’re never opening and closing a camera shutter so we’re completely silent and will never ever use a flash.

Yes. Well, yes and no. We will be starting and stopping all day long documenting the day in a series of clips. So for instance, there will not be a camera on a tripod just sitting there recording. We call that the “Uncle Bob” recording. It gets that name because, well, you could just have your Uncle Bob do that for you. We create films and we tell stories. The videos that we create are much more robust than a still camera sitting on a tripod. Trust me, you don’t want “Uncle Bob”, and that’s why you’re here now looking at hiring us! But we do have you covered just in case Uncle Bob get’s upset that you don’t have what he would’ve shot, we provide a total coverage clean-up edit with every package. The clean-up edit includes every second of every minute of the ceremony and/or reception, etc. (Tell Uncle Bob we expect a hi-five)

We can. We do. And technically if you don’t mind we’d much rather. Have you ever been on a set for a music video or movie? Maybe a TV show, play or concert? Notice the amount of light used? Sometimes 10′s of thousands of watts. They’re doing that because better light = better footage. Now we would never dare to toss 10,000 watts into your ceremony but that’s not to say that we would want to use 500-1,000 watts. Let’s put it this way, if you can’t or don’t want lights we can still work together, and still create an amazing video. But if you really want some epic ‘pop’ to the film, and a very cinematic look, we would suggest maybe using lights. The option is included in every package that we offer, so they don’t cost you any extra either.

Days. Weeks. Months…who knows (did anyone catch our Winnie the Pooh reference there?) No, seriously, it really depends. During wedding season (May-September) it may take longer than say a wedding in January. Typically we have a turnaround time of 12 weeks. One thing that we don’t do is rush a project. We make sure that each and every film is to it’s very best before we ship.

Yes! In fact, there are still images included in every package! A square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn’t a square. While a wedding photographer cannot deliver you any video, we on the other hand can also deliver photos with your video package. We just like to keep our main focus on video. It’s fancier.

If you have a song that you are dying to have in the film we don’t mind. We can also choose the music for you as well, in fact, we’d prefer that. That way we don’t have to feel like we’re being ‘held hostage’ by the soundtrack in post-production. A lot of thought goes into the choosing of the perfect song to match our films: time signature, pacing, rising and falling action, etc so have no fear we are not randomly spinning a bottle by any means. We do typically lean towards singer/songwriter, folk and indie artists and find that this helps from dating the final piece as with a top 40 song. One of our most frequent compliments is on our decision of audio selection, we like to think we have pretty good taste, check out our stuff. Note: we will under no circumstance ever use ‘Gangnam Style’, sorry.

Not by a long shot, although we do believe to be very fair and reasonably priced for the creative quality and amount of content we deliver. Here’s what we’d ask ourselves if we were you…are we the best cinematographers at the best price? Absolutely. Shop around, watch some other videos. We don’t think you’ll find a more unique style and better quality at a better price. Someone once told us “good video isn’t cheap, cheap video isn’t good”, I’d have to agree with that. Not to mention, it’s the biggest and most important day of your life, and…you’re worth it!

We are. And carry $1 million in liability to ensure that you, everyone at your wedding and even the building is safe.

Not everyone likes to be directly in front of the camera, for that reason we will never approach a guest to do an interview. If your package includes interviews we suggest that you have the DJ announce it or you can make a sign to post somewhere telling guests to find the video team to do an interview. The same goes for messages to each other, let us know when the time is right and we can find a quiet room, but we don’t want to have to bug either of you on your big day.

Yep.