WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHY

Wedding videography has a long and sordid history. I know, that’s horrible for me to say, being a leading Austin wedding videographer for many years. It’s the truth, though, and while we may not be proud of a single wedding video from the 1980′s, if we look deeper into our history, we may realize that we missed the boat in defining the spirit of cinematic wedding videos.

The advent of home video, while creating the possibility of becoming a wedding videographer, also killed the possibility that most would shoot super 8 wedding films.  Now, every chump with a camera could cheaply record more than they need to record of any aspect of life, and that’s exactly what they begin to do.  Instead of shooting judiciously, because of the expense of super 8 film, weekend warrior videographers forgot that there are boundaries between the cameraperson and the action, and they began to force themselves upon the moment….and wedding videography was born, sadly.

But if you watch an old super 8 wedding, I dare you to take your eyes off of it.  There’s such beauty and emotion in the selectively picked shots.  There’s an inherent nostalgia, and a vintage-ness.

Austin Wedding Video on Super 8 Film | Demo from Chris P. Jones on Vimeo. 

My fellow Austin wedding photographers tend to tease me on this matter, and they are right! More people were likely to watch a wedding video in the 1960′s when it was a super8 wedding, but the 80′s and 90′s were to wedding video what the 70′s were to men’s suits….but that is not the case today with our films.

SUPER 8 WEDDING FILMMAKERS

We began to shoot super 8 wedding films long before it was popular again.   The uniqueness of super8 weddings have even led some Austin wedding photographers to experiment with shooting super8 wedding videos, not just for adding to their services, but for artistic expression as well.

There are many Austin wedding photographers that I know who are steeped in the history of their craft. Many still shoot 35mm film, and the grain and the texture just add so much in the same way that they do for super 8 wedding films. Many Wedding Videographers are afraid to try to shoot a super 8 wedding, but we love it!