We were originally going with MCJ Photo to do both their photography and videography for our wedding. Unfortunately (fortunately!), their main videographer was already booked for our wedding date, but MCJ Photo recommended MP Films. They provided MP Film's contact information and website, where the bf (now hubby) and I were checking out the work. We definitely liked what we saw, especially the fact that we would tear up on the wedding videos of people we didn't even know. Talk about evoking emotion...
So, I emailed MP Films and spoke to Michael. Very professional, very cordial, super-helpful and super-informative. We had all the info that we needed/wanted from the first phone call/email (and the website has a lot of information), where he did request to meet us in person to answer any other questions. Because his work
spoke for him, the meeting to us was mostly a formality, where our ultimate plan was to sign the contract that day. Do note that depending on the season, he may not be able to meet during a weekend, as he could be shooting a wedding that day! But, Michael will definitely put someone on his schedule if he can commit to it.
We met him at his original office in San Dimas. There was a little hiccup, and the meeting time was delayed, but Michael was able to rectify that down the line. Once we met him, we sat down, saw a few of his videos to give us an idea of what a particular package would offer, loved what we saw and how we felt with Michael, and we put in our deposit and signed the contract that day.
Over the course of the next several months, Michael and I would email each other, mostly me emailing him with questions and double-checking with him on what he needed from us. Very smooth, very thorough. I, admittedly, checked other videographers' blogs to make sure that I wasn't forgetting anything and that I was fully prepared on what was going to happen on the wedding (eek!). I messaged him the day before the wedding to verify the hotel address, the venue's address, and the hotel rooms that we would be staying at.
Michael and his team were on time on the day of our wedding. He greeted me, and then went down to business. Set up the tripods, took the shots of the dress/jewelry, took shots of certain things I requested (knives, watches, presents, etc.), etc. He and his partner communicated well with each other, with myself, with the wedding party, and he wouldn't stop shooting until he got the shot he wanted.
Brides: make sure you are comfortable in your dress/makeup/shoes for the entire day, and that you're able to smile a LOT for the entire day. Grooms: be on time, be cool, and, remember, you're making the bride, the love of your life, look even more beautiful.
We provided him a parking pass for both the hotel and the venue, so make sure you provide this to him ahead of time (we were able to day-of with no issues). Couples: I would suggest providing at least some snackage for your vendors and wedding party. It's amazing how hungry one can get when hungry.
The rest of the night was a blur. I know we had 3 cameras running, but we didn't really notice them or knew where they were. That's how smoothly MP Films was able to coordinate themselves and find ideal shooting locations. Michael found us personally at the end of the night when he was leaving, we got our selfie shots, and hugged/shook hands.
We had requested, when we first signed our contract, to have all of the raw footage, which Michael was very happy to oblige. I provided him a large external harddrive on the day of the wedding before he started shooting, where he stored it in a safe area. We spoke to him a week later, met him, and got all of the raw footage, where I started bawling again at some of the shots when hubby and I got home. The shots were great, there were a lot of awesome views that we wouldn't have seen, and there were some cute creative outlooks. It definitely made us eager to see how the video/trailer would turn out.
When we signed our contract, we were aware that he would need a 10- to 12-week timeline when everything would be complete. Unfortunately, by the time of the 12-week deadline, he was not done. As hubby and I have done our own amateur video editing, we understood that having a lot of footage and editing it into either 60 minutes or even 4 minutes is very difficult, so we asked him to take his time and finish the other projects where his customers needed the videos more. He did provide us a preview of our 60-minute video at that time and it looked awesome on the portions that he edited. We got our 4 minute trailer to share with our friends/families at the 20-week mark. Still haven't received the DVD/CD with our 60-minute video on it, but it should be here in a week.
Bottom line: awesome work, very professional, and it's a great team. He worked well with our photographers, and he got all of the shots we wanted in such a small time frame. read more