1. Why Professional Video? Why not just have a friend or family member do it? Other than the marriage itself, memories are all you have left after the wedding. The flowers will fade, the cake will be eaten. The church and reception hall that was yours for a few hours will be redecorated for someone else’s wedding the next week. You will want to preserve them the best way you can, and there are many reasons why hiring professional will be the best decision you make. And honestly...even if your friend or family member does this for a living..or even as a hobby.. do you really want them to come to your wedding to WORK? It would be the same as if you wouldn't hire a photographer because you know all your friends and family are going to be there with their cameras or camera-phones. It sounds good at the time, but you will regret it later on. 2. We honestly think that we will never look at our video again. Why should we get video of it? Video – unlike photo – is not about the “here and now.” It is about the future. Not everyone that you invite will be able to come. What better way to share with them your wedding day than showing it to them in the REAL TIME as it happened. Every second, every minute, every word, every emotion. We also capture events that happen before the actual wedding: the prep, funny things that bridal party may have to say, etc. As I write this, my parents will soon be celebrating their 40th year of marriage. I am blessed to have them both here still to relate stories of that day: A wedding of 400 guests… The Sisters of the Incarnate Word (whom my mother used to be a member of) singing… My grandfather – my mother’s father, whom I never met – doing all of the Bar-B-Q… The 14th keg of beer being brought in as my parent walked out of the reception to go on their honeymoon. It is those little details that you are going to remember, and we are committed to capture. And what do I have – as a child of parents married 40 years – to remember this? Just pictures. My Great-Uncle just happened to have an 8mm film camera, and he took some film of the wedding, but it wasn’t the whole thing. It didn’t capture the events I just described above. (I am currently working on digitizing this film, and I hope to present it here very soon) This is not to disdain pictures. Pictures are good, and important, but they just don’t show the emotions. They capture them one picture at a time, but they don’t SHOW them as they happen. 3. How do you cover weddings you are hired for? We go into ever wedding with a “documentary style” mentality. This means that we cover the day as it happens. We do not stage things or try to recreate things. We do – however – on get what is called “B-Roll” and much of this will be used in any sort of highlight reel we may make of either your wedding or for our own purposes later on. These scenes include images of flowers, scenery, the church. 4. Do you move around much during the ceremony? The only time we move is when we need to, and we do it in such a way that no one notices. If it really comes down to it, you have to ask yourself a question: Would I rather they move a little to make sure the shot is captured, or stay still and not check anything? Usually this is not an issue. We have 2 constantly manned cameras that are towards the back of the church, and – if needed - a 3rd discreet camera – that stays unmanned and static (unmoving). Many videographers will tell you the NEVER move during the ceremony. That just doesn’t happen. Sometimes (not all the time) you have to. Changing batteries.. changing tapes (especially true in a Catholic Wedding) – it has to happen. I’d rather have to deal with an irate church coordinator rather than lose moments of your day. 5. We don’t want to just see us in our video. We want our bridal party, family members and other friends to be included. Do you do this? Yes. But we don’t FORCE people to be on camera. If someone wants to say something special, we will naturally allow them to. We also get images of all the bridal party during the ceremony and we get many images of family members and friends during the ceremony and reception. We however will not turn our focus away from you – the bride and groom – during the main ceremony. If logistics allow us to get crowd shots and things like that - we will. We naturally get video of any readers, singers, and special things by the priest/minister. 6. Many wedding videos we have seen, we just see the backs of peoples’ heads. Is there anyway to prevent this? Can we see our own faces during that part of the video? Yes there is, but it depends. Some churches just will not allow the videographer to place a camera in a place that will allow that. (Usually on the altar) We ALWAYS try to provide that angle in our weddings. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the church. Some places will surprise you though. The National Shrine of the Little Flower will allow a camera on the altar, which is rare for a Catholic Church, and especially so for such an ornate and reverent one such as Little Flower. The Little Flower Sanctuary is very open, and does not allow for a camera to be placed discreetly. It is right there on the altar, and everyone can see it. When we have a wedding there, we do put a camera on the altar if the bride and groom do not object. It is unmanned and we do not touch it after it is placed there. However, Alamo Heights United Methodist Church has several objects in their Sanctuary that would allow cover for a camera, but they are VERY hesitant in allowing it. They have very specific guidelines for it. So to give you an answer: Yes, we can give you that angle, but it does depend on your church/venue. We respect any House of God. We explain to the church coordinators: “all we want to do is put a camera on the altar. It will not be manned, it will be out of the way, and it will be as discreet as possible.” We have about a 70% average of convincing a church to let us “bend” their rules a little. Usually the rules that are in place is because somebody did something so audacious and obvious, that they had to put that rule in place. It never hurts to ask, and all they can say is no. If they say no, we find ways around it, without violating the church rules. When you hire us, you hire us for one reason: To represent you in video, photo, or both. We have to have light, and we have to have positioning. We position ourselves in such a way that no one can see us, or see us at a very minimum. Our photographers are specifically instructed to not be wandering around the sanctuaruy of the church. And they have good enough equipment to where they don’t have to. 7. We looked at your short “2008-2009 Demo film” and noticed that you didn’t have audio of vows or things like that..do you not have a way to capture those moments? Of course! We have what we like to call a “redundant recording system”. We ALWAYS put a microphone on the groom. This microphone is for OUR USE only. We also work with the church/venue and “plug into” the sound system of the church/venue. Some churches even produce a CD. It varies from venue to venue. Many videographers do not do this, and they lose the audio of the priest/minister. We find it VERY important to be able to have access to the “house sound system” which allows us to capture all the readings, and words that are said on the venue sound system very easily. If for some strange reason we are not allowed to plug into the house system, we do have other ways of capturing sound. So in any event, we are prepared. One thing about the microphone on the groom: NO ONE else can hear it except for us. This leads to some very interesting conversations during the mass/ceremony, and some of the most memorable moments of your day. We of course keep these audio recordings private, and no one else will hear them except you, and whom you choose. Probably our best example of how much emphasis is put on sound is this series of clips form Brandon and Stephanie. I encourage you to watch them before going on (click the play button on the left hand side): 8. Do you have to use lights and other such equipment? We never, under any circumstances, use external lights at the church or ceremony venue. During the reception, however, when they drop the lights to near pitch black, we will use a small light to cast some light during some of the dancing. We do this in such a way that it is not uncomfortable to you or your guests, but we are still able to capture your day. As the Bible says, you cannot make bricks without straw. Same goes for video: You cannot capture video without light, no matter how good the camera is. July 20, 2009: We have revisited this policy over the past few months, and have realized that there are many more dark churches in San Antonio than those that are naturally well lit. A camera sees light much differently than the human eye does. Over the past 4 months or so, we have been in churches or other wedding venues where external lighting would have been necessary to provide the best picture possible. When a building is constructed, the lighting is designed to please the human eye, and does not take into consideration the needs of a videographer for a wedding. Of course, many people will be concerned if the lighting will be blinding or overly obstusive. If external lighting is needed, we will make sure that it is okay with you our clients as well as the venue, as well as making sure that it looks totally natural to the surroundings. The obvious caveat to this is if we say we need the light, and we are denied, we cannot guarantee the quality of picture in the final video. We at Micha-Angel Productions are ultimately beholden to you - our clients. You hire us to make sure that you can see and relive your special day in the best way possible. If it really comes down to it, we here at Micha-Angel will take the "heat" from any venue that we may need to "light up." As stated previously, we understand that this may conjure up fears of really overly obstrusive lighting, but we have become pretty good at lighting up a church and making it look like a totally natural aspect of the enviroment. In conclusion, 20 years from now, when you decide to look at your wedding again, we are sure that you won't remember that the lights WERE there, but you will definitley remember if they WERE NOT. 9. How will you know what we want in our wedding video? This is why communication before the wedding day is SO critical. While there are typical things at EVERY wedding, there are things that don’t happen at every wedding. For example the Hispanic Tradition of the Lasso and Arras. We will contact you at least three weeks before your wedding in order to schedule a time to have either another face-to-face meeting, or a very long conversation over the phone with both you and your fiancé. We cannot cover what you don’t tell us about. Naturally… unexpected things are going to happen, and we do everything we can to cover them.