I am David from 20.media and I have trained many videographers over the years and I wanna to share with you some of the most important tips I give someone who works with us on a shoot.

At Snowbird Films, we strive to create films that are truly memorable and special for our clients. To ensure our wedding cinematographers have the necessary skills to produce these films, we have implemented a unique training program that focuses on the acronym "EPIC." This acronym stands for Everything, Perspective, Initiative, and Cinematic, and each of these elements is paramount in creating a truly epic wedding film.

Everything refers to being aware of every detail of the event, from chatting with the venue's event organiser to listening closely to the bride, groom, and organizers, in order to capture all of the unique moments that make a wedding special.

Perspective means crafting a story that immerses the viewer in the events of the day. By starting the day with “behind the scenes” footage of an empty venue and the setup, followed by the bridal details and preparations, and then the arrival of the groom, the viewer will feel like they are front row to all of the big moments.

Initiative requires being prepared and in the perfect position for all of the big moments, but also having the power and confidence to adapt and make things work when necessary.

Finally, Cinematic refers to using the art of storytelling to complement the events of the day and capturing footage in a true cinematic style to make the film visually stunning and emotionally powerful and engaging.

By teaching our cinematographers the key areas of focus outlined in the acronym "EPIC," we empower them to go above and beyond to capture the perfect footage and create films that are truly epic and that capture the unique beauty and emotion of each and every wedding.



The most important piece of advice

Today I will share probably the most valuable piece of advice for students coming into the live events filming environment. That is to slow your capturing brain down and count every single shot.

Some people call this the 10 second rule and I think every shot being at least 10 seconds is a great starting point.



Why count when filming?

There is allot of things all happening at once and the temptation is to just wave your camera around and capture everything. The issue is you look back at your footage and there is nothing there you can use in the edit. You need to take a logical approach to capturing everything slowly, tell that story and then move on to capturing the next thing happening.

Personally I like to capture several different shots of the same thing so I go for a 6 second rule,
Everything I'm filming, the bridal details 6 seconds of wide then 6 seconds of tight. Venue setting shots 6 seconds movement shot, then 6 seconds static shot. Throughout the day when allot is happening I encourage you to slow down and make sure every shot you are capturing is at least 6 seconds of useable footage.


This works for more than just wedding filming

Film highlights for a conference, or live dance show as a b-roll cameraman? Use the counting rule for all your shoots to improve your skills as a camera operator and make the editors life a dream instead of a nightmare!

Another bonus rule for second operators

Our second operators are employed for their creativity and high level of skill when it comes to movement work( drones, gimbals etc). However we give them a 2 non movement rule for every 1 movement shot. This means they have to capture twice the amount of low movement as they can creative movement shots. We encourage our operators to let the natural movement take priority and let the action happen in front of the camera, instead of always creating artificial movement.

We encourage our operators to be creative in other ways, for example on how they frame their shots and angles and lenses that they use etc. (crush backgrounds)