Cost of a Videographer Explained

Weddings can get pretty expensive. The average wedding now-a-days is 35k. That may scare some people away, but there are logical reasons for why aspects of a wedding can be seem so expensive. Especially when it comes to videography for weddings. There is a lot more that goes into that job than just showing up with a camera and filming the entire night. This cost breakdown below explains where their numbers come from.

Hours Invested

Several hours are invested before the actual event for a videographer. They start with contacting the client and discussing their event in great detail. They will talk about the timeline of their wedding from start to finish. This is where the videographer will find out exactly where they need to be on the actual wedding day. After meeting with the client, the videographer will research the venue and will take a trip there to see the area they will be working in. All of the preparation with the client, venue, and equipment, adds around 30 hours to their work schedule.

The average amount of time a videographer invests for the event day is about 15 hours including travel time. After capturing the most memorable parts of a wedding, a videographer still has many hours of work left to do. An average of 40+ hours of post-production follow the day of the event. Most likely there will be two videographers at the event, so there will be at least 20+ hours of footage to view. Sorting through the good and bad footage is very time consuming. They have to choose the very best shots to fit into a 10-12-minute personalized movie for the newlyweds.

A professional will use a more advanced program to edit everything together, so this process is more than just dragging and dropping the footage into iMovie. Next, they will customize this film to fit each couple and give them a professional quality recap of the most important night of their life!

Cost Breakdown

A videographer invests on average 100 hours for each event. Many people request videographers and only want to spend $1000 for it without knowing anything about the service they need. When the price is broken down, the videographer is only making less than $10 an hour. And when there are two videographers, this wage is cut in half. So, asking someone to work that many hours for only around $5.00 an hour is not even minimum wage! As a professional, there are other expenses they need to pay for as well, other than just paying themselves for the event. The cost of their gear is expensive and taking care of everything gets pretty pricey. They also have bills to pay each month for their business like insurance, office space and staff. And they still need paid themselves so they can pay for their families and essentials like food and personal bills. This breakdown of cost for a videographer should help put their price into perspective.

To wrap things up…

The cost of a videographer is more expensive than a photographer because of the extra time invested in post-production. Asking to hire a videographer with only a budget of $1,000 is like trying to buy a brand-new Mercedes with only $10,000! Kind of ridiculous, right? Keep following us for more tips on industry professionals and wedding knowledge!