Wedding Video question??

It depends on your contract! In my contract with my videographer, they will provide the raw footage, along with a highlight video and a full length video. If you find a videographer whose videos you like, definitely ask them to include the raw footage! Some will include it free, others will charge you.

View Quoted Comment Oh ok. My only says an “an edited movie from the original footage taken at the event”….

View Quoted Comment If you want the raw footage and your contract doesn't say anything about the raw footage being included, definitely reach out to the videographer to ask if that can be added! They'd usually be willing to accommodate that request (sometimes at a fee).

View Quoted Comment Oh ok. Did they give you an hour worth of footage or whatever the amount you paid for??

I’m currently reviewing a contract for one and we have the option of a highlight reel, key moments, and full edited footage. They won’t provide raw.

Raw footage was an item that we could add on to our package. It was free but we did have to provide a drive with enough storage to cover it. I don’t think most videographers automatically provide it, though.


With that said, we intentionally chose a videographer that provided raw footage. We personally decided to pass on having a full edit since we were able to have the raw footage. We figured we would watch a highlight video a lot more than the wedding in its entirety. At this point I feel like we made the correct call. We have watched the highlight video many, many times but we haven’t even watched our raw footage once. I am glad that we have it, though and I imagine we will watch it at some point. Every couple is different, though…just make sure that all of your “must haves” are covered.

Our contract states that we receive all raw footage. Tbh, I thought it was silly and didn’t even want it, but after hearing others’ experiences here on WW, I decided to go ahead and get it. If you want the raw footage and it is not accounted for in your contract, definitely reach out to your videographer. There may be a small increase in fee to get it, in order to cover the cost of a large memory flash drive, but I wouldn’t think it would be anything significant.

I was told that raw footage isn't really "watchable". It's meant for editing later on if you decide to have someone edit it. Instead of raw footage, my photographer is including edited videos of the ceremony, first look, speeches, first dance and parent dances, cake cutting, and any other major moment that we want captured in full. These are all uploaded with our highlight video into a Google Drive folder that we can download from and share with others. This was something I asked every videographer about because it was more important to me than the highlight video. I reached out to over 25 videographers and had them price that out for me because sometimes it's an extra fee.

View Quoted Comment The raw footage is every minute of video they recorded, and none of it is edited or organized. If the camera is recording, that will be included in what they give you for raw footage. So if they were recording for 8 hours at your wedding, you will have 8 hours of raw footage (or possibly up to 16 hours of raw footage, if the videographer is using two video cameras).

My husband's videography business, raw footage is an extra fee. This is primarily for integrity, actually; the charge is to discourage people from wanting it. I will explain why.

You book A Great Video Company for your wedding. You get their edited video, which is of course to their standards, and the raw footage as well. You watch the raw footage and decide that there are clips in there that you want in your video - even though there is probably a reason they weren't included (such as poor exposure, bad angle, shaky, doesn't fit in the edited film, etc.) You figure you're good enough with iMovie, or you have a friend who knows how to drop clips into Adobe Premiere, so you make a new video. You post it on social media. People know you hired A Great Video Company, and will associate this new video - which may not be all that great, even if it makes you happy - with the company.

And even if you have a professional edit it, that person is not someone who filmed it. They know nothing about the source material. Videographers film things in a way that best supports their creative process, and you're going to hand that over to someone with a totally different process. It's like handing someone a half-finished story they didn't initially write and telling them to write the ending. Game of Thrones showed how well that works out.

I, personally, don't think anyone should get raw footage. Your photographer doesn't include every out-of-focus, poorly-framed, or otherwise subpar shot in your wedding album, and you aren't concerned that you're missing out on something because of it. I've also never heard of anyone who wanted every photo a photographer took on their wedding day. It is widely accepted that photographers take a crap ton of photos that are not good, and they leave the subpar ones "on the cutting room floor." Let your videographer do the same. If you want more than the highlight reel, book the edited versions of your full ceremony, speeches, dances, etc. These are still usually not as pretty or polished as the highlight reel, but they will give you everything that matters without the five seconds they were readjusting the camera here and the couple of seconds they were changing focus here and so on.

View Quoted Comment You make very valid points about people doing their own editing and posting things! I had never even thought of that before. We are getting the raw footage (at no extra charge) in addition to the short edited highlight video, as well as an edited 60-90 min video. Our videographer offers the raw footage free of charge as just a standard part of all their packages. Tbh, I wasn’t even going to take the raw footage because I didn’t see a point in it. But then I heard so many people say sweet or funny moments were captured on the raw footage that didn’t make the edited video, but meant so much to them. After hearing those stories several times, we decided to take the raw footage after all. I have no interest in editing the original work or adding things in from the raw footage, but definitely wanted to see all those little moments that didn’t make it into the final product. Sometimes it’s the smallest things that mean so much to you, but would never be some thing a videographer would know. For instance, your grandmother “booping” your grandfathers nose. It may seem like nothing to the person taping it, but it could be something very meaningful and special that you will cherish once those people have passed. I recently lost a very close friend, and have come to realize how important even the tiniest (seemingly meaningless things at the time) mean so much once that person is gone.

I got both - i personally prefer also getting the raw materials. just in case they missed something they didn't add in there, at least you'll have had it

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What you mentioned is exactly why we chose to pay for raw footage with the rest of our package. Honestly, because neither of us care a ton about the social media aspect, we really only cared about getting raw footage because they'll be able to capture small moments that we'll likely miss due to being busy. I don't care if anyone else sees them or if they're not perfectly framed. We collectively lost half of our surviving grandparents in a 6 month period last year, so we've both gotten pretty sentimental over those small things.

View Quoted Comment So sorry to hear about your grandparents. I know exactly what you mean though. After losing someone close to me, I have become very sentimental about pictures and videos. And I’ve come to realize that some of the most meaningful ones I have are the unstaged and imperfect ones.

Daughter's videographers included all raw footage and an edited video. Their video is beautiful, but the raw footage is priceless -- to them and us (I cannot imagine anyone else sitting through 6+ hours of raw footage though... ). The raw footage has both video and live audio, so it includes background conversations, the live music during the dancing, etc.; it really provides a "fly on the wall" perspective of the day that is very special. The highlight video includes things like their vows and excerpts from the toasts, but not any other "live" audio -- it's a beautifully EDITED video set to a music track. Both have a lot of value. As a pp mentioned the raw footage takes a LOT of memory.

We received the raw footage and a highlight video. The raw footage was included for free

I'm a photographer (don't do much video but have worked on a few documentary projects) and I think it would be a bit weird to expect raw footage to be included for several reasons. For one, videographers will take a ton of b-roll and random footage throughout your event and can easily capture hours of content to produce a quality video that is just a few minutes long. If recorded in high resolution, that content takes up a LOT of space/memory. So it gets very cumbersome to share online, although you can get a 512GB USB stick for about $50 now, so providing it to a client is doable. The other reason this seems really strange to me is that most pros use a recording format that is designed to capture maximum data from the shoot using a lossless, flat profile file format that requires specialized software to edit, both to optimize the quality of the actual video footage as well as just to read the file format. So if your pro is trying to get the best image quality video, they are going to be using a recording format that most consumers aren't going to be able to do anything with. Even if you had software that could read that file, it would appear really flat and the colors would be drab and dull without careful editing.

Now it is possible for your videographer to record in that format and then basically batch edit with some presets and then export those files into something more user friendly and give you all of those clips, but that isn't actually the raw material. And even though much of that can be automated, it does require extra work and time on the videographers part. And of course some videographers might just record in a more "ready to go" format because most clients won't appreciate the difference between a perfectly color graded video and one that looks like an Instagram Reel. In that case raw footage straight from the camera would be viewable by someone without special software and would probably look pretty decent without further editing, although it would still likely be hours of footage and take up a lot of memory.

As a photographer/videographer, supplying the raw material creates just more work for you without much benefit to you at all. If I give clients raw files of photos I have no control in how they are edited or shared. I take pride it my work and don't want less than the best going out there. Professional visual artists have a desire to maintain the high quality of their brand, and handing over raw files isn't typically a productive way ensure only your best work, displayed optimally, ends up out there.

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Exactly! I record mostly in 4k, 2 different cameras. The last wedding I worked I shot 4TB of footage. The Broll alone at 120 up to 240 fps takes nearly 2TB. I also record in Vlog. So I was asked for the Raw footage afterwards and I honestly didn't want to give it to them but I did afterwards. They came back to me upset the footage didn't look good and the audio picked up some not so fun wedding talk during the reception or no audio at all. I explained to them this is what "Raw" is. Also, they did try to make their own edit as well to no avail against the contract we had in place. While they do pay for the services, I own that footage ultimately and it does matter to me if they put out a video from my footage. Everyone knew who I was and they gave my name out to many people. Now when people see their edited version, that makes me look bad and possibly even lose future business. I will do everything I can to give the client what they want, edited. But having that "fly on the wall" as someone mentioned above, is not always a positive to have. That day is suppose to be remembered for what it was; the best day of your life. Those that pick to receive the full edited wedding video get that best day as well. I won't deny someone the Raw footage, but I won't include audio for privacy reasons anymore. And besides, most Broll doesn't record audio. Once you pass 60fps, audio ceases out of the camera, so only the external audio sources will have it, like a Tascam or Zoom device. I use Tascam and Rode devices. And I did charge extra for Raw as well. The memory cards we use are already extremely expensive. I know how much data is required for most weddings thru my pre planning, but if I'm going in knowing the client wants the Raw, that means I need to upgrade to a larger card or have more of which is an additional cost. Transferring that data is also very timely and a cost to a drive as well. For those reasons, I don't push Raw when talking with clients, and if it is brought up, I will explain why I don't think it's best, but if they still insist, they must sign an agreement not to edit the footage without my consent. And this is strictly personal opinion but, people I've spoken to who have taken the Raw footage have told me they have never once watched it. This leads me to believe less than 10% probably ever watch the Raw because as was mentioned above, it's hours of out of focus, bad iso, many different things that are not fun to sit thru and wait till the right moment comes along.

View Quoted Comment What company was going to give you full edited video and how much? I can't find anyone anymore that will do that.

View Quoted Comment Which company did you use and how much did they charge you for the highlight video, 60-90min full edited video, and the raw footage?