When we first met with Melanie and Garrett, our conversation happened over a three-way Skype call. With both of them in school for their MDs, as well as planning a wedding, to say their lives were a whirlwind leading up to their marriage may be an understatement. We were incredibly excited to speak with them though, because they were our first Jewish wedding.
With no idea what to expect, we were educated on all facets of Jewish culture, complete with Ketubahs, Yarmulkes, and Chuppahs, and a bit of Challah bread too. As I am sure you can see from the trailer above, this film was a bit different than our other films, but we love different, and we love Melanie and Garrett.
If you’ve followed my channel for a bit, you’ve noticed how many wedding films and trailers I upload. That’s because wedding filmmaking is my full-time job. Making YouTube videos is the fun thing I do on the side because I like helping people like you, and honestly I don’t have a ton of time for it, since normally I’m out shooting or at home editing.
So I had an idea: what if I turned some of these wedding films into educational material? Not by hopping in a DeLorean and going back in time to bring a third shooter along as a BTS cameraman, but by revisiting films I love and talking through specific parts of them. A shot that worked. A choice I made in the edit. A moment where everything went sideways and we salvaged it.
This is the first of those, and it’s about Zac and Lindsey’s wedding trailer. Go watch that first, with the music and audio, then come back.
The Power Of Creative Choice
The reason I picked this trailer is that it highlights one of my favorite things about this job: we get hired for our creativity.
Unlike a lot of professions, people hire a wedding filmmaker because they like the way you film things. They like your vision, they like your drive, they saw something you made and said “I want something that looks like that.” That is an incredible position to be in. We get to make films however we want and people pay us for them. How cool is that?
Building A Trailer Around One Shot
Whenever I sat down to edit this one, Rachel and I talked through the biggest, most emotionally powerful moments of the day. And the one that stood out above everything else was Lindsey’s walk down the aisle.
Look at what’s in that shot. Slow motion. A long staircase. Lens flares. That enormous veil. And underneath all of it, the thing that actually makes it work: they didn’t do a first look, so this is the very first time the two of them are seeing each other on the wedding day. He’s coming apart. She’s coming apart. Emotionally, that walk was the crescendo of the entire day.
I said to Rachel, honestly, we could just make that shot be the whole trailer. Show it, put their names at the end, drop the logo, done.
And she said yes, but let’s tone that down slightly and show some other things too. She was right. She was totally right.
But then, how cool would it be if we kept cutting back to that shot throughout?
So that’s the structure. A little of the couple together, then her walking down the aisle. A little more of them together, then more of the aisle. Them dancing, and the aisle again. Their moments from across the whole day, threaded together with that one walk running through the middle of it.
What that does is make the aisle moment the most powerful part of the film, the same way it was the most powerful part of the day. The edit isn’t just presenting the footage in order. It’s making an argument about what mattered.
The Takeaway: Only Use The Shots You Want
This one took me literally years to learn, and I’m glad to hand it to you for free.
Give yourself permission to only use the creative shots you actually want in your wedding films.
For years I put things in my films because it was the tradition to include them and I felt like I had to. The bouquet toss. The cake cutting. The ring shot. The dress hanging in the window. Honestly, most of those are a videographer tradition rather than something the bride and groom need in order to tell the best story of their day.
Watch my recent films and a lot of that is gone. What’s left is the biggest, most emotional moments of the day, because that’s what I love showing, that’s what couples book me for, and that’s the vision I’m actually following now.
I’m not saying copy me. I’m not saying cut all of that out and make films exactly like mine. I’m saying make films that match your creative vision, and don’t feel stuck in “I have to document every single thing and show it” if you don’t want to.
Make what you want to make, and enjoy the actual joy of making things, because this is a really rare job. We get paid to make things however we want. That is not normal, and it’s one of the big reasons I love filming weddings.
The Settings Are On Screen
Every clip in the video carries its full settings in the corner: the Sony a7S II, the lens, the picture profile (MattFlat), the resolution and frame rate, shutter, ISO, and white balance. So if you see a look you want, you can read exactly how it was shot rather than guessing.
Genuinely, leave me a comment and let me know, because I have ideas for a lot of the weddings I’ve shot and I’d like to do more of these. Tell me if it landed, or tell me “Matt, talk more about camera reviews, don’t do this,” and I’ll go with your feedback.
