Every month I host a wedding film review livestream on my channel, where I watch and give feedback on films that you send me. And every single stream has at least one mind blowing film in it, made by somebody almost nobody has heard of. That doesn’t feel right. I should not be the only person who knows about these filmmakers.
So here are five I think you should be watching in 2019.
To be clear, I’m not claiming these are the best wedding filmmakers in the world or anything like that. I’m saying they’re bringing new creativity and new ideas to wedding filmmaking, and I’m hoping they’re a little more popular after you watch this. In no particular order.
Derek Chan Films
Derek submitted a film to my livestream a few months back. Normally when I review, I watch a minute or so, pause, give feedback, carry on. Derek sent in this multiple day long, absolutely sick wedding film, and the visuals and the editing were so good that I didn’t pause it for about half its length. I just watched it.
Multi day weddings are genuinely hard to make flow in an edit, because there are so many separate moments across so many days that all have to be featured. Derek made one that moved from one day into the next seamlessly. It was fantastic.
Silverworth Films
I still don’t understand why Hayden didn’t name the company after his own last name, which is sitting right there, but I’m glad he stayed in the precious metals category regardless. If I had to describe his films, I’d ask what’s a tier above gold. Platinum. Titanium. Titaniumworth. Yes. They’re that good.
He sent in a film a few months ago that I loved, and my favorite thing about it was that he didn’t just have audio from the bride and groom on the day. He’d filmed interviews with both sets of parents as well, and that brought real depth to the story of the couple and to their relationship.
Any time one of his films comes up while I’m scrolling Facebook I stop dead and watch it immediately, and I have never once been disappointed.
Bottlebrush Films
This one isn’t exactly up and coming. They’ve been filming weddings for a good while and they just won a Love Stories TV award, so you may already know them. But they’re some of my favorite wedding filmmakers in the world and I want more people watching them, so they get a shout out anyway.
This Australian duo wins the award for people I would simply like to hang out with, because their sense of humor and their quirkiness is so strong that it comes through in the films themselves. I realize “their films ooze funkiness” sounds weird. Their films are weird, in the best possible way.
They’re extremely good at attracting couples who are exuberant and irreverent, and then editing the films to actually show that side of them. Maybe it’s an Australia thing. I wish we had more couples like that in the States.
Bottlebrush. More like making Matt gush with love and affection. That was weird. Okay.
Best Friends Weddings
This lot are from a country I never knew I wanted to visit until they submitted a film to my livestream and I sat there thinking, that place is beautiful, I need a vacation there immediately. They’re from Poland.
Same reaction as Derek’s film: I watched the whole thing without pausing because I was too busy being blown away. They have some of the prettiest GH5 footage I have ever seen, and I say that as somebody who already really likes GH5 footage. Their music selection and their editing make the films a genuine pleasure to sit through.
If you’re curious what I was recommending back then, I’ve still got Inspiring Wedding Filmmakers To Watch In 2021.
Thanks to them I now want to go to Poland. Hopefully sometime in 2020.
Best Friends Weddings · YouTube
Austin Black
Last but certainly not least, a wedding filmmaker and YouTuber from here in Texas, same as me. Austin submitted a film to the livestream, I watched it, I enjoyed it, and then afterwards I found out he’d shot it solo.
Which stopped me, because I know I was seeing multiple angles of the same moment. How is he doing that without a second shooter? Is he just running very fast?
No. Austin is breaking new ground by dual wielding Sony a7 IIIs. One in each hand. And I can hear you thinking Matt, that’s ridiculous, but hear me out, because it works and it looks good. I genuinely believed he had a second shooter with him.
If you want to watch somebody trying new things in wedding filmmaking, watch Austin. He has a video on his channel where he breaks down the whole dual wielding technique, which is worth your time if you shoot solo. Maybe you don’t need a second shooter after all.
Who Should I Be Watching?
That’s my five. Let me know in the comments whether you enjoyed this, whether I should make more of them, and most importantly, which wedding filmmakers I should be watching.
If you’d like to submit a film for me to review on the monthly livestream, sign up here and I’ll email you whenever the next one is scheduled.
I’ve also just released a course called Wedding Film Framework, which lays out my entire workflow for editing story driven wedding films in Premiere Pro.