I had a meeting yesterday, and I inquired about my competition. The other vendors were all quality videographers in and around New York, and I started to wonder. What is it that leads someone to choose one group over another? That's a hard one for me to answer, since I'm on the wrong end of things to answer the question, but it did prompt me to think about different styles a little more. Traditionally, from a marketing sense, vendors tend to categorize wedding video as something that is either documentary or cinematic in nature. I even did so myself in a prior post. Strangely, most vendors aren't fully either, so I thought I'd try to expand the definitions. Here are the four categories I'll try using: romantic, artistic, documentary, contemporary.

Romantic
These videos eschew most of the distractions from the day, ranging from anxiety and concern to hurried moments that don't quite fit in. Instead, they focus on the positive emotions, thick and lush in atmosphere. The signature look for these types of videos are moving camera motions that flow smoothly across the scene and the use of extensive slow motion (frequently, nearly the entire video is in slow motion except for the ceremony). Usually, the music will be either instrumental or ballads.

Artistic
The signature technique of the artistic style is the use of 8 mm film. Artistic videos focus on the abstract flow of the wedding, often using extended shots without cutting to give the full flavor of the event. Very often, there is noticeable camera shake, to offer a bit of a cinema verite feel. The movement, though, isn't the typical type of movement used by novices, but an organic movement that gives the viewer a sense of being behind the camera. Coloration is frequently altered from reality, to give a classic feel to the footage.

Documentary
The truest of documentary styles will capture the essence of the wedding by conveying the emotional tone and temperment of the day itself. It will have the strongest story line, with the most abundant use of audio. Purists will have no music at all, but that is such a rare event that I include in the category those practitioners who choose not to use filters and effects to manipulate footage. If romanticists use almost all slow motion, documentarians will use virtually none.

Contemporary
This is the least defined category of the four. Contemporary videos vary dramatically, but their signatures are the use of editing and visual techniques from modern cinema, music video, and television. They generally have a faster pace than the other styles, with quick cutting and sharp editing. Effects are abundant, most