You might think that as a videographer the greatest tool that I have at my disposal in order to tell your wedding love story would be the visuals I capture on the day. Some people might agree with that, but I believe that music, sound and dialogue actually has a greater impact on your film and how it makes you feel than just the visuals. Obviously, without the visuals, it would just be a black screen, so they are a big deal, but if you just have a video with no music, no story, and no sounds, then I’d say that it is equally as incomplete if not more so.
In my films, it is really important to me to communicate feelings. I do that mostly through sound. It is what drives the visuals that I choose and it is the driving force behind the narrative of that film. I lean into this so much because I think our brains remember more about how a day or a moment felt rather than what it looked like. I get a head start by having a visual of those moments, but then I can dress it up and present it in a way that actually enhances and magnifies those feelings that were experienced in that moment by the couple.
So, how do I go about actually doing this? Well, it all starts with what perspective I want to take on a moment. A popular one that I generally let breath in my films are first looks. These are big moments. A father seeing his daughter in her dress for the first time is a big deal, so I first think about how I want to lead into this moment. It needs to flow into it in a way that builds anticipation. I want this moment to feel huge, so I want the music leading up to the first look to inform the viewer that something is about to happen. Maybe the song does that naturally or maybe I go in and add some risers and tension increasing builds before we see the first look. I typically want to let the moment and emotion within the fathers face to be the main focal point, but I want the music to be a compliment to that, so I normally layer some sort of ambient instrumental track underneath with the dialogue of what is being said louder than the music so that they aren’t competing with each other. When I am ready to move on to the next thing, I want it to feel intentional. I don’t normally don’t show the entire first look, just the best moments. Because of this, I want the music to communicate to the viewer when we are done and moving on to the next thing. One technique that I love to use is going from the instrumental version of a song into the lyrical version of that song. I typically find a point where the song is going into a new verse or chorus and I will make the end of the first look scene the beginning of a new section of song so that it feels natural to move on to the next thing.
That is just one of many moments that can be found within my films. I feel like the hardest part of all is going from one sequence to the next in a way that is seamless. In order to make my films more dynamic, I am putting in a lot of different songs and cutting up those individual songs to only use the parts that I want. It is like putting a puzzle together, but I am also designing the puzzle pieces to fit as well as putting them in the correct place. As tedious as that might sound, there really is so much creativity and art in the process of composing the music and story within my films. It is one of the things that I feel separates me from others. Some people may have the same skill set, but no one has exactly the same individual taste and life experience, so even someone with the same songs and tools would create a totally different soundtrack than what I make.