All weddings are filmed by Jim Merchant as the lead videographer.

Yes! We carry a $1million/$2million liability policy, and can provide a COI for your venue.

We use a variety of 4K video cameras, for different situations. Our lead camera for cinematic shots is a Canon C70 super 35mm 4K cinema camera, which is accompanied by a pair of Canon XF605 video cameras. We also have 4K JVC cameras when we need additional angles. Our drone is a DJI Mavic 3. Most of our footage is shot as 10 bit Log footage in 4K (ultraHD) or C4K (cinema 4K) to preserve as much quality as possible in every shot.

When editing videos we can never have too many sources, so we have different recorders for different situations. Stereo or mono shotgun mic's on cameras, stereo recorder to capture live music, small lavalier mic's to capture ceremony audio, and an additional recorder to capture a feed from a DJ or Band. We have been known to hide mic's in flowers, or inside arches or chuppah's as needed. Our main audio recorders are 32 bit floating point, and additional recorders are 24bit.

Yes, more often than not we will use some lighting during the reception. Generally your video footage will look better when there is more light, and in particular when the light is higher quality. When using lighting we try to use only as much as needed, and match the color of our lights to the prevailing lighting conditions of the venue. Our high quality video lights help us reproduce natural colors and skin tones better than most bulbs available for venue lighting.

Our shooting style could be described as a hybrid of cinematic and documentary shooting styles. There are many components to this approach;

• Shooting 24 fps for natural 'cinematic' motion blur
• Capturing in 4K (or higher) for 'cinematic' resolution
• Capturing in professional 10bit log for cinematic dynamic range
• Constantly thinking about shot composition, lighting, and movement within the frame
• Not overusing camera movement, using cuts between complimentary angles instead (cinematic)
• Using multi camera coverage with cameras that can film continuously in different situations (video cameras with internal cooling and huge batteries) so nothing is missed (documentary)
• Capturing the ceremony audio at the highest quality possible (cinematic)
• Capturing natural audio of dancing footage (documentary)
• Staying out my own shots (cinematic)
• Also, sometimes getting in my own shots (documentary)

and doing all of this while trying to blend in to the background. When not holding a camera I have been mistaken for a caterer, a priest (that happens a lot), and the DJ. I like to let the photographers take the lead, while I stay out of their way and capture everything that's happening.