Anyone MISS something, say, at a wedding?

[Aanarav Sareen]

I personally don’t shoot weddings, but edit quite a few over the year. Every company that I work for (wedding or otherwise) has given me a shot list of what should definitely be included in the video. These requests come directly from the client and not the production company that I am working for.

IMO in the future, it would be better if you asked your clients to state what definitely needs to be included in the video. This would avoid a lot of confusion , if a similar situation comes up.

Regarding the payment, that is a personal opinion. If you do send it back with a little memo, you would be their hero. If you don’t, I don’t think it will impact negatively in any way.

[Klaus]

No matter how careful you are to do the right thing by your clients, there will be occasions when they may be disappointed. It is simply the nature of covering a very complex event, with one go at it, and usually with a small crew (if any) and limited resources.

The best thing to do is to learn from the experience and to think about what you may do next time.

If you feel that you have let down a client then it is important to offer them an apology. With the apology should come an explanation of why it happened. Your explanation sounds fair and plausible. It should be stressed to the client that you are offering them the explanation not to abdicate responsibility, but to provide them with some context. It would also be useful to empathise with the client regarding why they might be disappointed.

Whether you offer a partial refund or not is up to you.An alternative to offering the client a partial refund might be to offer them a discount on future work. This would indicate to the client that you own the problem, and are committed to improving your service.

You may wish to consider adding a clause in your contracting to provide you with some level of protection in this type of situation.

[Craig Seeman]

With one camera you can’t be expected to shoot two things at once. From moment to moment you have to make judgements. I offer a two camera package and stress the advantages that coverage provides. In my experience, most of my budget conscious clients choose just one camera. I don’t think you should suffer financially because you made a judgement based on a set (or conflicting sets) of instructions. You should offer a two camera package if you don’t yet.

You might find out if the photographer took stills of the candle lighting and include animated stills (nice slow zoom in for example and/or a series of dissolves if the photog took a series) at the appropriate point.

[Alex Rapp]

I love it when people are honest and straighforward, and I think that is the ONLY way to do business. However, if you plan on returning a check every time something goes slightly wrong that isn’t even your fault…you are going to get eaten alive in the biz world. This has happened to EVERYONE, and will continue to happen, and it is a natural reaction to feel bad about it. But you still have to pay your bills, and I assure you the client is not expecting any cash back. If they were, you would hear from them. You live and you learn.

I’ll leave you with a little quote I picked up somewhere about independent consulting: “If you don’t feel a little uncomfortable when you send a bill, you aren’t charging enough.”

[Velma]

First of all, I have in my contract’s terms and conditions page something that says that in the recording of live events, no shot can be guaranteed because stuff happens. (Ok, not the exact wording, but something to that effect.)

Secondly, about a month before the wedding, I send out a detailed questionnaire about the events of the day. The last thing on the questionnaire says, “List below any special stuff you want (or don’t want) in your wedding video. While we can’t guarantee any certain shots, we will do our darndest to get what you want.” (ok, not exact wording again, but you get the idea.) This is my ace when they say, “You didn’t get this or that.” I just say, “Well, you didn’t put it on the questionnaire as a special shot you wanted. I’m sorry. I would have been more than glad to get a shot of grandpa sitting in the corner sucking on an oxygen tank if you had have let me know it was important to you.”

Thirdly, I use two cameras plus an “oh sh*t” camera that is usually in the balcony, stationary, and gets the entire wedding. It has saved me more than once.

My philosophy: You’ll never cover your a$$ enough! But cover it all you can.

velma

[Vito Defilippo]

Three times that I can think of, I missed something that I sure wished I hadn’t. Now I’m not talking about the usual missing Grandpa breakdancing because you decide to shoot the bride’s tearful goodbye to her favourite aunt. Or you realize that your footage could be better. That happens all the time. I mean times when I feel I made a major mistake, or wished I had had better info ahead of time. All three times, I was able to fix it, which may be an option for you as well in future.

First time, I was riding with the photog to the ceremony and he got lost. We were late, and missed the beginning of the processional. I felt awful, but for the heck of it, asked the bride and her parents (after the ceremony) to reenact her entrance to the church. Filled in my missing footage beautifully, and they never brought it up when they saw the video. I truly believe they forgot.

Second time, I pushed record during the first dance at the reception, and didn’t realize that it hadn’t pushed it hard enough. Spent five minutes circling the B&G taping nothing. Missed the whole first dance. Couldn’t believe it. So I did whatever I could for the rest of the evening to catch the bride and groom slow dancing. Framed them to cut out people dancing next to them, asked them to dance a bit when there was no one else on the floor, whatever. Also begged the photographer for copies of anything he had taken during the first dance. They ended up loving the video, and never said a thing about the fictional first dance, even though I had told them right away at the reception.

Third time was just this weekend. First dance again. No one bothered to tell me that there would be a live guitarist/singer for the first dance. I get into position with my tripod, the music starts and I shoot the b&g dancing, with some crowd cutaways, etc. The whole time there is this guy singing behind me and I had no idea. He was so good I thought it was a CD. So I asked him later if he would mind setting himself up again and singing his song (covered up by blasting disco) so I could get some footage to mix in with the audio I have already. Hopefully, it will work just fine.

My point in this long post is that no matter what you miss, perhaps you can fix it. Be honest, tell them that there is a problem, and do what you can. Chances are in the final video, they won’t even remember that there WAS a problem. Don’t offer them a refund! There’s no way you can expect a wedding video to be perfect. There’s just too much going on.

Velma and the other have great points too, to help you CYA.

My two cents,

Vito

[Allan]

Have to agree with most people here. Sounds like you did the best you could under the circumstances you were handed. Common problem is for clients to have Champagne tastes and a Beer budget.

I wouldn’t return a cent BUT…I’ll bet if you offer to include a short photo montage of the groom’s father as a little Easter Egg on the disc it will be greatly appreciated.

allan

[Danny Boyee]

It makes me not feel so much like a dum-dum. I will include a clause and I love the idea about doing a photo montage for them
DB

[Tony]

Danny,

The wife is the most important person to consider because she would have never accepted you missing the kids for two reasons 1) she specifically told you to shoot it and 2) never say no to a female client after she tells you to do something or else you will never hear the end of it.

You cannot refund the last payment since you could not be at two place at once with one camera.

If you provided the client with a quality product and delivered the tapes on time then you have fulfilled your obligation.

Move on to the next client.

Tony Salgado

[Gillen]

I’d try to get my hands on some still shots anyone else may have taken of the groom lighting the candle and work them into the video. After effects could sweeten it up.

Gillen