Having been a photographer for over ten years now and a videographer for over fifteen years, I thought I would share with you a little breakdown of trends I have seen within my time covering weddings and events, so you have an idea of where and how a content creator differs from these roles.
First off, I will start with the new trend of content creation. What is it? How did it become a thing? I became aware of content creators around 2020 when TikTok first started blowing up. My first thought was, “That’s hella cool, I want in,” and still felt like this up until around 2023 when everything just became a little too focused on what’s trending and the soundtrack was overplayed. Then, with the news of TikTok not wanting to pay for music rights and that they were now going to test out using AI-powered songs. (They even offered one of my videographer friends some money to use said AI songs to create hype around it.) It got me thinking, when you are looking back on your wedding and you see your content-created memories, are these going to be dated? What was I doing? Why didn’t I just get a videographer to film the day as it was, us being real? A real day in the life of us on our wedding day. Because that’s the memory that will last a lifetime.
Wedding videos have changed over the years, I believe for the greater good. Camera quality is now almost like watching real life unfold before your eyes. Accessibility to high-end editing software (even on your phone) is there for everyone, so this puts the production quality right at the top. You can have a wedding film that looks like it could win a BAFTA, okay, maybe not, but play it alongside Oppenheimer and the cinematography is near on point. You can choose the soundtrack, you have full control of what you want filming, and it’s the videographer’s job to make your ideas come to life in a film about you and your wedding day.
And finally, everyone loves photos. There have been slight changes with styles, slight changes with the analog to digital and back again full circle cycles, but these are the most timeless memories that you can hold (or look at on a screen if preferred). Everyone goes to their parents’ house and every now and then the big box of old photos comes out. Not one person in the room shies away from getting involved in having a browse. In that box of memories, there is more than likely a few photos from your nan and grandad’s wedding in the 40s/50s. Eighty years later and they are still bringing the emotions to life, and I bet the quality of the image isn’t far off what we deliver today as photographers.
So, as a conclusion, it’s important to remember that photographers and videographers are here to stay and that content creation is very new and still pretty raw on the scale of what is a timeless memory. Do you think in 80 years time you’re all going to be sitting around a table with your grandkids, whipping out an old phone from 2024, and trying to find a TikTok that you did on your wedding day? I highly doubt that unless I have written this and fully underestimated technology and how we are going to store memories in the future. It’s great for the here and now, but the longevity is a massive doubt in my mind.
Dan x
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