Today I want to pull back the curtain a little bit on how we find and choose videographers to join the ValCinema team. In the past few months, we’ve made the process even more thorough so we can make sure we are sending only the best videographers to film your wedding. But first, I want to offer some insights on the way our videographer relationships work.
All of our videographers are held to the same standard of work, and all go through the same hiring process by the same people.
However, one of the added benefits of our business model is that while our offices are located outside Atlanta, Georgia, our videographers live and work all across the country.
We do have videographers who work in Georgia, but also in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California, Colorado, Michigan, Alabama, and almost everywhere in between. At the time of this blog, we have more than 100 videographers in 21 states. So even if you’re holding your wedding in one of the other 29 states, chances are we have a videographer nearby who is willing to travel to where your celebration is being held.
Not sure about Hawaii, though. Or Alaska. Or Puerto Rico. Those are still up in the air.
But the continental United States is all a possibility for us at the moment, and you never know - we’re always hiring.
So how do we find our videographers? More importantly, how do we decide if they’re skilled and professional enough to join our nationwide ValCinema team?
We find our videographers in a variety of ways.
Sometimes they come recommended from videographers we already work with, or
We might find an exceptional candidate online & reach out to them
If we can see their videography portfolio, and if that portfolio is exceptional, we’ll set up an interview with Kyle, our operations manager at ValCinema. In this initial interview, he’s going to check several things.
Experience level specifically with wedding videography. It’s all well and good if you’ve shot commercials, or short films, or even corporate videos. But wedding videography is its own skill. Videographers are expected to be flexible to the ever-shifting schedule of the day, and there are no retakes. Flexibility, experience, and creativity are essential traits for any videographer we consider hiring.
Kyle will often run a potential candidate through possible scenarios that may come up during a wedding, and see how they would handle potential changes in scheduling, location, or malfunctions in equipment.
We also want to make sure that our videographers are respectful of your wedding.
This means being respectful of your cultural backgrounds - we have participated in a number of weddings from specific cultural or religious traditions.
This also means being respectful of the sexual orientation and gender identities of you and your spouse.
It also means, at the time of filming this during the COVID-19 pandemic, being respectful of your personal health boundaries and social distancing guidelines. For more information on that one specifically, go ahead and check out our video/blog on holding your wedding during COVID-19.
Once they’ve passed Kyle’s interviewing process, candidates will get sent to Kendall, our lead editor. With her background in the technicalities of filmmaking, Kendall is able to ask some more detailed questions about the type of equipment they’re using - for instance:
How many working cameras do they have?
Can all of those cameras film in full HD at 60 frames per second?
What kind of stabilization equipment do they have?
What is their audio set-up?
Can they fly a drone?
Kendall will also look over their portfolio with a new set of eyes. Kendall is excellent at differentiating whether a person just happens to be skilled at pointing and shooting expensive cameras, or if they are a visual storyteller. I’ve mentioned this a lot in other blogs, but what we strive to do at ValCinema is not just shoot the chronological events of your wedding, but use our knowledge of visual storytelling to capture your story with style and heart.
Once Kendall gives them the green light, they’re given their contract, and they are officially part of the ValCinema team!
In the 4-6 weeks before shooting their first wedding, we put our newly hired videographers through a video training course, developed by yours truly. This series of informative videos helps our videographers understand the ValCinema style and how they can best shoot with that style in mind. It also gives them information about how their videography techniques can help the editors best do their job.
After a videographer has filmed their first wedding, we at the office will follow up with them with a phone call. This is just to review their footage, let them know if there’s anything they can improve on, and ask them if there’s anything more the ValCinema team can do to help them feel more prepared for future weddings.
That’s a glimpse into how we make sure our videographers are skilled technicians, insightful artists, and all-around great people to work with. We at ValCinema are dedicated to not only expanding our team, but improving it.
If you have any more questions about our videographers or our hiring process, feel free to drop them in the comments below, or contact us through our website at ValCinema.com.
If you are a skilled videographer who’s interested in joining the ValCinema team, feel free to email your portfolio and a brief introduction to our operations manager Kyle at Kyle@ValCinema.com.