Do you offer raw footage?
As a wedding videographer a question I am getting more often is “do you offer raw footage?” and my standard response has two parts:
1) It is relatively easy for me to give you the raw footage and I'm happy to do it if that is what you would like
2) I don't find that delivering the true raw footage is actually what most people are looking for when they ask this.
So I’m going to go a little bit more in depth about RAW footage (it is capitalized because it’s industry standard in the same way it’s standard to capitalize GIF or JPG). Forgive my videography jargon and let me nerd out for a sec……
I shoot 4K uncompressed RAW in professional formats that most non-professional video editing applications cannot open. It is typically about 200- 500GB of footage that isn't cropped, stabilized, or color graded. It is very washed out and grey looking. Professional software is able to read the data of these washed out looking videos and edit it to make it look pretty. A couple of examples below…..
this is what is called LOG footage- it’s video data captured with a logarithmic encoding profile to preserve as much detail in the brightest and darkest spots of the video
This is what it looks like when it’s color graded (aka edited)
Here’s another example of true RAW footage before and after some editing…..
RAW footage
color graded footage
Another issue with offering raw footage is that audio is recorded separately, so the raw footage typically only has what is called "scratch" audio from the onboard camera mics and not what ends up in a delivered video. Again- professional software is what is used to match the good audio to the video.
I find that when most people ask this question what they really want are the full and unabridged recordings of their ceremony, dances, and speeches, which is why I include that as a part of all of my packages!
Oftentimes I see videographers offering raw footage and it seems almost like a trick….. they think if they offer a highlight video plus raw footage that they won’t have to deal with editing a full 20 minute ceremony and they can just give the files over the couple and let them deal with it if they want to further down the road. And by the time the couple receives the raw footage and realizes how unedited and truly raw/unprocessed/unfinished it is, the final balance is paid and it’s not the videographer’s responsibility to edit any more.
Delivering the full set of raw files is mostly just extra grey-ish footage of different angles of the cake as I work on getting the perfect shot and focus, and the backs of people's heads as they walk in front of secondary camera angles with poor audio. With videography, even more than with photography, the magic and value is in the edit. That is why I deliver over an hour of fully edited, color graded video to each couple.
That being said…… I understand if you want the raw files
As a former bride and bridesmaid, do I understand wanting to be in possession of as much of the media from your wedding as possible? Absolutely. As an insurance policy for yourselves, or maybe you do some video editing as a hobby, or maybe you don’t care if it’s grey you just want every second you can possibly get. When I was getting married, I wanted to make sure to own the printing rights for my wedding photos so that I could continually print the photos that I wanted rather than always going through the photographer. So I get it! When you’re planning your wedding, it is your prerogative to communicate and negotiate with your vendors so that you get everything that is important to you.
My job is to offer you my expertise and then do whatever I can to deliver on what you want! I would simply charge a fee for the purchase and delivery of a physical external drive to send to you with the RAW footage as it is too large for me to host/deliver online. And now you know a little bit more about what RAW and LOG footage is and you will be totally in the know at the next AV club meeting ;-)