What I think of ‘film yourself’ camcorder services as a Wedding Content Creator

Pre-Wedding Content Creator experience, I know I would have adored this idea. In fact, I’m pretty confident I would have scrapped the idea of any type of videographer in favour of this natural, un-polished and unique way to film the day.

And don’t get me wrong, I do still love the idea. Like many people, I’m drawn to the nostalgic, grainy quality of camcorder and Super 8 footage and I adore the slightly wobbly, raw and vintage lens they give.

My only problem is the reality of the guests capturing the whole day. From first-hand experience.

I personally take a camcorder to every wedding and have been known to hand it out to guests- I’ve tried everyone from rowdy groomsmen to twelve year old nephews to fabulous maids of honour, and what I’ve found is; whilst it’s a fun and novelty experience for the temporary cameraperson, the footage usually ends up totally unusable- and that’s coming from someone who loves an authentic, wonky, cut off-shot and blurry moment!

Now I’ve had the experience of digging through piles of shaky footage and two-second clips, and seen far too many occasions where the person has accidentally filmed whilst pointing at the floor, instead of recording whilst as they point at the couple, I’m resigned to scepticism that a day that is solely filmed by the guests would have me feeling very confident on the end result…

I’ve also seen many a wedding where the lovely Polaroid photo station, photo QR code and disposable cameras have ended up almost untouched. With the best intentions, your guests’ main priorities are usually chatting, soaking up the day and sipping on drinks, and in those critical moments (like walking down the aisle, first kiss, cake cutting), they’re engrossed in the moment and too busy cheering you on to reach for the disposable or camcorder.

A camcorder rental service costs around £500 to rent three camcorders, and when a full day of wedding content creation costs somewhere in the range of £600-£1995 (my Platinum package being £800 at time of writing), I think it’s worth the extra investment to have someone there you can rely on to capture every moment. And not to toot my own horn, but especially when I’ll pass the camcorder to your guests for free, and am soon going to be adding a second camcorder to my kit so one can stay with me at all times, and one can do the rounds (sorry, second camcorder!).

So, my conclusion is, unless you have a creative, arty friend who’s reliable and wants to spend the day capturing, I would personally stick to other, more reliable options.