Wedding Vendor Spotlight: Videographer Josh Swan, Media Northeast
(One of the few photos I have of Josh working- he’s so stealthy that I had to dig to find one! :) Here he is doing some video work during portraits )
There’s nothing like working with a wedding vendor who you trust. Working with a solid team of wedding professionals, no matter their role on the big day, makes a wedding day not only easier, but more fun. Josh Swan, a videographer and the owner of Media Northeast, is one of my favorite people to have as a teammate on a wedding day. Not only is he friendly, professional, and courteous, but he looks out for me, and I him! On wedding days videographers and photographers need to work closely together to ensure that we both have the time and space to get the coverage we need while staying out of each others frames/shots, and Josh collaborates with the photographers he works with in order to make this happen.
And.. his work is gorgeous! Just look at this wedding video he created last year at Annie and Kenny’s southern Maine wedding.
Annie & Kenny Highlight Film from Josh Swan on Vimeo.
In short, I adore working with Josh, and I’m pretty certain you’d like having him be a part of your wedding too!
I asked if he would mind answering a few questions about wedding videography, and he willingly took the time to respond in detail. Thanks, Josh!
Why should we hire a videographer?
Wedding videography isn’t the same as it used to be a few generations ago, with overly done slow motion paired with black and white images. Now wedding films are creative with a strong focus on storytelling and creative cinematography. For many of our couples having a wedding video isn’t even on the radar but then if they happen to come across a creative wedding film online, they think “I need to have this!!” Then it often becomes one of their top priorities to get. A wedding day will go by in a blink of an eye and with so many details and things going on throughout the day, a creative film is a perfect way to look back on everything!
How would you describe your style?
Our style is in the cinematic/creative approach, to produce a film that is artistic and cinematic by using a storytelling approach. This means we use cinema cameras and other various tools to help us achieve the look in our films. We could geek out about every tool we use, but we love telling a story visually, whether this includes perfect audio or motion in the shot, we have tools to help us achieve anything we can dream up visually. We love cinematography, so an eye for strong composition and lighting will make sure the quality stays consistent throughout the entire day of filming.
How do you work with wedding photographers to make sure you both get adequate coverage without getting in each other’s way?
We believe that if we work closely with the photographers, not only does it make our work better as videographers and photographer since we’re not competing for shots, we can actually help each other out with ideas. Coordinating before every big event such as the ceremony, toast, etc about camera placement for each of member of our team will help eliminate capturing a photographer or videographer in the frame. If we all work as a team, both sides can provide a great finished product for the couple!
What sets you apart from other Maine wedding videographers?
I think what sets us apart is our experience as cinematographers. We don’t just do this on the weekends, we live, eat and breathe filmmaking. We’re not people that decided they wanted to work for themselves so they thought to start with weddings, we film commercial work, corporate events and trainings, along with other creative promotional projects. We are constantly pushing ourselves and learning about new techniques to make us better at what we do. Years of filming and editing day in and day out, allows us to really fine tune our style. We have learned so much in the past years and we still continue to grow to this day. We’ll never stop improving our style and craft!
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What are you waiting for? Stop by his website and view more of his wedding videography work here. Enjoy! And, to end, I dug through Annie and Kenny’s photos to find a photo of Josh in his element. It was hard to find an image because