A Thing or Two About Choosing the Right Venue for You

I have been shooting videos for some time now. Videos for companies, videos for individuals,and videos for fun. People, frankly, spend a lot of money to capture these moments correctly so that the money spent is preserved somehow in photo and/or video form in order to look back and relive the glamour of the day-evening-night. Let's face it... a lot of time is spent decorating, setting up, organizing entertainment, etc. So it is these videos and photos are the ONLY memoirs of real note that capture those moments. Photographs capture an image while video captures an image with personality (hopefully). As you look for a venue to hold your wedding or corporate event, it is very important to ask about the rules limiting the videographers and photographers from doing a thorough job. Too often I arrive at the event to find I am too limited in my ability to get creative shots because of rules put in place to protect the venue. I totally understand this. I just got back from a rehearsal at the Mission in San Jose (Jennifer and Anthony's wedding is Saturday... congrats!) and I was informed of the limitations in place. I understand why they are there... and I am also perfectly happy to abide. That is my job. I understand it and do not buck the system in place. Unfortunately, it seems that in some cases brides do not truly realize the limitations and how they affect the videographer. In this particular case it is going to be ok because I am going to hire another videographer to fill in the shots where I am currently blocked out from at the San Jose Mission. I simply cannot do the job with one camera and feel I have done a good job in this case so I have to do what is necessary to always offer the best quality available to me. The point here is that as you are planning your event... whatever it is... you should decide how important the video and photos are and ask whatever questions are necessary to make sure the venue lives up to your needs. In some cases they will, and some they won't... but it is important to go into it knowing if you're videographer/photographer is being locked out of providing you the product you expect. Most situations with video simply involve adding another camera-person to get the shots that one approved position is locked out of. Best of Luck in Planning