How To Film a Proposal

A few weeks ago, one of our best friends got married. So we decided to go all out on his proposal and capture it with 3 different angles. Here’s what we learned:

This past week, we filmed our best friend’s proposal video.

We wanted to go all out for him, and so we brought our full team to capture the special moment.

Being wedding videographers, we all tend to be most comfortable filming a wedding day, but we get a little nervous when we come across something we don’t usually film.

Proposal videos are one of those things.

But the same rules apply.

1. Nail the hero shots

2. Story > Visuals

3. Let the moment breathe

Nail the hero shots 💡

No matter what you are filming, ask yourself this:

What is/are the hero moment(s)?

If it’s a wedding, that’s easy.

The ceremony, the first kiss, the first dance, the speeches, etc..

But for a traditional proposal, what are the hero moments?

When the fianceé realizes this is the moment, and when the groom-to-be gets on one knee.

So heading into the proposal, we made sure to have a game plan so that these two moments were captured perfectly from at least one camera before deciding to add in multiple angles.

Story > Visuals 📚

So many times, this is the limiting factor in upgrading your videos.

A wedding or a proposal is simply made into a music video instead of the couple’s love story.

We could have easily just placed a music track behind this edit, and it still would have been a cute moment,

But it would have been forgotten quickly.

Instead, putting just a little more effort into asking the groom to tell his story about his bride made all the difference.

Another trick we did was placing the instamic on a pole near the entrance where she would be walking.

So even though our cameras were far away, we were able to capture the audio of her the moment she realized this was the proposal she had been waiting for.

Those audio bits are golden when it comes to the editing room.

Let the moment breathe 🧘🏻‍♂️

Last but certainly not least,

Let the moment breathe.

Remember that one time when you were filming a special first look, and you’re trying to capture good audio,

And right as the first look happens, the photographer starts talking and saying “stopppp so cute oh my goshhhhh!” and interrupting the moment?

No? Maybe I’m just projecting our biggest pet peeve 😅

The point is, remember your place.

You are here to perform a job, and that is to capture the moment and tell the story.

You are not the main character. The couple is.

Let them dictate how the moment turns out, you step in if they need you to step in.

But for a proposal, don’t try to stage anything. That is only going to take away from the moment.

Once the moment starts happening, you are documenting.

We are going to be releasing the full 15-minute BTS on our YouTube in the next few days.

Make sure you are subscribed so you can get notified when it’s released.

Talk soon Runaways,

Jake