Hire a Nashville Videographer

Hiring the correct Nashville Videographer is an important piece of the puzzle when putting together a video production.  From a single videographer to a full video production crew, WMV Productions can put together what you need to make sure that your next production shines.  

With camera phones in everyone’s pockets it seems like it should be an easy task to choose a Nashville Videographer for your video project quickly, and you can.  Knowing what different types of videographers (aka cameraman) bring to the table can help you pick the right one when hiring a video professional for your next project.

Already filmed your video footage? Maybe you are looking for a video editor to complete your project.

With the cost of of video production equipment going down and the more frequent use of video being used in every company, there is many reasons to hire a nashville videographer today.  Some of these reasons include:

Multi-Camera Shoots

Green Screen Shoots

TV Commercials

Web Commercials

Generally when you hire a videographer in Nashville they will show up with a camera, microphone and a very basic lighting setup.  It can be customized to your specific use, but in general any Nashville videographer (or one-man-band as we call it) shows up with the same type of setup.  When you hire a videographer from WMV productions they show up in a lighting/gear truck ready for any situation.  This gear truck has many of the the common day video production tools of the trade which allow the camera operator to get the result that is needed for the video production.  It is important to note that not every piece of equipment can be used by a single videographer and sometimes requires 2 or more people to set up and operate within the time and budget you are looking for.  Common pieces of equipment of our gear trucks are:

Steadicam

Slider

Large Lazy Susan

Grip and Electric Equipment

What is a Nashville Videographer?

A Nashville Videographer (or cameraman) is a person that is hired by a video production company to record a video.  Usually this video is used by small company or consumer that is looking for a low cost solution to capture video.  This can be for a web video, sit down interview, small business commercial or social media share.  As of 2018, over 8 billion hours of video are watched on Facebook everyday… Yes I will say that again… 8 BILLION hours of video is viewed every single day on Facebook.  Amazing right?

Nashville Videographer

Amount of crew: 1 person
Type of video shoot: Basic Filming
A videographer (cameraman, one-man band, camera operator)

A videographer is one person that shows up to record some video to be used in a video production.  There are many caliber of videographers and understanding what their skillset is is imperative in to getting the footage you need to tell the story you need for your project.  This type of cameraman is perfect for capturing corporate events, interviews, businesses that need something done on a small budget and consumers that ‘just need a guy with a camera’.  Although a single videographer can have much skill in the entire process of a video’s creation, it is sometimes unreasonable to think that a single man can come in for a few hours and the final product will look like a blockbuster movie.  Many times the same effect can be achieved with a crew of even 2-3 people, but hiring a single person usually achieves a very specific goal of getting quality video footage while staying in a specific budget range.

The difference between a videographer and a cinematographer or director of photography is that they usually are using a more mobile version of a complete video production studio to be used on location quickly.  This includes using a digital camera that records to compact flash cards, minimal 3 point lighting setups that can light a very small area (usually big enough for a single person (talent) to be in the frame of the camera, and a single microphone to capture the talent’s voice as they speak.

Even though all the equipment of a Nashville Videographer may sound “minimalistic” it is not cheap or to be looked down upon.  In the hands of a professional cameraman, these tools of the trade can be used to craft very respectable HD videos for our clients.

2 Man Videographer Team

Amount of crew: 2 people
Type of video shoot: web commercials, corporate video production, sit down interviews
2 videographers (cameraman, one-man band, camera operator)

When you really want to step up your game adding a 2nd video professional to the team will do the trick.  When you hire a two man videographer team you get a lot more bang for your buck.  A two man video crew can really raise the quality of any video production your hire them for.  

It all starts with them loading in several pieces of gear including lights, tripods, audio equipment and other specialized gear to make sure the room or scene look perfect for what you are trying to convey in your video.  The benefit of a two man crew is that they can achieve far more in a short time than a single person can do in a few hours.  Just the trips back and forth to bring in gear from the truck alone are worth it’s weight in gold.  A two man team can work together critically viewing a lighting setup to ensure that whatever feeling you are trying to promote comes off as planned.  When a single cameraman is working alone, many times he is stuck within a tight timeline and hauling in tons of lights and extra equipment just is not an option.

Once the equipment is loaded in and setup the two videographers will change roles from setup crew and split their roles.  One will act as a director and the other will run the camera and audio.  This split allows them to concentrate solely on their jobs and not be distracted by “everything” as they were previously.

Nashville Videographer’s Jobs On Set

The Director gets to focus just on the talent (the person speaking).  Since they have their entire focus on the person talking whether it is an actor or an interviewee, they can make sure that the performance (or question answered) is camera perfect.  In an interview situation, this may require the Director to repeatedly ask the same question in different manners to make sure the the interviewee answers in a way that will flow nicely in a video.  This of course is all up to creative interpretation, but generally speaking someone who has been doing interviews for years has a good idea of how things will end up looking on screen when the video is finished.

Meanwhile, the person running Camera and audio is only focused on keeping the talent in focus, making sure the audio sounds good and usually catches things like people walking in the background or if the talent’s hair or clothing falls in an unattractive position during the filming.  They have a critical role in making sure things just “look good” because the Director is only focusing their efforts on how the person in reacting and not necessarily on the technical aspects like lighting and aesthetics of the scene.

So while it may look like the two videographers that show up work for awhile and then relax, it could not be farther from the truth.  Once they load in all the equipment, set it up and focus it… then they are focused on MAKING YOU LOOK GOOD!  

I understand the video production can be a very confusing subject, especially if you have never done one before.  If you have any questions about hiring a video professional in or around Nashville, Tennessee give WMV Productions a call.  We would be happy to discuss any options that might work for you.

Serving all of Tennessee.  Nashville, Murfreesboro, Franklin, Green Hills, Lebanon and Clarksville.  Give us a call and see if we have a video pro near you.