Summary: We’ve all probably experienced the horror of lost data at one time or another. It’s really important to take certain steps to your preserve wedding film, not like the way one preserves precious metal but the way one preserves precious data. Don’t just lock it up in a safe space and take it out for special occasions. Your wedding film is more precious than anything you’ll find in your safety deposit box. Two basic things will ensure your grandchildren have no issues playing your wedding films – backup and replay!
You’ve spent months if not years planning your dream luxury wedding. You can rattle off the difference between candid wedding videography and traditional wedding videography. You’ve spent late nights researching on best wedding videographer near you. Or maybe not so near you. You’ve stalked and booked your wedding cinematographer. Your cinematic wedding films are a soon to become reality much like the life you intend to build with your partner. Once your dream wedding is done, the flowers have dried and been preserved, the wedding films arrive. And so does the question as to how does one preserve one’s wedding film?
Receiving Your Wedding Film
Your wedding cinematographer is likely to send you your wedding film through a file sharing platform or on digital storage device such as a USB stick. If you’ve placed a request for raw footage then you are likely to receive it on an external Solid State Drive/Hard Disk Drive (because of the sheer size of the files.) There is a difference between these two digital storage devices and videographers tend to usually go with the SSD.
It’s really essential that you spend a minute or two understanding how to keep your wedding film in a good working condition. Maybe for a replay on your 50th wedding anniversary? Or that, yes, one day your grand-children or grand-niblings may want to know what the mid 2020’s were like! What you were like, what your wedding day was like, what was said at the wedding toasts, who was there and who was not. Footage is precious (ask anyone who’s lost it!). So here’s our time tested ways we protect our digital footage. Taking these measures will ensure that these wedding films are part of heirlooms you gift to the generations after you.
Tips to Preserve Your Wedding Film
- First things first. As soon as you receive your full resolution wedding videos, ensure that the USB/SSD/HDD has your files and that they are in working condition. This simple step will save you much much grief. While we photographers/ film-makers always test our final deliverables multiple times, it is always good to double check. As they say always good to err on the safe side.
- Follow good practices with regard to how you use USB/ SSD/HDDs. At its very basic that would be – plug in after switching on your computer/laptop; eject before removing it from your computer. Keep in a safe cool place. Label it so it’s easy to find and store.
- Lean on the 3-2-1 Backup Rule: This rule basically says that the safest way to store your wedding film/ wedding footage would be to keep three copies of your film. Ideally kept on two different kinds of media. For example: can be a USB stick, an SSD/HDD, your laptop’s memory, your cloud account etc. And most importantly keep one copy ‘off-site’ which means in a physically different location.
- Never ever have your wedding film/wedding footage in only one place – such as only your laptop or only on a website/social media account.
- File formats: You will ideally receive your wedding film in the highest quality format available. These file formats ought to be compatible with all devices. If not check with your wedding filmer concerning any incompatibility issues. Watch out for changing technology. Ensure that your file formats can be played years down the line.
- Cloud storage: while this does seem to be the most appealing (someone else’s headache) the horror stories of being locked out of your account should give you pause. And in that pause make sure you have a physical object that holds your film. Something which you have complete control over.
- USB/SSD/HDD: It’s important to check on your USB/SSDs/HDDs once in 5 years. Also important to do a back up once a decade into a new USB/SSD/HDD. For one this compensates for the life span of these devices. Secondly with changes in technology it might be wise to move your wedding film into newer forms of storage decade by decade.
Conclusion
What Do You Think? Which technique from this list has been your favorite? Which one’s saved your life? Or maybe you have something that wasn’t explored here.
Either way, leave a comment below to let us know.
Browse more information on our wedding films here. Contact Us if you’d like to hire us!
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