Services / 3 min readThe Union in Frame journal
Highlight film, feature film or full ceremony edit: which to choose
Words by Union in Frame
Wedding films are sold under names that sound alike and mean different things. A highlight film, a feature film and a full ceremony edit differ in length, in sound and in how you will watch them years later. Here is what each one is, and which combinations make sense.
What a highlight film is
A highlight film is a short edit of the whole day, usually a few minutes long, cut to a piece of music. It moves quickly through getting ready, the walk in, a line from the vows, a laugh from the speeches and the dancing. Real sound appears in fragments rather than in full.
It is the film you will share, and the one you will rewatch most often, because it is easy to press play on. It is also the one that keeps least of what was said.
What a feature film adds
A feature film is longer, often between fifteen minutes and half an hour, and follows the day in order. Music is still there, but it sits underneath longer passages of real sound: a reading, most of the vows, the best stretch of each speech, a parent heard rather than glimpsed.
This is the film you sit down to watch rather than share. You are more likely to return to it on an anniversary, or when someone who was not there asks to see it. It needs more of the filmmaker's time, on the day and in the edit.
Documentary edits keep the words whole
A full ceremony edit and a full speeches edit are documentary films. They run as long as the event did, use the live sound throughout, and are cut mainly to switch between camera angles. Music, if there is any, is kept to the start and finish.
These are the films you go looking for years later, when you want to hear a particular voice again. They depend on good audio, which means a microphone on the couple and each speaker, a recorder near whoever is conducting, and a filmmaker who knows where they may stand.
Raw footage is a backup, not a film
Raw footage is everything the cameras recorded, unedited, with the sound as it was captured. It arrives as hours of clips on a drive or a download, and it is large, unglamorous and rarely watched.
It earns its place in one situation: when you want to find a person, a moment or a conversation that did not make the edits. If that matters to you, ask whether raw footage is included, what it costs if not, and how it is delivered. Storage is rarely indefinite, so settle this before the day.
Choose a combination you will watch
A highlight film with a full ceremony edit and a full speeches edit is a sensible pairing: one film to share, and the words kept whole for later. A feature film plus a short highlight works if you want a sit-down film and something easy to send.
If the budget only stretches to one, choose by what you would miss. If it is the words, take the ceremony edit over the highlight. Whatever you pick, ask about delivery times and whether the music is licensed for you to share the film online.
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