Celebrating a special event in your life, you want to make some videos to refresh your memory of the event occasionally.
It is a usual practice in this country to invite videographers to do that job. Here, we shall discuss what videographers do, how much you can expect to pay for their services in Manchester and what the freelance videographer rates in the UK typically depend on.
What Videographers Do
In fact, you will have a choice of three professionals, depending on the format of the final product that you have in mind, namely:
- Videographers to produce a video recording of the event
- Cinematographers to film the occasion
- Photographers, in case you prefer to create a photo album instead
Another alternative is to hire an event planning marketplace. This innovative and convenient option is becoming increasingly more popular in the UK these days. Event marketplaces take care of the entire organisation of the event, providing catering, filming, transportation and many other services to let you concentrate on the event and enjoy it fully.
Most videographers in Manchester will be ready to complete the entire video project, which involves light, camera and sound operation and post-production editing. Since videographer prices can often be very high, many people prefer to invite a professional only to do one part of the job, like editing. However, we don’t recommend this option as it turns out to cost even more at the end of the day.
Finally, when the work has finished, you can take the video from your videographer personally, usually saved on a hard drive, or have it stored on the cloud and download it from there any time.
Videographer Prices in Manchester
There are many videography agencies in the city, and the rates vary a lot as a result. At the low end of the scale, you will find recently opened agencies and some amateur professionals. The most expensive are large and well-established agencies and very experienced and highly reputable freelance videographers with a stable private clientele base.
The rates in Manchester start from about £140 per hour for a promotional videographer. The top-level professionals can charge you as much as £2,500 and more for the entire project. Obviously, there is no point in paying so much simply because the agency has a good reputation. Remember, though, that some of them charge a lot for their excellent professional skills and modern equipment that they work with.
- Videographer’s Expertise
Videographers with thorough knowledge and long experience will charge more, and it makes perfect sense to pay the higher price. You want them to do a good job, after all.
- Technical Equipment
Some professionals charge high fees because they use advanced technology to produce very high-quality videos. Incidentally, modern equipment can help achieve the same effects at lower costs, especially during post-production editing.
Both expertise and equipment are worth paying for since they help create a good product and actually save some money in the process. It is better to invest in a properly equipped professional than waste money on superficial experience and mediocre technology.
- Videographer’s Location
Disheartened by the high price list in the city, you might feel tempted to invite a videographer from the neighbouring towns, where many professionals will be glad to do the job for you at much lower rates. Reasonable though it could be in some cases, there are three potential drawbacks, nonetheless:
- They may lack sufficient experience due to the limited work opportunities.
- Since they charge less, they might be able to afford advanced and expensive technology.
- You will also have to finance their transportation and accommodation in Manchester, which could be expensive enough to defeat the purpose in the end.
- Time and Nature of the Event
Predictably, the rates go up on holidays and weekends. But particularly significant events tend to cost more too. It is not immediately apparent why a wedding should be more expensive to film than a family reunion, but that’s just the way it is.
You would save a lot if you could plan the event during the week in a low season and make your reservation in advance. And there is one thing you could do to economise on your wedding, but we don’t recommend it for obvious reasons.
Conclusion
This article is a general overview of videographer services in Manchester. You can find specific videographer prices in the UK on the agencies’ webpages. The best way is to hire one professional for production and editing or, even better, hire an event planning agency to organise the entire occasion from A to Z.
