What is RAW Footage?
The term “RAW Footage” gets tossed around wedding videography circles quite often. The question “do you sell your RAWs?” is often asked by clients in wedding videography Facebook groups and by brides who were told by their favourite wedding blog to “make sure you get your RAW footage!” So what exactly is RAW Footage and why should you care?
What is RAW Footage?
Speaking simply, in a wedding videography context, RAW footage refers to the video files that we’re recorded to the videographers data storage card. This footage is recorded at a specific frame rate, with a specific colour profile and is completely unedited. RAW Footage has not been colour corrected, stabilized or manipulated in any way. It can be transferred by uploading it to a cloud storage website, like Google Drive, or by transferring it to a data storage device. RAW Footage can be played back in a video viewing software and can have a variety of file names. Some files, like .MP4s can be viewed by most video players, while some files, like .YUV may require a specific video player.
Should I Get My RAW Footage?
Whether or not you pursue the acquisition of your RAW Footage is completely up to you. There are a number of situations where having a copy of your RAW footage would be beneficial.
If you would like to play around with video editing using the footage from your day.
If you'd like to watch all the "behind the scenes" moments from your wedding. It's worth noting that many videographers are not comfortable selling RAW footage. This is because the unedited video files only reflect the production talents of the videographer, not the post-production talents. Many professionals are not comfortable releasing work that is unrefined. If you know that RAW footage is a priority, make sure to ask your videographer if they sell them before you book.
RAW Footage Expectations
If you decide to pursue purchasing your RAW footage, there are a couple things you should know:
Raw Footage Isn't Pretty
Expect to hear the videographers voice more than anyone else's, expect lots of camera shakes and random movements, expect short clips with seemingly no purpose, and long clips where the camera points at the ground for minutes on end.
Raw Footage Isn't Processed
Expect the colours too look unappealing and probably very desaturated. Expect there to be moments when everything seems too bright and then moments where everything seems too dark. There is no story being told, just moments being captured.
Raw Footage Give You "Behind the Scenes" Insight
Perhaps the one reason you may desire to pursue the purcahse of your RAWs is because of the fact that you'll have a behind the scenes look at your wedding from the perspective of your videographer. Among all the footage you may find treasured moments, but don't come in with high expectations. You're embodying the role of the videographer, and what you think was worth capturing may differ from the perspective of your videographer. Also remember that there is no pretty way to view RAW footage, so be prepared to sit around a computer and watch clip by clip, opening and closing each video file.
At the end of the day the value of RAW footage is in the eye of the client. If you want an extra insight into what your videographer captured, then RAW footage is for you. However should you pursue the purchase of your footage keep in mind that RAW footage is just that, raw, unedited and unprocessed.
