Let There Be Light… Prices

January 05, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I suppose this has been a long time coming: I’m officially instituting a fee for the use of my studio lighting for the reception dance footage. Why? Well, for one basic reason. I’m tired of complaints from wedding guests and/or DJs who must be so embarrassed of their dance moves to the point where they won’t dance in anything except total cave darkness. This is an ongoing problem I’ve never understood and while it’s not a constant issue that occurs at every wedding, it happens often enough that I am forced to do something about it.

The first time anyone complained about my use of studio lighting on the dance floor, it was the single worst wedding DJ I’ve ever worked with. He insisted that people weren’t dancing because of the lights. The real problem was that he didn’t understand that the event was a wedding and not a techno club in South Beach, Florida where people were popping ecstasy and dry-humping each other (although I have been to weddings where that’s happened).

Bottom line: The quality of a wedding party and the amount of dancing that goes on has absolutely nothing to do with lights or even with the music being played — it has everything to do with the people who show up. People who come to have a good time are going to dance to anything they like dancing to. How bright or dim the dance floor is will have no effect on that. I know this to be true because I’ve shot over 200 weddings in five years. I’ve seen dance floors packed with people in the middle of the day with no booze being served; I’ve seen empty dance floors in alcohol-soaked banquet halls with nothing on but colored lights and Michael Jackson.

So if you want your video to look its absolute best, the Studio Lighting Package is $100, and it means the difference between a camera spotlight in your face and your wedding video looking like a movie. It also means the difference between me carting around 100 pounds of gear versus only 50.

DJs don’t need darkness to play music. People don’t need darkness to dance. But good video does need light.

Keywords: random, weddings

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