u/WearyVideoMan

Ok, sorry to everyone for yet another post on Content Creators, but I'm having a bit of difficulty navigating working-relationships here. So for context, I'm noticing that, while a few CCs are content (no pun intended) to lurk in the background and shoot essentially vertical BTS, a lot are now duplicating the videographer's role. I shot a wedding recently where the CC landed at the ceremony with two phones on tripods, a phone-rig with massive ring light, a gimbal, and wireless lav mics (she ceremony-mic'ed the priest for her content while I was busy with the groom). I'm surprised she didn't bring a drone. She sat a phone/monopod beside me to keep me company in the already cramped aisle during the ceremony - I named it 'Jeremy'. The rest of the day she was super-intrusive, in literally every shot and angle, with three of us (me, photographer and the CC) crushed into the center aisle for the recessional - all walking backwards with guests and floral displays packed to either side. The photographer's second-shooter was a pure gentleman, and thankfully stayed out of this mess and shot different angles, as they are wont to do.

Staging TikToks trends, she was there all the way until the dancing, where she did manic, sugar-fuelled orbits around the couple using said lighting rig. I'm honestly finding all this a bit exhausting, and I don't want to be that asshole who asserts his precious creative freedoms verbally and potentially damages working relationships, but there has to be a way to navigate this trend which doesn't compromise the quality of our work as videographers and give us all permanent stress migraines as we try to monitor timings, multiple pieces of equipment, existing vendors and guests, and now a person essentially hired after the fact to duplicate your job, for upwards of 12 hours. The couple seemed blessedly oblivious to the tension, which I hope I managed to keep to myself (the last thing I want to do is be intrusive or ruin their day with nonsense). I left that wedding genuinely questioning whether I want to remain in this industry, after years of working in it, and that's just not a nice place to be. Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated on this, I'm certain I'm not the only one who is finding this to be a challenging environment right now.

Ok, sorry to everyone for yet another post on Content Creators, but I'm having a bit of difficulty navigating working-relationships here. So for context, I'm noticing that, while a few CCs are content (no pun intended) to lurk in the background and shoot essentially vertical BTS, a lot are now duplicating the videographer's role. I shot a wedding recently where the CC landed at the ceremony with two phones on tripods, a phone-rig with massive ring light, a gimbal, and wireless lav mics (she ceremony-mic'ed the priest for her content while I was busy with the groom). I'm surprised she didn't bring a drone. She sat a phone/monopod beside me to keep me company in the already cramped aisle during the ceremony - I called it 'Jeremy'. The rest of the day she was super-intrusive, in literally every shot and angle, to the point of there being three of us (me, photographer and the CC crushed into the center aisle for the recessional - all walking backwards with guests and floral displays packed to either side). The photographer's second-shooter was a pure gentleman, and thankfully stayed out of this mess and shot different angles, as they are wont to do.

She was there all the way until the dancing, where she did manic, sugar-fuelled orbits around the couple using said lighting rig. I'm honestly finding all this a bit exhausting, and I don't want to be that asshole who asserts his precious creative freedoms verbally and potentially damages working relationships, but there has to be a way to navigate this trend which doesn't compromise the quality of our work as videographers and give us all permanent stress migraines as we try to monitor multiple pieces of equipment, existing vendors and guests, and now a person essentially hired after the fact to duplicate your job, for upwards of 12 hours. The couple seemed blessedly oblivious to the tension, which I hope I managed to keep to myself (the last thing I want to do is be intrusive or ruin their day with nonsense). I left that wedding genuinely questioning whether I want to remain in this industry, after years of working in it, and that's just not a nice place to be. Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated on this.