You’ve got six weddings on drives and a seventh this Saturday. The couples from September are asking about their films. You’ve looked at outsourcing before, and every time you end up with the same mess of tabs: one editor quotes in US dollars, one has a two-week wait before they start, one says “from” and lists five extras, and none of them clearly says what you actually get back.
This post sets out what to compare when you send wedding film editing out, what a highlight and a feature usually include, and what we charge in fixed AUD.
The approaches you’ll find
Wedding video editing for Australian studios is offered in a few broad ways. Each suits different studios:
- Local solo editors. One person, often a videographer themselves, who knows the Australian market. Usually a close working relationship, sometimes with a waiting list in the busy months.
- Offshore editing teams. Larger teams in other countries, often quoting in US dollars, sometimes with longer queues before the first cut.
- Hybrid studios. Teams that edit stills and film together, so the gallery and the film share a grade.
Whichever you look at, the price on the page is only useful once you know what it covers.
What to compare, line by line
Before price, compare these:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How long is the highlight, and is a feature or teaser included? | “Highlight” can mean three minutes or ten |
| How many cameras, and is drone included? | Multi-cam sync is a big part of the work |
| What resolution is delivered? | 4K masters cost more time to export and check |
| Who chooses the music? | Licensing, and whether the cut is built around your track |
| How many revisions? | And whether they’re charged |
| Do you get the project file? | Without it, you can’t change anything yourself |
| When does the clock start, and what does it count? | Calendar days and business days are very different in December |
| What currency is the price in? | A USD price moves with the exchange rate |
If a quote doesn’t answer these, ask. A clear answer to each is a good sign in itself.
It’s also worth asking how the editor wants to receive footage. Some want drives posted, some want everything uploaded to their own storage. We work from a link to your own Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, pCloud or Box folder, so the raws never leave your account and you can close the link once the film is delivered. And ask what happens when a camera’s footage is unusable or a card is missing a section. You want to hear about it early, from the editor, not discover it in the cut.
Highlight, feature, teaser: what’s inside ours
Highlight film, A$150. A 5 to 8 minute film cut to the music you choose. Footage from 1 to 3 cameras, drone included. Delivered at anything from 480p to 4K. Project file and 2 revisions.
Feature film, A$225. A 15 to 40 minute full-length film with vows and speeches kept in full, multi-cam sync and audio clean-up, plus a 1-minute teaser. Project file and 3 revisions.
Highlight + Feature, A$375. Both films, the teaser, vows and speeches in full, project files and 3 revisions.
If you shoot stills too, the Gallery + Film packages edit the gallery and the films side by side so the grade matches across both. Essential, a Wedding gallery and a highlight film, is A$225. Signature, a Wedding gallery and a feature film, is A$300.
Multi-cam and speech audio
Most of the hours in a feature film aren’t in the creative cut. They’re in syncing three cameras and a recorder across a ceremony, cleaning wind and room noise out of vows, and making sure every speech is audible from start to finish.
We sync every camera and the audio first, then match the cameras to one look, shot by shot, before cutting. Speeches are kept whole in the feature. Audio is cleaned and levelled so a quiet best man and a loud DJ don’t sit two levels apart. If something in the audio can’t be saved, such as a lapel mic that dropped out, we tell you rather than hide it.
Revisions and project files
Revisions are where outsourcing either works or doesn’t. Ours go back to the editor who did the work, with your notes. Highlight films include 2 rounds. Feature films and Highlight + Feature include 3. They aren’t charged as extras.
You always get the project file. If you want to change a shot yourself on a Sunday night, you can.
The most useful revision notes are specific and timecoded: “swap the shot at 2:14 for a wider angle of the walk-in”, “bring the music down under the speech at 6:40”. General notes such as “make it more emotional” are fine too, but a timecode or two next to them helps the editor find what you mean in the first round rather than the second.
Social reels for couples who want to post this week
Couples often want something for Instagram long before the full film is ready. Three vertical 9:16 reels, cut from the same footage, are A$60. A drone-only edit, a short aerial film from the drone footage, is A$45, where you were permitted to fly.
These are add-ons. You choose them in the brief, before we start, and the price is confirmed with the rest of the order.
Turnaround, time zones and what happens next
Standard turnaround is 7 business days from the moment your footage link works and the brief is complete. Weekends and Australian public holidays don’t count. Rush, in 72 hours, adds 50% to the whole order: a highlight film on rush is A$225.
Our team is in Pakistan, three to six hours behind Australia depending on your state and daylight saving. The gap matters less than it sounds, because the editing team works 24 hours a day, in shifts. A link is picked up soon after it arrives, and a question about the brief can come back to you at any hour. Turnaround is still 7 business days, and a weekend upload starts the clock on the next business day.
You don’t upload anything to us. Paste a Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, pCloud or Box link, with your LUT or a past project file, a reference film and your music. We confirm the brief, the price in AUD and the delivery date before you pay.
Try one highlight free
Your first project is free, and the Highlight film counts. Send a typical wedding, with all your cameras and the drone, and judge the cut, the grade and the audio on a real job.
Hybrid studio? Read editing beach weddings in harsh midday sun for matching stills and film on the sand, or the Melbourne editing guide.