ShaadiGrapher Proposal
Dear Nihita, Thank you so much for considering us for providing candid photography and wedding film at your forthcoming wedding! This proposal includes the following: Scope of Work with Submission Timeline; Schedule and Fee; Cancellation, Copyright and Liability policies; Mandap & Lighting recommendations; Photo-book pricing & options; Understanding "Candid" photography; and last but not the…
Dear Nihita,
Thank you so much for considering us for providing candid photography and wedding film at your forthcoming wedding! This proposal includes the following:
- Scope of Work with Submission Timeline;
- Schedule and Fee;
- Cancellation, Copyright and Liability policies;
- Mandap & Lighting recommendations;
- Photo-book pricing & options;
- Understanding “Candid” photography; and last but not the least
- Why it is a bad idea to have too many photographers.
By hiring our services, you deem to have understood and agreed to all the points / terms mentioned in this Proposal. We are excited and look forward to charming you with our work. We will block dates for you, on receipt of the Booking Amount.
Amrit Vatsa
+91 95525 89252
ShaadiGrapher.com
3minuteStories.com
Scope of Work with Submission Timeline
A. Candid Photography by one of us (ShaadiGrapher)
- During the event, after arriving at the location, we will try and get to know the key family members (from both sides), understand the flow of the event and keep shooting RAW photographs throughout the event. We will focus a lot on spontaneous moments and try to capture the chaos, excitement, happiness and the human interaction that defines any Indian wedding.
- Post the event, and after receipt of the full and final payment, we will go through all the RAW photographs one by one to handpick the ones that meet our internal quality threshold. Each photograph that we submit to you, will tell a clear story and will be visually appealing at the same time. To the shortlisted photographs, we will give a consistent colour-tone and then share with you the final set of high resolution JPEG images (either via dropbox or by couriering in a DVD / pen-drive). A half-day shoot typically leads to 200-250 final photographs and a full day leads to around 400 (these are rough estimates based on our experience – there is no limit on numbers of photographs as such).
- Submission timeline – within 4 weeks from receipt of full and final payment (i.e. within 4 weeks from “Effective Date”)
- Photo-book option: After you have received the high resolution digital photographs, you can shortlist the ones that you want in a Coffee Table Book, share the file names with us, and pay for the Book. The cost and options are listed here.
B. Wedding Film by another one of us (ShaadiGrapher)
- Before the event, we will have a call with both the bride and the groom to understand their story leading up to the wedding (why are they getting married, how did they find each other – love / arranged? etc.). This gives us a good idea of how the final story should be told and what questions should be asked when we interview the couple (and anyone else, if needed).
- During the event, the Scope of Work is similar to that for candid photography – except that, instead of photographs, we would shoot video footage in flat colour profile (that can be colour graded later). Unlike photography, which is mostly done hand-held, shooting video also requires usage of several accessories for achieving moving shots (slider, gimbals, fluid-head or even a drone if required). We would also need about 15 minutes of time from both the bride and the groom for a video interview.
- Post the event, and after receipt of the full and final payment, we will start editing the movie. A Wedding Film from a full day’s shoot is typically 15 minutes in length. We keep the following in mind when we edit a movie: the movie should look seamless from beginning to end; from the audio-track point of view, there should be a creative mix of 1) real audio captured during shoot, 2) instrumental music, 3) songs and 4) interviews (nothing should be excessive); the movie should move ahead in time at a fast pace.
- Submission timeline – within 8 weeks from receipt of full and final payment (i.e. within 8 weeks from “Effective Date”)
- Iteration Policy for Wedding Films: Once we share our version of the movie files with you, you might have suggestions for us. We would take care of as many of them as possible, but we want to clarify that it will be totally up-to us, as to what extent we can re-edit. We don’t expect you to ask us to re-edit again, once we have taken care of most of the first set of requested changes (i.e. multiple iterations is out of scope of this Proposal / fee). We hope you are booking us because you have already seen and liked our existing films (in terms of the kind of music we use, the kind of shots we take, the kind of editing we do and the way we tell story in general).
- Trailer is optional – a ~ 5 min trailer can be additionally ordered for INR 25,000 (not included by default in the present Scope of Work) AFTER the full movie has been submitted / finalized.
Schedule & Fee
Agra
- 31 Aug 2017 – Late afternoon/Evening mehendi (half day)
- Sept 1 – Full day (Engagement/cocktail/sangeet in the evening)
- Sept 2 – Full day (Haldi/chooda in the morning, wedding in the evening)
Net Total Fee: INR 3,50,000/- (three lakh and fifty thousand rupees only) – the calculation is explained below
- Candid photography – INR 1,50,000
- Wedding movie – INR 2,00,000
Note: Local Accommodation Required
We want you to promise that you shall book us a room (for two of us) in the same hotel where majority of your guests, friends and family are staying (there have been instances where we were put up in not so great hotels – where the bathroom was dirty or the bed-sheets had stains; we are sure you wouldn’t be doing that to us). You will also need to take care of our local transportation in the city, whenever required (hotel-venue to and fro).
Booking Amount
Advance amount of INR 1,75,000 (one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees only) to be transferred to:
- Payee Name : Amrit Vatsa
- Payee Account No : 4386 2805 2578 8695
- IFSC Code : CITI0000003;
- Bank name : Citibank N A
BALANCE can be paid any time after the shoot (the date of receipt of full and final payment will be marked as “Effective Date”; deliverable submission timeline count starts only from Effective Date).
Cancellation Policy
50% of advance fee paid to us shall be returned to you in 4-6 weeks time (through online transaction only) if cancelled more than 40 days before the first scheduled event. 100% advance shall be forfeited if cancelled less than 40 days prior to the first scheduled event.
Copyright Policy
You are free to make copies of the photographs / movies created by us and circulate amongst friends and family. However, you shall NOT have the right to use any of our work for any commercial purpose (such as using them in competitions, selling them, uploading them on any commercial website etc.)
ShaadiGraPher shall have intellectual property rights over all the pictures / movies that are shot / created by any of us – but we will NEVER sell it for any commercial purpose – we will use it only to showcase our work to other prospective clients through our site and / or Facebook page, or to participate in competitions or for any other relevant purpose (will not use any specific picture(s) that you don’t want us to; but you cannot ask us to not share ‘any picture from our wedding’).
Limited Liability Policy
If for any unforeseen reason, we are not able to shoot the wedding (or other event, as applicable), or if after the shoot, we lose the data (hardware malfunction / theft / other reasons beyond our control) and we are unable to retrieve the same, our liability is limited to the amount paid to us (without any interest) on a pro rata basis. We shall refund the money within 15 working days in such a case. Just for your records, such situations are rare. We almost always carry backup cameras and backup cards / batteries etc.
Mandap & Lighting Recommendation
A. MANDAP DESIGN
Make sure that there is enough gap for two people to walk at the same time, all around the centre of the mandap (where the couple and pandit / maharaj sit for most part of the wedding). This enables photographers to try a lot of different angles while framing, compared to when the guests squeeze in very close.
This also ensures that a lot more guests can actually see the wedding. If possible, make sure the mandap is not in the corner of the hall. The greater the space around all four sides of it, the better!
B. LIGHT DESIGN
ONE. Make sure the video-camera guy does NOT have a light attached on top of the video-camera, ever. The light (either halogen or LED) must be held separately by an assistant at an angle. All that you have to do to ensure this is, when you book a videographer, tell them this is how you want them to work! They might at max ask 1,000 or 2,000 rupees more for this. It will be worth it.
TWO. In banquet halls (and other indoor venues), make sure all jhoomar type of lights (or other sources of diffused lights attached to ceilings and walls) are on. ALL OF THEM. If it’s a cocktail party that you are planning and you intentionally want to have dim lights, inform your candid photographer beforehand (and be prepared to accept the fact that overall number of pictures will go down to an extent because it is easier to see and click faster in good light but not so when the light is dim).
THREE. For outdoor venues during night, make sure the venue has a large number of small lights spread across the venue (instead of few large halogens). More number of smaller lights gives a better feel to pictures and makes them look natural compared to 2,3 huge halogens. See illustration below.
FOUR. For outdoor or indoor, NO coloured light (velvet, pink, blue, green etc.) should be used in a way that they fall on people. If used, they should only point towards walls and ceilings. For all other lighting, either stick to yellow or white.
FIVE. For stage where the couple is going to sit – if you are going to light up the backdrop of the stage with some kind of light, make sure there also is adequate amount of separate source of light pointing on the couple themselves when they sit on the sofa. Otherwise, in most pictures, the background will simply get washed out to white and will not show. See illustration below.
Photo-book Pricing and Options
We provide two options. You can order as many Photo-books as you require.
- Option 1 – 25 spreads (i.e. 50 pages) thick – this can have about 100 to 120 photographs; comes for INR 15,000
- Option 2 – 50 spreads (100 pages) thick – this can have about 200 to 250 photographs; comes for INR 20,000
Both the above options are from Canvera – one of the leading photo-book publishers in India. They are of premium quality and 11X16 inch in size, with lay-flat binding. The cover is of a textured material, over which embossed text can be printed (like “A weds B”).
This is how the textured cover looks like – we go with the red colour.
This is how a lay-flat binding looks like when the Book is open.
We do a very clean, non-flashy layout – like this. Please do make sure that you like our style, before you place order for a Photo-book.
Once you have shared with us the file names of the photographs shortlisted for printing, (and made payment for the Book), we will do the layout and once the layout is finalized, we will get the Book printed by Canvera – they will directly ship it (free of cost) to any Indian address that you provide (in about a week’s time).
Candid Photography – what we do, and what we don’t:
- Candid does NOT mean only the couple is covered. The couple is our main subject, yes, but we obviously shoot a lot more than just them. We capture the flow of the wedding the way we see it – and that includes shooting your guests (especially those who come and talk to you), friends and family. It is very helpful when someone from your family can introduce us to the core group of family and friends. The idea is not to keep creating portraits of everyone though. What we truly care about are “interactions” – captured in aesthetic wide angle photographs that tell you a little more than how a person looked and what she wore on your wedding day.
- It is almost impossible to ensure that all important guests get equal coverage. Some times the parents might have fewer pictures than say a distant aunty and at other times, the bride might have way more pictures than the groom. Some key people might end up getting zero good photograph. This is a limitation of candid photography and can happen due to several reasons – some important guests might not be visible frequently (or might not be interacting much with the couple), or we simply could not recognize them in a crowd, or they got conscious each time a candid pic was tried etc. From “coverage” point of view, you will therefore have to rely upon the studio photographer’s posed photography – we will do the best that we can.
- We cannot make fat people look thin, sad people look happy or remove blemishes from your skin or photo-shop your double chin. This happens in fashion photography. Candid photography (for us) means REAL images. How good the pictures eventually come out to be, almost always depends on the subjects, their expressions, their actions etc.! We want you to be brave enough to see the reality captured in a very authentic and aesthetic fasion. Every single wedding picture on our site is REAL. Other than colour tone and cropping, we don’t alter pictures at all (i.e. no Photoshop).
- For taking posed photographs of guests (or couple with guests) you will have to have a traditional studio photographer – we don’t do that (it’s a mechanical job, and we are artists).
Why is it a bad idea to have too many photographers?
Panchkula, 2015.
When there are too many professionals with a camera (let us wishfully assume for now that none of your friends and family will take out their phones and DSLRs – even when we know they will 😀 ), every photographer / videographer keeps coming in the way of every other photographer / videographer. And it annoys everyone. And therefore, everyone ends up getting less ideal photographs.
Hyderabad, 2017.
So if you want us to show what we are truly capable of, here is what we recommend: At any one location – do NOT have more than one traditional photographer and NO OTHER candid photographer when you book us. If you are a bride (or from her side), please coordinate with the groom (and his family) to make sure, he doesn’t end up bringing with him another team (and vice-versa if you are the groom). This is not just a waste of money, but eventually leads to poorer results for every photographer / videographer – and thus, ultimately for you!