Frequently asked questions
How long until we get the films?
The teaser arrives in 72 hours. It’s a firm deadline: three days after the wedding you have one minute cut, in time to show the people still asking how it went.
The highlights, around four minutes telling the day at a calmer pace, come next, within the same process. They’re a paid option, separate from the package.
The final film takes between 60 and 90 days. I quote the higher number on purpose. Between June and September I have weddings almost every weekend, and increasingly on weekdays too. An honest edit doesn’t fit in the days between two Saturdays; out of season it arrives sooner. I’d rather say ninety and deliver at seventy than promise thirty and apologise later.
If there’s a date that really matters to you, tell me when you book and I’ll tell you straight away whether I can do it.
How many films do we get in total?
Two in the package, and two more if you want them.
The teaser, at three days: one minute, to share.
Paid options, separate:
The highlights, within the same delivery: about four minutes, with more room than the teaser but shorter than the final film.
The final film, in 60 to 90 days: the whole day cut and scored, between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the scale of the wedding — a very large event or something simpler.
The documentary film is optional and paid for separately. It’s barely edited on purpose: longer stretches of the ceremony and of the party at the estate, with the audio recorded on the day — the music that actually played in the church, the celebrant as he sounded, the party as it sounded. It isn’t for posting; it’s for fifteen years from now.
Do you travel? Is there a travel charge?
Yes, I travel. I work out of Barcelos and the rule is simple: within 100 km of there, no travel cost.
Beyond that radius there is one, and it goes into the quote as a separate line, with no surprises: you know what it comes to before signing anything. For weddings far enough that I can’t drive there and back, a night before the wedding goes in too — which suits me anyway, because it means I arrive in the morning rested and already knowing the place.
What if it rains?
We film anyway, and it isn’t a disaster.
Weddings in the rain are among the best I’ve filmed. The light goes soft and even, umbrellas give you shots that don’t exist on a sunny day, and there’s a kind of complicity between people that only appears when the plan has gone wrong and everyone has decided to laugh about it.
On my side, the gear is ready to work in the rain and so am I. What changes is the plan for the day, and that gets sorted on the spot with your photographer and the venue. What doesn’t change is that I still won’t ask you to repeat anything.
Do you bring a second camera?
I always carry two bodies, even when I’m on my own. One of them is never used unless the other fails — that’s exactly what it’s there for.
A second operator is a different question. At most weddings I work alone, and that’s how I work best: one more person is always one more person to notice. When a wedding has the scale for it — a lot of guests, ceremony and party far apart, or things happening in parallel — I bring a second operator, and I always choose someone who works the way I do. We talk about it once you tell me how your day is going to run.
Will you work with our photographer?
Every week, and it’s how I like to work. A good part of my weddings come to me through photographers.
Tell me who it is and I’ll speak to him beforehand. We agree positions, who leads during the portraits, and when I turn a light on. It’s ten minutes of conversation that saves you a whole day of two crews tripping over each other — and you don’t have to manage any of it.
If you haven’t chosen yet, I can suggest people I’ve worked with. I earn nothing from it, and I always tell you I earn nothing from it.
How long do you keep the files from our wedding?
The original files are kept in two separate places for 12 months from the delivery of the final film. During that time, if you lose your copy, you only have to ask.
After that I keep the finished final film and teaser indefinitely, but I don’t guarantee the raw footage. If you want a copy of the original files to keep, tell me and we’ll arrange it — it’s cheaper to do at delivery than two years later.
I warn you before deleting anything.
Will you publish our wedding? Who owns the footage?
This is the question I most want to answer, so I’ll answer it at length.
I’ll ask you for permission, and you decide.
Let me start with my side of it: I need to show what I do. It’s how couples find me, and a wedding filmmaker with no visible work has no way of proving anything to anyone. So I ask, and I tell you what for — the site, the YouTube channel, Instagram.
Now your side of it, which is the side that decides. Nothing is published without your written permission. If you say no, it’s no: it doesn’t change the price, it doesn’t change how I film, and I won’t come back to it six months later trying to talk you round.
And it isn’t all or nothing. We agree what can go out and what can’t: some couples allow everything, some allow only shots without guests, some don’t want the speeches heard, some would rather their names didn’t appear. It goes in writing, and it’s what gets honoured.
There’s a third party worth knowing about. When the wedding comes to me through a photographer or a studio, there’s a second agreement — theirs, with you — and that has to allow it too. Sometimes I have a film I’m very fond of and can’t show because of that. It’s part of working well with colleagues, and I don’t argue about it.
Which is why what’s on the site and on the channel isn’t everything I’ve filmed, and never will be.
What has permission goes on my YouTube channel, at youtube.com/@arantesFilms. There’s more to watch there than here.
We’re shy in front of a camera. Is that a problem?
No. It’s probably the reason you’re reading this page.
I ask for little, but I don’t ask for nothing at all — it would be a lie to tell you that.
During getting-ready I film with a long lens from the other side of the room and ask for absolutely nothing. During the ceremony the cameras are on fixed positions and you don’t even need to know where they are. It’s during the portraits that I give some direction: walk back over there, hold still a moment longer, look at each other rather than at me. Simple things, and few of them, and the photographer is still the one running that hour.
What I’ll never ask is that you perform a feeling you aren’t having. There’s no “pretend to be moved” in my work — it wouldn’t work anyway, and it always shows.
Most shy couples tell me the same thing when they watch the film: they don’t remember me being there for those moments.
We have a date. When should we talk to you?
As soon as you have the date and the place. I film one wedding a day and summer dates go a long way ahead.
If the date is already taken, I’ll tell you straight away — I won’t put you on a waiting list or leave you hanging for an answer I already know.
How do we book, and how is it paid?
Write to me with the date and the place; I reply with availability and prices. If we go ahead, we arrange a conversation — in person if you’re nearby, on a call if not.
The date is held with a signed contract and a 25% deposit. Another 50% is paid in the week before the wedding, and the remaining 25% when the final films are delivered. I always issue an invoice.
Do you speak English? And Spanish?
English, yes, and with no difficulty. I’ve worked with couples who came from abroad to marry in Portugal, and everything runs in English from the first email to the delivery of the films — including the conversations with the venue and the celebrant, which I handle so you don’t have to.
Spanish is a different matter and I’d rather be straight about it. I understand everything and I write it without trouble, but speaking it I struggle a little. I’d rather tell you that here than have you find it out on the wedding day.