For photographers and studios

This page isn’t in the menu. It’s for people who already work in weddings and need video without having to manage one more problem on the day.

I’m Martinho. I work out of Barcelos and a significant share of my weddings comes from photographers who subcontract me or recommend me. If you’re here, it’s probably because the same thing has happened to you that happens to all of us: the client wants video, you don’t do video, and the last time you recommended someone it didn’t go well.

The client is yours

I put this first because it’s the first thing you think about, and rightly so.

When I come into a wedding through you, the relationship stays yours. I don’t leave a card, I don’t pitch, I don’t suggest my own services, and if the couple asks me directly about prices or availability for other work, I send them back to you. If they contact me later on their own initiative — which happens — I tell you before I reply.

I don’t use material from your weddings for promotion without your written permission and, where it applies, the couple’s. I need visible work to be found, but it is always your permission that decides — and a no from you changes nothing between us.

If you’d rather work on a pure subcontract basis, with delivery in your studio’s name and no sign of me anywhere, I’ll do that without any ego about it.

How I fit into your day

The principle is simple: the frame is yours.

I speak to you before the wedding — ten minutes is enough — to settle the three things that usually cause friction: positions at the entrance and during the ceremony, who leads during the portraits, and light.

During the ceremony I work with cameras on fixed positions at the points we agreed and I move as little as possible. I don’t cross the axis while you’re shooting and I don’t put myself in your reverse.

During the portraits the hour is yours. I film what happens around and between the poses, with a long lens, without directing the couple. If you need two minutes alone, I step away without you having to ask.

On light the commitment is clear: I don’t switch anything on that would wreck your exposure without telling you first. At night I use one small fixed source, placed where it doesn’t interfere with your flash, and I’ll do without it if you’d prefer.

With the drone I don’t fly over ceremonies or during your portrait session, unless we agree otherwise.

Reliability

I arrive early, with margin for traffic and for getting to know the place. I carry a duplicate of everything critical.

Two cameras, more than one sound system, spare batteries and cards. I copy the files the same day, to two separate destinations, before formatting anything.

I always issue an invoice.

I only take one wedding a day. If I’m booked, I say I’m booked — I don’t hand your job to a third party without telling you.

Equipment

Here it’s worth being specific, because you know the subject.

Bodies: Panasonic S5 II (main) and Fujifilm XH2S (second camera and telephoto). Two bodies at all times, never just one.

Lenses: Panasonic, Tamron, Viltrox and Sigma, from wide to telephoto. Most of the getting-ready and the ceremony is shot on a long lens, precisely in order to work from a distance.

Light: Aputure HL 672s and Amaran panels. Used as little as possible and always on a fixed position.

Sound: Rode microphones and Tascam recorders. It’s the part of the kit I weight most — several points recording at once, with redundancy, and standalone recorders that don’t depend on my being nearby. If you tend to deliver video with weak ceremony sound to your clients, this is where the difference shows.

Drone: DJI Mini 4 Pro.

Deliveries and deadlines

Teaser in 72 hours after the wedding, around one minute. Firm deadline, and it’s what usually settles the client’s impatience in the week that follows.

Highlights as a paid option, within the same delivery: around four minutes, a middle version between the teaser and the final film. It isn’t in the base package — if your client wants it, it goes into the quote separately.

Final film in 60 to 90 days, depending on the season, running between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the scale of the wedding. I quote the real deadline and not the pretty one — I’d rather you counted on ninety days and received it at seventy.

Documentary film as an optional extra: barely edited on purpose, longer stretches of the ceremony and the party with the original audio kept. It’s a serious differentiator to put to your client and most competitors don’t offer it.

I deliver in the formats and through the channels you prefer, and under whichever brand you prefer — mine, yours, or none.

Rates

I keep a partner rate card, separate from the direct-client one. I send it on request.

The difference isn’t goodwill. Work that reaches me through you carries less commercial risk: there was no pitching, I’m not the one managing expectations with the couple, and the trust was already built by you. I charge that risk to people who hire me directly — not to you.

Ask for the partner rates on WhatsApp or by email.

What the photographers I work with say

Talk to me

Send me the dates you have open, even if they’re for next year.

WhatsApp — +351 969 527 654
Email — geral@arantesfilms.pt

Rua Termas do Eirogo, Nº 258
4750-461 Galegos Santa Maria, Barcelos, Portugal