Chicago Wedding Videographers Anna & Artem
We are Anna and Artem, a married couple who film weddings in Chicago together.
That is not a detail we mention for charm. It is the reason our films look the way they do. There are two of us on every wedding day, we have worked side by side since 2014, and we do not need to communicate on set because we already know where the other one is standing.
We take five to seven weddings a year. We used to shoot thirty or more a year. Scaling down was the point. That is a deliberate limit, not a scheduling accident. It is what lets us spend the weeks after your wedding actually building your film instead of moving on to the next one.
What two filmmakers actually changes
Most studios sell “a second shooter” as an upgrade. For us it is the whole premise.
When your father sees you in your dress for the first time, one of us is on his face and the other is on yours. During the ceremony, one camera holds the wide and the other is close enough to catch your hands shaking. At the reception, we are not choosing between the toast and your grandmother’s reaction to it.
You cannot fix that in the edit. You either had two people in the room or you did not.
It also means you spend your day with two people you have already met, rather than a lead videographer and a stranger who was hired last month.
The rooms we already know
We have filmed at most of Chicago’s landmark venues, many of them repeatedly:
Hotels: The Peninsula Chicago, The Ritz-Carlton, The Langham, The Drake, LondonHouse, InterContinental, The Blackstone, Thompson Chicago, Kimpton Gray, Millennium Knickerbocker
Churches and chapels: Saint James Chapel, Holy Name Cathedral, Fourth Presbyterian, Old St. Patrick’s, St. Michael’s in Old Town, Saint Clement, Church of the Holy Family, St. Mary of the Angels, St. Hyacinth Basilica
Museums and landmarks: The Art Institute of Chicago, Adler Planetarium, Chicago History Museum, Lyric Opera, Chicago Cultural Center, Harold Washington Library, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Clubs and estates: University Club of Chicago, Union League Club, Chicago Athletic Association, Glen View Club, Lake Shore Country Club, Medinah Country Club, The Club at Wynstone, The Armour House, Deer Path Inn
Lofts and industrial: Morgan Manufacturing, Salvage One, Old Post Office, Ravenswood Event Center, Bridgeport Art Center, Loft Lucia, Chicago Illuminating Company
Knowing a venue is not a marketing line. It means we know the Peninsula’s ballroom light at four o’clock in October, which stairwell at the University Club gives you a clean exit shot, and where at Saint James Chapel you can stand without ending up in your photographer’s frame.
How we work
- Two filmmakers, every wedding. Never a lead and an assistant. Two people who shoot at the same level.
- Up to eleven hours of continuous coverage. From getting ready through the last dance, without a clock running in the background.
- A teaser within 48 hours. A short vertical edit in your hands before your honeymoon, while everyone is still talking about the day.
- Cinema cameras, real audio, licensed drone pilots. Your vows are recorded from a microphone at the altar, not from a camera thirty feet away. Aerials where the venue and airspace allow them.
- Filmed in 4K, with 8K available. Your film will still hold up on whatever you are watching it on in twenty years.
- A highlight film of nine to fourteen minutes. Longer than the industry’s three-minute standard, because three minutes is a trailer, not a film.
- And, if you want it, the whole day. We also produce feature-length documentary films of sixty to one hundred fifty minutes: the full ceremony, every toast, the parts that do not fit in a highlight reel. Couples tell us this is the film they actually rewatch on anniversaries.
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By the numbers
- More than 200weddings filmed
- 79 five-star reviews
- Five to seven weddings a year
- Two filmmakers on every one
- Since 2014 in Chicago
Anna
Anna founded 312FILMS and leads the camera and the edit. She trained in Europe before we moved to Chicago, and she is the one who decides what your film is actually about, usually by the end of the ceremony.
Couples describe her the same way over and over: they did not notice she was there, and then they saw the footage.
Artem
Artem produces, shoots the second camera, and flies the drone. He handles the logistics that make a wedding day filmable: the timeline conversations with your planner, the coordination with your photographer, the plan for when the ceremony runs twenty minutes late.
Where we film
Chicago and the suburbs, the North Shore, and the western suburbs. We also travel regularly: Milwaukee, Lake Geneva, southwest Michigan, northern Indiana, and further when couples ask.
We take five to seven weddings a year, and dates go early.
Tell us your date and venue and we will let you know the same business day.