The Art of Capturing the Moment: the Path To Success of the Fabulous Wedding Videographer Sergei Checha

Everyone has their own path to success and there is no single way to succeed in your career. That is why it’s so interesting to learn how someone managed to achieve significant success, as it helps to expand your own horizons and see more opportunities around you.

We had a conversation with a famous wedding videographer Sergei Checha about his unusual professional growth and unique author’s vision. He has been conducting more than 300 wedding shoots during more than 10 years of his professional work, and a part of them can be seen on the official website. 

Sergei started his career as a wedding videographer in a small town in Belarus, where he comes from. Today he is an ambassador for Panasonic Lumix, a winner of many competitions, he conducts master classes on wedding videos, and also continues his successful practice. But for all this to happen, Sergei had to go through a difficult path.

How Can One Get into the Industry

As a rule, wedding videography is the speciality of filmmakers who have already trained themselves in other genres. Such professionals already have a certain level of experience working for a local TV channel or as a freelance videographer. In the case of Sergei, he started filming after working for several years as a video editor for other wedding videographers. Watching the same type of footage over and over again, he realized that he could present the story in a much more interesting way and film it in a better way.

Like it happens to many newcomers, in the beginning he had to work at ordinary wedding events. But thanks to Sergei’s way of developing his own vision over many years of editing experience, he already knew what kind of shots he wanted to get and how to make each wedding film interesting. Thanks to living to the maximum and giving his all energy on every shooting session, he was able to gain fame in his city within a short period of time and make the number of clients grow more and more.

Of course, he had to deal with many challenges. A large number of orders with similar customer requests used to lead him to burnout. A change in the working atmosphere helped him cope with this problem. That’s when the first destination wedding happened in Thailand. The shooting turned out to be so unusual and different from what Sergei used to do in his hometown, so that it gave him a completely new boost of inspiration and a strong desire to grow in this direction. Gradually, Sergei took a leading position in the profession in his country. Large wedding agencies have become interested in cooperating with him. All this permitted him to shoot more creative, authentic works, as well as diversify his portfolio and significantly increase his price list.

As soon as Sergei felt that he was outgrowing the local level, he started to take part in various international competitions, where later he became a prize-winner. Among them are the following: WEVA Award 2017, Golden Lens Awards 2018 (International Videographer of the Year; Most Awarded of the Year Films), IGHAwards 2019 (Best Wedding Filmmaker), Nomination Love Stories TV Wedding Film Awards 2023 (Best Cinematography and Best Destination Wedding categories). Thanks to such victories in numerous competitions, he became internationally recognized. Sergei becomes a brand ambassador for Panasonic Lumix. He is invited as a speaker to various forums and conferences related to wedding videos. Sergei trains other videographers in individual and group master classes, and is also invited as a judge at many national and international wedding video competitions.

At the same time, a long-time wish comes true. Sergei shoots more and more destination weddings and starts working all over the world (Italy, Mexico, Thailand, Belgium, Germany, France, etc.)

All this became possible thanks to his hard work, perseverance, and constant self-development.

What Is the Secret of Success

Each master has his own approach to work, his own recognizable style and aesthetics, but there is also something in common. According to Sergei’s opinion, first of all, a beginner videographer has to build a foundation: film composition, knowledge of colorgraiding, shooting, and editing. It is also important to develop observation, visual and aesthetic taste. Over time, this will help you develop your own style, as well as filter out everything unnecessary.

For example, various fashionable, modern trends can be classified as unnecessary. Today, everything is changing so fast that such works quickly lose their relevance, and after a few years they look a bit ridiculous.

That is why, in his work Sergei strives for sincerity and lively emotions. He prefers to shoot in a documentary style, but with a perfect cinematic presentation. Sergei believes that the success of wedding videography depends on the author’s ability to feel the moment and highlight the most important and exciting moments during the wedding day. Sergei takes each of his events very emotionally, passing them through his own perception. This is what captivates his clients and everyone who watches his work.

The goal of Sergei’s work is to help people memorize an important day of their life, while doing it with the highest quality possible. This is not just an ordinary video, it is a short film about the birth of a new family. Therefore, each of his works is different from the previous one. Every work masterfully conveys the unique characteristics of the couple.

Further Growth

One of the principles of Sergei’s work is constant self-development and self-improvement. His closest plans for the future include expanding the geography and working in new countries. Today he is developing his own brand, Checha.Wedding.Movies, and continues to film weddings all around the world, learn and share his knowledge with others.