Wedding films in Portsmouth.
One in-house team covers both the photos and the film. Hayden films your Portsmouth day while Aaron shoots stills alongside, so the vows, the speeches and the whole sound of a waterfront wedding come home with you, not just the pictures.
A film records the sound too.
A photograph of the two of you with the Solent behind is a lovely thing to have on the wall. It cannot give you back the sound. It will not have the gulls over the harbour, the sound of the vows, or the laughter in the room during the best man’s speech. A film has all of that. That is the whole reason to book one, because you get the sound as well as the pictures.
We are Robinson Martin Green, based at Mudberry Lane near Chichester, and Portsmouth sits about 18 miles down the A27, half an hour along the coast and well inside the area we cover. The films are led by Hayden Martin-Green, who shoots and cuts them, with Aaron Robinson on stills working the same day beside him. We should be straight with you from the start. We cover Portsmouth but we have not filmed a wedding in the city itself yet, so we will not invent a Portsmouth couple to fill this page. What we do have are full wedding films from days a short drive away, made by the two people who would come and film yours.
Portsmouth films unlike anywhere else we cover, because it is a working waterfront city rather than a country estate. The light here comes off the water and the sky is enormous, so a couple on a harbour terrace or the seafront gives you a wide, moving shot with the Solent and the Isle of Wight ferries turning behind them. Sound is the thing to plan for. Wind off the water and the noise of a live harbour are real, and they are exactly why we mic the ceremony properly rather than trusting a camera to catch a vow across an open terrace. Handled right, the sea and the city sit in the film as atmosphere under the words, which is what makes a Portsmouth film feel like Portsmouth and nowhere else.
Why we would say book the film.
Most couples plan the photographs first and leave the film as the thing they might add later. Then the day passes in a blur, the speeches happen once, the first dance happens once, and there is no way to go back and record any of it again. Stills freeze how it looked. Only a film records the movement and the sound, from the vows and the rings to the speeches. It is the one part of the day you cannot make again afterwards, so it is worth deciding on before the day rather than after.
The parts of the day we film.
A Portsmouth wedding film has several looks in it, and a waterfront day gives you all of them. In the morning we film the getting ready, the details and the last few minutes before the ceremony. The middle of the day is the vows, whether that is inside the stone of the Square Tower or a room looking out over the harbour, the part where we work hardest on the sound. The evening is when the coast looks best on film. As the light drops over the Solent and turns the water gold, a couple stepping out onto a terrace or the seafront gives you the evening shots for the film.
The reception films differently again. First dances, speeches and the noise of a full room need the sound as much as the picture, so we keep recording the room while we film it, and the finished piece carries the laugh through the best man’s speech and the first bars of your first dance as they actually sounded, not a track dropped over the top.
Weddings we have covered close by.
To show you our work, here are a few of our real weddings a short drive from Portsmouth. Susan and Luke at Edes House in Chichester, and Adam and Panha at Fitzleroi Barn near Pulborough. Click through to see how each day came together.
How your Portsmouth day gets filmed.
Because Hayden films while Aaron photographs, there is one team, one plan and one point of contact rather than two suppliers meeting for the first time at your ceremony. That matters more on film than it does on stills. A videographer who has never met your photographer ends up in half their shots and competing for the aisle during the vows, and you are the one caught in the middle asking two strangers to sort it out. We have already agreed who stands where before you walk in, so the camera can hold on you without a second shooter drifting into frame.
Hayden films the ceremony on 2 cameras, one held on the couple and one wider on the room, so a missed reaction on one angle is caught on the other and the vows are never lost to a blocked shot. A waterfront venue like the Spinnaker Tower or a berth in the Historic Dockyard often has tight access, one lift or one gangway, and a lot of public around it, so we walk it first and work out in advance where the cameras sit without blocking your guests, where the sound is cleanest away from the wind, where the light will be at your ceremony hour, and whether a drone can fly at all near the harbour. Nothing gets staged twice for the two cameras. You are filmed and photographed at the same time, then handed back to your guests.
How the Portsmouth venues look and sound on film.
Real venues in and around the city, each seen the way a filmmaker reads a room: where the movement is, where the light lands off the water, and where a voice carries against the wind. We walk any of them ahead of your day so the first time we film there is not on the day itself.
Portsmouth and the Solent coast, on film
- The Spinnaker Tower on Gunwharf Quays, 170 metres over the harbour mouth. It films with genuine drama, the whole Solent turning below the glass and the light changing minute by minute, and the enclosed viewing decks hold the vows out of the wind so the ceremony records clean while the view does the work behind you.
- Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where Boathouse 4 and the 1860 warship HMS Warrior sit among the working naval heritage. Iron, timber and rigging give the film texture nothing modern can, and a below-deck or boathouse ceremony keeps the sound contained before the quayside opens out for the wider evening shots.
- Southsea Castle, one of Henry VIII’s Tudor coastal forts right on the seafront. The old stone and the ramparts film with real character, the sea is your backdrop for the portraits, and the walls give some shelter for the ceremony sound on an exposed stretch of coast.
- The Square Tower at the Point in Old Portsmouth, built in 1494 and one of the oldest buildings in the city. Its bare stone room holds a voice close and warm on the recording, and stepping straight out onto the seafront and the harbour entrance gives you the wide coastal film the moment the ceremony ends.
- The Queens Hotel on Southsea Common, the Edwardian landmark with long views over the Common and the Solent. The grand rooms and the glittering ceremony room film with scale and the light off the sea fills the reception, giving a city-hotel day the movement a plainer room cannot.
When your film arrives.
The edit is where a wedding film is actually made, and it is worth knowing what happens after the day. We work through the footage and the recorded sound, choose the moments, and cut your wedding film for a Portsmouth day, usually within 8 to 10 weeks. It lands in your private Wedding Hub, the same place your photographs are delivered, so the film and the gallery sit together in one spot. Silver and Gold add a short teaser, which lands first so you have something to share while the edit goes on. Because both your film and your photographs come from us, there is one delivery, one login, and one team to talk to if you want a change.
Tell us what to film in the Wedding Hub.
Before the day, let us know the moments you want on film.
- Film moments requestedList the speeches, readings and people you want filmed, so Hayden knows to get them.
- One plan with the photosFilm and photography share one timeline, so Aaron and Hayden stay out of each other's way.
- Delivered with your galleryYour film arrives in the same private place as your photographs.
Questions from Portsmouth couples booking a film.
Our ceremony is on the seafront or the harbour. Won’t the wind ruin the sound on the film?
Wind is the one thing that catches couples out on a coastal film, and it is exactly why you mic properly rather than trusting the camera. On an exposed spot like the Square Tower at the Point or a terrace on the harbour, we put a wind-shielded radio mic on the groom and one on the officiant, and a separate recorder near the readers, so the vows and readings record clean even with a breeze off the Solent. We would rather carry the sound on three small mics you never notice than lose your vows to a gust. The wind and the water then sit in the film as atmosphere, under the words, never over them.
How long is the wedding film for a Portsmouth day, and do we get a teaser?
There is one edited wedding film per couple, and every collection includes it. The length is set by the day, and Adam and Panha’s film runs to 5 minutes 57. Silver and Gold add the speeches recorded in full in the film and a short teaser to share early. The teaser reaches you first, and the film arrives in your private Wedding Hub, usually within 8 to 10 weeks of the day.
Can we have drone footage over the harbour, or a short reel for social?
Over open water and a working naval harbour, drone is not a given, and that is a good thing to know early. The airspace around Portsmouth Harbour and the dockyard is controlled, and much of the seafront sits under flight restrictions, so we check what is permitted for your exact venue and date rather than promising a shot we cannot fly. Where it is allowed, the Solent and the coastline give you a genuinely cinematic aerial. Where it is not, we get the scale from the ground and the high terraces instead. We can also cut a short vertical teaser, around 60 seconds, for Instagram and TikTok, so you have something to share while the full film is still in the edit.
Can we book the film on its own, or does it have to come with photography?
Film can be booked on its own if you already have a photographer, and it works because we plan around whoever else is covering the day. Most couples book both with us so one in-house team runs the whole thing on one plan, which is the setup we would recommend for a busy waterfront venue with tight access, but the film does not depend on it.
Our films and nearby areas.
We have not filmed in Portsmouth yet, so here are real films and the days behind them, a short drive away. If you are weighing up nearby areas, the rest is one click away.
Tell us your date and venue.
Tell us your date and your Portsmouth venue and one of us will reply personally, normally inside a day, or call us on 07928 549702. We will let you know at once whether the date is free to film.