Wedding Video Clients

Posted on February 6, 2012 by videoadmin

There are lots and lots of brides getting married.  In our area of approximately one million people there were 59,000 wedding certificates issued through the county last year.  The last numbers I saw indicated that about 20% of brides hire a professional wedding videographer to film a wedding video.  That means over 11,000 brides in our area are looking to get a professional to capture her wedding day.

11,000 that is alot.  Might be more, might be less in your area.  Obviously if you are from a larger urban area there will be more weddings then someone out in the country.  Of course that also means more wedding video businesses trying to capture the same clients if in the big city.  I would say in our area that competition isn’t terribly fierce.  I have many friends in the industry (especially wedding photographers) and I don’t really know anyone that is really mean and nasty to fellow videographers.  There might be, just not in my circle.  :-)

59,000 brides, that is plenty to choose from.  Notice I said “choose”.  There are so many types of brides.  Many are on a tight budget, some are not.  Which type of bride do you want to work for.  Personally I would recommend against trying to go after the very low end crowd.  Yes as hard as this might be to imagine there is a group of brides that believe they should be able to find a quality wedding videographer with years of experience that will work for them for 12 hours on their wedding day, provide full editing, including Blu Ray and only pay $200 – $300 for it.  I know because I have had them on the phone with me.  Here is a sample phone conversation recently with a bride:  Bride “how much do you charge”?  Me – “We have a starting package just under $1,000 that includes a few hours of our time on your wedding day”.  Bride – “Oh really well I just talked to xyz video company, they were booked but told me that I should be able to find someone that could come and work all day and edit for a few hundred dollars”.  Me – “Well then have a fun wedding day, call me back if you find some additional money in your budget”.  CLICK.  I will never hear from her again.  Maybe I was a little harsh, but would they offer their brain surgeon a few hundred dollars if they were about to have a once in a lifetime surgical procedure done on their brain?

Of course my example of the brain surgeon may be a little much, but we are providing a once in a lifetime service (ok honestly I do have a few repeat clients that I have filmed 2 or even 3 weddings for) that they can’t repeat or do over.  We have to get it right the first time.  So, try and avoid the lowest end brides.  I personally don’t go after the top end brides.  I find them too time consuming.  They want to come watch a demo, then they want to bring their mom to watch a different time.  Then they want you there all day.  Then they want to watch you edit, etc., etc., etct.  No thanks.  My favorite are the middle of the road spenders.  They are spending between $1,500 – to $3,000 on their wedding video.  I feel like I have worked an honest day for them at about 6 – 8 hours and made between $1,500 – $3,000 for the day.  I like the wage and I like the amount of time I spend with them.

Try and find the type of bride you are most comfortable with and tailor your packages and prices around that.

Don’t forget to look nice at the weddings.  I will cover that in a future post.

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Wedding Video Contracts

Posted on January 31, 2012 by videoadmin

Now you have done a few weddings but realize that it is time to start to protect yourself and your new fledgling company.  A wedding video contract is the solution for your new wedding video business.  You should also be considering what is an appropriate way to structure payments from the wedding couple including the deposit.

For our wedding video clients we do a two step approach on the payments.  They need to sign our contract along with making a deposit of a few hundred dollars.  I try to keep the amount fairly small so that it is easy on their budget at the time.  I also allow them to make payments to me during the time up to the wedding if they would like.  However, the balance is due in full at least 7 days in advance of the wedding date.  Most brides follow that approach and pay the deposit and then the final payment in one lump sum about a week before the wedding.  I actually don’t like it when the wedding is a year out and they pay the balance in full.  Of course the money gets used in the course of the business and then when the wedding rolls around it feels like I am working for free.  Of course I’m not but it just feels that way.

Imagine you met with a bride and groom and they agreed to hire you.  They gave you a deposit and then paid you about a week in advance of the wedding.  The day of the wedding is finally here.  On the way to the wedding you get in a small car accident. You appear to be fine but your car is not working and its a good distance to the wedding.  You end up finally getting to the wedding but you are 2 hours late.   You miss the whole ceremony.  The bride is in tears, you have ruined her wedding.  She doesn’t say much to you because she is too upset.  You do the best you can and finish the wedding.  A few weeks later you finish the video and send it off.  A few weeks after that you get a summons to appear in small claims court as she is suing you for the entire amount.  You are scared.  You quite possibly will need to refund the entire amount to her.  You don’t have the money and you still worked hard for a good portion of the day.

You attend the small claims hearing.  The judge a former bride herself sides with the bride and grants a full refund to her.  This could have been avoided.  Here is some of what to include in a wedding video contract:

Its an agreement between you and whoever is paying for the wedding video.  You agree to show up on a certain day at a certain time at a certain location.  Bride needs to pay a deposit and the final balance at least a week in advance of the wedding.  Bride agrees that deposit is non refundable if wedding is called off (you will be surprised how often this happens).  Bride will pay you xxx amount if her payment doesn’t clear the bank.  Bride agrees to hold you with no fault if something happens to you, your car, your equipment, etc on the way to the wedding.  If your equipment get stolen at the wedding, its not your fault.  If something is wrong with a portion of the video a refund is prorated as determined by you as to how much footage is lost.  You have a release from her to use any and all footage in whatever promotional materials you would like to for studio promotion.  There is so much more and I will try and cover it in a future post.  But bottom line, get a contract from each bride.

 

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Crazy Wedding Video Stories

Posted on January 25, 2012 by videoadmin

I have been to thousands of weddings.  I have some crazy, funny and sad stories that could be told about weddings.  There are so many I could write a book about wedding videos.  Like “Confessions of a Wedding Videographer” or something like that.

You to after many years will see some pretty amazing and fun things.  Recently at a wedding the bride and groom had a custom swing built to hang from the ceiling to hold their wedding cake.  I know what you’re thinking.  Did the swing fail.  Nope the swing held tight all night including when they were cutting the wedding cake.  That was fun to capture on their wedding video.

A number of years ago I filmed a wedding in Palm Springs.  Now I don’t have really crazy high dollar brides but this was a nice wedding.  At the end of the wedding we all went outside to wait for the limo to pull up.  A few minutes pass and then two Ford Explorer’s pull up the driveway at the resort.  Out jumps the mom and dad of the bride from the vehicles.  They were giving his and hers brand new Ford Explorer’s as a wedding gift to the new couple.  I was pretty amazed and the couple was in tears.  The family had a little money but not like Donald Trump type money.  Especially after throwing a pretty lavish wedding those gifts were impressive.

Another night there was a bride whose mother had told me that they had spent more than $10,000 on the dress.  That to me seems like alot of money to spend on a dress.  At the end of the night the bride had a little too much to drink.  I’m sure you know the rest of this story.  Yes you’re right she jumped in the pool in her wedding gown.  The groomsmen jumped in as well.  The mother of the bride was in tears.  As you can imagine the father wasn’t so happy either.

Then there was the time that I filmed a wedding for a couple both in wheelchairs.  That isn’t really the amazing part.  The amazing part was that they met because they had both an accident the same day that left them both in wheelchairs.  They met in the hospital during recovery.

I could go on and on with stories but you will have your own as you start your own wedding video business.

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Getting Ready for A Wedding Expo

Posted on January 23, 2012 by videoadmin

OK so its wedding expo time around the country. Spring time always brings the wedding shows in to town.

If you don’t know, a wedding expo is where an event company puts on a show. In this show wedding vendors come together typically
on a Saturday and Sunday and set up a booth or booths. In these booths the vendors will display their work. Now I haven’t
needed to go to a wedding expo since 1995 as I am working strictly off of referrals at this point.

There will be a huge variety of vendors there. Two great things will happen for you at the show.
1. You will meet with lots of potential brides
2. You will meet lots of other vendors in the wedding business.

Meeting with potential brides will be an obvious source of new work for you. In your booth you absolutely need to showcase your
work. Get the nicest, largest plasma or LCD tv you can. Get some way to place the TV up so that the bottom of the screen is at least
5 feet above the ground. You need the TV to be up as high as possible so when it gets crowded people walking by in the back
will be able to see your work. You should of course be playing a hi def video of some sort. Like an HD file off a laptop or
a blu ray from a blu ray player. The demo you are showing should be approximately 10 minutes in length and be set to
loop over and over again so you won’t have to constantly be stopping what you are doing and pushing play again. Near
the front of your booth you should have a 6′ table set up that you stand behind or to the side of. On this table needs to be material
that you hand out. Promotional brochures and business cards. Want to attract a crowd? Have a drawing for a free wedding video.
Brides will need to fill out a form at your table to be entered in the drawing. This will give you their names, addresses, email addresses,
phone numbers and wedding date. Getting this information of course will be wonderful for a follow up mailing after the show. Dress nice
but casual. There is hardly any bride that will want to see you wearing a tuxedo at the show or at their wedding. In 19 years I remember
only one wedding where it was a very strict black tie event, and the bride was really a pain to work with.

Meeting other vendors in the business will be great for your business. Lets face it when you are starting your wedding video business
you probably won’t know many people in the industry. Now you do. Most of the time the videographer is one of the last vendors a bride
hires for her wedding day. This puts you in a unique position to be able to receive referrals from your new found friends you met at the
wedding show. Good luck.

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The Wow Factor

Posted on January 21, 2012 by videoadmin

The big question on my mind today is:  How do you show your work to potential brides.

OK so you have a few jobs under your belt that you filmed for free or a greatly reduced rate :-)

You’ve got your website up and running.  Yes that will probably be the most important part of selling yourself.  When I first started there was no internet like today.  Being able to show your work 24 hours a day on the internet is incredible.  So back in the day I had to get a VHS (yes good old VHS tapes) and drive to a potential brides home.  We would sit down in her living room hopefully but rarely with the soon to be groom and pop in the tape.  Usually in my opinion the videos looked terrible.  I never knew what kind of junky old TV and VCR they were going to have.  Somehow I booked jobs.  Go figure.

A few years later I got my first studio and DVD’s finally came into play.  Plasma’s and LCD’s weren’t out yet but what a huge improvement to invite a bride to my office sit down in the front room on a couch (I borrowed it from a photographer friend at the time) and watch a “DVD”.  It was such a new idea to the brides and grooms.  I seriously booked almost 100% of everyone that walked in the door.  It was incredible.  A fews later I got my first plasma and the wow factor again sold the jobs for me.  Then to HD video on the plasma and again the wow factor sold it.  Then the economy went south and when my lease was up I moved the office back to the house.

So now I am in the same situation as when first starting.  I went to some brides homes last year with standard DVD in hand (blu ray just in case) and started watching demos again in brides homes.  It was dreadful.  Most have junky plasmas and when trying to watch a standard DVD it looks like garbage.  I think one in 50 had a blu ray player so we could actually watch some decent footage.  There had to be a better way.

There is.  Enter the Ipad and similar.  I have stopped meeting in their homes and now meet at Starbucks, etc.  Bring the Ipad and the wow factor sells it all over again.  If you don’t have an Ipad or similar I highly recommend getting one ASAP.  Put your work on it from your Canon 7D or similar and let the wow factor sell for you.

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Canon 7D Review

Posted on January 20, 2012 by videoadmin

Wow what can I say more about this camera.  I bought the Canon 7D a little over two years ago.  It was a game changer in my opinion for image quality and color.

I had honestly gotten bored of watching my own wedding videos.  Filmed on a nice Sony HD video camera.  The images were great but didn’t have much of a wow factor.  I remember the first time I got home with Canon 7D footage.  I watched it over and over again.  The color, the saturation the quality.  I was impressed.  I started putting clips back on youtube again.  Comments I started to get at weddings and on youtube were great.

I paired up the camera with a 70-200 2.8 IS lens I already had and wow.  This camera will allow you to get in tight spots and with that large lens you can really stand back during the ceremony and zoom right in.  I get people all the time that ask me about the camera at weddings.  People are very impressed by the final video.

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First a few key steps

Posted on January 19, 2012 by videoadmin

First a few key steps to get started:

Obviously one of the first steps is to choose a business name and get your business license and bank account set up.

A website will be a must in today’s market.  When I first started the internet hadn’t really caught hold yet.  I had a simple AOL dial up account.  That noise everytime it connected still makes me laugh.  On your website you should create a package list that includes the price of your services and what is included in each package.

Start low in your pricing, but don’t remain there for long.  You deserve to get paid for your work plus other local videography companies will not be pleased with your undercutting them all the time.  You will over time want to build a relationship with the other companies.  This will benefit both of you by being able to send work back and forth to each other.  One day you might have a new bride call for a date you already have booked.  Wouldn’t it be nice to pass that referral on to another video friend of yours.  In return hopefully they will do the same for you.

Create printed fliers or brochures with the same information from your website as well as your contact information and website link.  Have business cards made at a printer and hand them out to brides and other potential clients.

One of the fastest ways to meet brides is to participate in a wedding expo. These are held year round in many locations around the country.  Look online or check with your chamber of commerce for information on upcoming expos. Set up your booth with demo reels, your marketing materials and a TV so  you can have your video showing the entire time. This is a great way to meet engaged couples and book potential clients.  At some shows I have attended I have been overwhelmed with the response on the day of the show but then only booked 2 or 3.  Be prepared to hand out alot of material.  Remember your competitors are there as well competing for the same brides.  Dress professionally as you would when you attend a wedding.

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Working with Customers

Posted on January 18, 2012 by videoadmin

A few months back I worked with a bride that I knew had 2 other sisters.  The bride told me she was having a full church wedding (ouch like more than an hour long) and then off to a full reception afterwards.  My wedding video packages are 5 hours, 6 hours and 7 hours in length.  The most popular package I sell around 90% of the time is the 6 hour package.  Now, I knew from past experience that anytime a bride is having a full church wedding then driving to another location for her reception that they will always go over 6 hours.  I love it because that means overtime.

I was interested in working with her other two sisters at some point.  I knew they were both of marrying age.  I decided to offer the first bride a free extra hour ($250 value) to help with the long day.  Now what this did is put me into a very friendly position with the bride.  The wedding came and went, she got her free hour but there was an additional 1/2 hour (made an extra $125).

I finished the video a few weeks ago and sent it off.  The groom actually called me and said they loved it.  Then the mother of the bride about a week ago just called to book in daughter number two for her wedding in May of this year.  Then yesterday mother of the bride calls again to let me know that daughter number three is now getting married as well.  Of course I am giving both new brides a free hour each.  So the moral of the story is a free hour for bride number one now equals two additional weddings.  One this year in 2012 and one next April 2013.

Always be willing to work a small deal if there is a chance for future business.  I will be their families videographer for life now.

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A Happy Bride

Posted on January 17, 2012 by videoadmin

One of the things I realized right away was that you will not be able to please every bride every time.  About once a year I get a bride that for whatever reason is really tough to work with.  Maybe the couple is already having relationship problems even before the wedding, who knows.  The best advice I would have to you is smile and be nice.  I am in a position now after many years that if I get a potential bride on the phone and my spidey sense starts going off I let her know that I am already booked on her day.  For me it is better to walk away from one like that in advance then deal with the headache later.  She will want to make 25 changes after I am done.  By the way I rarely make changes.  I have a part in my contract about me retaining all “creative rights and decisions during the editing process”.  I will talk about wedding video contracts in a future post.

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Wedding Video Samples

Posted on January 16, 2012 by videoadmin

Today I wanted to post a few links to some wedding videos that are great examples of what you should be thinking about.

You can see two different styles by clicking on those youtube links.  They are both really good examples of wedding videos.

 

 

 

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