Help Request: Teaching Wedding Videography

[Corey Graham]

Hello all,

I'm in the middle of developing an online course to teach wedding videography (don't worry, it's not for Udemy). It will cover the aspects of starting a business, getting clients, choosing equipment, choosing style, planning, shooting, editing, and delivery. The target audience will be those at least somewhat familiar with video production, but don't know what steps to take to get the ball rolling and begin to make money.

I'm curious as to whether anyone here has ever taken an online wedding videography course, and what your thoughts were about it. What did you like? What was it lacking? Was it worth your time/money?

I'm also curious if there's anyone here who would be interested in taking a course like this. What would be your expectations? What sorts of questions would you hope the course could answer for you?

Thank you in advance for your help! I'll keep you posted of my progress.

[Charles Newcomb]

I Googled "online wedding video courses" and a bunch of them popped up.

[Arthur Gannis]

That's a swell idea. With a shortage of talented videographers and a huge supply of brides out there itching to book, it becomes a very lucrative moneymaker, especially with an online course that covers ALL aspects of the trade. That's exactly what we all need, more videographers.

[Corey Graham]

Originally Posted by Charles Newcomb

I Googled "online wedding video courses" and a bunch of them popped up.

Thank you for helping research. Believe me, I've spent dozens of hours researching competition, and it's actually a good thing to see.

Originally Posted by Arthur Gannis

That's a swell idea. With a shortage of talented videographers and a huge supply of brides out there itching to book, it becomes a very lucrative moneymaker, especially with an online course that covers ALL aspects of the trade. That's exactly what we all need, more videographers.

Thank you for your vote of confidence. I intend to instruct potential videographers, hopefully increasing the perceived value of what we do. I'm continuing my own wedding videography business, which keeps growing every year, and am in no way afraid of competition. Bring it on, haha.

[Noa Put]

I wished there was a videocourse directed to Belgian videographers 10 years ago when I started out, I had to learn it all the hard way. I also bought a Ray Roman workshop a while back, just out of curiosity to see what is behind his success and while most stuff he covers is nothing new to me it did bring up an important point which is branding, perception and marketing. I have seen videographers that deliver better work then Ray yet he is able to charge a lot more for it.

You can teach people how to shoot, what equipment to use but it is how they sell themselves that makes the difference, I'm not sure in which category the group you are aiming for falls in but it sounds more like weekend warriors if they are "somewhat familiar with video production". In their case I think that as long as you cover all basics that should be fine.

[Corey Graham]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I wished there was a videocourse directed to Belgian videographers 10 years ago when I started out, I had to learn it all the hard way. I also bought a Ray Roman workshop a while back, just out of curiosity to see what is behind his success and while most stuff he covers is nothing new to me it did bring up an important point which is branding, perception and marketing. I have seen videographers that deliver better work then Ray yet he is able to charge a lot more for it.

You can teach people how to shoot, what equipment to use but it is how they sell themselves that makes the difference, I'm not sure in which category the group you are aiming for falls in but it sounds more like weekend warriors if they are "somewhat familiar with video production". In their case I think that as long as you cover all basics that should be fine.

Thank you Noa. To further clarify my target audience: it would be younger people (in college, just out of college) who want to break into wedding videography, and know how to operate a camera, know some basic editing, and things like that.

I appreciate what you said about branding, perception, and marketing. I will incorporate that into the business aspect of the course.

I'm grateful for your thoughts!

[Peter Rush]

There's even more to it than that - I would certainly meeting with couples for the first time, getting your planning/timings right on the day, dealing with other vendors on the day, all that 'soft' stuff that I learned the hard way!

[Steven Davis]

Make it a phone app.

[Corey Graham]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

There's even more to it than that - I would certainly meeting with couples for the first time, getting your planning/timings right on the day, dealing with other vendors on the day, all that 'soft' stuff that I learned the hard way!

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

Make it a phone app.

Thank you Peter and Steven! This is very helpful.

Peter: you're absolutely right -- there are things like this that I wouldn't necessarily think of to teach that many of us learned the hard way.

Steven: for some reason this never occurred to me, and is brilliant. And I'm a huge tech nerd, haha.

[Peter Rush]

Even something like how to handle bookings, especially several inquiries for the same date!

[Robert Benda]

I've done Creative Live (Rob Adams... *sigh*) and watched the Ray Roman. I've also watched Photographer Scott Robert Linn's workshop on posing people and lighting. Also very helpful.

On YouTube there is Wedding Film School, which I like.

As for expectations... I like narrowly focused workshops covering Basic to advanced on one topic or small group of related topics. The gear. The edit. The business (paperwork, contracts, staying in contact with clients, meetings, taxes, networking, etc). Heck, shooting the day could be broken down into prep, ceremony, reception/dancing.