Love Stories are a great way to expand your horizons. Unlike the wedding day, you have control over every production element. Love Stories are a great way to let your creative juices flow and when shown at a reception, can really help elevate not only your own business, but wedding videography as a whole. Okay, I'm getting off my soap box.

Here's the scoop. This is a 25th Anniversary Love Story. Some of you may have seen it at the WEVA Expo. Trisha called the couple to learn what they wanted in their Love Story.

Jody has always wanted a romantic Love Story and liked Christian music. John wanted the video to show importance of his family and that he is the luckiest man alive.

They were married on a beach in Hawaii at sunset, so we wanted to take the whole family to the beach at sunset. The rules of the contest only allowed us 4 hours with the five of them, so we had to cut some of the locations to make it to the beach in time, since it was an hour away.

http://tulsaweddingvideos.com/video/GoolsbyLS.wmv

All My Best,
Mark Von Lanken
Picture This Productions, Inc.
www.TulsaWeddingFilms.com

What can be said about this.

It's a technical masterpiece. The camera work is what your known for: a standard for what slow camera moves should look like and how they should blend together. The audio is the most important part of the piece and the songs all blend perfectly and are mixed exactly where they should be.

This piece is close to being the epitome of a traditional love story/family video.

Ben Lynn

Hi Ben,

Wow, thanks for all of the kind words!

Well done Mark,

I think Ben summed it all up for everyone, a brilliant piece of work.

How did you do the pan/tilt/zoom effect on the still photos, it makes for a very interesting look compared to to a still image?

A fine bit of work.

Paul

Well done Mark,
How did you do the pan/tilt/zoom effect on the still photos, it makes for a very interesting look compared to to a still image?
Paul

Hi Paul,

We used Imaginate to move the still photos. It's a program from Canopus that retails for about $200.

Thanks for your kind words.

No Thank you for sharing it with us.

Its a good program, is it a stand alone software or does it have to work through another canopus software as I use Pinnacle liquid 6 and Adobe premiere pro?

Paul

That was a wonderful piece.

How on earth did you afford the rights to the music?

That was a wonderful piece.

How on earth did you afford the rights to the music?
Oh no, not again....

Mark, great piece. I have yet to buy your training discs, but I feel the time is near, very respected around these sites...

No Thank you for sharing it with us.

Its a good program, is it a stand alone software or does it have to work through another canopus software as I use Pinnacle liquid 6 and Adobe premiere pro?

Paul

Hi Paul,

It is a stand alone program. I'm pretty sure it will make non Canopus AVIs, but checkout their website to confirm that. www.Canopus.com should get you there.

Thanks again Mark.
Good job
I'll check it out.
Paul

Mark,

As always - awesome.

I wish I could convince just one customers to get the love story. In terms of sales, when I get them into the studio my sales rate is very high - but I just can't seem to convince anyone to get the love story. They react like I'm trying to sell them a trip to the dentist's office. They just seem to not want to make the extra effort to do the interviews and to make the extra time to do it. I have an awesome sample I show - what I consider very much on par with yours... but I just can't get anyone to bite on it even when they react well to the sample. I've even had what I would consider model couples, which I've tried to coax by offering only to charge for travel to the location just so I could have thier sample as a sales tool, and even they couldn't make the extra time to do it. It involves another 1/2 day or day out of their already pre-wedding busy schedule. For me, the love story is something I know I can do but I'm quite discouraged trying to sell it. Maybe it's my clientle? My average wedding totals roughly $2k. I really don't know.

Second question: The moving shot 11:01 to 11:09 ...was that entirely hand-held? (fearing a short answer, accompanied with an upsell)

Mark,

Well done... Ben really summed it up.
At some point during the interview I forgot I was on dvinfo
felt more like I was in front of the tube.

Well done I've always said when something seems easy and non
technical you know you've done an immaculate and superb job.

Ken burns came in handy and the switching between the couple was
excellent. I would imagine you two were equally touched by this couple
as I was.

Thanks again

Mark, great piece. I have yet to buy your training discs, but I feel the time is near, very respected around these sites...

Hi Chris,

Thanks. I don't know where I would be without the education I received from training videos as well as conferences and a few mentors along the way.

Mark,

As always - awesome.

I wish I could convince just one customers to get the love story. In terms of sales, when I get them into the studio my sales rate is very high - but I just can't seem to convince anyone to get the love story. They react like I'm trying to sell them a trip to the dentist's office. I have an awesome sample I show - what I consider very much on par with yours... but I just can't get anyone to bite on it even when they react well to the sample. For me, the love story is something I know I can do but I'm quite discouraged trying to sell it. Maybe it's my clientle? My average wedding totals roughly $2k. I really don't know.

Second question: The moving shot 11:01 to 11:09 ...was that entirely hand-held? (fearing a short answer, accompanied with an upsell)

Hi Craig,

We have been there. I don't think there's an easy answer. We really tried to do Love Stories for a few years with very little response, then all of the sudden they really took off about 4 years ago. Some years we do a lot and other years a little.

Here's a couple of questions. Do you have more than one style of Love Story to show your clients? Where are you pricing the Love Stories.

The shot at 11:09 was one of the few Glidecam shots. I use the Glidecam 2000 with my Sony PD-150/170. I can do a lot of moving shots without the Glidecam, but there are just certain shots that require the Glidecam.

Mark,

Well done... Ben really summed it up.
At some point during the interview I forgot I was on dvinfo
felt more like I was in front of the tube...I would imagine you two were equally touched by this couple
as I was.

Thanks again

Hi Dante,

Thanks for your kind words. They are a great couple and family. I made an out takes video for them. Many times during the interviews I would be laughing out loud. I know I'm not supposed to, but they were just too funny. At the other end of the spectrum, there were times that I could not see the viewfinder because my eyes were so full of tears.

Our lives have been greatly enriched by getting to know the Goolsby's a little better through this production.

Hey Mark- have you heard which ones the Goolby's liked the best?

[QUOTE=Mark Von Lanken]Hi Craig,

We have been there. I don't think there's an easy answer. We really tried to do Love Stories for a few years with very little response, then all of the sudden they really took off about 4 years ago. Some years we do a lot and other years a little.

Here's a couple of questions. Do you have more than one style of Love Story to show your clients? Where are you pricing the Love Stories.
QUOTE]

I don't have more than one love story because the initial consolations (love story aside) already run about 70-90mins and they usually don't plan to be there longer.

I've offered the love story for $500 knowing that with the amount of time involved (camera & edit time) - it would not be worth it. I've also offered to practically give it away just so I have it as another sales tool. Again, I would say half react very well to the sample (laughter, smiles, "aaawwee", and warm comments about the couple), then the other half react well but when I even suggest the possibility of them doing their own - there's fear in their eyes and I get comments like "no way" "uuut aaah" and "I could never get Jim to do that..." -stuff like that. And when I get consultations with just Bride & Mom - forget it. If the groom was so detached to not even bother to meet with the video guy or the photo guy - I don't make the futile attempt. I think that approx 1/3 of my customers are quite young and still a bit immature (19-22). Either the long-term value of it escapes them or they feel as though they would be subjecting themselves to public speaking.