Gauging interest in training DVD ideas...

[Thomas Koppler]

hi patrick,
I'm very interessted in your "training series", especially in DVD2 and DVD4.
because I'm from Austria (Europe) it would be great if there is a download option too. ordering and importing products from the U.S. to Europe causes a lot of shipping costs and customs fees in relation to the productprice. even the euro does quite well against the dollar right now.
I don't know if such a model is actually possible but it would be a great help and maybe allows me to purchase one more disc instead of paying additional duty fees ;-)

[Ryan Koral]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

We have been receiving a ton of phone calls and emails lately asking us about how we do what we do, workflow questions, as well as very specific questions about certain shots.

As we don't have time to answer all the phone calls and emails individually, we are developing a Q&A section on our blog just for professionals. A natural extension of that page seems to be the idea of doing training DVDs.

So, I'm wondering how many people would be interested in some sort of training DVD if we were to do one, and if you would be interested, what sorts of things would you be interested in seeing?

DVD 1 idea: I like the idea of doing a same-day edit training DVD that would take you through the workflow on the day of the wedding, you could see footage of us creating it, the reactions of the crowd, as well as a ton of tips here and there that we have learned through experience.

DVD 2 idea: Another idea was to do one based on love stories. It would walk you through how we do our lighting, how we actually interview people, our list of questions, some out-takes of us actually interviewing them and responding to their comments, and then some ideas and footage of our love story footage portions and how we work those. This would also have a bunch of tips that we have learned through years of doing these, as well as several samples from start to finish. The love story DVD would be a perfect compliment to the SDE DVD, and especially as we sell those as a package and I think they work so well together, we could add in a little feature about marketing them together.

DVD 3 idea: An easier training DVD to make, and probably something with a wider appeal, would be one based on the special tools we use, the value they add to our productions, as well as shots of us using them and the footage we get from them. I would probably focus this one on our crane, steadicam, and 35mm adapters, while possibly going to the Canon A1 in specific and how certain cams (A1 vs H1 vs HV20) work with certain tools and the custom presets we use.

DVD 4 idea: Our last idea would be a much simpler one, and would basically be a behind-the-scenes look at how we shoot a wedding, how we intereact with couples, setup (or don't setup) shots, as well as the final product they received. This would include a full wedding video from start to finish as the couple received it as well as a bunch of footage and commentary of us actualy shooting that wedding.

For pricing, we were thinking in the $2-300 range depending on which DVD it is. That would be based on the amount of time we would need to put into these to make them as good and as helpful as I think they can be, as well as the info itself that we would be providing. If we were to do any of these, we would start shooting these soon and hope to release them in the early new year.

These would be geared more towards middle to advanced users, but I think they would benefit almost anybody. These would NOT discuss things like white balance, exposure, unless it was some sort of tip or trick in a certain situation.

We would really appreciate knowing how many people might be interested, any other comments and suggestions, as well as the certain areas ideas you would most be interested in seeing.

Thanks for your time if you made it all the way through this.

Patrick
www.still-motion.ca

i will buy them all and anticipate the release of all future dvds :)

[Steve Zugelter]

Being a huge fan of your work, I'd have to agree with Ryan and say I'll take one of everything. I think there's definitely a market for all your ideas.