Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Hi Chris,

A lot of good points in your post,and I think it brings up the question of what are we trying to achieve with the the work that we are doing?

One can follow the route of building a business that earns big bucks from each job, earns respect and perhaps admiration from others in the business and enables us to produce work with high technical and artistic value. There are many different routes, but my requirements are to give me an income that enables us to enjoy our home, pay our bills and have leisure time to do the things we enjoy. For that,we need a good spread of bookings so that we can afford to lose a few without it impacting our overall income. We achieve that by targeting the largest sector of the wedding market in our part of the world, which is the lower middle to middle price range. We like to build a friendly relationship with our clients which makes for an easier day and also leads to future work with friends and family of the couple.

I have zero concerns about what others in the industry think of my work or approach as it has absolutely no bearing on what my clients think. I am not looking for status or admiration, just a comfortable living from doing something that I have enjoyed for almost 35 years.

I also follow my own direction sometimes against what the general opinion of others in the trade may think. The joint photo and video package being a good example of ignoring what others have said about not doing either well and doing what we feel competent at. The combined package has been a massive success for us, both solo and working together, with some great reviews from our clients.

My advice is always to listen and look at the competition, but follow the path that you are comfortable with and gives good returns, rather than just following fashion and emulating others. Above all, heed your clients first, not your peers.

Roger

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Hi Chris,
It' is not that cold in Canada and summer/fall/spring in here is quite nice and warm.
The only issue with weather in Canada really is that winter is too long, like 5 months...

Well I do wedding trailers and full length (1-2 hours) documentaries of the wedding day.
There are some couples that just go for trailers only but most couples want trailer + full film.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Thanks Roger
You and I have always seen eye to eye and in my opinion you have carefully looked at your market and calculated a package that the average bride in your region can afford without too much hardship.

We still combine our live packages with photography ..in fact our last wedding was photography only and at the end of this month we are also doing a live video/photography combined and at this time of the year (remember it's a wet and cold Winter here now!!) that doesn't happen often.

Good luck to the guys that claim they never charge less than $10,000 for photos or video but I really wonder if they have consistent work?? I could see that being a reality in Hollywood but not in normal suburbs or towns. I actually remember some guy in LA complaining the car park at the venue was full and most of the cars were either Ferrari's or Lamborginis ... I could quite easily imagine a 6 figure video price tag for that sort of gig but that's about all!!

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Thanks Hakob

Seriously?? the kids never seem to mention that the Winters are that long!! They are visiting Australia in 2 weeks ... You have to remember I'm a warm weather animal and even now in Winter here it's at the moment it's probably around 60F and my cold threshold is a closer to 70F ... to me that's freezing already but remember over here it's not uncommon for our temperatures at a wedding to go over 100F most Summer days!!

Hope business to good since you guys are in Summer now which would be a good time for weddings

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

I am not for one moment thinking that cinematic edits are either just a passing fad or even less important than documentary. However as more and more Videographers turn to Cinematic edits as the norm, those clients wanting documentary face a smaller pool of talent to pick from. It's easy to stand out amongst a small pool of talent, hence I feel why I'm successful. Though admittedly, it's not that easy a ride and requires good marketing to reach new clients amongst the pool of low charging Photographers offering video and the weekend warriors. :)

Am I dragging the Video Wedding industry down with my prices. Nah. No more than MacDonalds is dragging down the food industry from 5 star restaurants. Different prices and needs from clients with different budgets and requirements from those wanting a 2k plus Wedding Video service. Those who do, will never trouble me.

I'm sure some may laugh at my service. But then some will laugh at all Wedding Videographers, for simply filming Weddings and not something more high profile. Who cares in the end. No matter how successful, you're still not going to be respected by some and laughed at by others. Do what's right for you as others opinions don't matter in the grand scale of things.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

with the cinematic vs documentary, why not just do both?

Best of both worlds, it seems. Pretty much everyone wants the cool looking highlight, but there's so many little moments in the full video, I can't imagine missing out on those.

Re: Where have all the wedding videographers gone?
 

Steve? As long as your prices allow you to make a decent profit/living I really don't care whether I'm called "cheap" or "pricey" ... I have seen videographers and photographers that can only be classified as a total ripoff ....and if brides want to overpay just to say "look how much mt wedding video cost me" that's their problem. We have videographers here who will do ceremony and reception for as little as $400 ... seriously I don't see how but if they make a profit good for them. If a videographer can also sucker a bride into paying $15000 for a video then good for them too!!

Also Steven Shea ?..it's OK doing a cinematic and doc version of a wedding but make sure you cost for both!!