Howdy from North Carolina! Let’s talk a little bit about audio.
We all know how crucial it is to get GREAT audio from multiple sources to keep viewers of your wedding films involved in your clips. And we can all sympathize with how hard we truly have to work in run-and-gun-situations when you have a scripture reader on stage left, the officiant dead center, a string quartet tucked away in a corner, and a sniffling bride and groom moving from place to place.
For us at Life Stage Videography, the Zoom H2 Field Recorder is the solution. Check out the little video above and see some real examples of how this gadget can make your productions more powerful.
(Ed. note, before you buy the Zoom H2, wait for Ryan Koral’s review on its big brother, the Zoom H4n)
Matt Davis (coaching at lifestagefilms.com) of Life Stage Films has been described as the “head coach of wedding videography,” providing one-on-one business coaching as well as group coaching webinars. A featured speaker at both WEVA 2009-10 and IN[FOCUS] 2010-11, as well as a multiple CEA award winner and 2009-10 EventDV 25 All-Star, he is based in Wilmington, N.C.
In starting or reinventing your business, one of your first steps will be to decide who makes up your “fan base”
When I say “fan base,” I do not speak figuratively. You don’t just want clients – you want a rabid screaming legion of cheerleaders for you and the service you provide.
Think of the size of the average wedding party. Chances are that the bride and groom will show pieces (if not all) of their wedding video to the them. On average a couple will have a best man, a maid of honor, 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen. They’re all talking about you on and after the wedding day – don’t be paranoid, it just happens…but most of all, you have the power to determine what strong opinions they will be forming about you!
This series of entires on becoming memorable will get you thinking about the many ways you influence the people you serve! Branding involves everything you do, so this series will make branding more practical to you – real world actions to get more clients in your door and on your books!
Trailers are a great way to get your brides excited and talking about YOU! But just doing trailers isn’t enough; you have to make this memorable to the bride. We have our trailers completed and online within 24 hours of the wedding. Now that’s memorable!!! Editing a trailer within 24 hours of a wedding is not that much of a time commitment on our part, but to a bride…it’s magic!
Edit the shots out of chronological order and it will keep her from feeling like she saw all that she needs to see. This avoids taking away some of the excitement about her full length edit late which comes later.
We usually limit our trailers to around 1 minute.Hollywood trailer limits are 2 ½ minutes.Personally I think that’s too long for a wedding trailer.
Make the trailer your own. This might sound odd and un-businesslike, but follow me here.
One of the things that Liz and I decided early on was that trailers are for us, not the bride.The bride doesn’t pay for them so that freed us up to use some non-traditional music and do some creative stuff with the edit.It really became less of a chore and more something we looked forward to doing. And if it puts the couple in a light that they don’t normally see themselves, all the better!!! It’s memorable!!!
So what do you do once you’ve edited this magical trailer?
·Post your trailer to a good quality video hosting site like Vimeo or Blip (youtube is the most known, but the quality is poo poo)!
·Email the bride the link to the trailer.An even better option is to embed it into an email newsletter, more about that later…
·Offer her an incentive to forward the email by offering $100 off her balance for every referral (that books) that she brings in from that trailer email
·Send the trailer to EVERYONE in your business contacts list.“Look what we shot this weekend!” Stay in front of your vendor friends – stay memorable, and thus, referrable!
·For the vendors with whom you worked at the wedding, send a link and a personal note.Venues, Photog, DJ, Caterer, etc.If you worked with them they should see this trailer!
·Post the trailer on your blog (of course!!!)
With web video, you only have a few seconds to grab and hold a viewer’s interest – and most viewers don’t watch more than a minute anyway! Having short trailers is a fast, compact way to ensure that people are viewing and enjoying your work. And that’s what it’s all about, right?
Well, I must also admit that it’s good for the ego when all those raving cheerleader e-mails start filling the inbox.
Come back to see the next installment of this series about becoming more memorable, when we talk about “Image.” This is not Instant Gratification 101, folks, but if you put in the work, you WILL reap the rewards.
Get IN[TENSE] Tour Dates August 17th – Chicago – IVA September 9th – Houston – HPVA October 1st – Dallas – DFWPVA October 13th – Long Island w/StillMotion – LIVA October 14th – New Jersey w/StillMotion – NJVA October 19th – Boston – NPVA November 4th – Salt Lake City – UPVA February 3rd – Michigan – MIVA
Recently, I had the opportunity to kick off the IN[FOCUS] tour in Kansas City with my GET IN[TENSE] seminar, teaching studios how to get delivery time reduced SIGNIFICANTLY.
I’ve already helped one producer cut her wedding editing time in half and another to reduce the editing on a recurring corporate gig by more than half.
If you and members of your PVA are looking to chuck the backlog-monkey and spend more time with family and friends, then have me out to your meetings from now until the end of the year.
Click here to e-mail me and let me know when you would like me to visit.
I can fill up your regularly scheduled slot as well as conduct an all-day intensive seminar
Topics that can be covered include:
Making Parkinson’s Law work for you.
Identifying your top time wasters, and learning how to kill them.
Getting 8 years worth of referrals in one year’s time.
Developing a teachable workflow for additional editors.
Solutions to reduce backlog even if you can’t afford an editor.
With an indepth editing seminar, I can also touch on:
Selling yourself as a storyteller.
Creating an intro versus a highlight film for immediate buzz.
Upselling your edits after the wedding shoot is done.
Using soundbytes, from selection to placement.
Using cutaways the most useful shot in your repertoire.
Raising your prices of other services thru offering short-form edits.
This is not theory – this is how I run my studio – and I create very nice storytelling edits in under 25 hours for big $$$$.
![IN[FOCUS]](http://www.infocusvideoevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IFTiny.jpg)
