IN[FOCUS]

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!!!

· 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!

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.

Must Read List

05/26/2009 in Blog, Business Planning

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If you want to be successful there is one thing that you must do…never stop learning.

I am an admitted magazine junkie. I have collected magazines since I was a kid so this list is by no means the be all end all, but each one has proved helpful to us in building our business in one way or another. And the best part is you don’t have to subscribe to all of them. We hit the book store on a regular basis just to drink coffee and read magazines. We go with a notebook and pen so we can take notes on anything that stands out in the magazines we stack on our table. Here’s our must read magazine list for the event videographer:

1. Grace Ormonde Wedding Style. This magazine is one of the best wedding magazines on the rack. If you are looking for the latest trends in high-end weddings, this is the place to find them. This magazine is also a great source for branding ideas as well as a useful resource for locating high-end vendors with whom you want to be associated. Shoot them an email and introduce yourself!

2. EventDV. This magazine is definitely the best source of info for the event videographer. It keeps its readers up to date on the latest trends & givess practical how-to tutorials on everything from graphics to audio. In one of the most anticipated announcements, EventDV names the top 25 event videographers in the world every year. These are some of the studios to watch for inspiration!

3. Wired. Not only is this magazine rich in stuff that makes the tech geek in me all warm and fuzzy, but the layouts in this magazine are so different from anything I’ve ever seen. They took the mold and broke it – we can really learn from this. What rules are you following, and why???

4. Inc. This magazine takes a young and modern approach to entrepreneurship. They offer practical advice and highlight success stories and they do so in some pretty hip layouts as well.

Here is a list of books that have greatly contributed to the success of our company.

1. Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success by Russell Simmons

2. Purple Cow by Seth Godin. If you read only 1 book for the rest of your business-life, make it this one. It’s that good. Actually all his books are that good, so make the time and invest in your business brain. Oh, and his blog is filled with some real make-you-think content.

Here are some highlights from another one of his books “Meatball Sundae: Is your marketing out of sync?”

“YouTube now carries more than 7 million videos. Though the average length of a video on the site is about five minutes, most videos are watched for less than 10 seconds. Ten seconds is all you get to prove whether the viewer ought to invest another ten seconds, and if you get someone to stick until the end, you’ve hit a home run. With 7 million to choose from, there’s not alot of reason to persist through something that’s not engaging.

This rapid fire approach to media is important even if you’re not a media company. It means that the personality of your product on the shelf matters. It means that every interaction with a consumer is a make-or-break proposition. You don’t get the chance for a learning curve. You don’t get the opportunity to have the user overcome initial discomfort.”

4. The Martha Rules by Martha Stewart

Martha Rule #9 Take Risks, Not Chances.

“In business, there’s a difference between a risk and a chance. A well-calculated risk may very well end up as an investment in your business. A careless chance can cause it to crumble. And when opportunity presents itself, never assume it will be your last.”

5. ZAG: The Number One Strategy of High Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier

“An overabundance of look-alike products and me-too services is forcing customers to search for something, anything, to help them separate the winners from the clutter. The solution? When everybody zigs, zag.”

6. Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and in Life by Donald Trump

“No matter what you do, think big. Thinking big is the driving force that has forged all the great achievements in modern life…I believe that if you focus on the top, you will get there.”

I’m sure that there are a ton of other mags and books that have helped all of you out in the past. Leave a comment for us and let us know your must read list!

Oh…big news! We are restructuring and changing our name from Fairytale Productions to ftpweddings! You heard it here first!

Jen & Liz, FTP

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Jen and Liz

Who are you, really???

03/27/2009 in Behind the Scenes, Blog

Do you remember being a teenager and facing this question? Who are you? What do you want to be? Who do you want to be? Well, now that you've outlived pimples and school dances, does this mean that you have all the answers? If you're like most of us, if you dig deep enough, the answer is probably "no."

At least you know you are not alone, and now is as good a time as any to carve out your space in this world and in this industry. It's scary, risky even, to let the world see you, the real you.

One of our fav photogs, Jasmine Star, is famous for saying "I'd rather fail at something I love than succeed at something I hate". I'm sure others have said that, but it really hit home when we heard it cross her lips. We love her work, she speaks at conferences all over the country, she is uber successful, and let me tell you…Jasmine Star IS her brand. So how do you translate what Jasmine has been able to do in her business & what we have done in ours to what YOU can do in yours??

1. Be honest with yourself. Do you love what you do? How can you hope to sell love to a bride if you don't have love in your heart for what you do? We would do what we do for free, and many times we have. We love it that much! Would you rather fail at something else over succeeding at what you're currently doing?

2. Be your style. When you watch a smattering of videographers in the industry you will find that you gravitate to a certain type of video, whether it is Traditionally Cinematic like the Von Lankens, or what we call New School Cinematic like Ray Roman Films or New Doc Style like Jones or JMag…what if YOU invented your new style??? Know the movers and shakers of the industry like you know the back of your hand, but build your work with their influence rather than copying their work entirely.

3. Be willing to WORK! This is the first time in our 3 1/2 years in business that neither of us (Jen & Liz)is pregnant. We have kids and husbands and all the responsibilities that go along with them, yet we still find time to work diligently in our business. When you love what you do, it never feels like work. So work hard, and work consistently. You WILL see results.

4. Be a stylish marketer: In your mind's eye, picture what you present in your marketing. Then, take a look at Cosmopolitan magazine. Do you think that your marketing appeals to the Cosmo reader? For the majority of us, that is our demographic! Are you branding yourself effectively to appeal to the 20something bride that has money to spend on wedding video?? What is that brides first impression of you and your company?? Be HONEST! Below is an image from our 2008 ad campaign. Hot right??

5. Be a networker! We would never be where we are now if we didn't swallow our fears and introduce ourselves to big names out there. Do everything you can to make sure people recognize your name. Wedding planners, photographers, magazine editors, tv producers…the sky is the limit…you never know from where your next big break will come!

We are the exclusive production company for Ines Del Mar Weddings, a national wedding magazine. Ines Del Mar flies us all over the country to shoot promos for every one of their photo shoots (think Puerto Rico in May…Ole'…see video at top)! How did we land that gig? All we did was send their Editor-in-Chief one of our online newsletters. She checked us out, made contact, and the rest is history!

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We want you to start thinking differently about yourself & your company. Over the coming months, we'll explain in greater depth some of the topics we've brought up today, so stay tuned.

Check out our website, www.ftpweddings.com, to see how we have have branded ourselves and how we create a very personalized, custom experience for all our brides.

Share the love and comment often. Lets talk about what it means to turn your company from one that blends in with the crowd into one that stands out. Imagine brides flocking to you instead of you chasing them!

Much Love…

Jen Boys & Liz Whitten,Fairytale Productions & FTP Media

Be Memorable (part 1): Trailers

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Must Read List

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Who are you, really???

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