Hi Michael,

Jeff, I agree with you about the one man show, you just can't make the high end video with one shooter and a second camera operator, you can't take a chance to do creative shots when you are the only shooter..

I don't think that is exactly what Jeff meant - that you can't make high end video by yourself. I've always shot alone and always plan on doing so. I may not charge 'bragging' prices but don't have to, and I consider my work to be high-end. Because I have no overhead (I work out of my home) and pay no one else to shoot I can keep my costs down. That helps when trying to stay busy in a down economy. Other companies that have employees or partners haven't been taking home a paycheck or are thinking of getting outside jobs to keep the company solvent. And lines of credit have dried up because the banks have raised their standards for lending. The result is that there's no money available to weather the lean times. I guess what I'm saying is that it is definitely possible to make a living doing this very well and doing it alone.

I consider my work "high end" and I basically am a one-man show with a semi-competent 2nd shooter. I would love to have a 2nd shooter that was really good, but I haven't had any luck with that yet. So I give them really basic and clear tasks and just assume that they still won't get it right all the time. It can be done, but a good 2nd shooter would be invaluable.

Last year did about half of the weddings by myself one camera, few times bringing the stedicam in the car, wearing it during a walk in the part session,

actually I prefer one camera in really tight timing wedding scenarios, the more camera people, the harder to create and maintain intimate contact, be with the couple close enough, be less visible, shoot a documentary style.

multicamera shooting is great imo, when created visual content relies on "external imagery" (which can be great), and not documentary look and feel with possible narrative structure (which I lean towards lately)

One thing I have to tell I is really hard to go 12 hours by yourself all day long, I'd prefer to have an assistant from the reception, banket time, around 5, 6 pm. Also last couple of weddings my assistant was very helpful with lights erlier on during preparation.
Off course not easy to maintain high level of alertness, creativity, physicality for 12 14 hours straight.

Sorry about the post, I am not in 25 list, but hope this info helps,
also, some of the videographers that on the list have their prices posted, off course it's harder to find the amount of wedding
done, unless you are IRS :))
CHeers!

I think it would be a tough job to achieve creative shot by one camera. With one cam, you have to make sure you covered the main event. There was not much free time for you to did a creative shot.

Our studio have 2 videographers. I am the 2nd Cam operator and my job is cover the event when Aaron, the main videographer did his creative shot or steadicam shot. My main job is edit the wedding video. So one of us focus on camera operation, framing and equipment and the other one focus on editing, color grading and music. I think that's how we can achieve a cinematic highlight with documentary coverage.

I really admire those one man band videographer who can produced a creative, cinematic wedding highlight without damaging their coverage of the story. I think only the smart and brave one who know the event and their camera can do it!

side track a little bit. i just check josh green videos but error message (above) appear and have check with OLEG but no videos on VIMEO.... anybody

off topic,
Ricci, I have no videos on Vimeo, here in Russia, Vimeo stutters all the time, sometimes it takes a very long time to load a video completely, exposureroom and lately smugmug are my depository choices. (this for people who don't have too much time to load video, for quality, but please make your own conclusion on that)

OLEG i have just checked your wedding videos on exposure room... love the videos...good luck to you....

Let me just clarify when I mentioned " high-end", it isnt the end product; what I mean is the AB Market who has the means to pay.

From what I've seen through the years you have to include "Joel Peregrine" to that list. His work and his instructional DVD are "Top of the line".

Was Dave Perry ever on the list? I ask as he was THE one who changed the way we looked at wedding videos, long before we discovered StillMotion and Shadowplay. It was because of Dave we went for a Glidecam and never looked back (just forwards and at a shiny new Steadicam)

David is great, he was a revolutionary in a way, someone who developed
Videography into an art form as we know it.
I can tell so many people, myself followed his work in Russia for years.

""It was because of Dave we went for a Glidecam and never looked back (just forwards and at a shiny new Steadicam)""

Yes, but some of us are going back to tripod and handheld, slider, and it's all great :)
Variety is the must!

oh we use all that too. well, not handheld but on a spider brace.

Just watched SODE Production's 'Save the Date' videos, I vote for them! ^0^ The shots, color grading and the 'chemistry' are top notch!

I would think that there isn't any rhyme or reason to the Top 25. Everyone is on the list for different reasons and the word 'influential' is possibly the key. I can't speak for anyone other than myself but the people I voted for were the ones that had influenced me the most, whether that was through their actual work or other ways that they contribute to the industry.

How do you measure who is the best anyway? Number of weddings per year? Price per wedding? Turnover per year? Number of years in the industry? I don't think there's any benchmark. There's most likely some videographer out there churning out 100 low-budget, low-quality weddings per year and making more money than anyone. Does that make the 'sausage factory' videographer better? There might be a videographer out there charging $20K+ per wedding and doing 3 per year. Who does the most SDE's? Who uses the most cameras? Who uses the least cameras? Who's the best left-handed shooter? Who can handhold a Steadicam Merlin+fully-loaded-XHA1 for the longest while balancing on one leg?

See what I mean ... :)

Influence, while ambiguous, is possibly the best measuring stick. That's how I looked at the 2007 Top 25 list when I stumbled across it - i.e. these are the people shaping the industry and influencing its future, whatever the reason is that they made the list.

From my perspective, I'm stoked that some random guy from a small town in regional Australia who hasn't shot many weddings (and certainly hasn't made much money from it) can make it onto such a list. How and why did this guy make the list? No idea. But I think it says a lot for the exciting future of our industry that it was even possible.

Cheers,

Matthew.

Influence, while ambiguous, is possibly the best measuring stick. That's how I looked at the 2007 Top 25 list when I stumbled across it - i.e. these are the people shaping the industry and influencing its future, whatever the reason is that they made the list.


Agree 100% on the 'influence' point :D
Pardon me, I just can't help myself to praise those videos :D

I know Jason Magbanua does 100 weddings a year at $ 3500 a pop. This is really high end considering the average income is $ 300/month back home. 3 shooters, SDE. So my Philippine standard Jmags is a multi-millionaire around 15M. Sorry Jmags =)


Still Motion I think is $ 4,500 with 40 weddings? They are being selective I think. 3 shooters no SDE

It's just an estimate.

That's why he is always smiling :)

Oleg will be on the list next year. Book it :)

Oleg will also be a featured speaker @ Re:Frame San Francisco this October - it's his ONLY North American speaking engagement! Don't miss it! Re:Frame Collective Website (http://www.reframecollective.com)

I wonder if Chris H would be so kind enough to come out with our very own DVI top 30 list, we can send in our votes.

I view this with mixed feelings. Sure it would be nice to have the recognitions but there is also a dark side. It isn't a pleasant site to watch people jockeying for position. This can even cause the camaraderie of the forum to break down. As it is now, there is a "natural" recognition among peers. If someone is good, it shows and they are recognized, albeit informally, by their peers. If there were to be a DVINFO Top 25 (or whatever), the not so pleasant side of some people would become apparent. Some would be motivated to lobby and inflict various forms of manipulative slime to get the recognition so they can plaster the accolade on their website. Some people deserve and graciously receive accolades but others are self serving and even ruthless.