I force feed Blu-ray in my packages, makes no sense for me to shoot in HD and deliver on DVD, they now get Blu-ray and a DVD version. If they say don't need Blu-ray, I make it a point to tell them, it won't hurt to keep 1, remember the VHS days? Eventually DVD knocked them off the market. Same thing will happen to DVD.

Hi Gabe,
"...and people aren't willing to pay for HD video, I am not going to shell out money to
upgrade everything."


People aren't willing to pay for what they can't see. Your job as a salesperson is to show them what they want. You have no HD samples on Blu-ray. You will get no sales of Blu-ray.

Ahh....you assume much :-) As I have said, I have produced HD before and I DO actually have HD
samples. Everyone (including me at first) assumes that if you show someone both an HD version and
SD version of something they will ALWAYS chose the HD version. I'm here to tell you, IT ISN'T SO!
At this point, in my market people do not own blu ray players. So how would they watch the HD content?
I have toyed with the idea of including a cheap blu ray player in my packages......which means raising
rates......which is the OTHER big reason people give me for not chosing the blu ray option.....it costs
a little more! You have to think about some things here. First the economy is bad in many places,
which means people are not spending money. Second, if they DO spend money, most people will
buy an HD set (just for the space savings of the flat screen!) and don't understand that they aren't
seeing HD on it. When you inform them, they say 'well, it LOOKS better than what I had before
and I can't afford to spend more money'.

So just because I have not yet upgraded to HD does NOT mean I do not try to sell it! I try like heck
to sell it, (I REALLY REALLY want a new HD camera). I have shot portions of a Forest Service
doc on the Tongass forest with the Sony HDW 750 HDCam and produced the documentary of the
totem leaving Alaska to DC with Sony XDcam HD. I've got a few other things shot with borrowed
HDV cams. I am here to tell you, that to my clients, both existing and potential.....IT DOESN'T MATTER!
They don't care that it looks better, they say SD is 'good enough' and a little cheaper and that
'we don't have any way to watch or show HD anyways.'

My computer crapped out a year ago and I bought a new Mac Pro Quad core tower. My edit bay
can deal with HD just fine, and as I said, I've done a couple HD projects.
If my camera craps out and I am FORCED to buy a new camera to continue in business.....I will buy
an HD camera. If enough people start requesting it.....I will buy an HD camera. Until then I will continue
in this strange 'in between world' where I shoot everything in SD, unless I can sell a rare client on HD, in
which case I will beg, borrow, or rent HD gear. No matter what anyone on the internet tells me, I think
I know what works best in my market........better than the 'new guys' who spent a fortune on HD gear
about 2 years ago and are now out of business.

With the web able to display 1080p HD and playback on the most reserved of computers I do find it strange that people choose to hide their work. We are no longer in the days of postage stamp sized videos at super low resolutions. We show our short films online to give them a taste, they must then see us if they wish to see more, location permitting. For the international enquiries we let them watch more online. That's how much we trust the quality of vimeo.

As for blu-ray or not it depends on your Market. I would say 80% of our couples go BD but a year ago when we were sub £1k it would have been the other way around.

This is partly down to the way we present our work. We don't send out demo disks. People must come in to see more of our work (part of the sales experience). We show them our work on Blu-ray. Like Anyone seeing HD for the first time it's something they desire that little bit more. We don't push BD a all, there free to choose.

But if you don't offer it or show it, you can't expect to sell it.

Update: the couple that wanted to cancel on me in favor of another photog has recently changed their mind and wants me back for the wedding video!!

I am finding that couple's who didnt want a copy on Blu-ray a year or so ago, are now calling me asking if they can buy one. Now, whether the couple order one or not at the time of signing the contract I still make a Blu-ray image as I suspect more and more clients will be wanting one sooner or later.

Update: the couple that wanted to cancel on me in favor of another photog has recently changed their mind and wants me back for the wedding video!!

thats great news kelly. what did they say?

Seems like there's an awful lot of passion on either side when it comes to changes in technology. I keep getting flashbacks of the great VHS-DVD switch years ago.

But I like to be ahead of the curve, and always be producing the absolute best content I possibly can. Right now, that means producing everything in HD, even if that means I'm not earning any more than if I were shooting in SD.

But then again, I'm a perfectionist and want to be the best.

Update: the couple that wanted to cancel on me in favor of another photog has recently changed their mind and wants me back for the wedding video!!Time to tell them that the price just went up:-)

Time to tell them that the price just went up:-)

and so did the amount of deposit. Don't take a chance they cancel again.

Take full payment up front now. If they can be that fickle you don't want them deciding the day before that they don't want you again.