WEVA Benefits?

[Kelsey Emuss]

I have to say that although I have recieved a LOT of business through Wedj...I have recently found that it ws getting a LOT of spam from that site. In one day alone I recieved over 400 phony leads.

Eventually I had to cancel my ad because I couldn't weed through all the crap. After a month or so (just recently in fact) I relisted and have not had any problems with spam....YET!

Hopefully it's been resolved on thier end.

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

You wouldn't happen to be biased in WEVA's favor at all since you and your wife have programs on the WEVA Expo schedule now would you? ;-)

Hi Travis,

I saw your wink and a smile, but you do bring up a very valid point. We have been to 9 WEVA Expos, but we have only been a speaker at the last 5. The reason that our work and profits dramatically increased is because we applied what we learned at the first 4 Expos we attended.

It was after attending the first 4 Expos that we felt like we had something to contribute to the videography community and WEVA agreed.

I do not have a film school background. I do not have any type of formal education in the visual arts. The skills I have came from going to the Expo, buying training videos, working with a mentor and then working hard at applying everything I learned. That is why I am pro WEVA.

There are some very talented videographers on this board who have never been to the WEVA Expo, so I'm not saying that the WEVA Expo is the answer for everyone. If a videographer is not happy with his skills, both in the product he produces and with the profits from his business, then look into the WEVA Expo.

[Travis Cossel]

I would totally agree that WEVA seems to have the most benefit for those who are just starting out. That's not to say there's no benefit for everyone else, but I really think it helps people new to the game more than others.

As for my earlier comment, I hope you didn't take any offense to that. It didn't seem like you did. I was just having some fun since editing yesterday was making me crazy.

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

...As for my earlier comment, I hope you didn't take any offense to that. It didn't seem like you did. I was just having some fun since editing yesterday was making me crazy.

Hi Travis,

No, I did not take offense at all, which is why I mentioned your wink and smile. I'm glad that you did bring up that topic because there was a lot of relevance to your comment.

[Brian Peterson]

Originally Posted by Louis Maddalena

But the childish attitude of the people on the forums is definitely there. The other day somebody put a video up on the forums for the members to watch. I watched the video and offered a critique, generally very nice but let him know some of the things he may want to look into changing. I was immediately responded to by another member of WEVA informing me that we were not allowed to critique this particular members videos because he is not willing to learn, something to do with a previous thread where I guess he didn't agree with the critique. But it was almost to say "we're not allowed to play with that kid because last time he stole my ball" kind of attitude.

Louis, as the originator of the thread in question, please don't let the attitude of a few ruin all of the association for you. There is a long backstory to what was going on there, but let it suffice it to say, I tend to post what I believe without a sugar coating applied, especially critiques of videos. This has lead to butting heads with a select group of individuals. They took the opportunity of me posting some of my own work to attack. Nothing they said bothered me but it was childish enough the original thread was nuked by the moderators. I'm stubborn enough that I ddin't want them to win with the nuking so I reposted with a 'no comment welcome header'. Thus the assertion that I didn't want to learn.

I welcome your comments and thank you for them.

I am a 13 year member of WEVA and have found it invaluable to my business. Nothing is handed to you on a silver platter, you must go mine it yourself. But nowhere are you going to find a greater grouping of talent to learn from. Yes you can find the technical explanations of how to do something on the internet, but you won't find the insight to the next level.

It is just a fact that on the internet, for the most part, those who are market leaders aren't sharing that knowledge. They are either not active, because they have a successful business to run. If they are active, many don't say anything of any substance because they want something for their knowledge like sell you a dvd or attend their workshops, or don't want to offend people and get in a pissing match. In WEVA and at the Expo, you can make contact with them and actually learn from them.

If you haven't attended Expo, then save your pennies and get down there! Yes much of it is geared to beginners but what people who have been around a while tend to forget, the majority of this industry have been in business under three years and half of the attendees are attending for the first time. ON top of that, the majority of seminar people are NOT teachers. They are you and me who have carved out some success or have found a unique niche. So while there is a lot to gain you have to work through some noise.

However this year we had a documentarian in who has nothing to do with weddings but educated people on finding the story in anything. Excellent seminar. Also an oldtimer who has moved on Art Kade returned, another excellent seminar. In 1994 he was using techniques that today even some of the best in this industry haven't mastered and others claim to just be introducing. Now shooting movies and million dollar commercials he returned, and I must say it was inspiring and very informative. My personal opinion I believe there are only a small handful of people anywhere close to challenging the creativity, techniques or integration of solid story telling this guy was doing 14 years ago!

Local associations are a needed and good source of information, but markets tend to stagnate and competitors start to look like one another in "closed" in markets without outside influences. WEVA gives you exposure not only to influences in other markets but to the world. A large percentage of CEAs crossed the ocean and went to the Philippines this year. If I was still being influenced only by my market, then I wouldn't be doing Same Day Edits, short form videos, trailers, love stories and contemplating finding a bride to shoot a bridal elegance, I would be producing a badly framed, hardly edited three hour monster that was boring as all get out, like the majority of my competitors and be happy charging $900 for it.

A $180 a year is pocket change. I bet many of us blow that much money every year on equipment that we barely unbox but sounded cool at the time. I know I have a basment stacked with just that type of crap. If you can't find some idea at WEVA that doesn't add $5000 to your bottom line every year, then you aren't trying very hard!

Brian Peterson

[John Sirb]

Originally Posted by Kelsey Emuss

I have to say that although I have recieved a LOT of business through Wedj...I have recently found that it ws getting a LOT of spam from that site. In one day alone I recieved over 400 phony leads.

Eventually I had to cancel my ad because I couldn't weed through all the crap. After a month or so (just recently in fact) I relisted and have not had any problems with spam....YET!

Hopefully it's been resolved on thier end.

Kelsey, were they actually phony leads or the " someone just clicked through to your website" messages. there is a setting to turn that off ( probably should be off by default)

There was an issue a while back and a number of people ( myself included) were getting bogus requests out of the same IP address in Asia.