"Our video budget depends on what's left after we hire our photographer ..."

[Jeff Brewer]

I like the idea of partnering with a photographer, but statistics show that only 30% of brides book a videographer and around 95% book a photographer. Do you all currently operating with a photo/video package find yourselves doing less bookings than the photographer? Do you operate only with the photographer or also take bookings under a separate name from the photographer?

I guess I am just really curious how you have found a way to make a photo/video package work. Sorry if this hijacks the thread, I hope it does not.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Videographers and photographers dont work in england as a partnership unless you really know them as friends. I think they see each other as a threat. Out of 58 wedding films i have worked with one photographer who was brilliant, the rest think your not guna get the first shot which i dont want anyway cause i want real time filming not some staged shot that is cheesy...My wife has a wedding shop and we have tried to link with photographers but it dont work, we have put links on to our website for their buisness but nothing in return...Now i have gone into photography i can see both sides of the day, on my first shoot, i left the bride and groom to do almost anything they want without staging shots, only a couple of shots, as ive seen photographers even tell the bride and groom when to drink walk talk smile eat, some are rubbish some are good, me ive now fed of them all and hope to fill in, but i wont do the video and photos together, only one or the other. I am now finding for sure clients want to sort out their photographer first, video last if money left... its tradition!!! for sure 95% here in england, i hope it changes cause i love filming, im more creative/cinematic. steve

[Philip Howells]

Steve my experience is the opposite. And we offer a combined photo/video package with an established photographer. Everyone's feeling the recession but that shouldn't affect your marketing.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Hi Phillip yes good point but rather than rely on someone else i have dipped into the stills myself, rather than not give a 100% job i will only do video or photography on seperate days, that is as im training people up to do the films my way then i can dip in the full package.. if that makes sense... steve
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[Philip Howells]

Steve, I think we're not a million miles apart - our photog takes pictures the way I'd like to and he feels pretty much the same about video. The important thing is to emphasise to the client that we're not doing the two skills ourselves. Mind you, perhaps as a man I'm not innately equipped for multi-tasking!

[Steve Bleasdale]

Yes my wife keeps telling me hahaha... Hows it going Phil? i seem to have dipped the last month i have lots of bookings from before xmas for this year but its just stopped dead, although i do seem to be booking for 2012. I wish i could go upmarket, but where i live seems to dictate, people always asking how much can i do it for??? people that are slightly dearer than me in the area are very slow but the cheaper end ive lost out to three the past couple of months someone doing it for £200 pound less than me so god knows how much he is charging, as i thought i was affordable!!! steve

[Danny O'Neill]

Why does your area be a limitation? We've only filmed 2 wedidngs in our area, most our work comes from Hertfordshire and Essex. If we only looked for work nearby we would be very much out of business by now.

Branding and how you present yourself is important. I am no expert by any means but the text speak in your company name lends itself to a particular market. Does your website appeal to brides? Not a criticism, just something to consider if you are after changing your demographic.

The day our prices went over £1000 everything changed. Previous marketing didnt work, the website design wasnt working, the way we dealt with our couples. The reason was our market changed drastically and we had to rethink everything. Do you advertise on Visual Bride? This used to be good for us when we were sub £1k.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Hi Danny i cant fugure out why i am stuck in the middle range i advertise on google every other month, 50 mile radious of liverpool, and have only ever done one film outside liverpool in macclesfield? word and mouth that one? Are you saying you are over the 1000k ,mark or under? if over how did you implement that, do you advertise danny? what sites? steve

[Noel Lising]

I just had a meeting with a studio, I am shooting a wedding for them this Saturday. They use to offer Photography only now they have combined Video to go along with it. They have 4 weddings this Saturday ( Video/Photo Package) and this season they have 112 weddings booked. That being said, he told me that combining both services doubled their business. One stop shop for the busy bride.

PS. They are not cheap either, $ 6K for a package.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Good shout maybe i will try to look for a decent photographer or i may just book the full video/photography package. i said i was going to do one or the other but may change my mind

[Ram Purad]

Originally Posted by Susanto Widjaja

We used to get something like :

"we spent so much on our photographers that we haven't got much left for our video"

but we don't get those anymore. We even sometimes get something like this:

Us: "Have you got your photographer yet?"
couple: "Not yet"
Us: "Do you want us to recommend you some?"
couple: "yes sure but we dont want to spend a lot on photography.. videography is more important for us"

so, dont worry. things are changing. There are still people who are not valuing videography as much but there are also people who thinks otherwise. Just keep on doing great work and results will come by itself

My 2 cents :)

Santo

This is true for us as well. We had many clients came and booked us first before booking a photographer, and sometimes even before booking a venue. A few clients even went the mile of changing their wedding to have us cover their event.

Hope this is the trend that ppl who are producing good/meaningful work seeing in the industry. We've made some good progress in grabbing some of the attention (and money) the photographers had all these years. Still there are ways to go.

[Claire Buckley]

Originally Posted by Noel Lising

I just had a meeting with a studio, I am shooting a wedding for them this Saturday. They use to offer Photography only now they have combined Video to go along with it. They have 4 weddings this Saturday ( Video/Photo Package) and this season they have 112 weddings booked. That being said, he told me that combining both services doubled their business. One stop shop for the busy bride.

PS. They are not cheap either, $ 6K for a package.

This is often the belief of photographers, we do great stills then we can do great videos too - no I don't think so.

I think many are seeing the writing on the wall for stills as a stand-alone product, and DSLR gives them a false sense of security that shooting video IS just like shooting stills - they can relate to that. Not until they find that producing a video involves a lot more than the photoshopping equivalent of sticking a whole bunch of pictures together in quick succession.

A few photogs I've spoken too recently said similar things and have admitted it was the editing which made them think again.

Simply, the event photo portfolio consists of "snapshots" with a very narrow conceptual timeline. Ask them to tell a story or add in structured sequences and they've got a problem.

Yes, some have successfully transitioned but I bet it's those with the video background into stills, not the other way around.

Just a thought :)

[Noel Lising]

Claire, sorry if I have confused you, the Studio offers a Video/Photo package, meaning they hire a Videographer to do their video and a photographer to do stills. The meeting made me look at my business strategy, last year I did 30 packages, I would love to do a 100.

[Kelly Huffaker]

I was booked for a wedding to do video in the Spring time. They chose my mid package which is about $1,500......HOWEVER..........yesterday I got an email from the couple telling me that they wanted to cancel my services because they wanted to use that money to hire a second Photographer in addition to their OVERPRICED $7,000 out-of-town Photographer. Give me a #$%& break! The $7,000 photographer doesn't have a second shooter?!? I asked what the reason was, and they said because its gonna be a huge wedding, and they don't want to miss a thing........and that video was just an afterthought. Wow people!

[Craig Parkes]

I am not in the wedding videography game - but I would have thought that the internet would be a huge boon for you guys, compared to a still photographer.

Whereas stills photographers big advantage is that they can go to high quality print, this is probably happening less and less while the rest of the elements of high quality still photography remain relatively unchanged by the web.

The fact that wedding videos can now be distributed online and thus very easily shown to family and friends all around the world whereas before sending out DVDs etc would have been considerably more hassle must make it a positive growth area for you guys.

Just curious if this is a growing selling point when competing/comparing your services against still photographers?