Keith Michael Productions, LLC

HD and Blu-Ray are things on that are on everyones mind these days. And just the other week, Blu-Ray discs seems to have beaten HD DVD as the new format in the format wars. Many people, including myself, have HD TVs for viewing our TV stations, and I do have to say that I really enjoy the History Channel in HD. The real question I see HD asking those of us in the wedding industry, and those looking to higher videographers is when are we going HD?

This past weekend I was reading an article about this, and it seemed to share a lot of the same opinions that I have, and that is it does not make sense or the local videographer to go HD just yet. For my justification, I like to take a look at the history of HD. HDTV came out first, and in the beginning, only a couple of major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) started to broadcast in HD. And when they did, only some shows and some events were being shown in HD. Only recently have more channels been going HD, and are becoming available on more cable and dish providers. Just this week, the WWE went HD.

The thing to consider here is the budget that these networks and companies have and how long it took for them to become HD. My last example, the WWE, is a multi million dollar company that is seen around the world. So why did it take so long for them to go HD?

First, we look at the cost to go HD. It’s not just buying a new camera, for shooting things in wide screen. It’s also having the media to store the content on, and then your viewers having the ability to watch the HD content. The article I referred to earlier had another good point. They basically said that a bad story in HD is still a bad story and people will stop watching it.

Now to relate this to Keith Michael Productions, LLC. I am one person, recording weddings part time. The majority of my clients do not have the ability to view HD. They may have a HDTV, but they may not have the all important HD or Blu-Ray Player to play the Disc. Also, I am more concerned about creating great content right now, and I don’t need HD for that. Am I intending on going HD in the future. I sure am going to HD as soon as I can afford it. When I go HD, I want to go full HD all at once, and that will not be cheap. Until then, I am still recording in broadcast quality, and will continue to do so until HD is ready for me.

When I started Keith Michael Productions a couple of years ago, I had really big eyes. I figured this was going to be easy, and I would get customers and so on. I quickly learned how hard it is to start out and to continue growing. My first three jobs I actually booked rather soon after I started my business, but then I had a dry spell.

When I met with woman who was going to be the person handling my own wedding at the hotel, she gave me some hope. She said that a business like this takes at least three years to really start taking off. This is about the time the referrals start to kick in. And a friend of mine has also given me good words of wisdom. A salesman by trade, he told me that for every 10 people you talk to, 1 will hire you. That’s a 10% return rate. With these things in mind, I haven’t been discouraged when I didn’t get the job because I have actually been beating the 10% rate.

In the past year, I have met with people who haven’t hired me. Then, I was hired by people who never met me. Now, as I sit here on the first day of December, I think about where I was at this time last year. I had only one wedding booked, and it was for that same month. I had nothing booked for the next year. This year I look ahead at my calendar and I have 3 weddings next year along with my own, and I am working two other couples to book their weddings as well. In business terms, that is a 300% growth in future jobs compared with last year. That is something that I can be very happy with. Of course if I wasn’t getting married in June, I would have one more since I have had to turn someone down because their wedding day was the same as mine.

Even though I am seeing a 300% increase in business, I am no where near ready to go full time with this. As yet another friend of mine said to me the other night, when you make 2/3 of your current income doing your own business, they you can take that chance. That means if I can book around 20 weddings within in the next 6 months, I can go full time independent, except for the fact that I should wait until my fiance is out of Grad school.

A large misconception that I once had and many people still have is that because a videographer or a photographer run a successful business, that means that they must have a nice studio. Now in the case of the big studios that do multiple weddings on a day with different crews going out and different people editing, this may very well be true. But in my short time as a part of this industry and as someone planning my own wedding, I have found that my office is more the norm than the exception. Just about everyone that I have met runs their business out of the home. This actually makes it easy for doing work at all times of the day. However, for me right now it has actually made it difficult for meeting with clients.

I currently share an apartment with another guy. Now just imagine two guys in their mid 20s living together. Got that image in your head? Now Imagine me with a desk set up in the living room to run my business off of. That is my reality right now. This is a big reason as to why I am counting down the days that I will be living with my future wife, and when I can dedicate an entire room to my business. And then, I will actually be able to invite clients over to meet with. Until then, I will be making house visits and meeting at Starbucks.

Now to get back to the title of the post. Since I am running off of one desk, my space was getting very cluttered. So I went to Target two weeks ago and purchased a book case. One of the best investments I have made in a while. The shocking part is that pile that was on my desk has almost completely filled the book case. The good part is that I can now breath, and get back to what I get paid to do. Edit some video. I have two weddings and I want to get the both done before Christmas.

There are a lot of videographers out there that have been doing this for years and make really good money. I have not been doing it 10 or 20 years yet. I’m still new in the game compared to some companies. But yesterday I was reminded why I do this, and it isn’t for the money. Sure, I dream about being able to quit my day job and just do video. Who doesn’t dream about being their own boss full time? But that’s not it either.

Two months ago I did an 80th birthday party. Pretty standard affair. I had some trouble with a slide show that a family member had made in another program to play nice with Final Cut. I had sent them a rough cut while I worked out the kinks with the final video. I sent the final off a couple weeks ago, and when they told me that they received the copies, they also told me that the woman who’s party it was, was now in the Hospital.

Yesterday when I got home from work, I checked my e-mail, and there was an e-mail from the daughter who had been the one that contracted me for the party. She told me that her mother passed away the night before. My heart sank as I read the brief e-mail. She ended the e-mail by telling me that they would be playing the video of the party bereavement luncheon after the funeral, and then thanked me for giving them this beautiful remembrance.

Each time that I read this e-mail, I had to fight off the tears. Then I thought about one of my first videos that I made in tribute to college friend who had passed away, and how much that video touched people. And then I realized that this is the main reason why I love to make videos. I love to touch people’s lives. These birthday parties, and weddings that I record maybe a job for me, but when they are played back on the TV of one of my clients, they become an emotion.

I’m not just saying it was a great wedding I’m my end, but all around. This past Saturday I video taped my friend’s wedding and it was a lot of fun. We did a two camera setup and my fiance Joy was the second camera operator at the ceremony. It was her first wedding working for me, and she did a great job. I can’t wait to video tape more weddings with her in the future.

Knowing part of the wedding party always makes recording more fun. People play to the camera more, which will make a great final product. And even though I knew a lot of people there, it was fun for another reason. People were there to party. You could not keep the people off the dance floor, and that always makes for great fun, and the time to go by very fast.

Another first at this wedding was that I traveled with the bridal party on the bus after the ceremony. This is something that I don’t see doing for very many people as this is the time that people like to relax and have fun. With the camera around, they think twice about what they do. Again, that friend factor came in and made it ok for me to be around. Really, it was just easier for me instead of driving all over the place.

Now that I have finished recording the wedding, it’s time to get to editing. I now have three projects on the table and the only thing that I can think about while I’m at work is sitting down at home to edit. Two of these videos I would like to get 90% done before Thanksgiving. I am going to have to work really hard, but I think that I can get it done.

There is a lot to be said when you are a small company. I don’t have anyone to answer to aside from myself and my clients, I can be flexible to meet the needs of my clients, and I can make those last minute bookings. It may be true that since I am young company, I don’t get the work flow that bigger companies get that have been around for a couple of years. However, with the smaller work flow, it allows me to help out the last minute bookings. In the past 2 months, I have done 3 last minute jobs that were booked within 2 weeks of the events.

Now I am not telling people to wait until the last minute, because you might get burned. However, if you do wait till the last minute for whatever reason, you should still be able to find someone. And the best place to look are the younger shops. Chances are they have a lighter work load and that they are very eager to get the work, and in many cases may cut you a deal. So don’t wait until the last minute, but if you do, chances are there is someone out there that can help you out.

When I first started my company I decided to use a friend’s hosting company. They were just getting into the business, and I figured I would help them out. Well, they were one of many companies that are a GoDaddy store front. My friend eventually stopped doing the web hosting thing because it wasn’t worth for them and I was switched to another GoDaddy store front called domains priced right. Well, over time I have become unhappy with their web service and have decided to go to a web hosting company I had used when I was still in a band. 1and1.com is now my new web hosting site, or at least it will be once the transfer goes through.

What doesn’t this mean for visitors to the web site. Well, not too much. The site will look the same. I do have more storage on the site, so who knows what I might try and do with that. I hope you all enjoy it. There maybe a time when in the transition where my contact form may not work, but I hope take care of that as fast as possible.
 

People often ask me, and I’m sure other videographers, what kind of equipment I use. In today’s world there is a lot of talk about HD video across the market from consumer to the pros. And to be honest, I can’t wait to buy my first HD camera. However, I’m not there yet. I purchased my current camera about a year ago, and I really do love it. The sad thing that since I bought it, Canon has come out with and HD camera that is the same price range for what I paid for a SD (Standard Definition) camera.

With all of that said, I still have a great camera. It is a Panasonic AG-DVX100B.
This camera is a work horse, and I’m sure that I will be keeping it for at least 5 years. It has XLR microphone inputs, and manual volume controls. In fact, the whole camera can either be in auto or in manual mode. This is great for shooting live events so that I can fine tune things on the fly. The picture quality on it is amazing. It may not be HD, but it’s as close as you can get with out being a big TV camera. I still record everything onto tape. This isn’t like VHS, they are MiniDV tapes. They record a digital signal that I later import into my computer.

After the camera, the most important piece of equipment I have is the computer. Like many video people, I am editing on an Apple computer using Final Cut Pro. I am using version 4.5 which came out about 2 years ago. The only thing that it is really missing are some newer codecs for rendering the final movie. I hope to have the new version (which was just announced) by the end of the summer.

For those that don’t really know what Final Cut Pro, or any editing software is, the important thing to know is that this software that I, and others in my field are using, is the same software that more and more Hollywood films are being edited on.

The final step is of course your copy. VHS is has died. It cost more to make VHS copies, and the quality and longevity is not good. DVD is the format that output too. The DVDs will last many more years than a VHS, and I can also print labels right onto the disc to make it more personal for each project.

I hope that this has answered any questions that you may have about my equipment and if you have more questions, please e-mail me keith@keithmichaelproductions.com.

It has never been easier for people in my line of work to share video samples online. With combination of high speed Internet and online sharing sites, it makes mylife really easy. In the past, there were very few sharing sites, and the load times were slow and the quality wasn’t that great. Many people, including myself, would host video on their own web server. This means choosing a format, and then hoping you don’t get overloaded with people watching it and using up your bandwidth for the month.

Last year I started using Google Video, YouTube, and Yahoo Video. Yahoo Video had become my main area to store my video and use it for my web page because they allowed longer video clips than YouTube (they only allow 10 minutes) and Yahoo looked better than Google. I have recently thought of encoding things to Flash myself, but that becomes more trouble than it is worth.

What all of these sharing sites have in common and is that not only am I storing video for free, but people can now search for it. When you host on your own site, you can only find it by going to that site. Now, people can share your clips and find your site from these other sites. The other great part is that these sites all encode in Flash. In the past you really had to make that choice between QucikTime® and Windows Media®. Then you had to worry about if people had one of the other. With Flash, anyone who has their web browser up to date can view these videos.

Today, I have started posting on a new site. It is DailyMotion.com. What I really like about them is that interface is simple, and that they allow you to have videos that are up to 20 minutes long. Here is a sample of what it looks like.

It’s very clean, and very simple, and I hope that you all enjoy.