With Wedding Season just around the corner I thought I would take this time to share some thoughts on how to make it to your wedding date without going crazy.  This year I can share the pain the my clients are going through since I am doing the same thing.  I have just over 2 months until my wedding, and I know how much there is to do.

First, I think it is a good idea to step back and create a list about once a week.  This will likely be one of many lists you have already created, but I find it helpful since every week it seems like that there is something else that I thought of today and that I didn’t think of yesterday.  Take that list and post it next to your computer screen at work since you will most likely be looking at it all day.  When you get the chance to call that Church, and book a meeting with the DJ, that is one less thing that you have to do, and you check it off the list.  With only a couple of months to go is the nitty gritty stuff.  Paying all the vendors, and double checking with the limos to make sure they know where to be when.  Even though you aren’t supposed to do these things at work, when people know you are getting married, they let these little five minute breaks slide.

Second, you need a place to live if you aren’t living together already.  I am finding out that this just ads a little more complication.  On top of paying your vendors and making sure everything is ready, now you need to find a place to live, come up with the security, move in, and so on.  For anyone that has moved before, you know there are a lot of things that need to be done.  My advice is to try and have a new place ready a month before the wedding, even if you aren’t going to live there yet.  Have a place where you can start moving your furniture and such.  You want to have this out of the way before the wedding, because once you get to that week, you won’t be wanting to move.

Lastly, relax.  Just because there is a lot to do, does not mean it is time to freak out.  Maybe this should the first point.  But, the point is, that this is going to be one of the best days of your lives, don’t let the little stuff ruin it.  Once your rehearsal dinner day is here, you should not have a bad moment until long after you get back from the honey moon.

Planning your wedding (or event) takes a lot of time, and there is nothing worse than feeling rushed by vendors.  When you stop to look around, there are a lot of different vendors that you need to be meeting with and booking for your wedding.  You have the photographer, the videographer, florist, reception hall, and the list goes on.  And I know as well as anyone about this right since I too am going through the process of getting ready for my wedding in June.  My goal in this post is to give some advice about dealing with vendors as far as meeting with them, and how long you should take to get back to them.

First of all, NEVER sign on the dotted line right away.  Even if you end up going with the first person you meet with, you should always shop around.  You may feel like you wasted your time, but if you went with the first person you met, you will never know what else is out there.  My fiance will tell you that I am bad at that, because I always want to book someone soon or right away.  Then again, guys aren’t that good at shopping around.  And not only should you shop around, all of us vendors know that you are shopping around.  The first time I ever met with a client, I brought a blank contract with me and everything hoping to book them that night.  I was excited about getting my business started, however it was a bad idea.  Although, they did book with me, filling out the contract form right then and there isn’t always the best idea for someone like me who happens to be a small shop.  When you do meet with a vendor, ask all the questions you need to, get a quote and let them know you are still looking around.  Trust me, if they are a good vendor they will not be insulted that you looking around at other vendors, that is just part of the business.  However, I have noticed that some vendors play a little more hard ball.  When my fiance and I were shopping around for out photographer, we met with one who was only going to give us the weekend to decide, and after that, he could not hold the date any longer.  In most cases, this shouldn’t happen to you, but if it does, don’t fall victim to this and think you need to book that photographer or else you will be stuck with no one.  Tell them that you still need to shop around, and meet with other vendors.  As the couple getting married, you have the upper hand, because with out you, we would have no jobs.

Now taking the time to shop around is recommended, but taking too long can be rude, and can lose your spot with a vendor that you might want to book.  For instance, taking a couple weeks to shop around is okay, but taking a couple of months can be too long.  Even though your wedding is a year or more away, other people are looking for the same vendors for the same days, and in the end, the only thing that books the day with any vendor is your deposit.  For this reason, I suggest trying to schedule vendors in the same time frame.  Try to meet with a couple of DJs within the same time period, and then make that decision.  Then meet with a couple of photographers in a time period and make that decision.  If you do it one type of vendor at a time, you can make a nice time schedule for yourself, and get a lot accomplished. 

Lastly, once you do decide who your vendors are going to be, it is polite to contact the vendors that you are not going with to let them know.  You may feel funny about sending an e-mail or making a phone call to a vendor telling them that you are not going to higher them, but in actuality I prefer to hear from people that they have gone with someone else.  First of all, it means that I can try to book that date with someone else, and second, I don’t have to continue to send e-mails or make phone calls to someone that has already booked another vendor.  Consider it like a R.S.V.P.

I hope that this along with all other advice posts is helpful.  If you have other topics that you would like me to write about, please let me know.

It seems like I can never just keep things the way they are.  This is true in my business, my web site, my video style, and in life.  Some people may look at this as a negative, but I think of it as the very opposite.  The changes that I make, are always striving to make something better.  In my video production, it is to increase the quality of the video that I record and edit, and today, it is making the web site look a little bit better.

The change is subtle, and it is right in front of you if you are reading this.  That’s right, I changed the blog.  For a few years, I have been using the Blogger service to host my blogs for various groups.  It worked well, but it is a little crude, and you can’t get it to look just the way you want.  When I created this new site in the Fall, I tried using some different tools that are plugins for this site.  The programing language behind the site is called Joomla, and there are several plugins that people have made that will create a blog, however, I didn’t like any of them.  Instead of using one of them, I simply "wrapped" my Blogger site into this one.  And that was okay, but not great.

In the past month, I have been fooling around with a blogging technology called WordPress, and I love it.  My first major thing I did was create an online magazine with my friend called AAVR Magazine.  We have some contributors, and are running like a true magazine.  The next thing that I did, was redo my personal blog that I share with my soon to be wife.  And then finally, today I moved my Keith Michael Production blog into WordPress.  WordPress lets you import from your old blog, so everything that I had on Blogger, has been moved over.  Now this blog will be easier to maintain, and I think it will look a lot better.  So please enjoy the new format as I hope to be writing a lot more.

Every time I finish a job and give the video to my clients, whether it be for a party, or a wedding, or anything else, I am always nervous. My job is done, I created a great video as far as I am concerned, but I always seem to hold my breath until I get the phone call or the e-mail thanking me for the great job. No matter how well I think I did, I don’t believe it until the person who the video is for tells me that it is a great video.

Am I always nervous? do I always hod my breath? I would say yes. But the times that I am even more on edge is when I do a video for somebody I know. Most clients I don’t hear from for months or years until they need another video, but my friends I see all the time. Recently I recorded the wedding of a friend of mine. The pressure was on.

It was a two camera setup for the ceremony, I was going to know a good amount of people there, and this was the first time I was bringing my fiance Joy on as a second camera. First off I had to balance the time I spent talking with friends and doing my job. I never like the idea of my voice on video, especially if it’s for someone else. The good part about knowing the people was that they weren’t shy with the camera. In fact, a lot of them enjoyed having it around. In the end, I had fun with friends, and kept the video professional.

Next was making sure that Joy did a good job. Most of her experience with the video camera was from video taping some of my old bands gigs. That’s ok though because in those videos I could tell she had the good sense of what to keep in frame. All I needed to do was a crash course in the rule of thirds, pan and zoom techniques, and we were ready. After reviewing the video, she did a great job! I’ve seen media students that aren’t as good as her. I can’t wait to see how she does after a couple of weddings. The best part about her doing the second camera? I don’t have to pay her (by her own choice).

How did the video turn out? Well, I had some audio sync issues which I cleaned up in my editor. Aside from that, it looked like a great video. Then it was the moment of truth. My friend stopped by on Friday to picked up the DVDs (which I had for two weeks waiting for him). On Saturday, I was working on an audio job when my cell phone rang with his name on the caller ID. I picked up to hear his wife say "Hi Z" (that’s my nickname). I took a deep breath as I new this was going to be the moment of truth. The result, they loved it. They cried while watching it. This made me feel great. Another job well done. The only thing left is for me to give them the un edited video. I usually give all of the videos at once, but when you are dealing with friends, you have a little more cushion on the time table.

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.