Keith Michael Productions, LLC

It’s the second to last week of October and I have finished my last wedding shoot for the year (unless of course someone books me for a last minute shoot before the new year).  For me the easy part of the wedding season is over.  I don’t have anymore shoots to do, which really is the easy and fun part of the weddings.  Get to meet new people, listen to different bands, and see people having a lot of fun.  Now it’s time for me to lock myself into my office and edit, edit, edit.  

The other part of this season being over is to start getting ready for the next season.  Being relatively new to the business, I don’t have 2009 booked yet.  In many ways this is the hardest part.  It’s time to get out there and start meeting new couples.  The good part about this year compared to last is that I am not planning my own wedding at the same time, so I will have more time to meet with all of you out there, and to start planning your wedding video.

As the summer is winding down, my production is kicking into high gear.  I have more than double the work that I had a year ago, which is great.  Of course, I had to go and get married in the middle of the season, which has pushed production back a little bit.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not cranking them out.  I believe in getting people their videos with in a certain time frame, and even if I have to work extra hard to do that, I will.  And people may think that I have a breather coming up because the summer is over.  Sadly, it just means I have 5 more weddings in the fall.  Good for business, bad for resting.  Right now I’m getting excited about Thanksgiving.  I think that is when I will finally have time to edit my own wedding.

Enough about my work flow, here are some new videos that I want to share with the world.  First up is a photo montage that is on a couples DVD.  They chose to use photos from their wedding for their montage.  The down side to that was they had to wait to get the photos from the photographer.

This next one is a highlight video from the wedding I recorded the week before my own wedding.  Second camera was Steve Wrinkles.  Two things to note with this video.  The cable for the wireless mic system I use during the ceremony turned out to be a bad cable, and it has since been replaced.  And this is the first wedding where I started using my new light.  You will notice that in the reception that it ads some light to fill shadows without being over powering like some lights you may have seen.

Here are some photos of the last Church I was at for a wedding. The church is only two years old and there are no nails in the beams. They are all pegs.

When choosing a wedding vendor, you may always think that you are going to be hiring someone that is married.  Well, for the first couple years of my business, I was not married.  For a while I was engaged, and that is how I related to clients.  They are planning a wedding, and I am planning a wedding.  I know how much work goes into because I was going through it at the same time.  Well, as of a couple weeks ago, I am now married.  I can still relate to how much planning goes into because I went through it.  But now I have something new to share.

People will tell you that the day goes by faster than you can imagine.  I didn’t always believe that.  After experiencing it, I can tell you that people don’t say it enough.  The day goes by way too fast.  I only danced with my wife once, barely ate dinner because people dragged me on the dance floor, and the only cake I had was the piece that my wife shoved in my face.  Looking at pictures that friends took, there were so many things that I missed.  I can only imagine what the video will hold.  So now this is a new message that I have for people thinking about having a video.  You can’t afford not to have a video.  You won’t remember or even see half the the things that happen on your wedding day.  Take it from me, I was there.

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.

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.