Where to Find your Wedding Videographer

To say that weddings are a business is a vast understatement. From flowers, to venues, yes…photographers and videographers, everyone seems to be willing to give you the day of your dreams…for a fee.

But have you ever thought about where you’re finding these vendors at? Today there are tons of sites that offer you one stop shopping for your wedding vendors. From The Knot, to Wedding Wire, to WedPlan, these sites will give you access to wedding vendors from all over…but does being listed there really mean they are the pick of the litter?

In business, one of the prevailing notions is ‘you have to spend money to make money’ and that’s what many of these sites prey on. Most of these sites have free listings that are usually nothing more than an image, url and brief description. The ones that have video, multiple images, blog post and so on are paying a pretty penny to get your attention. And that’s where things get hairy. You’re connecting with your vendors through a third party who is also making a profit. The ranking on those sites have nothing to do with the service they provide, but everything to do with the price they pay.

Now I’m not saying that they aren’t great companies, they very well could be. I’m just saying that brides and grooms should do some deeper digging. It take a lot of time to keep those sites up-to-date with relevant info to attract you. Time that could be spent elsewhere. If a company is listed on as few as 5 sites, that’s a heavy time investment. The thing is all that work only helps the company on the vendor site…not theirs! If they are writing blogs, updating video/photos and such for that site…they are increasing search traffic in the wrong place.

collage-dan-copyAs a small business owner, I’d much prefer you spend time on my site (that I’m already paying for) and work with me directly. When I get notification from these sites…you’re just a name, email and usually ‘expected budget’. Working with clients, whether corporate or for a wedding, should be about the relationship we build. For me to best capture your day, I need to get to know you, not some questionnaire.  Sure, we’ll eventually have a face-to-face, but that’s after a few mediated contacts that I had to pay for. Of course I’m going to really try to net you, regardless of whether or not a good fit, because I’m paying to talk to you!

Also, if the vendor you find is any good, they probably have contacts and connections locally to wedding venues, caterers and other vendors. Local small businesses win and you’ll get a chance to really get to connect with and find a good match. I think of the Knot and other sites like wikipedia…use them to get some general info, but then dig deeper to really find what you’re looking for.

In the end, I’m willing to bet you’ll be happier with those around you on your special day!

Has Apple Lost it’s Edge

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You’re looking at the newly redesigned Apple Mac Pro. Gone are the days of square towers and space consuming electronics, this is sleek, pretty, quiet and completely different. As Apple dubs it ‘the Desktop of the Future’ and ‘Something that provides an extremely powerful argument against the status quo.’

Some of the new key selling points of the Apple Mac Pro –

  • 4k video support
  • Thunderbolt 2
  • Up to 12 cores of processing power
  • 60 GB/s
  • PCIe Flash Storage
  • Designed with built-in Thunderbolt 2, USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI 1.4 ports
  • and so on…

So what’s the problem? The problem is what the mac pro is not, which is a performance machine.

To begin, the mac pro tops out at 12 cores. Fine for most people, but the old mac pro could go up to 16 cores, giving pro users the power the needed for larger renders and exports. Also, there’s no optical bay and all the inputs make most current drives obsolete. Apple has alway been on the forefront of technology and pushed us to do better, it’s just that they usually did it with pro users mind.

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The race to get smaller and sleeker has lead Apple to all but abandon a lot of what made it stand out to the professionals in the media industry. Even with something as simple as burning a DVD.  They have gutted the machine and opted for external drives and peripherals. Which is also an issue because they have abandoned legacy inputs like Firewire and USB 2. Apple has all but forced users to adapt to Thunderbolt with this flashy new machine. So no, your current usb 2.o optical drive won’t work.

Image from everymac.com

Many of us are still using drives with firewire. Thunderbolt may be the future, but many editors and creatives are still using firewire because: reviews aren’t the greatest yet for thunderbolt; the option are few at a professional speeds/standards, price per terabyte is still high; and their old hard drive works just fine. Even one firewire 800 port to daisy chain the rest together would be nice. And without the including a DVI out, even more money is being spent on adapters to use current monitors. As a professor by day, I dread is the amount of peripherals and cords that are going to be needed for this to be functional. That’s a lot of equipment, drives and cords to keep track of.

The new model also leaves you no room to expand internally. One of the hallmarks of the ‘old’ mac pro was the ability to grow it into the machine you needed and grew. It made it affordable enough to get one and still have the option to create a machine to meet your demands down the line.

While new, sleek and ‘all you’ll ever need’ works well for the average user, there’s a rather large segment of Apple’s core user group that can’t actually use this machine ‘as is’. Apple in its famous 1984 ad promised us a product that was inspired and different. Something that wasn’t everyday.

As of late though…they are failing us, at least those of us who use Apple products as high end hardware and software. Final Cut X was a water downed piece of software that was meant for everyone to be able to use. Their newest iPhone ads boast that ‘every day, more photos are taken with the iphone camera’ and show everyone using them. There are enough low end/consumer grade thunderbolt, usb 3 and HDMI 1.4 devices out there that the everyday person will be just fine with this new mac pro and we can all have one.

And that’s the problem. Apple is becoming the everyday computer company that everyone can enjoy. While that’s great for the masses, those of us who work in a world where growth, expansion, adaptability and performance are our life force, this is downright scary and appalling. A lot of this post was inspired by an old friend and current visual effects compositor Kurt Lawson. His power/processing needs far outweigh mine, any day and I think he summed it up best with this –

Apple doesn’t care about the high end users they are alienating, because many more middle range users are going to want the new black shiny “pro” box. So in the end they will maybe sell more of them, while categorically cutting off anyone who wants a pinnacle performance machine.

GoPro Really Does Go Anywhere

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About a year ago I bit the bullet and bought a GoPro HD Hero 2 with plans of using it in all sorts of situations. Sadly, it’s been collecting dust and really hasn’t seem much usage. A few test shoots here and there, but nothing to amazing.

Recently I’ve more time and really focused on getting the hang of it and it’s a great addition to Park’s Camera Packages. In doing weddings videography, I think we’re going to test it as a behind the scenes camera and to some time-lapse photography of brides and grooms getting ready and using it as an aerial camera in the church.

Back in February, we taped the Subnotics at the Jazz Cafe in Wilkes-Barre for a concert and in hindsight it would have been a great overhead or even better over the drummer shot. They always seem to get lost in the back!

It’s a great little camera and I’m happy I’ve got the time to finally realize its full potential. The next documentary we’ll be finishing will be featuring shots from it and we’re going to help cover the Peculiar Music Festival and it will definitely be put to use there!