Brent Dunn
Forum Replies Created
-
Bridal shows are a good start. You’ll get in front of a lot of brides and also get a list of contacts.
Join your local videographer’s association, attend local bridal association meetings, etc.
It takes time and dedication. We all have the technical skills but many videographer’s lack in the sales area. Attend sales or motivational seminars not related to videography.
I found that building relationships is the best way for any business. It’s amazing that if people just like you, they’ll send you business, even if they’ve never seen your video. If your good, you can close sales without ever showing a video sample. That being said, you need to have a good demo and a good website.
Get your website SEO placement on the first page. You can pay Google Ad Words to advertise via pay per click so people can find your site.
Meet as many people in the business as possible, don’t bug them, but send them a thank you, Christmas card, birthday card, etc.
Get a facebook page.
I could write 10 pages of stuff. Just dedicate as much time as possible to promoting yourself and your business.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
I find it’s best not to ask and apologize later. Sometimes I have the same issues, but if they specifically tell me not to roam, I try to comply with maybe some movement to adjust for the priest or pastor’s movement that may be blocking the shot.
Harry, wow, good luck. I’ve watched a lot of attitude guys come and go. I always play the good guy and it usually gives me flexibility the next time I come to the venue. I mean why would you start a fight with someone in charge of a venue or church? Yeah, you’ll get your shot, but they eventually will ban you from the location and you’ll loose money. If you don’t think they will, wait until the police show up to arrest you for trespassing. Then the bride will sue you and smear your business name. You can have 100 happy customer’s, but it only takes one unhappy customer to make your life miserable.
We’ve all had issues with over zealous coordinators, ministers, DJ’s, Photographers, etc. I always ask how I can help make their day easier. Being nice actually works, try it sometime.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
Tape your lav mic to the center person on the table, or if you only have two mics, split the distance on the table and it’ll pick up the speakers. Only 4 speakers, then it should cover your sound, even though not ideal.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
Either call the company you purchased it from to return it, or arrange to send it back to sony for repair. Not good for a camera right out of the box.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
I would definitely go to the Adobe Production Suite to make life easier. Plus, CS-5 works seamlessly with Encore / Photoshop / After Effects, etc. There aren’t any issues now on the Mac using Premier.
I love my Final Cut, but Apple has just left us on the sidelines while they make billions on the iPhone.
You might want to also buy an external hard drive docking station for backup of your files. This way you can use internal hard drives, which are cheaper and easier to store. To really protect your files, you should back them up twice to two different drives, since hard drives can fail. Also, you have to spin your drives about once every 6 months to keep them lubricated and operational.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
Here’s a link to the Canadian Embassy / Consular office with temporary work visa info.
https://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/washington/imm/permit_work-travail_permis.aspx?lang=engBrent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
Don’t listen to people who don’t shoot international. You are risking having equipment impounded, fines, & loosing the shoot. I’ve had angry immigrations officer’s make my life miserable before. You don’t want to catch them on a bad day.
Find the Canadian Consulate website. It should have all of your needed information on permits, work visa’s, etc. Or search for Work Visa.
The Bahama’s are strict, India is a nightmare of paperwork. I haven’t filmed in Canada, but I would think it isn’t a big expense or big amount of paperwork.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
What is the outcome or use of the final product? If he is expecting this to be used for a promotional web video or anything to represent the company, you have to explain what a good production looks like and how it COULD be if he had the budget.
You have to educate prospective clients. Explain what $500 gets; A boring one camera talking head. Ask him, how many times have you sit through 6 hours of someone talking and actually paid attention? Did you fall asleep? Now try watching that on a TV.
You need 2 cameras, wireless mic to clip on the speaker or podium. H-1 patch to the board is a good idea too, or another wireless patched. I always want to hear what audio is being recorded. If your Zoom battery dies in the middle, you won’t know until it’s too late.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
I don’t know any kids sporting event where they play for 4 hours continuously, unless they are in the ironman competition. Do you mean 4 hours total recording time?
I film a lot of sporting events. I’ve used both tape and tapeless formats. If you are traveling and in a multi-day tournament situation where you have 2 or more games in a day, tape cameras are much easier to manage, but you have to import all that footage.
If you are in low light, the auto-focus feature on some cameras tend to hunt and search.
Since SD cards are pretty cheap now, you may want an AVHCD camera that uses these SD cards. You’ll also want to look at the zoom. I have one camera with a 10 x zoom and another with the 20 x zoom. For football the 20 is nice to go end zone to end zone.
I use Final Cut and Premiere. Premiere handles most formats from AVHCD to XD-Cam and DSLR camera footage with no issues. Final Cut now have plugins for XD-Cam and DSLR cameras for log and transfer, but currently do not support AVHCD. You’ll have to use either compressor or another 3rd party software to convert the AVHCD footage to Pro-Res, Apple’s Final Cut format.
Try to rent a camera you are thinking of buying first to test it out.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
EX-1 is worth the extra grand. You may even be able to find a used one for even less.
I just did a big concert shoot with a mixed bag of cameras. The EX-1 was clearly superior in performance, quality, & image. Check out the EX / XD Cam forum here at the cow.
XD Cam format is much better and you even have the ability to record at 4:2:2 using an external recorder such as the NANO Flash should you want to add that in the future.
You’ll never regret purchasing the EX1 or EX1r, and the comment about longer recording times; You have two slots that you can put 2 – 32 Gig cards and now coming to 64 Gig cards. 2 Cards give you almost 4 hours of continuious recording, and you can actually have unlimited time, by swapping out the cards during recording. When it switches to one card, you swap out the other.
YOu can now use the SD Card adaptors or the SxS-1 cards which is less expensive than the SxS card. But, the SxS performance and longevity is proven. Good Luck.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite