Wedding Season

As January winds down, summer begins to seem closer and closer. If summer is Wedding Season, then winter is the season to prepare for Wedding Season. Too ensure that we actually HAVE weddings booked for the summer months, the winter months are full of running, promoting, researching, and good old fashioned heavy breathing. I have the lovely responsibility of booking weddings for the summer, whereas Matthew is in charge of booking productions and band shoots and the likes.

While promoting Eleven35 and making sure we have a strong presence on the web, especially on wedding vendor listings online, I come across a lot of other videography companies. Being the competitive businessman I am, it's hard to resist taking a peak at their portfolios and packages. Now, I don't mean to be critical and I don't mean to nasty, but I feel it's important to express my complete lack of envy. I have yet to see a portfolio that I wish belonged to Eleven35. In fact, many of the demos put forward by videography companies were surprisingly awful! The camera work, color correction, editing, and music were all very poor, and not one redeemed the other.

Seeing that these companies are my competition, do I feel a small amount of satisfaction knowing that their product was ugly? YES, yes I do. I will not deny it. However, more than that it makes me a little bit afraid. When I see bad videography demos running rampant, it makes me afraid that the wedding videography field has created its own negative stigma, and I would hate to have any client expect from us the same "home video-esque" quality from us as they would from Videographer Joe down the street [Joe doesn't actually exist, that I'm aware. But if you google Videographer Joe and actually find out he's real, please let me know so I can publicly apologize]. I honestly believe that Eleven35 Productions could be one of the best wedding video producers within 1000 miles. However, I say this tentatively since

1. I have not seen EVERY wedding videography company within 1000 miles. And
2. I don't want to seem pompous.

So the challenge given to me is this, to make it immediately clear that Eleven35 is works at a higher standard than a large majority of videography providers. Hopefully this blog will help as we get better keeping it up to date and adding our newest work.

SO, since Wedding season IS coming up, the season where hundreds of young couples will exchange vows, I ALSO would like to make some vows. They are as follows.

I. Eleven35 will always use our own work to advertise. No trying to pass photography as a video still. Lies lies lies. No no.
II. We will never use heart shaped, pixelate, zig zag, or any other awful, awful, terrible, distracting transitions.
III. That old fashioned video effect with the lines and the dust? We'll never use it. iMovie sepia tone? Please no. We won't.
IV. We will never use fake MIDI music that's often free off of the internet. Videographers love it because it's free. We don't.
V. The ponytail, 1998 videographer who lives in his mom's basement - we promise to never be him or hire him.
VI. Our crew will stay out of the way. We will never capture the moment at the expense of ruining it.
VII. We vow to produce imagery of quality. We will not allow bad white balance and exposure to pass.



Well, that's that. The list goes on but my knowledge of Roman numerals tells me to stop here. As always, have fantastic day!

JohnPaul