When putting together a budget with a client, I ask them how much they’ve set aside for Videography and often times they respond,“oh I don’t want that, I would never watch it.” I then go on to tell them how different videography is now, from back when someone taped everything with an unsteady hand and edited out the parts they never wanted to see again, which was pretty much the whole thing! I got together with Ryan with Focal Point Digital Media to learn more! I’ve known Ryan for 5 years now and am always impressed by his prompt responses, quality of work on the day of and finished product. Hence why, Focal Point Digital Media was recognized last week as Best Videographer by Oregon Bride 2009 (stay tuned for more winners featured in the coming months)!! Get settled in and get to know Focal Point Digital Media. (Click the images below to view sample video footage)
Champagne: How did you get into the video business?
Ryan: I’d always had an interest in video and I graduated from George Fox University with Communication Arts degree, but then for the first seven years after college I took advantage of an opportunity to compete as a professional track athlete, until I retired from the sport in 2004. That year I jumped in with both feet, with a goal to film a dozen weddings in order to hopefully break even on my initial equipment investment. Instead, my first full year brought 40 weddings and I’ve been doing it full time ever since, moving from my home office into a retail studio a couple years back and supporting three additional part-time employees besides myself.
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Champagne: What do you see as one of the most important parts of filming a wedding?
Ryan: It’s hard to say what the most important part of the wedding day is, but I can easily tell you my favorite parts to film. There are two really: the “first look” moment prior to the ceremony when the bride and groom first see each other, and then the first 60 seconds immediately following the ceremony. After so many months of anticipation and planning the first look is such an emotional time for the couple that it is practically a guarantee of dramatic footage I can use to tell their story later in editing. The 60 seconds following the ceremony is often a compelling moment to film for much the same reason as the first look: it’s just such an emotional and joyous moment coupled with the relief of knowing the ceremony is over and they’re actually married… plus for that short little 60-second window it’s just the bride and groom alone and they’re not yet getting mobbed by their bridal party and guests. It’s a tender moment and it can make for amazing video oftentimes!
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Champagne: What is the most fun part of being a wedding videographer?
Ryan: Although I really love the reactions when we deliver the finished DVDs to a couple, I’d have to say that working on the actual wedding day itself is the most fun part of my job. Spending 8 hours filming a wedding is merely the tip of the iceberg considering we frequently spend 50+ hours on a project including post production. Editing requires a lot of late nights at the studio and is complex, time-consuming and very detailed… but the wedding day itself is just a blast: I get to hang out with a couple experiencing the best day of their lives, everyone is looking great, having fun, and just generally enjoying the party atmosphere. That part of my job simply cannot be beat! Plus, in what other job do you get to eat so much salmon and prime rib at work??
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Champagne: What sets your business apart from other videography businesses?
Ryan: A couple things make my business different from the rest. Most notably is that we specialize exclusively in wedding videography and do not solicit any other type of video work. Weddings present a unique challenge and are a very distinct little niche in the larger video production world, but by remaining passionate about what I do I have been fortunate enough to be able do what I love full time. We’ve shot over 150 weddings in the past 5 summers, which very few of our competitors can match.
The other big difference my business offers is our style of editing. We produce what’s known as a cinematic short-form wedding video, which basically means we sift through the many hours of raw footage and distill it down to a tightly edited, movie-like main feature complete with a custom soundtrack, tasteful effects and a polished story line. Every great moment of the day is there, but none of the boring stuff from in between! It’s much more involved than long-form documentary-style editing, but infinitely more watchable and our effort has paid off as recently we were honored to be the only studio in Oregon or Washington to receive a Creative Excellence Award from our industry trade group WEVA.
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Champagne: Do you have any special features you offer?
Ryan: We have a wide range of special features we offer to our clients who wish to customize their video packages, the most popular of which include Theatrical Trailers (ready within a week of the wedding), Love Stories, Director’s Commentary audio tracks, Photo Montages, HD upgrades, and on and on. The absolute single coolest feature we’re offering is called a Same-Day Edit, which is where we produce a video on site during the reception and play it for the guests… often just 90 minutes after they saw the same events with their very own eyes!
Champagne: What else, if anything, would you like the other vendors to know about you?
Ryan: Wedding videography has improved dramatically over the past decade and is becoming a must-have for today’s brides. It engages so many of your senses and is such a rich medium that I would strongly recommend it to anyone. As one of very few wedding expenses that gives the couple something to permanently keep, it’s a worthwhile investment and one that grows in value as time passes. I’d invite anyone to please visit my website at http://www.focalpointvideo.biz to view samples of our work and learn more about what Focal Point Digital Media has to offer!
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Champagne: Why do you feel having a video of your wedding is so important?
Ryan: A well done video is incredibly important if you want to remember your wedding day in any detail. Having NOT gotten a wedding video myself (ironic, I know) and can hardly begin to tell you what a blur it all was and how much I’ve forgotten of my own wedding and reception. Plus, video is just such a rich medium and it involves so many senses: it’s not just a still silent image, but it combines motion, sound, music, context… it’s all captured, as if it just happened yesterday. Why live your wedding day only once?
Ryan would like to leave you with this…
Brides of this generation grew up on video, be it via MTV, YouTube, or wherever, so it’s only natural to have the biggest day of your life on video too! The hardest part for me as a videographer is that nobody’s mom had a video at their wedding, so it’s not something every bride automatically considers, however it’s something many brides regret NOT getting. But I can tell you with certainty that we’ve never had a bride regret investing in videography from Focal Point Digital Media. Wedding video is a very specialized niche, but it’s all we do and we love it… and I hope our passion shows in the quality of the wedding films we produce.
Thank you Ryan for taking time to meet with us! Congratulations on the Best of Oregon Bride 2009 award! It is very much deserved!
Cheers!
