Photographers and Videographers Have to Work Together at a Wedding

Today most brides want to have a professional photographer and a professional videographer to capture all the activities and excitement of their wedding. Both services are an important expense for brides and grooms to consider in thier budget. Wedding photography and video, while sharing the same subject matter, are completely different in how they document the day. To the bride and groom, one is not more important than the other. In our experience, some photographers get all upset and agitated when they show up at the church on the wedding day and realize they'll have to work with 2 videographers trying to get the same shots at the same time. We always make it a point to go to the wedding rehersal to get an idea of the setup, lighting, and flow of the service. We never see photographers at the rehersals so when they show up, they act surprised that we'll be working right there with them. Videography and photography are shot in a completely different manner. When we are doing video for a wedding, we set up our cameras so we can get good, clear, close shots and sound of the entire service. There is plenty of room for the photographer to shoot right beside us, as well as move around freely to get good close shots. We usually have to explain how we work, but the photographers are often sure we are going to ruin their shots and our cameras and tripods are going to be in every photo. We even had a photographer tell us how we should shoot the entire wedding from the back of the room because that's how other videographers do it. We do not do what other video companies do. That is why we win most of the competitions we enter. With over 30 years of experience, we can assure the photographers that they will get beautiful pictures.

SHOULD YOU BRING YOUR CHILDREN TO A WEDDING & RECEPTION NO!

I know, I know your children are a part of the family. I have been in the video business for 32 years and I love kids BUT a wedding ceremony is a sacred service and should be treated as such. I have seen kids of all ages from 2-13 running wild in a Catholic Church playing tag. This game went on for 20 minutes while the seating was occurring. They were on the altar, running the isles and really had no clue as to how annoying they were. This is the PARENTS FAULT for not stopping this behavior. Screaming kids during the services is a real sore spot for the ministers, priests and rabbis. The parents do nothing to stop them. Kids get bored really fast during wedding services. This is the way kids are built. I did the same thing when I was a kid. They have an extreme amount of energy and they have to blow it off. Rarely have I seen a child who was part of the actual bridal party act up because they are being supervised. Non supervision is a recipe for this type of behavior. During the actual service it is usually pretty calm except for the 2 yr olds and babies occasionally crying. Ahh the reception. The way it works in that the people arrive about an hour before the introductions and dinner. During the cocktail hour the kids can run wild, really wild, up to crawling on to the DJ’s platform and playing there. Now it is becoming extremely dangerous. I have seen a drunk adult fall into a DJ’s booth, knocking over a tower speaker.Uunfortunately the speaker landed on the guys chest and landed him in the ICU with several broken ribs and both lungs collapsed. He did survive. Can you imagine a kid being crushed by this speaker. It would be horrible. I had a kid run into my flood light which the bulb runs at about 3200 degrees. The unit fell on him, lucky for him the back of the light landed on him and was bruised but not burned. Had it been the other way his skin would have been instantly seared off. This filament is hotter than molten iron and the whole front of the light is over 2000 degrees. There are too many reasons to keep your children home. It is NOT because we are child haters. It is because they can injure themselves critically. I have seen this as well. A 7 yo kid ran into a disabled lady, knocked her over and she was rushed to a local hospital with a fractured hip. She never recovered. Of course kids want to be a part of the festivities, but for their safety children under 13 should be taken to a baby sitter. Parents if you do bring kids to a wedding please restrain them from making the church and the dance floor their private playground.

WHO IS THE BETTER VIDEOGRAPHER, COMPANY A OR COMPANY B??

Who is the best anyway?? I want to know! First of all that is a good question. How do you pick the best video production company for you. Here is the thing. A lot of video companies brag about their equipment as being the best out there. Is this true or not. It is to him/her but is it really. The bottom line comes down to you the consumer, who do you want to do your job whether it is a wedding or a multi-million dollar production. There is a ton of things to consider. One is the buget, is one to expensive and the other isnt? Lets set something straight here. One time I was reading a publication by a well know videographer. He was telling the world that his format was the best that there is. I saw that article and took him up on his assertions that his format was the best on earth. Sony came out with an article that expressly stated that their format was by far the better choice. We are talking world class video here and not something a bride and groom would be interested in. What this all comes down to is the interview with the videographer. Do you like him/her? Are they capable of shooting your wedding? Are the samples showing you everything or just montages of pictures and no real action? What does the wedding part look like? What is their repuatation like? DO NOT TAKE ANOTHER COMPETITIORS WORD FOR ANYTHING!! If he/she bashes another company, end the interview. A real pro will say I do not know him or I have never seen any of his work. Bashing is the worst of the worst. If that is what they need to do to make themsleves look better...run for the hills! What matters most is what you think, your buget and just how comfortable you are trusting the best and most important day of you lives to him/her. Please visit us at http://jandjvideoproductions.com for more information. professional video productions, shooting a wedding video, wedding videos, wedding videos-Cleveland Ohio, wedding videos-Cuyahoga County Ohio, wedding videos-Parma Ohio

WHY J&J VIDEO PRODUCTION-CLEVELAND OHIO LEFT NOVA ( Northern Ohio Videographers Association) Part 2

My ruse was working well. These guys as rule are not the brighest blades in the drawer. While this was going on the 2 chief hanchos decided that they were going to officialy give up the reigns to NOVA. The month before they had nominations. The 2 newest mmembers were chosen and the Vice President and President nominees were in place. A little collusion there??? They use a hand vote and all members in attendance EXCEPT ME raised my hand. I did not know anything about these guys. I had been in the group for a few years now. This seemed awful suspicious. I outwardly challenged the dues issue. This group was doing nothing, half the meetings were cancelled. They had been collecting dues $75.00 from each member for years. I questioned them on where the money was. The incumbents openly said that there was about $4000.00+ . What the hell are they collecting dues for? I requested a vote on the dues, again a raised hand vote. I was the only one who voted NO!. I had no intentions on paying the the dues. This group was and is a joke. I also questioned them about the decorum. There were never any notes taken, never read old business, new business and they never read minutess. There was never a treausers report..NOTHING. The only thing I enjoyed was the company of some of the more intellegent members. The ruse was going on during this period. I was finnally outed by a real experinced guy in the group. All of a sudden I had no access to the facebook pages. So that sealed it. I did not do a thing to get on their good graces to get back in. I still have access to their posts and all I see are posts to buy/check out/or sell some of the members junk. It was just a huge waste of time. Please visit us at http://jandjvideoproductions.com for more information. professional video productions, shooting a wedding video, wedding videos, wedding videos-Cleveland Ohio, wedding videos-Cuyahoga County Ohio, wedding videos-Parma Ohio

WHY J&J VIDEO PRODUCTION-CLEVELAND OHIO LEFT NOVA ( Northern Ohio Videographers Association)

When I first came to Cleveland Ohio. I found out about NOVA when I was looking for a wedding videographer for my daughters wedding. The prospective videographer told me he was a member of NOVA. I do not quite remember who gave me the number but I got it somewhere. I talked to one of the executive committee members (LOL). This idea sounded like it was a DREAM COME TRUE. Myself, having worked the wedding video market for over 25 yrs at that time understood the benefits of joining this group. I joined as soon as I possible could. The dues are a paultry $75.00 a year, way less than most Professional Organizations. I went to the meetings when they had them. I enjoyed the fellowship. There are some really nice people in this group but this group also has plenty of idiots as well. I made 1 good contact which I still use. The rest of the presenters were paid sales people. Those meetings to me were a waste of time. The one really impressive benefit of this group was that in case you had an emergency, you could get a hold of a qualified video professional as a back up. Along with that occasionally jobs were posted. This was to good to be true...well you know what they say about to good to be true! Oh, I forgot they threw a picnic for their mrmbers as well. That is where it ends. The first year we had a few presenters, myself being one of them. It seemed to me these people we totally obsessed with what equipment you use. Who cares!!! I use some proprietary equipment that I do not want any of my competitiors to know about. I gave it serious consideration if I wanted to waste $75.00 for this. I even put together a fully fuctioning website for them free of charge but I couldnt get the 2 chief honchos to get me the information. All I could do was post the meeting dates. I also knew I was going to be unable to attend the meetings for several months. The second year I dod not pay the dues, yet when I could go I went anyway. In the first year and the second year there were indeed several jobs posted which I immediately jumped on. I know for a fact that certain few members got the jobs. Obviously I was not a part of the clique within NOVA. There were posts for needed rentals. I offered to the members to rent the non proprietary equipment, nothing. I also noted that there was a ton of second shooter requests. My question was why so many video companies needed second shooters. This could only mean the members were selling 2 camera shoots and not having the personell to do the job. To me this is a very dangerous practice of over booking. A lot of these members are so cluless that say they are filming weddings, or filming is in their coimpany names. I mean really, filming a wedding. These guys do not even have the terminology down or they are trying to impress brides. Let me clear this up. Nobody uses film for shooting a wedding, evertything is shot in a digital format these days. There are some commercial companies that actually do film TV Commercials. Those budgets are not even in the ballpark for a wedding. If you see the word film in a wedding videographer ad or name, you know it is time to look elsewhere. Maybe these companies are so lost in the 80's when 8mm and Super 8 were the norm. There are several of them in NOVA. I am not one of these people who stand for lying or bragging or boasting. J&J Video Productions won the Cleveland Hot List competition from 2011-2014 as the Best Wedding Videographer in Cleveland Ohio. One of the so called leaders of NOVA made some smart assed remark about it. I took him to task and told him that one of the reasons I won was because of our pricing. I told him in front of all of the members I did not believe in ripping brides off. Our rates are half of most wedding videogrpahers. That set off a firestorm on the facebook page. Even this washed up vidoegrapher remarked that our heated but professional conversations really brought attention to NOVA's facebook page. This guy started bragging about his switching jobs. Really switching or switcher jobs, ROTFLMAO, he must have never heard of multi-camera productions. I got tired of listening to this guys bu****it so I wanted to see how smart these guys really are. So I posted pics of some of "our equipment" from the Philadelphia office. That was a total ruse! Part 2 comming! professional video productions, shooting a wedding video, wedding videos, wedding videos-Cleveland Ohio, wedding videos-Cuyahoga County Ohio, wedding videos-Parma Ohio !