Kinetic Vision Media

In the early part of this year things were getting a little tight. There weren’t a lot of weddings going on, and my marketing was not what it should have been. What marketing I had been doing, contacting wedding planners, distributing sample DVD’s and cards, didn’t seem to be paying the kind of dividends I’d hoped for.

Ends have to meet though, so I took a second job (apart from my regular job as a maintenance engineer at a local hotel) delivering pizza for a local pizza house. Driving home from a delivery an evening in late May, I ended up behind a car with a magnetic advertisement on the back of it. “Happily Ever After by Allison” Oh, a wedding planner. How interesting… I quickly copied the number down and called her up the next day.

After talking with Allison I send her a sample DVD. She is very impressed. Says she has a wedding July 6th, wants to know if I’m interested. Says the groom plays in the NFL. Used to play for the Seahawks. Now plays for the Cardinals.

“Am I interested?” I don’t want to seem like I’m making sport of Allison here or anything, but “Am I interested?” What a silly question. A little over a month later on July 5th I traveled to a ranch in Redmond and filmed the wedding of Joseph and Brandelyn Tafoya. A trusted friend and accomplished videographer in his own right, Lyquoc came with me to run second camera and shoot some guest video messages for the bride and groom.

I kind of wanted to use these videos as an example of the features of the Silver and Gold Wedding Video Packages I offer. The Silver comes with a Pre-Ceremony Establishing Montage and a Post-Ceremony Montage. Here is the Pre Ceremony Establishing Montage from the video which leads directly to the ceremony -

Flowing from this directly in to the bridesmaids and groomsmen entering, and the bride walking down the aisle lends a dynamic to the video that is very entertaining while capturing the uniqueness of the occasion. I do offer a scaled down “Economy” package that doesn’t come with these extended montages, and those who chose the Silver package often opt for the Highlight Reel as opposed to the Establishing Montages. The more I do these, the more I like doing them, the more I’d like to try and work them in to even the economy package. Problem being, the rate for the Economy is so inexpensive that if I do these montages, (along with the custom DVD menu’s and art design included with every package) I log my hours and barely end up clearing minimum wage. That path leads straight to burnout.

Every wedding is different. So is every wedding video. This one starts at the very tail of the ceremony and heads to the reception. With a few stops on the way.

This wedding really was beautiful. Lyquoc and I captured so much great footage I felt pressured to include all of it in these montages but knew there was no way. I was able to save a lot of things just for the Highlight Reel, which is here -

So there it is. The Tafoya wedding complete. It was great filming Joseph and Brandelyn’s wedding, and it was clear there was a lot of love in the air. We spotted a couple of guys that were fairly obviously pro football players, though didn’t recognize most of them. I went ahead and asked for a picture with the one I did recognize.

Go Seahawks!!!

Weddings make up the vast majority of the work I do, especially over the summer months. I feel the product I offer is of quality, and well worth the rates I charge. There are many components of the wedding video process, from consultation, the day of the event, and post production.

Post is by far the most time consuming aspect of production. Log and capture footage, editing, encoding, DVD authoring, and almost finally, DVD art, and DVD sleeve design.

Which brings me, in my meandering roundabout fashion, to the subject of “recycling” DVD cases.

Many months ago a friend who worked for a giant video rental house asked me if I had any use for several hundred DVD jewel cases. I thought “Sure, why not?” A few days later he brings me several 30 gallon plastic garbage bags full of cases. I thought it was pretty awesome, they were just going to throw these things away! Here I am, a young entrepreneur who could use lots of exactly what they were sending to the landfill.

Unfortunately I realized when I got the cases home, they were smeared with logo branding imprinted in every single one…

Okay, so they wouldn’t work for a finished product. Over the next months I would use them for personal projects, backing up DVD’s for myself, and the occasional family member or friend. Paying clients did not get these cases. I felt the logo inside was tacky, and did not want myself or my clients to associate that word, and the feelings it evokes, with anything related to my business or product.

Now I am out of non-imprinted DVD cases. What to do? A box of cases is inexpensive, cost isn’t the issue here. The issue is that I still have stacks of unused blockbuster DVD cases in a box collecting dust. Should I just throw them away? This seems irresponsible to me, as plastic isn’t becoming any more plentiful, nor are the areas of land designated for the storage of unwanted plastic.

Possible solutions:

1. Print an insert with chapter and feature listings, like in a movie DVD. This will cover the offending brand logo.

Allison had a suggestion which I thought was brilliant, and will likely end up implementing regardless of the current issue…

2. Allison’s idea; include an invitation to the wedding as the insert inside the DVD case! This will cover the logo, as well as adding to the overall awesomeness of the package.

3. Don’t use the cases.

It gets me thinking. Does it really matter that there is a brand logo inside the DVD case? Are people really going think of my product as sub-par because I would be using “recycled” DVD cases? Is it even an issue? Will people even notice the logo, when presented with a DVD of their own wedding day?

It’s not like the cases are in terrible shape. None of them are torn, ripped, scarred or damaged in any way. They’re just not new, and they have a corporate logo stamped inside.

So here is the call to action; let me hear your voice. Whether you are a friend, fellow videographer, an independent business owner like myself, even a potential or past client! Share your views on this subject. I’m really interested to hear how others feel about this.

As for whether I will use these cases or not… for now I think they will continue to gather dust. I’ll head to the store tomorrow to pick up some fresh cases for the DVD’s that are currently burning in my drive.

XL-1s from cnet.com

Previously I mentioned the camera my friends and I drove to San Francisco to purchase in January of ‘06.

The Canon XL-1.
I really can’t sing enough praises about this machine. It was there with me in the beginning, and was my trusty rig through every production from early ‘06 until now. This camera was my pride and joy; the finest piece of equipment I had ever owned in my life, and it paid for itself by the end of the year.

In June I decided to upgrade. Not that the Canon wasn’t good enough, but it had been used when I bought it, it’s manufacture date being January 1999. The machine was getting old. It had it’s drawbacks. No XLR input. I had to change the 16x zoom lens out to get a wide angle shot. It has no 24p shooting mode (for indie film stuff), and was murder on the arms. Hold this 7+ pound beast up for a few a few hours and you’ll know it.

I was in a position to purchase something newer, and I had multiple upcoming gigs that called for multi-camera shoots, and date bookings where more than one camera would be required.

Enter: The Panasonic AG-DVX100B.

My DVX100B on homemade jib.

The DVX100B beat out it’s only competitor, the Canon XL-2 for a few simple reasons. Both cameras are comparable in terms of capabilities, functions, and image quality.

Cost was primary. A used XL-2 was running for the same cost of a new DVX100b.

Weight was a secondary; at almost half the weight, this camera would be easier to lug around all day. It also has 2 XLR inputs, opening the door for vast improvements in my audio quality.

Finally, this camera has a reputation. I’d used a friend and associate’s DVX100A before, and I really liked it. Basil of Being MEdia, whom I had worked for and with since the inception of my business, loved the camera. As for the camera’s credentials, Basil’s camera, (not this type of camera, but his own camera, the camera that I had used , the very same one that filmed this documentary: James Longley’s Iraq In Fragments. After winning awards from Sundance and many other prestigious festivals, the film was nominated for an Academy Award. As we know, Al Gore walked home with the Oscar, but what I’m looking at here are the credentials of this Panasonic camera. The DVX100A that has been the favored camera of indie filmmakers for years.

The 100B heralds multiple improvements over it’s accomplished predecessor, and I don’t feel even slightly intimidated running it next to a guy operating an HDV camera that cost 3 times as much. How many Oscar nominated films has the Canon XL-H1 shot? Sony’s HVR-V1U? JVC’s GY-HD100U?

Ah, well, I digress… the point would be that the DVX100B is a pretty stellar piece of equipment. Since getting mine I’ve been blown away. The colors, the controls, the look, the feel, it’s all great. Everything I’ve shot with it so far is in some phase of post production, I’m looking forward to wrapping some of them. I think that Mr. Tafoya and his lovely wife will be happy with their wedding video; it was shot with the new DVX100B and the trusty ol’ XL-1.

If you’ve found yourself at the Kinetic Vision Media blog, welcome!

My name is Ken Carlson. I own and operate Kinetic Vision Media, a full service video production company in Olympia.

I will be using this blog to cast meandering musings on things related to my video production business in Olympia. I’ll be writing about upcoming projects, current gigs, past jobs completed. Occasionally I may post hungrily about equipment I am salivating over. There will be posts about anything and everything I can think of related to the work I am doing, and the things I would like to be doing. I’d like to keep it interesting.

My interest in video production began earlier than I can really remember. Stumbling upon an old VHS cassette one day, I was amused to see myself on the video telling my dad (who was running the camera) where to point it and what to film. I think I was 7.

Living in Hawaii in the late 1980’s, my mother purchased a VHS-C (yuck!) camera to film vacations. Sometimes, long after my mother had gone to bed, I would get the camera out, gather my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys, and start creating my own stop motion TMNT movies… getting a little nostalgic here.

Obviously the fascination continued throughout high school and into my twenties. Those of you who know me will remember the years I spent producing/directing/writing/editing and acting in “Dammit This is Stupid.” A sketch comedy show that aired on TCTV from 1996 until I finally retired it in 2004.

Sometime in 2005, after having done nothing video related for over a year, I began to get an itch. It was fueled by dissatisfaction with my job. The desire to do something video related was fanned into a fire when I read “Walking On Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution” by Derrick Jensen. This is my life, and it is ending one minute at a time. If this is it, there is no reason not to spend it doing what I love. Common themes in DTIS were “reckless pursuit of your dreams,” “chasing the vision.”

There was no reason I shouldn’t be able to make a living doing what I loved. Video Production. My skills had honed with years of practice, from high school, to DTIS, there was no doubt about the fact that I was good at what I wanted to do. So I started doing it.

January 2006, after saving money for most of ‘05, some friends and I drove to San Francisco on the weekend of my girlfriend’s and my own birthday. I purchased a used Canon XL-1 for $1800 dollars and came back to Olympia to start my business.

Two and a half years later I consider my endeavor to have been quite successful. This summer has been packed full of gigs. As of early 2006 I had done no professional video production work, it had been limited to my high school experience, and 8 years of “Dammit This is Stupid.” July 22nd, 2008; I’ve now done more than 16 weddings, created 2 television commercials, 3 corporate/informational videos, 3 music videos, and 3 live concert shoots, and the schedule is still full! I’ve had a wedding every weekend since July 4th, and one every weekend until September. Woohoo!

So I guess that’s it. I’m doing what I love. I’m doing a good job of it, and I’m loving every minute.
It’s still not at the point where I’ve quit my day job, but the train is rolling.