My friend and colleague Becky Simpson of No Ordinary Affair Wedding & Event Planning selected me as the featured vendor in the February edition of her monthly newsletter The Wedding Grapevine, which is circulated to various professionals within the local wedding industry.  My favorite part was actually her editor’s note, written in sidebar next to the interview!  She wrote, “While I don’t normally do this with my interviews, I feel compelled to add my two cents to this one.  I have never been a big fan of wedding videography.  What I’ve seen has usually been somewhat cheesy and of very poor quality.  However, the first time I saw Ryan’s work, I became a believer.  What he offers is unlike anything you’ve seen elsewhere.  I encourage you to check it out for yourself!”  Thank you for the very kind words, Becky!  Much better than anything I had to say!  Now for the boring part, my interview...   =)

How did you get into the video business?

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.

What do you see as one of the most important parts of filming a wedding?

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! 

What is the most fun part of being a wedding videographer?

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??

What sets your business apart from other videography businesses?

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.

Do you have any special features you offer?

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!

What else, if anything, would you like the other vendors to know about you?

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 www.focalpointvideo.biz to view samples of our work and learn more about what Focal Point Digital Media has to offer!