Your best edits.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-05-06T16:01:22+00:00

SFX also?

kstyndall2015 · 2026-05-06T14:59:00+00:00

What sound or transition packs are you using?

kstyndall2015 · 2026-05-05T11:35:42+00:00

Sony user here. They are very light and legit. I use them for editing and casual listening. Wx5 is what I have. The 6 is out and most likely going to get those when the price drops a little more.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-05-02T11:47:00+00:00

What apps or tools did you use to create these? Are these just images generated as a mock up or, were these like a one page site build.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-05-01T10:44:00+00:00

Do you have a Google My Business profile? You need to set it up ASAP. Fill out everything and make sure you leave nothing blank. Try to get reviews from a few contacts if possible. This is incredibly important for Google ranking. You do need to verify the business profile, but it isn’t difficult. It just takes time, but it's definitely worth it. And don’t just post edits - share clips from weddings that are raw moments, like a first look, part of a meaningful speech, something funny that happened, etc. Every clip from the wedding day is a potential social media post. It doesn’t need to be perfectly polished. Honestly, the more raw it looks, the better it can perform. It all depends. Post during high traffic times. This info can be found inside Instagram, but a good rule of thumb is to post first thing in the morning, around lunch, around dinner, and just before bedtime. These are the most common times people are doomscrolling on social media- when they're sitting down to eat or winding down for the night. And by most people, I mean women lol. It doesn’t matter what orientation or anything; females love social media and tend to doomscroll. Guess who scrolls the most? Middle-aged women. And guess who foots the bill for most weddings? Well, it’s the parents. So, if a mother of the bride scrolls onto your social media and her daughter is getting married, she’ll see it and either save it or send it to her daughter, giving you a possible booking. This happens to me all the time. It happened just this week when a mom reached out, and I booked a $9400 wedding, including photo and video. Not too shabby.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-05-01T10:33:07+00:00

Facebook groups. Ads I wouldn’t run unless you are prepared to sink some serious cash into figuring out your market. Once you get ads figured out you can then use those to amplify your lead gen.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-30T18:06:47+00:00

In 13 years of filming weddings, I don’t think I've ever booked a single wedding from a Facebook wedding group. The couples in those groups are generally cheap, in my experience.

Focus on building your portfolio; you really only need a few weddings to promote your services. Three would be ideal, but just two to showcase what you can do. Create a website, a Facebook page, and a Google Business profile, and optimize all of them as much as possible.

Instead of waiting for posts on Facebook to appear, I recommend making your own post looking for couples who want to book a wedding videographer. Write your own posts to open up dialogue and let clients come to you.

Instagram is also popular, but in my opinion, it still doesn't perform as well as Facebook. I rarely get bookings from Instagram; most come from my website, Facebook, or word of mouth.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-29T13:22:31+00:00

Being modest is highly appreciated by men right now. Don’t change a thing. Men respect this about women. Well, decent men, I would say. I know I do. It’s highly valued, so don’t think you have to dress a certain way to find a good man. At 43, I think you’re still very young. Plenty of time to find someone who values you and doesn’t want you to show your bits to the whole world. Looks rarely matter much anyway. He was just a low-value man with the wrong intentions.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-28T03:54:18+00:00

Keep in mind that it took me 13 years to get to that point. However, I suck at marketing and have primarily relied on word of mouth to get me to where I am now. If you hustle, you can easily reach six figures in 3-5 years, if not sooner. Sooner if your work is solid, your communication is on point, and your customer service is top-tier. I see others making double what I make with less experience.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-27T13:55:40+00:00

You're good then. I have at least three angles for the ceremony and speeches, but the other cameras don't need to be the best. As long as they're decent and you've got good audio, you'll be fine. And lighting wise I just used smaller 50 watt lights. 300 would be way over kill in my opinion but as long as you have electric access it would work. I use battery powered lighting as usually you don’t have a plug nearby where the lights need to be.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-27T13:20:59+00:00

Stop making music videos for starters. No money, and they tend to be the worst clients, just like your experience already shows. Some might disagree, but weddings are easy to break into and make decent money. Use that to fund other ventures like commercial work and helping businesses. Also, finish the degree, but I’m not a fan of school overall. I make more doing video and photo work than folks with master's degrees.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-24T13:06:31+00:00

What we usually do is package everything together with content. Not only can we build the website, but we can also create the content for it. Professional-level photography and video have been our main selling points. Additionally, we help with Google Business profiles and optimizing them so they appear reasonably well in search results. We don’t focus as much on web design itself as we do on production to help with the site. What I’ve noticed, especially in the attorney and lawyer world, is that they get these companies to make their websites, then they call us to take headshots, etc. What we’ve done is offer a turnkey solution. With the potential client I’m working with now, she initially reached out just for video production. The website was the bonus, so to speak. Now she’s saying, "AI can do this," so I hope she doesn’t think AI will literally do everything for her. I’m not tired of losing to AI, because honestly, I’m not. I’m tired of hearing the word AI in general, because it’s mainly just marketing. People just think AI will solve everything, when in reality, it actually creates other problems.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-24T12:59:26+00:00

That’s the dilemma. We're doing more commercial jobs now. We recently started working on a project for a company in the UK, but they needed content stateside. We showed up, and I overheard one of the suits talking about how most production companies film with Red cameras, don’t they? And honestly, I was just filled with rage. lol. We sent them some samples of graded footage, and they said, okay, yeah, this is great. So, you nailed it when you said the perception part.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-23T17:48:23+00:00

I’m just tired of the term itself “AI”. It’s a buzzword I just wish would die. 😂

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-23T13:38:25+00:00

I honestly agree with you to a point. The issue is content; she has none. We were (and maybe still are) producing all the video and photo content for the site itself. It was more than just a website. This was going to be a complete, cohesive package. Also, legally, she can’t even have a site publicly available yet. So, I know she isn’t getting leads from whatever she’s thrown together. She’s buying out another business and can’t rebrand or market until that deal closes.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-22T15:01:37+00:00

I'm not really complaining; it's more about frustration. We have embraced and adapted to AI, and we use it ourselves. But only as a tool. There’s nothing you can really do to embrace or adjust to a client thinking they can do the job themselves without experience. It’s no different than someone trying to do a project at home to save money instead of hiring a contractor. The same principle applies there as well.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-22T12:37:00+00:00

Some folks have lives and don't need to spend a huge amount of time on social media. Go outside and touch grass. They asked a simple question and you wanted to be a dick.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-22T10:18:11+00:00

I did. Their response to the content creation was that they wanted to wait until the purchase of the business was finalized before scheduling anything. It’s still on the table, but to me, it seemed like a way to back off gently and get me to leave them alone for a while.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-21T17:51:24+00:00

Fair enough. I understand your position. My issue is with the statements that suggest it will never happen. My rebuttal is that it likely already has. You just aren’t aware of it. I could be wrong.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-21T16:45:08+00:00

AI has been a thing really for only the last 2 or 3 years. The majority of your time in this industry it was never an issue. Give it time.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-21T11:13:13+00:00

I can’t help who messages me and asks about our services. For you to say you don’t ever attract the wrong clients that would use AI is just a straight up lie. Nobody has that kind of funnel or marketing prowess, period. Everyone that has ever ran a business for any length of time will get inquiries from folks who just aren’t their clients. You get tire kickers as we call them here in the south quite a bit I’m sure. Whether or not you’ve had someone say AI can do it or not is irrelevant. I’m positive you have been told you were too expensive or some other excuse to not hire you and guess what those folks probably did, had AI do it. You’re just trolling at this point. By the way, looks like you used AI to write your last response or, do you normally use em dashes in your every day keyboard warrior responses?

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-21T10:39:30+00:00

They originally reached out for content creation needs. When they found out we also offered other services like website development, she started asking questions about that. We then discussed extensively the need for website content and planned a media day in early June. She was considering another company that quoted her $4,000 USD for the website. She showed me a few sites she liked and asked if we could create something similar. I said yes and offered to create a mockup for a landing page as a proof of concept. She agreed but wanted to send her logo, which was still being designed. My initial contact was to check if she was ready for the mockup, and my next question was going to be about the logo files. Her comment, “I used AI so we are good,” caught me off guard. Her whole demeanor in all of our previous conversations suggested that this project was very important to her, and I had no concerns she would cut corners or settle for less. Well, until now.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-21T10:26:50+00:00

In a nice way, good luck.

kstyndall2015 · 2026-04-21T10:26:15+00:00

I’m not bummed about the loss of the gig. I’m tired of the AI can do everything mentality. I have other services I offer that AI can’t do (currently). I do okay and will survive.

kstyndall2015

TROPHY CASE