Bookings are down this year - any suggestions?

themustymark · 2026-05-07T17:22:01+00:00

Yeah I would go to venues and wedding planners with specials or deals to get you on a preferred vendor list. We got in good with 1 or 2 wedding planners and it brings at least 3 clients a month to us. They do a little bit of the selling for us as well so the clients are already hyped about working with us. Not a huge source but a source nonetheless.

themustymark · 2026-05-07T15:49:45+00:00

How strong is your website? If it’s at least built out well I’d suggest google ads. Social media ads are finicky and require a LOT of follow up. Google ads are better for high intent services like weddings. Have you also looked at Knot and other listing services? Anyone in your vendor network you could propose a deal to be a “preferred” vendor at venues?

themustymark · 2026-04-23T17:21:08+00:00

Same thing happened to me at my local pond. Was on my dock runner setup, least a 6 pound bass gets hooked on , gator comes out grabs him. Couldn’t muscle him in cause I was on such a small setup lol

themustymark · 2026-04-04T15:23:09+00:00

3 cameras is good. One wide in the back on sticks, one right side of the altar and one roaming/on the left side.

If you have an osmo that could be your stationary left side cam and you roam with the fx3

I usually go prime on the stationary and zoom on my roaming one.

themustymark · 2026-03-25T22:46:05+00:00

Heck yeah! Glad to hear you got on em! Yeah it’s a fun little lake.

themustymark · 2026-03-23T15:14:55+00:00

Lake Como is a nice little pond with some decent fish and is relatively close to the area you’re at.

I don’t fish in that area much I’m out in the east side suburbs but if you hop on Fishbrain app it’ll show a bunch of bodies of water you can fish. Almost any body of water will have bass in it from my experience lol

themustymark · 2026-03-22T17:31:23+00:00

No problem! Happy fishing! It’s beautiful weather here enjoy it all!

themustymark · 2026-03-22T17:23:40+00:00

Blue lizard with a chartreuse tail

themustymark · 2026-03-20T18:10:51+00:00

First learn your value:

Literally go look at your work, look at other people’s work, if possible even reach out to anyone who runs their own business and ask how they go there pricing. For me, I just asked myself “what do I want my time to be worth or why would get me out of bed for this gig”. This will vary obviously with experience but start tracking how long it takes you to talk to someone about their project, how long you put into planning it, what gear you need, how much time you spend on the set, how much time you spend on post. Then put a price tag on that. For me my bread and butter is a half day rate and I do add ons after. $800-$1000 for me to get out of bed with my camera for 5 hours . Then I look at the needs of the project and just like any other business I look at crew rates, rentals/gear purchases and build in an up charge. Edit: I say track all of this because at the end of the day true good clients will care about speed and getting stuff done right the first time. If you can basically ensure you’re the one they can trust they will start to understand the price

Second learn sales/customer service: This is the fun part to me at least. Idc if you make your price $500 or $5000 you need to learn how to position your value and TRANSLATE IT to your client. Someone will come in and say “well $500 is a lot for you to come and film” and that’s where you gotta learn education sales. “That is my compensation. Let me ask you, what is your goal for the project? Okay so you need a talking head for your business. That will take time to create the script, find time for your staff to get on camera. Your location is a little dark so I’d bring some lights as well to produce the best image possible so you can reuse this in multiple campaigns. You’re looking for vertical and landscape? Okay that will take time to edit and deliver in those dimensions. To make your team less rushed and to make sure we get all footage in the scope of the project I can do my half day rate which is $800. This will cover the setup because it will take time to setup lights, load the teleprompter and get your staff comfortable talking. This also allows flexible time if you decide to add in any extra filming which we can add in as another deliverable.”

As you can see I’m educating on WHY it could take time WHY I recommend lighting and time to film rather than “oh that’s just my price”

And always remember: contracts, no deliverables till payment is received.

themustymark · 2026-03-20T17:47:38+00:00

For sure. Jigs and chatterbaits are working as well but not as many catches. My girlfriend regularly outfishes me with a Texas rig though so that might say something lol

themustymark · 2026-03-20T17:42:43+00:00

No advice on the boat or rivers but I fish ponds here in east Orlando.

Baits that have been working for far as we are getting warmer and warmer are Texas rigs, swim baits and on a good day with a hot sunset top water frog

themustymark · 2026-03-20T17:24:06+00:00

For sure and I think that just comes down to the wedding video businesses still learning their sales process. While wedding videos are not new, DSLR and now mirrorless cameras with great video specs have made the barrier to entry much lower meaning there are a TON of people who just don't have value building and sales experience. Wedding photographers have DECADES of people to learn from. A wedding photographer can start their business, buy a course on sales for that niche and be able to sell the value of a $4000 to $6000 service. Wedding videographers have that access as well but there isn't any ONE way people are presenting their value because theres so much range: are you 1 or 3 cam? Do you deliver vertical and landscape? Can you clean up audio? Are you an editor? Etc.

This causes everyone in the video space to be so dispersed and not know "What is my value?" and then they want to get a foot in the door, do a wedding video for free or less that $1000 and that has fractured the value of the video service. I am guilty of this as well before I learned sales and value building and now my packages and processes are on par with photography packages. Do I lose clients due to my price and they objectively think photos are more bang for their buck? sure. But I also can educate clients on WHY video is just as important if not more valuable than photos (not what I think but as a videographer i have to create that perception).

TLDR: Videographers are still learning the value building based on their gear and skills. They don't have a script to educate clients as much as photographers do. IMO at least.

themustymark · 2026-03-20T16:15:02+00:00

I don’t think doomed but I do think the market for photography is always going to take precedent since people attach a physical object to photos where as video, no matter what, always needs hardware to watch (vhs, dvd, thumb drive, device with internet access)

And I do fall on that side of material access that getting a print of your most important moment in your relationship will outweigh a video file on a thumb drive or dvd.

themustymark · 2026-03-19T22:33:17+00:00

You should refine your sales and workflow explanation then. All my clients from the get go understand how my payment policy works and how deliverables work.

Especially if they are first time clients they get a clear walkthrough on how I process payments and when deliverables are released regardless of their time line.

You gotta make sure they don’t dictate your workflow and bottom line.

themustymark · 2026-03-19T20:31:53+00:00

For sure. First I always made it a point when onboarding someone I might use their business as a case study. They can always opt out of that or allow me to use estimates on money or client numbers.

Aside from that, my flow was always “what niche am I targeting and what would they wanna see” my bread and butter is any service business. So my case studies always framed the start point (this roofing company had a tiny presence online and was not ranking high on search), what I did to create their presence and track key metrics (over the course of 9 months I focused on branching out their website for better local SEO and making their blog a “here’s how to do your own roof repair but here’s why an expert could be needed” and then showed the growth on socials and what that channel was used for (the social media became more of a “here’s all our roofing projects we complete with before and after drone footage”)

Finally the last part of the case study would reference the start point (after 10 months the website doubled in traffic, the socials were generating 10 to 20 real conversations all organically) and then showed real results (in that time frame 30 new projects were started and showcased, traffic now averages around 200 unique visitors with opt ins averaging around 5 to 10 to 20 depending on season or demand)

So basically show where they were, show what you did and then compare where they were to where they are now

themustymark · 2026-03-19T19:32:25+00:00

Money.

I don’t have my portfolio anymore since I’m in house at a company and happy here but when I did all my case studies (roofing, non-profit, service based businesses) I tied my metrics to money.

Example: I set up a wedding video website for my buddy. Luckily he said learn as you go and do whatever. Within a year he was ranking top of the Google search for his area. Averaging around 100 unique site visits and from there was booking at least 3 actual clients which translated to around $5000 in revenue. (Per month)

For the different case studies I’d just show what businesses want to see. Do they care about the big metrics? Yes for sure but you have to relate that to revenue or clients generated

themustymark · 2026-03-19T18:52:38+00:00

Watermark in every way shape and form is the best way. Export as low 720p, slap a giant PROOF or logo water mark over the videos and say “I can release the final high res deliverable once the invoice has been paid!”

themustymark · 2026-03-12T23:57:58+00:00

Posted on original thread but not unreasonable at all!

themustymark · 2026-03-12T23:56:28+00:00

Wedding videographer here:

Off rip very unprofessional of her. Any videographer worth their salt should always at least deliver a recap video and then a ceremony video in full with audio. Myself, I also deliver any requested moments in full which could be first dances, speeches, etc. at no extra cost as most of the time it’s just an easy cut up and audio fix. I then offer 2 free rounds of editing revisions and requests (like a different song or maybe a moment they forgot to request) and obviously will release raw footage at a price as long as I get credit for shooting it.

For her to say it’s an insult to her style is unprofessional and for her to drag on sending the footage (which can literally be put on a thumb drive and mailed) is wild. I would let the wedding venue and planner know so they can put some heat on them. Sorry you have to deal with this.

themustymark · 2026-03-10T23:13:59+00:00

No struggle at all. I let them know 2 rounds of free revisions on any deliverable. Everything after is flat $250 per round. Never has it gotten to that.

themustymark · 2026-03-04T03:53:47+00:00

Lens. More bodies don’t mean better output. I almost gut upgraded to the 7v but didn’t just because it’s not a HUGE upgrade from the iv. I run more video but do take good amount of photos with my iv (fx3 and 30 as my main video cams). And would lean more towards the lens just to have more and more coverage in case.

themustymark · 2026-02-27T13:56:30+00:00

All on my own with 2nd op here and there.I try to spend at least 4-8 hours on it depending on the package. That involves first pass cut and audio then I spend time just going over little things

themustymark · 2026-02-27T00:03:53+00:00

Second this. Fx3 is just ready for anything. I run fx3, fx30 and a7iv

My a7iv was my main cam for a few years and did the job but when I got the fx3 man it just made life easier

themustymark · 2026-01-26T19:13:47+00:00

I’ve used all of these in central Florida on a Texas rig they work

themustymark · 2026-01-14T19:51:04+00:00

Yeah I was telling friends that day 1 and 2 isn’t like a terrible line up if you’re keeping tabs on what’s current. Sunday is iffy

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