Lessons

Lesson Info

9:00 am - Introduction to Vanessa and Rob

We have a lot of information share with you guys over these next three days, and the thing with video is infusion in general, it can be overwhelming if it's presented the wrong way. So we're going to go through two great links this weekend to make sure that we're giving this to you in a nice, organized way, I guess is the best way to say it, but it's going to be spoonfuls, okay? We're going to give it to you so you could break it down and, well, we keep a very open forum, so if at any time you have questions here in the studio, just pick up a mic and just raise a hand or shouted out a cz long zits on topic will be happy to answer it. The most confusing thing and I don't want to make it seem like it's too confusing because it's really not, but a lot of the questions arise from how the gear works and how it's applied to the situation that you're trying to fill. So we're going to move through that slowly, we're going to really kind of give it to you and spell it out. Abc is one two threes...

, so you no everything from how to turn it on, how to get it ready. How to apply it and then use it in in postproduction so we do have a lot of information, so we hope you're excited about that because we're really gonna dive it's cool stuff this weekend, kennedy said. Not only cool stuff, but we have a ton of great sponsors were really excited about the fact that so many of our sponsor is just I dove in and overwhelmingly gave you guys the opportunity with some really incredible stuff, I mean, ah lot of stuff haven't do directly with video pieces of equipment that you probably don't have as well a stuff that will benefit your business overall, so just thank you to all of them, andi, since we I wanted to kind of jump in and give some free stuff away as well, what we have going on right now. If you go to vanessa and rob dot com, you will be able to get a free movie poster. All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter, which is a newsletter that we give out sporadically. I don't give myself times because I don't get it, but it does come out sporadically just has a photo fact newsletter, and we try to give little tidbits for photo facts of people, all different ranges, cinematographers and photographers alike, so right now, if you go to vanessa and rob dot com first thing that comes up is a splash page us trying to give you something for free, so that will be the movie poster, which I think I have a preview upon the next flight. I don't know if we have a clicky thing over here. You give this to you, but I like that because I get a little click happy and I'll start moving really fast so far, this is like my cue if you won't stop talking about something I like like the way I see the slide changes the all time move on way we've been talking about audio for six actresses, you know? Yeah, this is the movie poster it's called love khun week and you can title it whatever you want, this's. Completely customizable. You have a drop zone when you drop in any image you want, all of the text is customizable. All of the fonts are included so you don't have to worry about trying to go in search. Alphonse because photoshopped screaming at you. Where is the phone? It's all in there you could title it. Whatever you want, that's. Just sort of the the default design that we came up with. Yeah, so definitely good of ness and rob dot com and grab that for free. So just a little bit everyone got to give a little introduction and I'm really happy that I brought our total handle one here, but this is all the information if you guys want to get hold of us rob bottoms and vanessa joy, my last name is technically adams I get that question all the time my middle name is joy and when I started my photography company, I just decided to name it after my middle name because I knew my last name would be changing eventually so I thought that was a little bit more static, but you guys could find this on vanessa and rob dot com and twiddle twiddle twiddle waken start a company called little's winter handle all together our twiddle is vanessa and rob and facebook, you know, facebook, dot com slash finesse and rob so definitely hang out with us were also on instagram, you concede that the stuff that we've been posting and having fun with and, uh, we're looking forward to having you guys join us. So who are we? Yeah, who are these guys guys, all of a sudden? My creative lives out of nowhere, just, you know, from the fires and members of obscurity, so I don't know if you want to talk or we'll talk about it let's talk about teo this's, our first born, this is tico he's a peking pekinese he's, ten years old he is if he was vanessa's dog before I even entered the picture and I think when I fell in love with vanessa, I fell in love with chico right after it was like two in a row. I was like, doubly struck so he's just the best dog in the world, he's, our little baby and if you ever see if you follow ascend, instagram or facebook, you'll definitely see pictures of tico popping up everywhere. He's definitely adorable right now, he's shaved. He has no hair right now, he's actually completely bald he's, very cute waded in the summer house in new jersey. We have very humid hot summers, so you gotta shave the poor dog, otherwise he just laser it doesn't want to move. So speaking of new jersey, I come from new jersey, I was born and raised there all I although I've lived pretty much all over the united states at some point, my life doing different things. I studied radio and tv at the university of kentucky, of all places it's a long story about how I ended up down there, but I did end up down in kentucky actually enjoyed my time there ended up getting my first job in kentucky right out of college, I started working in radio and television when it comes to the field that I'm in videography cinematography, whatever you want to call it, I love the art and I'm really bad with math I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are just really share the same mindset we're artists we're a very right brain person and I love the creative art but when it comes to like anything business related I mean not not even so much I have a good business sense when it comes to the emotion of business but not when it comes to numbers and stuff like that. So we make a great team in that respect because she's the exact opposite a ce faras that when I wouldn't see exact opposite she has both she has both the creative mind and the left brain mind so yeah, so she's we make a good balance like that but that's pretty much where I come from. You know, I've been working in the industry for over seventeen years in some form whether it's radio he's being on air talent everybody tells me I have a face for radio actually worked out perfect television did a lot of behind the scenes work in tv, a lot of production worked on some independent films and a little bit in the film industry as well, so that's sort of my background yeah, and then you know, I grew up in new jersey as well born and raised and lived my entire life probably within a half an hour and you know, I think they like new jersey for the most part, the great thing about new jersey is you know, you go an hour north and you're in new york city going our south and near in philadelphia or atlanta city and you can go twenty minutes to the to the east and you're on the beach and so it really farmlands the west it gives us everything, including every season and brutally cold winters and everytime winter comes, I swear I'm leaving but yeah, I do love new jersey and my family is there and just to note not everybody in new jersey is like the jersey shore like the show those air new yorkers they came down to new jersey sorry new yorkers but it's not people come on yeah, just to clarify we're not from that cast but I went to school in new jersey went to community college first and then teo onto university where I got my degree I actually have five college degrees and it's a long story as to how that happened I am not some intelligent like crazy school person, although I think my parents would say that I'm like the forever sir student just compliment I think but yeah, I do a five college degrees in music photography, social sciences, modern language vanish and education, so I really just figured out how to work the system. I'm good for five years, which is and I'm obsessed with marketing I absolutely love the tire fee. I love learning video. I love running a business, but my biggest thing is marketing I love using twitter and facebook and finding all new ways to develop my company to get the word out. I love you contests and things like that. So while rob is definitely more of the art like if he was going to be obsessed with something on computer, be sitting there, I know he's working on the same day at it or a movie poster, something like that. If I was going to be sitting down obsessed with something on the computer, it would be me on twitter or facebook or finding some new way. Teo get published our work with an editor on something so it really is crazy when I started my business brought adam's films in two thousand six, and when I did so, you know it was the sort of book in jobs you know, however I could doing problem shows at the time and trying to build up my client based a lot of word of mouth referrals, and this is before facebook and twitter you know really struck you know, before they really hit he's really old so it was before the internet actually well that's sexually kind of harassing college before the internet issue went mainstream such kind, scary actually when you think about it but you know, I wasn't doing much marketing in my business and it was I had plenty of work coming in but it was all from referrals and just doing good work in treating my clients well when facebook and twitter really hit on the scene and people were using it for business, I really was so involved in my work that I didn't really come up for air enough too to explore the social media marketing and that's where vanessa stepped in and she came in just the right time because my business would not be what it is today if it wasn't for that social media marketing and being able to share the work the way that we do and give people a little glimpse into the behind the scenes and that sort of thing so she's really amazing with marketing if you have marketing questions I will defer to her just ask her because she's amazing with the marketing end of it really is one of the things we wanted to point out just really are differences and similarities is because when it comes to shooting video and learning to shoot video are really just running a photography business in general, ah lot of us try to wear every single hat that we possibly can, right? We're all there were everything to our businesses that every time rob and I have a unique scenario where he handles the cinnamon end of it and I handled photography. But I want to encourage you guys, too, while you definitely should be learning video and you may or may not find an absolute passion for it, like, you know, like we did definitely encourage you to try and find somebody who does feel failure, weaknesses, whether it's a partner who were your husband, I believe, right, carol, you're marrying your business partner also that's awesome, but look for somebody, even an employee, that if you're having trouble with some things, learn it definitely know it, but feel free to delegate. I think delegating responsibility can can really be a blessing when you're trying to find your own company, one of them one of the biggest questions we get asked, and I'm just going to state this now to kind of late it's some groundwork from what we're going to get into later, a lot of people ask us, is it possible to do both by yourself? Is it possible to do some video and photos by yourself? The answer is yes, and the answer is no. There's a time and place for these things and we're going to explain that where it's appropriate for you to do both and where it's not and that's what vanessa was talking about at those moments having somebody to step in and fill those shoes because and we'll explain the reasons why later it's not always appropriate for you to try to do both you're going to miss something so we just want to make that distinction right off the bat because we're not going to try to give you something that's seems supernatural here was but the last thing we want is for you guys to walk out of your going you know it's great information but it's this seems like it's too much we're going to show you how to do it and in a realistic way so little about robin I've our story how we met way met in a bride's bedroom sounds kind of creepy I was actually yeah it's true I was actually upstairs I was the videographer on the job this's before d s lars before we're doing the film type stuff it was just one camera is meeting with a camera and I'm standing over the bride's bedroom and I'm filming I guess details or something and I'm looking down on the bed and also nicely see smoke and this white light it's just pouring into the room and I look up and here she's slow walking you said it was just this angel singing but it was going was like you know what it's like a super high fashion revenged teo was walking in the room now seriously, when I saw her, I was like, wow, that's that's nice wait did keep it professional begins like rob said hey was working for a different company. I was working for a different company at the time. We didn't own our businesses, so and our company's had a relationship with each other. You know what we want to keep that keep it preparation relationship like four years we kept a professional and I know that didn't work. It was there was always attention. There was always that like oh, I'm gonna get the work of the nets a joy wait do this wedding and we get to work with and we ended up opening our own businesses and working together one day and rob is really romantic and he's very smooth. So what he did, teo asked me out love talking. Yeah, well, what he did ask me out was we were all saying goodbye in the parking lot and he went to go give me a kiss on the cheek and he went right for the lift man he just laid one on me in a year later we were married, that is you know, you know you know and we knew I think we knew the whole time it was just a matter of the right timing because now that we have had I had my own company and she was on the cusp of starting her own company that work besides we were throughout that four years always in and out of other relationships so that wasn't exactly you know fitting so the timing was right I think you know, god sort of said this is the city times right? So yeah rob saw god's hammond jumped on finally so far it's what we do rob like you mentioned has been in business for a while shooting wedding since nineteen ninety eight roughly yeah films, wedding corporate stuff, documentaries and most recently been flying all over the place tio do photographer promo films, which I think is like one of your new it is one of my new loves I love just getting to know the photographer and making their personality come across on the film they're short films they're you know two minute, two and a half minute primal pieces but it's just it's really I don't want to just show okay here's, the person shooting and then a photograph of what they were shooting at z generic to me I want to get to know the person and let their audience see the person and story telling us what videos about and gives me that chance to really focus on storytelling yeah and then along the lines of how did you get into into video? It came about just from school yeah you know I was in radio when I first graduated college and I love being on air had a talk show conservative talk show for awhile ended up in news andi what happened is I realized by watching just like when I arrived here creative live I was watching the production guys do their thing and I'm like this is why I'm in this business there's something about the behind the scenes or something about watching it all come together and what you guys see at home or what you guys are seeing here is just the final culmination of that but to watch it build and watching how it's all come it all comes together oh, it has always fascinated me and when I graduated college I'd be on the air I was focused more on what was happening behind the scenes that I wasn't focused on what I was doing in front of the camera or in front of mike not to say I still don't love being on the mic and doing voiceover work in that sort of thing but I found myself just gravitating towards the production side so I was jumping around jobs I wanted to try a little bit of everything I did audio I did you know photography I did cinematography I did just basic corporate video, that sort of thing and over the course and I mean, I turned around one day and it was like twelve years have passed on like I have had a pretty good career, I've had all these different experiences and all these different things and then one day I think I was working in manhattan where I was living in manhattan at the time and I think I was probably twenty two years old, something like that and I was making, like fifteen to nineteen thousand dollars a year, something like a maid in manhattan that meant I was living in a one bedroom in chelsea, which is in greenwich village with four men and eating nothing but ramen that I supported you. I supported that rahman companies earnings for about two and a half years I wasn't happy, not even because of the money, but I was the living situation wasn't what I wanted, so I ended up just I started meeting other people from down where I live, which is in new jersey where I grew up and this body of mine called me one day and he says he's a he's a wedding deejay he goes, listen, my my mixer, the guy who stands behind the board and doesn't really do much of the wedding, he bailed on me and I need somebody to fill in and you don't need to know anything just come and be a warm body behind yeah sure, no problem so I go to the wedding and I'm standing there and I'm watching the videographer and he's one of these videographers has the big tripod he's got a car battery attached it's powering everything in it's just, you know, electric just flying all over the place and cords and cables and then he has a huge huge monitor and then a camera about this big on top of this huge riggins just wheeling it around the whole night and he's bumping people on the ankles you know, big light on the camera and you know it's like okay, fine there's a market for that whatever but I'm watching him do what he's doing and I'm going I could do this way better way better so I got to talking to him over dinner as you sort of do during weddings you sort of get to know the other vendors and I just came out and asked mr dude, if you don't mind, can I just ask you what do you what do you charge for tonight, woody? What do you make? He was all you think from sweating a charge twelve hundred bucks in my job and just hit the table you got to be kidding me really, I don't make that in like a month, you know? So, so okay, this is what we're going to be oh, I am going to go buy a camera and I'm going to start, you know, pimping myself out, and I'm going to start doing weddings and that's exactly what I did, and I think the first couple weddings that I did, I was shooting for other companies I just I always wanted to do was make the production value higher, so, you know, I was looking at what other people were doing, work wise, and it was more like, you know, star fades and, you know, pixel ization, transitions and just really kind of very early nineties late eighty sort of stuff that was god's, not me, man, but video cameras are very limited in terms of what you could do with depth of field and things like that and getting it to look more cinema or look really high value prussian, so I had to compensate, so I ended up doing videos that were very edgy, lots of effects, but not like cheesy effects I was doing like, you know, this cool colorization sze in color, tone and colored rating and, you know, rough edges, and at the time, that was the style if you opened photo albums time, right? It was like, you know, cool, funky edges and lots of glows and these cool like overlay effects. And so I started doing that with video, and I came up with a slogan for my company, and it was rob adam's productions wedding video for people who don't want a wedding video, and I did bridal shows, and I put that on a big sign right in front of the booth, and it was just like, a constant flow of traffic because everything it was so different from what was out there, and it was right there, I learned the lesson of differentiate yourself, do something different in your market to put yourself out there. I've never taken a business class, I've never been told anything about business marketing, nothing, just having something that made me different from everybody else set my business on fire, and I was taking on so much work. I think the first year I booked fifty three weddings, and then about six months after that, I went, oh my gosh, how am I going to edit all of these videos and it's a common mistake that happens? You know, in the wedding industry attended jump in and you get successful quick, and then you don't know what to do with all that, with all the work that you have so that is in a nutshell, the whole crux of where I came to be in this business and then I was ready to get out of the business completely right I was I was kind of bored with what we were doing the style was changing wasn't a whole lot you could do with video cameras and then before we even got together, vanessa emails me and the subject line of the email says this is going to change photography and videography forever and in the body of the email was a link to vincent law for ray's film reverie the first film ever shot with five demark too and I my eyes I just just ticos just big eyes, just big eyes and I couldn't believe it I was just like, wow, how did you get the boca and and then I started no, I have a little bit of a still photo background I was thinking, oh my gosh, he's shooting this with a photo camera and I was all my plans to leave the business and do something else completely just disappeared as if this is where I'm going, this is where I'm going and that was pretty much it from that point on I was like, how can I apply this to what I do? How can I learn more about photographic techniques so I can apply it to video yeah because there's really just such an advantage to those cameras over the cameras that robs used to working with you can have such a more dynamic look to it more dynamic range you know the lens is really just getting that photographic feel to it is just you know, nineteen days so I think that really was a big right on we say this like it's new information but everybody knows like dslr is just amazing do in the way they look there's nothing wrong with video cameras you know you could do reality shows with video cameras in there old great and they lend a certain look for a certain style but when it comes to weddings when we put our video clips next to photography our photography we wanted to match you wanted to look exactly like the photograph the biggest compliment we get we're going to show you a fusion piece in the second is wow that I didn't even know that was a video clip until I saw it move like I thought it was a photograph and that is really what the crux of this whole thing is so pretty fascinating stuff and then for my end mine is a little bit kind of cookie cutter ish I would say my mother was a wedding photographer so I definitely learned a lot from her was able to play with all of her cameras some things and I was younger andi I I went to high school, took a photography class and then ended up starting shooting weddings in two thousand two, starting my business in two thousand eight, and since then I've been published in well over twenty magazines, a ton of different stuff on logs and things like that, and that was kind of one of my first goals. I was actually teaching spanish. I used to be a spanish teacher, and I started my business at the same time, and the very first magazine publication that I got was a destination wedding I did and was published in destination, wedding and humans magazine. And I remember I got the notification that I was going to be published. I was so excited, I read out into the school hallway, into the car till I was so throughout, known on the student, I thought I was just, but I did it, but really exciting. And like I said, I started the business in two thousand eight, and then robin, I got married in two thousand nine, but never married our businesses. We really like that kind of low quantity, high quality booty boutique style, which is a must unnecessarily cliche at this point, but it is definitely a business style, so that's, how we run our businesses is separate together, we use fusion as a way to get the client to book both of us together. We use it as a lot of different incentives. But at the same time, it's definitely a lot of add ons and lot of kind of ala carte items that they buy definitely make a good amount of money on it. We use it for marketing and differentiating ourselves like rob, said it's. Really important to do that, they're so so, so many applications when it comes to fusion.