Once in a Lifetime Event

Ok, I’ve had some time to sit back and try to soak in everything I learned at the In[Focus] gathering for wedding filmmakers.  Well, sit back is a funny way of saying that I’ve been just as busy as ever.  I’ve had time to get back to my normal hectic day, while trying to incorporate so many things I learned there.

First, I really feel like industry conferences like In[Focus] or ReFrame, or WEVA. They’re great ways for people in the biz, industry professionals, to do a lot of things.  Continuing education.  In industries like medicine or education, those folks are required to take continuing education credits to stay on top of their skills, to learn the newest ways of doing procedures, to be efficient and the best they can be.  There are really no sort of requirements like that for most small businesses, but I would bet the small business owners who are doing these sorts of things, are the ones who are leading their industries.  Or another way of saying it might be, look at the leaders in any given industry, and I bet they are all about continuing education.

Another reason to go to conferences, trade shows, gatherings are to meet those leaders in your industry.  To learn from those folks you look up to and to learn how they do things, and what has contributed to their success.  To talk to them and just meet them as people, and to find out, that for the most part, they’re just like you and me. One gentleman I met in Austin is Ray Roman, of Ray Roman Films.  Ray lives and works in Miami and has done some amazing stuff.  He’s worked with lots of pro athletes and other really, really good looking people.  (That’s my Zoolander reference for the day.)  But you can check out all his work over on his blog and website.  I wanted to go over more of what I learned from Ray.

In the industry of wedding filmmaking, we are documenting a once in a lifetime event.  We do it with grace, class and style.  Your wedding day is something that will be one of the days in your life that you remember for a long time to come.  We can all look back and pick out certain days, when something happened, and we remember it like it was yesterday.  September 11, 2001 is one of those days.  Your wedding day is one of those days.  You want to trust it to someone who is going to deliver to you a product that touches your heart and those close to you.  Your film should inspire you.  It should inspire your children.  It should be something that is passed down from generation to generation as a treasured piece of family art, a priceless heirloom.  Something that you will run back into a burning building to save.  Something you can’t afford to lose at all costs.

Ray helped show us that.  What we do is record and document that live event, in such a way that you can relive it.  Compare it to the Super Bowl.  Would you rather read about the Super Bowl in Sports Illustrated and look at the pics a week later, or would you rather watch it on a big screen, in all it’s glorious color, with all the sounds and voices and music of the day.  Wouldn’t you like to see Nana and Pap-Pap’s faces again, as they say “Congratulations, I love you,” especially because they aren’t around anymore?  Wouldn’t you like to see all those little details again?  All the details you worked so hard on, and all those details that went by in a flash.  Those sorts of things you will see and relive in your film.

I always had thoughts and feeling about what we do and how we affect the clients we work with, but Ray had a way of condensing all those feelings down and delivering it in a clear, concise, easy to understand way.  Our imaginations are crazy enough, and sometimes we need clear and concise to help us really get to the heart of the matter.  I think sometimes we have a way of complicating the things that are most important to us.  The crazy emotional stuff.  And sometimes we just need an outside voice to speak calmly to us and help us see how simple it all really is.