Special video for special clients!
I am excited about being able to offer video memories and experiences, unavailable elsewhere. Great event video should be about your people, their personalities, expressions, and emotions. My video will be a film that takes you back to those special moments and have you feeling as you felt then.
These words may sound similar to other videographer’s claims and they might use words like cinema, filmic, film, or cinematography. We probably agree that technology has made amazing advancements and your video should benefit from that.
But your video must be more than cameras that seem to float as smooth as butter, or image clarity that redefines crystal. Your video must convey the passion, the guts, the substance, the character and the personalities of your family and friends. And that requires totally different skill sets and thinking than is available elsewhere.
I hate saying that because it sounds crazy to boast that I am doing what no one else does. Sadly, the more you learn, the more you will agree.
Facts you need to know:
Constantly changing situations of a once in a lifetime event cannot be shot on a tripod. Period. The camera must be able to move in all three dimensions simultaneously and instinctively.
Few camera persons practice to perfect camera handling skills.
Most cameramen never even think about the more advanced techniques.
Video associations and schools do not teach these techniques.
Most videographers do not invest in cameras that can be used with the skills I refer to.
Most videographers use cameras that are held in front of them.
Only old timers have experience with a shoulder mounted camera. New guys use it awkwardly and quickly wish to put it down on a tripod.
Only shoulder mounted cameras have the ergonomics to allow skillful shooting.
When today’s cameramen buy shoulder mounted cameras, they rarely know about advanced camera handling techniques. So they do not know why certain specs are so important and they buy cheaper cameras that cannot be used in my way.
The handful of people who have invested in the rare camera that is both sensitive, and shoulder mounted, do mostly commercial video where they are directed on every shot, and do not have to use any of the skills I refer to.
In my 40 years as a photographer and my 30 years in video, I have known only a handful of cameramen who can do what most cannot. None of them are still doing it!
There are a few dozen professional videographers who work in theatre, and broadcast that have the exact skill I refer to. But they are used to being part of a well directed team of multiple videographers, each doing a small part of the job and they are shooting for an audience of strangers, not the loved ones who will value different things in their memories.
Creating meaningful video footage requires a photographer’s eye, and understanding of what people are self-conscious about in their appearance, a story tellers sequencing, an editor’s sense of timing and of course, a director of photography’s use of light.
Only the latest videographers have had photographic experience. But it is a very superficial un mentored, technical experience, not skilled artistry. Photographers do not become videographers.. . there is more money in photography. People buy books and albums and wall prints. Video is limited.
If you read articles on Video: Short or short changed :
http://blog.rabenko.com/videocamera/,
http://blog.rabenko.com/todaysvideo2/
http://blog.rabenko.com/todaysvideo3/
you will learn about the limitations of today’s popular camera formats, which cannot be used in the way that true shoulder mounted cameras can be used.
Today’s videographers do not know about those limitations because they do not have experience with the older type format, have no desire to hold a 25 pound camera on their shoulder and do not have anyone to teach them.
Watch today’s videos and you will see a wide range of image quality.
The best will feature sweet camera movements and crystal clear imagery.
But the content will not be worth watching. Angles on people will not be the best Moments will not be the most powerful and meaningful. Action captured will be the stereotypical expected moments, not the unexpected magic.
If you are having a small intimate event or a larger major event, you will find that my video has more of what you and your loved ones will value so much later. My work is not corny, or contrived. It is an honest reporting from a flattering perspective, of the subtleties of life that make reliving the experience so valuable and magical.
This is a very special offer.
When I am booked as photographer, I do photography and have my crew do video. Some very successful videographers have been with me for years, and will admit that they cannot do what I want in video. So I only can sell my style to a select client when I personally am available.
Other videographers will give you long, boring wide shots, too tight, meaningless, off timed long shots, and emphasize the unimportant, or expected moments.
Even videographers, with award winning edits, display extremely weak shooting.
The most prolific shooters, do not have any interest or knowledge in what is needed by the editor. Editors do not want to shoot, they want to sit back and edit in comfort.
Videographers are not concerned, skilled or sensitive. So how can your video of your loved ones be special?
I am the opposite.
To make an appointment to see my work…. Or to book me at a limited time for an amazing price…
Contact Us
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH TODAY’S EVENT VIDEOS?
Do they have substance or are they superficial.
Does the best image quality always seem to be of the least important moments?
Does the camera show what is important, or even who is most important?
Does it seem that the cameraman is on the pulse of the action and feeling the moment, or that he is just a camera holder doing a surveillance job?
Artists are expected to see things differently. Sometimes we might see the same thing from a different place.
I see the shidduch world from the perspective of a photographer. Men and women of all ages come here who want something special. It is obvious that often, they can have so much difficulty in deciding what they like in themselves, that I wonder how they will ever be able to recognize what they want or make a decision on someone else!
Shira* knew what she wanted, what she needed, and why she had come to me.
An awkward stiffness that cloaked or dampened her true personality in professional portraits or her friends snapshots”. This is what she said in her first visit to my studio. But I wanted to see for myself. So before I agreed to photograph her, I asked that she return with her latest photos. I have learnt that sometimes, a person may just not like a great shot, because they are looking for something else. And if I were to give them more great shots, they still could be looking for that something else!
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The List of Shots You Do Not Want To Give Your Photographer
The list usually includes obvious basic combinations which any halfway experienced, remotely decent photographer certainly shouldn’t need. And the idea that an inspired artist could possibly work off a list casts doubt on whether the person writing the article really knows anything about what a photographic artist’s real job is. My advice: I can do the best, most thorough job when the client conveys in concept form what she is really looking for, and lets me know what she values in imagery by how she interprets what she sees that I’ve already done. Does the client want sweet, soft, flattering imagery, or would she rather have harsh, bold, dramatic imagery?
That is the kind of info that is helpful to doing great photography.
Instead, those preparing the list spend hours putting together lists of hundreds of combinations that include the most basic – like Bride and her Mom – as well as very odd combinations that are then never used.
But in every case that a list like this is provided, glaring omissions exist. Often numerous combinations are left out, that upon questioning, the client admits that surely they are musts! But they are not on the list.
There is a finite time to the portrait session, which is never long enough and always abbreviated by people not being present, or more important things to do, like conferring with the musical director, the caterer, the clergy, the party planner, the florist.
The last thing you want is for the photographer to take his eyes and mind off his subjects to peruse a list. No, the idea of an assistant is not much of a solution. The assistant cannot be a technical assistant if he is checking every shot being done against the multipage list. Nor can he always know that a shot taken was sufficient. The best photographers will loosen up stiff subjects by returning to them later, but he cannot do that, nor can he follow his creativity where it will lead, or work most efficiently by sequencing his shots based on lighting needs and other practicalities, if he is following a list in order.
Gary Rabenko may be reached at gary@rabenko.com. Rabenko Photography & Video Artists is located at 1001 Broadway in Woodmere.
Last week I wrote about a party planner. This week someone mentioned an orthopedist. It reminded me of an early headshaking experience. Susan (not her real name), whose husband was a renowned doctor, was planning his 40th-birthday party. She booked me last minute. I wondered why. When people book a photographer last minute, it often means something. And trust me, it is good to know what that reason might be. Susan and I knew each other from other events she had planned. So being in the business, I assumed she just had many photographers to choose from and did not make it a priority to book one far in advance.
Back then, we would do table photos. Experienced photographers know not to refer to them as such to the guests. Guests hate standing up. Referring to table photos, or that you are there to photograph the table, can result in jokes that you only photograph the table and not the guests! What we actually need to do is to photograph the people at the table! Today so many activities occur at bar and bat mitzvahs that aside from the few minutes one is actually eating, seats are rarely all filled and table photos have gone the way of VCR tapes. Religious weddings have such lebedik action from start to end that here, too, many table photos are not possible. Videographers often pan across the guests at each table to show in fleeting form those present. So tables are not essential.
Susan was having a luncheon. Table photos should have been easy. They could have been easy. But as we shall see, they were not.
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Planning a party? Some party planners can help. They organize the unorganized, keep track of all the details, and deal with all the vendors—or whichever vendors you do not want to have to deal with on a daily basis leading up to the big day of the party itself. Photography is a personal thing, and the photographer is the only vendor whose job continues long after the music stops. So many photographers feel it is best to deal directly with the client.
Recently I worked with a terrific party planner. She cared about all the details, was a constant comfort and consolation to the client, and her friendly staff got involved to solve problems. They were not just intermediate message takers. Unlike most planners, she actually cared about the photography. She did not book me. The client did. But unlike some planners who take little interest in vendors booked directly, she understood how the photography was all you have later, and she wanted the best for the client and to help the photographer do his best, so the photos would be great and everyone would look good and remember how they felt.
Some party planners definitely do not plan for the photographer, even those they recommend. Others act as if it is all about them. Which brings to mind a particular moment at a particular wedding, but which unfortunately happens all too often.
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I have been recording events for 40 years. I started very young. Problem-solving and good advice have always been my goals. Things happen. I have read many advice articles and written some over the years. Advice articles are often written by editorial persons who poll a variety of experts and then attempt to distill the advice based on the majority of opinion, or on common sense. Neither approach sounds too good. Should not the real expert be in the minority, and not share everyone’s less informed view? And even assuming common sense was common, real experience and expertise in something trumps the often un-“common” sense.
No doubt you have keen insights and opinions developed from firsthand planning and making simchas. That is why your opinion counts and I would like to hear from you about what I should have done in these situations.
Here in a series of articles, I will share a variety of situations that have come up, and ask readers to e-mail me what they think I should have done in that situation. So without further introductions—Your Opinion, Please.
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