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That hollywood look - part 1 of 1 2

by Victoria Grech Published 01/11/2012

As more and more photographers start to look at what HD video can offer them Victoria Grech is already out there, producing big-budget wedding films full of high-end production values that are in big demand.

Ever since the emergence of the Canon EOS 5D with its celebrated HD video functionality the thoughts of many professional photographers have been turning to moving imagery and whether or not it might be possible to offer a film service that can run alongside and complement the still photography. For many it's still a pipe dream, while for others it's only ever happened on a small scale, but for wedding photographer Victoria Grech it's taken off in a big way and it's now a major part of her business and growing rapidly.Victoria only came into the photographic industry three years ago, after making the decision to make the sideways move across from investment banking. Although the two areas don't appear to have much in common at all, Victoria's previous career called on her to be inventive, bold and to think outside the box, and she's applied those self-same principles to her photographic business ever since she started up.

"The first thing I knew that I had to do was to take on the best training I could from those who were established and whose work I admired," she says. "First of all I signed up to The Societies and then I headed to the Convention to pick up as much knowledge and information as I could. While there I met up with Julia Boggio and I took on her 'Photographic Entrepreneur' course, and I also went on workshops with the likes of Jerry and Nick Ghionis, Adam Alex and Mark Cleghorn. After all of this I felt that I was fully prepared to take the plunge and I set up my wedding photography business from there.

"The first thing I knew that I had to do was to take on the best training I could from those who were established and whose work I admired," she says. "First of all I signed up to The Societies and then I headed to the Convention to pick up as much knowledge and information as I could. While there I met up with Julia Boggio and I took on her 'Photographic Entrepreneur' course, and I also went on workshops with the likes of Jerry and Nick Ghionis, Adam Alex and Mark Cleghorn. After all of this I felt that I was fully prepared to take the plunge and I set up my wedding photography business from there.

"It all went really well, but I could see from the beginning that there was a gap in the market as far as wedding videos were concerned. The ones that were being offered were invariably those that were shot alongside the still photographer and they tended to be rigid and lacking in movement. I knew that the kind of high-end clients that I wanted to attract, which included Asian, Greek, Turkish and Iranian couples, would be after something that was full scale and which had a Hollywood-style edge to it, and so I needed to offer them something that was more cinematic.

"I started playing around with filming in March 2011 using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, and I was very quickly hooked on the world of video. It certainly hasn't been an easy transition to make, but it's been very beneficial not only to my business and income but also in the way that it's allowed me to branch out into other areas of work that I never would have dreamed of as being possible.

"Offering your clients both photography and film helps not only us photographers to be in control and to direct the film team but it also allows the couples to feel more comfortable that the film and stills teams are already working together to get the best result. I've found that the fact we offer both services can be the difference between the competition and ourselves being chosen for the job and, of course, there's always the danger that over time videographers will look at moving into stills and then those who offer a stills only service will be fighting for jobs in an even tougher environment."

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1st Published 01/11/2012
last update 09/12/2022 14:59:38

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