The past two weekends have been spent covering Pakistani big fat weddings and now it's time for post editing. I spend a lot of time editing videos because I want every scene, frame sound and background music to be perfect.
I don't edit videos in one go, I have to take breaks from editing to get creative ideas. And my clients know this too, so they give me more time. But I always found some shortcomings in my previous work and every time I try to do better than before.
I had intended not to blog on Hive this weekend. But while editing the video I went into a flashback. And I felt that I had to write about this topic on the Hive blog, when and why did I finally start covering weddings and corporate events? Why do my clients trust me?
How it started
I had a Pakistani handicrafts, jewellery and Indian films shop in Rinkeby, a suburb of Stockholm.
I still remember it was March 2010, a Pakistani girl entered my shop with her mother. While buying imitation Jewelry, she asked me, "Brother, do you know any Pakistani wedding videographer or photographer?" I told her about two or three photographer shops in the area. But she already came back after talking to everyone. And according to this girl, most of the videographers and photographers in Sweden were Swedish, Arab, Turkish and Iraqi, and because they are not well aware of our culture, it is really difficult for them to capture the rituals and the moments in the wedding. She wanted to preserve her Big day of her life in the form of photos and film.
I was fond of making videos and photos since my childhood. But till date I had never done this commercially. But that day, seeing the girl upset, I told her that I might be able to help you. But I don't have a camera and I'm not a professional video or photographer. And I showed her some of my personal work, like my family movies that I edited. She was satisfied with my work.
The wedding was in April 2010. After searching the internet, I found Macrent. MacRent used to rent semi-professional cameras, tripods, etc. to companies for a short period of time.
I rented a Panasonic AGAC160EJ and had a Nikon D40 DSLR at the time so I was ready to cover the wedding.
The first shock I got was when I found out that the wedding was not in Stockholm but in Uppsala. I didn't even have a car at that time. The second shock was when the groom got out of the car and the groom's family was calling me outside to make a video. Then I remembered that I hadn't taken the extra lights with the video camera. Well, I completed this two-day wedding. At the time I used Roxio for video editing and Photoshop for photos. After designing the photo album, I got the photo book printed from Finland, designed the entire customized DVD disc and cover. And so the project was completed. Both the bride and the groom and the family loved my work.
The girl had two friends who were getting married next month. They also contacted me and that's how it started.
After some time I had bought my camera and all the equipment.
After teaching various photographers, I met Naveed Abbas Memon. He is an expert in his craft and a great photographer and we have been working together for many years.
I was the only Pakistani covering desi weddings at that time. I have covered Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Muslim weddings in Sweden. And at a wedding, I met Abbas Kapasi, who made me the official media partner for an event called Bollywood Dhamaka.
Why do my clients trust me?
As I mentioned earlier, I take a lot of time and I communicate this to the client before I start work. But the date I give to the client is not a day higher. I still get events through referrals. I don't share much content on my Facebook page or website. But the reviews of my satisfied clients are enough of my marketing efforts. Today, 90% of the people who come to desi weddings know me very well because of my work. Sometimes it also happens that I have made the wedding video of most of the guests who came to the wedding.
Over time I also upgraded myself, from Roxio to Pinnacle and today I am using Adobe Premiere. I create video titles in After Effects which are very popular with all my clients.
Disclaimer
As I mentioned in my intro, from the last 2 decades I have been active on social media, google mapping and reviews, youtube and thatsup. I will share my own past interesting content from these channels, but all my upcoming content I will share on hive.blog first.