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The Business of Wedding Films with Emma Wilson
108 Plays3 years ago
Emma Wilson of Wengen, Switzerland makes the most beautiful wedding films you've ever seen. Forget about the cheese that can sometimes sneak into this industry. Emma creates from-the-gut, perfectly crafted mini-features to celebrate her client's special day. Her films are a testament to the idea that it's never the subject matter, or the corner of the industry, but always what you bring to the table as a craftperson that matters.
But that's not enough for this 20 year veteran of the BBC's TV newsrooms. Emma, in addition to creating said beautiful wedding films, has started Evolve Videography Training specifically geared towards women commercial filmmakers. And, in addition to that, Emma runs a highly successful corporate film company, Story Creatives.
Emma sits down with host Max Kaiser to talk about what it takes to create truly exceptional wedding films, why she thinks women have a tough time in our biz, what she's doing to change that, and finally, how she balances running three companies with a very consuming home life and downhill skiing schedule.
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Transcript
Introduction of Max Keiser and Emma Wilson
00:00:03
Speaker
Okay, we are back with Crossing the Access, the business side of video production. I am Max Keiser, I am the CEO of Pipeline Video Production Software, and I am also the host of
00:00:20
Speaker
crossing the axis. And today that makes me very lucky guy because I get to be with someone who I am. I am so excited. First of all, we've never had a guest from Europe, we've never even had a guest from outside of the United States. And we have that today with Emma Wilson.
00:00:36
Speaker
And Emma is a destination wedding filmmaker, a storyteller, an entrepreneur, an adventurer, a mother of two, a motivational speaker, a coach and mentor, a straight talk visionary, a skier, a dog lover, and a gin drinker. This is all from Emma's site. I don't know her well enough to tell you all those things, but I am so excited to have you today, Elma. Thanks for joining us. It's a real privilege to be here. Thank you very much for inviting me.
Emma's Unique Approach to Wedding Films
00:01:04
Speaker
I just want to start by saying your work is absolutely phenomenal. It is amazing. You are completely redefining in my mind what a wedding video could or ever would have hoped to be.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, thank you very much for that. That is my intention and my ethos and philosophy. And actually that came about, that idea of redefining wedding films from another producer who actually doesn't even like wedding films, but said, the thing is Emma, you make wedding films that aren't really wedding films, they just so happen to be getting married. So yeah, that's definitely the case.
00:01:41
Speaker
Well, it's amazing because it's true. I think that wedding films in our industry have gotten, you know, get a certain sort of, I don't know what you call it, a certain sort of bad reputation, baby. Well, yeah, they do. Even turn that on your ear, on its ear. Folks, you have to see these to believe them. What's the website again, Emma?
00:02:04
Speaker
It's StoryOfYourDay.com. Her name of one of her companies is Story of Your Day. They're filmed in beautiful locations. She somehow has beautiful people who are getting married.
00:02:21
Speaker
The color grading is absolutely phenomenal for you tech heads out there. The editing is great. The music is great. All together, they're gorgeous pieces. When my wife saw one of them, she was so upset because we didn't have anything remotely close and she thought we were very cheated. It's amazing we've made it this far.
00:02:50
Speaker
So tell us a little bit about how you got here. How did you get to where you are? Because it's a really interesting background.
Emma's Journey: BBC to Wedding Filmmaker
00:02:59
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, you just hit the nail on the head there about the reputation for wedding films because I actually fell into it. I worked for the BBC as a video journalist and a news reader in the UK.
00:03:14
Speaker
for 20 years. And on my second maternity leave, actually, I only had six weeks off on my first, but on my second, I managed to take a year. And a photographer friend of mine that also worked, had worked at the BBC, was a wedding photographer. And she said, oh, why don't you start making wedding films? And I was like, I actually can't think of anything worse. You know, we all had these conversations in our head of, you know,
00:03:44
Speaker
a fly in the wall hour long, two hour long films. And I was like, no, nah. But then a couple of weeks later, a colleague from work asked me to film their wedding. And then my brother-in-law asked me to film his wedding. And I started thinking, oh, well, look, I'll do these things for a laugh.
00:04:02
Speaker
And right from the outset, I wanted to do something quite different. I didn't look at any other wedding videographers, but my background as a storyteller meant that I automatically fell into this storytelling route. And I'd assigned my dad to come up with the name because I didn't have enough time. I was working full time.
00:04:24
Speaker
at the BBC. So my dad came up with Story of Your Day because I said, look, think about what I am. I'm a storyteller, I'm a journalist. So I want to come up with something. So he came up with my name, the name of the company. I decided I really quite liked it. So for about four years, I was juggling my job at the BBC with filming weddings.
00:04:47
Speaker
And then I decided, actually, this is all a little bit too much. So I wanted to have the freedom. I wanted more time with my family. I thought it would give me flexibility. We all know that working for yourself doesn't give you any of those things, of course. So I resigned from the BBC. My dad didn't speak to me for about three months. He was so cross because he just thought this wedding film thing would be a fad.
00:05:11
Speaker
And yeah, so that enabled me to concentrate on the story of your day. And ultimately, it meant that when my husband decided that he wanted to relocate to Switzerland, I was able to say, yeah, let's have a go for a couple of months. So that was five years ago. We just never went back home to the UK. So I'm still in Switzerland.
The Art of Storytelling in Wedding Films
00:05:33
Speaker
It sounds like you really just followed your gut for what you felt like was going to make a great film for these people's special day.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, and also I wasn't so worried about the technology that I was using at the time DSLR cameras were the in thing. But I had two cameras that the BBC had very kindly handed over to me, video cameras, Sony Z7s, I think they were.
00:05:56
Speaker
And I had some good audio equipment. And for me, the audio is and always has been half the story. I started my life in broadcast on the radio. I absolutely love listening to the radio because I think her imagination is very, very strong. So I think, you know, storytelling, you know, audio has to be half the story. So for me, that that's just where I fell into it. To be honest with you, though,
00:06:21
Speaker
I would say that I don't like the name of my company now because back then story wasn't on brand, it wasn't a thing everybody talked about and I felt quite unique and quite different then and I really stood out and then of course this oh you know even Canon's line is live for the story and everyone started talking about storytelling and I for a while I got a little bit
00:06:48
Speaker
a bit angsty on my website. I was like, I do tell the story of your day, unlike other videographers. And then I started thinking, oh, you've got to let go of this. People, people, when they commission you, they'll either they'll either get you and understand this and they'll see you're different. So from the start, I was always into the storytelling aspect of it and into the audio side of things. And how long have you been doing the just the wedding videos?
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:07:17
Speaker
12 years. Oh, wow. And you do a fair number a year. I mean, it looked like, I mean, obviously, pandemic notwithstanding, you know, I was looking at your blog and you had almost three or four recent entries. So you're doing on a normal year, maybe 10, 10 or so a year.
00:07:37
Speaker
No, so well, let me tell you a little story about this. When we moved to Switzerland, I had 23 weddings to edit. And each wedding had a trailer, a film of the day, a ceremony and speeches in full. So we're not talking about just 23 weddings.
00:07:55
Speaker
And actually the thought of that now makes me feel pretty sick it was, it was, you know, my anxiety was really high was, you know, we moved here to ski and spend a bit of time with my family and, and I was going to edit, but I never, I never saw the slopes I was just edit, edit, edit.
00:08:13
Speaker
And so I vowed to myself then that there had to be a different way forward. And so actually since that point, and that's 2016, I've decreased the amount of weddings I film each year. So the following year it was, I think, 17 and then 15 and then 12. This year has been six.
00:08:35
Speaker
And next year, I won't do any more than 12. I'm still filming a couple from pre-COVID. And this really all comes back to, this is maybe the reason I really wanted to have you on the show, honestly, was because of this, what you talk about, about your balance between the passion for your craft and
00:08:57
Speaker
having a life. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Because I think your approach to it sounds really amazing. It's something that I think our listeners, whether they're whatever kind of videos they do, our craft has a way of taking over your life. And how do you balance those things?
00:09:14
Speaker
The thing is for me, I have to, with most of my wedding work, I have to be away from home for three days. I live in a car free ski resort. And even if I film a wedding in Switzerland, I normally have to go away the night before and I can't get home that night. But a lot of my weddings are all across Europe and all over the world. So therefore, I'm away at least three days.
00:09:39
Speaker
And while that might seem really fun and really glamorous, and don't get me wrong, I always have the best time, and my clients are completely awesome. They're all my dream clients. I do miss my family, and it's really hard. It's really hard taking all that kit away with you. I mean, I'm also, I'll let you in on a secret, terrible at flying. I mean, I'm a terrible flyer, and considering I have to go on a plane
00:10:06
Speaker
So often for my work, it's a miracle I actually get on board, but I don't let those anxieties and those things worry me. I just have to, you know, just get on with it. So for me, I started realizing about six years ago that I needed to film fewer weddings of only my dream clients in my dream locations, but for a lot more money.
00:10:31
Speaker
And that to me became really, really important. So this year, while I've only filmed six weddings, I've earned a lot more than I did, say, six years ago from just purely weddings. What's the litmus for the right client for you? Sorry, say that again. So what does it take to be the right client for you?
00:10:58
Speaker
Well, they've got to have some money because I'm not cheap. How much does one cost? How much does the wedding cost?
00:11:05
Speaker
I start from 10,000 Swiss francs or UK pounds for euros, depending on where I am, for a short four to six minute film. But I'd say on average, by the time I've delivered more and more upsells, we're normally going towards 15,000. But
00:11:31
Speaker
My biggest commission this year was for just a wedding with 11 guests and that was 23,000. It has got nothing to do with the size of the wedding and everything to do with what I'm delivering.
00:11:49
Speaker
So that client wanted an NDA, that client wanted 4k footage, they wanted the intellectual rights of the footage because they're getting married again next year somewhere else so they might want to use the footage again. So the price goes up and up and up and then I'm particularly good at upselling so while my basic offering is a trailer and a 15-minute film of the day
00:12:14
Speaker
I then offer ceremony in full, a speeches in full, a FOMO edit, a sneak peek, and nobody gets anything for free from me. But for my clients, I'd say that actually mostly budget is inconsequential. Their priority is a videographer.
00:12:34
Speaker
They fall in love with my work. They want their story told. They don't want a generic highlights film like everybody else's. And so they commissioned me without question really. I will say one thing, not many of my clients, in fact, none of my clients recommend me to friends or family because they just don't want to share me around. Well, that's terrible.
00:13:01
Speaker
First of all, I think those prices are ridiculously reasonable. Just looking at your work, to me, knowing what my company charged for things, for making commercials and corporate films, I think that those prices are completely great.
Pricing Strategy and Self-Worth in Filmmaking
00:13:23
Speaker
I mean I think it is interesting noting that it is a completely different budget for weddings and it is completely different charging even the way I charge is different for weddings but if you compare that to the average
00:13:38
Speaker
UK videographer, which although I'm not in the UK anymore, I'm still part of a lot of UK videography groups. I did some research early on in the year before I did a talk for the video show in the UK called The Price is Right, and I found that
00:13:55
Speaker
Most videographers charge around $1,500 or, you know, around £1,800 for wedding videos. So there's a big difference there. And that's really what I was charging when I was filming loads more weddings.
00:14:12
Speaker
and how did you arrive at those numbers i mean is it is it is it really just that's what that's what you need to do that many to have to have what you need to make i mean that's i always sort of encourage people to just simply look at what do you need to make and work it backwards from there is that is that basically how you're doing it
00:14:29
Speaker
I think the thing is, once you start getting some big clients, and then you get inquiries through, even though those inquiries might be for three and a half, 4,000 pounds, and you might have jumped at those even 18 months ago, now I just won't commission for less
00:14:50
Speaker
for less because I know what I can charge. And we can all go around going, am I worth it? And we all face imposter syndrome. But at the end of the day, I have to decide what I'm worth to go to film a wedding as a solo shooter, my skills, my experience, my background, and the product that I deliver. And for me, that is, you know, that is what I charge. And if I can charge more, I'll charge more.
00:15:20
Speaker
I do Google potential clients. I do see what their net worth is if that information is available. And sometimes I charge accordingly. Yeah. And tell us about this imposter syndrome. You've talked about that a couple of times.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's I guess it's one of the reasons why I don't even now don't look at other videographers work, I think it's a total waste of time. The only time I look at other videographers work is for my role videography training. And I'm critiquing people's work. But if we all go around comparing ourselves to others, and then looking at what they charge, either we start feeling we're not charging enough, or we think, oh my god, am I overpriced? So how's that work? It's not worthwhile.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah. So I tend not to compare myself to others. I think what I offer is something completely different. And if I start looking at other people's work, would I be tempted to, you know, move my style? Although my style is always obviously improving and evolving.
00:16:21
Speaker
It's an analogy would be when about five years ago I didn't really grade, I was happy with the the pro-loss setting I had in my camera. I like to look in the back of my DSLR camera and go, right, that's lovely. I love that look.
00:16:38
Speaker
And I also knew what my capabilities were. For me, the story was the focus, rather than maybe the aesthetic shots. So for me, the grading wasn't that important. And then grading became a real thing. And I work really closely now with Color Finale. I'm one of their ambassadors. But I teach people
00:17:02
Speaker
to colour correct first and understand what they're doing with colour. Well, actually, I teach them how to film exposed right in the first place. And then when I grade a film, because I do grade now, I back it off so much. It is a
00:17:21
Speaker
It's just the essence. I remember a videographer sent me a film a few years ago and said, what do you think of this film? They're a friend of mine, but we used to send our films back and forth if we were a bit worried about it. And I said, oh, that was a lovely film. I really loved it. What a shame that you were out in Italy and the weather was so bad.
00:17:42
Speaker
And they said, what do you mean? The weather was so bad. It was beautiful. I went, well, what on earth have you done with the grade? It was just this round, dirty in color that wedding videographers use a lot of because they see everybody else doing it. So they think, jump on the bandwagon. And I'm like, no, it's got to accentuate that day. It's got to accentuate that story.
00:18:03
Speaker
But you're not making wedding films for your peers or to win awards. I'm making wedding films for my clients.
Managing Stress and Building Client Trust
00:18:10
Speaker
So they want a true representation of their day. And therefore, it's not got to look like World War II. How do you handle the day of the shoot? With my company, we literally did one wedding video and I said, we can't ever do that again. It was so stressful. It was just, you know,
00:18:31
Speaker
we would do quarter of million dollar ads, but we could not do a wedding video because I just found them to be so ridiculously. You can't recreate certain aspects of the day. You have to be both a narrative and a documentary filmmaker simultaneously. How do you handle the stress of that plus the fact that everybody there is sort of stressed out too a little bit or could be?
00:18:57
Speaker
I would be lying if I did say that I have wedding nightmares because all wedding videographers do. One of mine is being at the bottom of a maze and seeing the ceremony at the top of the maze and it's just about to start and I've got to make my way through the maze.
00:19:15
Speaker
or that I arrive and I've got no batteries or I've got no cards. So these are all things that videographers who film wordings dream about but it is a live event. It is all about preparing for that live event and managing the expectations of your client but I do a lot of work ahead of the event. Each
00:19:41
Speaker
each client fills in a wedding details form. I have a long Zoom call with them ahead of the day to go through the details of who's speaking, when they're speaking. I also offer a lot of advice when they say, oh, we would like speeches between courses. And I'm like, well, that's logistically not going to work, but also who wants to see people eating while you're doing speeches. So my clients, trust me, I'm not at the level where
00:20:07
Speaker
clients come to me and say, this is what's happening. They actually asked me what my advice, you know, why I think would work because obviously I've been to more weddings than they have. And I work very closely with the planner and the photographer. You know, I've never turned up to a wedding without having called the photographer first, liaise with the planner, even Vickers get a call from me. I will never turn up to a church and be told you can't film because I would have known that ahead of time. So it's all in the planning. It's all in the preparation.
00:20:35
Speaker
That allows you on the day then to be able to capture everything as it unfolds naturally without having to set anything up because you know when something's going to happen next, because you've got those timings, you know them in your head. I also think that being a news journalist really, really helped because I used to film a lot of live events. So I'm able to anticipate what's happening next and then film it without being in a panic.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure that is an amazingly useful background for doing those. And I'm also sure that by charging a little bit more, you're establishing yourself. And that suddenly gets people to say, wait a minute, I'm paying this person well. I should defer to them. They know what's going on.
00:21:31
Speaker
Is that? I mean, I am there. They were commissioning me is not only their videographer, but an expert and someone that's going to hold their hand and look after them. And they trust me. I just had an email now from a client who's waiting. I'm filming in December and you know, they were debating whether or not they were going to share their vows with one another and they weren't going to do this.
00:21:53
Speaker
during the ceremony. So I said, you know, why don't you think about doing it ahead of time? They're getting married at the Carinthia, which is an unbelievably beautiful hotel in London, and they're in a penthouse suite with views over the city. And I'd said, you know, we can record them first thing in the morning here. If they use, they used. If they're not, they're not. But you've got them. And they came back to an email saying, yeah, we were a bit reserved about this, but we trust you. We believe in you. And that's why we've commissioned you. Yeah, it's all about that.
00:22:24
Speaker
I noticed a couple stylistic things that, you know, beyond I mentioned your color grading, which I think is fantastic, truly fantastic.
Emma's Filming Style and Training Program
00:22:33
Speaker
You also shoot in quite a wide aspect ratio, I noticed.
00:22:37
Speaker
Well, I just put cinematic bars on the top, but when I'm shooting, obviously I am shooting with that 2 to 35 aspect ratio in my head. Yeah, I love a lot of negative space. I love, so that works really beautiful in that aspect ratio. So yeah, for sure, I have signature shots within my films, which is silhouette shots, shooting through things, dirty shots,
00:23:06
Speaker
things are a little bit different. But the one thing that you will notice about my style, or at least I hope you've noticed is I don't use a gimbal or anything like that. I use something called a steady pod from the state. So it's like, it's steady like a tripod, but it's on one leg and the feet really spread out at the bottom, but all my shots are completely stable. And the action flows through the shot. I don't chase the action. I position my shot and I wait for the action to unfold. It's quite brave.
00:23:35
Speaker
But it's always worth it because it really helps with the storytelling. And because another thing I do is frame by frame editing, then you need to be able to film stable shots in order to be able to use the rules of syntax.
00:23:52
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think I've settled for a long time that I think the gimbal, all the steady shot stuff has made us so much lazier about how we frame our shots from the get-go, that we just don't take the time to make great framing first and then work from there. So hats off to you. Yeah, that's definitely
00:24:14
Speaker
That's definitely how I work it's all about framing the shot, allowing the action to unfold, not being scared so say say I'm on a wide shot and the bride sees her father for the first time or the, or the first look with the bride and groom or groom and groom.
00:24:29
Speaker
and they see each other for that first moment. You know, there's always that temptation, isn't there, is to reframe quickly. But I don't, I mean, I always shoot those sorts of things on two cameras anyway, one locked off and then one that I'm working on. But I just don't reframe. I think the client doesn't mind if it's just a wide shot, they would rather you nail the wide shot, get the wide shot, then lose the shot completely by reframing.
00:24:54
Speaker
Right, absolutely. So let's move from wedding videography for a moment and talk about Evolve, your class that you teach both in person and online. Is that right?
00:25:06
Speaker
So Evolve Videography Training came about because when I joined the wedding film business, there weren't actually very many female wedding filmmakers. So first off, I set up a Facebook group called Female Film Creatives, which is the world wide... Why did you do that? I remember reading something about that, that you felt that the current Facebook groups weren't very hospitable.
00:25:31
Speaker
Well, they were just not always, but some of them were really intimidating. Yeah. And some elite groups, you know, that they were, they, I would ask a simple question, like, for instance, what ST, what should I use an SD card or a CF card? Is there a difference is one stable, more stable than the other? And the answer was, you know, why don't you put your SD cards in the in the fridge? No, no, I put them in the toaster.
00:25:58
Speaker
And also, you know, you would ask a technical question and you would just get all this information that came back that just went way over my head. And also, it was all about the gear all the time, all the gear, no idea, having the latest kit, constant, constant, constant, instead of this focus on learning
00:26:16
Speaker
to how to use the gear that you already have and become a master of that camera before buying something new and trying to learn something new and actually weren't very good with what you already had. So I set up female film creatives and then shortly after that I realised there was a need for
00:26:36
Speaker
videography training just for women. So I launched solo sessions first, which is one-to-one training initially in person, now online. And then of all videography retreats, again, just for women at first here in Switzerland. Then I had a few guys complaining that guys weren't invited. So I opened it up to guys, but of course they didn't really want to come anyway, did they? So a couple of couples came. And then I opened up my Evolve Mastermind
Challenges for Women in Filmmaking
00:27:04
Speaker
So then I then I wrote last year some online courses during Covid. And then this year I launched Evolve Mastermind, which is for female filmmakers. So it's an online course with also with with a Facebook group, with weekly webinars, with weekly library co-working spaces so that we can all be working together and supporting one another. So, yeah, that I mean, that's my that's my niche offer really is Evolve Mastermind.
00:27:34
Speaker
So now, you know, I have lots of women involved and I'm here to inspire, empower them and to educate them. So how do you approach teaching women differently than you would teach men? What's the difference?
00:27:59
Speaker
look, I teach men as well. I have some clients that are in my solo sessions. I have plenty of guys that have bought my online course. It's just that I do feel that a lot of men feel threatened by me in Facebook groups and actually just in the videography community in the UK. I don't know if it's just a UK
00:28:24
Speaker
UK thing, I don't know. But so but the women that I teach, it's just a different conversation. And it's not like I teach them differently. But the conversation that we have between one another, and the support that we offer each other is just more rounded. And as I say, it's not all about the gear. It's about it's about
00:28:47
Speaker
lots of other things. And I do think that women have something to offer really amazing for wedding films and they just have to believe in themselves more. Definitely I think that they suffer with imposter syndrome more and then they get worried about the competition around them. Whereas I do find that men are just a little bit more confident in themselves and don't look to what other people are doing in order to find their worth and their value.
00:29:15
Speaker
You must have some theories what I know that I I do about why why women in our line of work are so scarce. What do you think, what do you think causes that.
00:29:31
Speaker
I don't know, you know, when I was at the BBC, I put myself in newsrooms, which were male-dominated, business newsroom, sports newsroom, where I was always referred to as my surname, Massey, and never my maiden name. And I've got three brothers and I've now got two sons. So I've always felt quite comfortable and confident surrounded by men. But I don't know if everybody feels that confidence. And when you go to
00:30:00
Speaker
workshops and retreats and online discussions. There's just so many more men. And that just means that women naturally don't come forward. And then when they do come forward, they would rather have a safe space and a safe group to do so. So you see some women posting the same thing in my group as they would in another videographer's group. And the way that they are
00:30:25
Speaker
The answers that they get, the way that they are supported and helped is just something completely different. I just think that women don't feel confident. Look, if I have to post about Evolve videography training, I will post it in my own group or in a female group without hesitation. To post anything in any group that's mixed, I have to build up the courage. And once I press that return key, I literally have to log off for the day because I don't want to see the comments.
00:30:54
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. Well, thank you, first of all, for doing it because as an owner of a production company, I just constantly was looking for female talent. And I struggled to find it. We wound up developing our own in-house generally from producers. We often had a lot of female producers
00:31:16
Speaker
but we didn't have a lot of female directors. And I was always at a loss as to why that is, but you're helping me to understand it quite a bit more. So thank you and thanks for helping these ladies out.
00:31:34
Speaker
I just think in general, if you're a filmmaker and you're at a wedding, you might feel, I mean, there are lots of things to deal with. So why I think you have producers, not directors is because directors need to have a voice. They need to stand out much more. And I don't think that women always feel that comfortable with doing that.
00:31:57
Speaker
you know, I'll be at a wedding and if I'm working alongside a photographer who's a male, people automatically think that I'm working for that person. Here in Switzerland, there are, it's crazy, the sexism here is crazy, crazy, crazy. I mean, I am literally expected to be at home. So when I go on a shoot here, it's like, where's your boss? Who's filming it? And I'm there stood with my camera. Who's editing it?
00:32:24
Speaker
And they just literally cannot get their head around it at all. And the fact that I'm a business owner and I'm a camera person, perhaps throwing myself out of a helicopter or hanging off a cable car, and then I'm going into the edit and I'm editing it, they literally cannot wrap their head around that. And so while there are more female videographers in the wedding world and it is growing, it really is growing, in the corporate world, there's still very few of them.
00:32:51
Speaker
The world that you know, because you also have a corporate video production company, which has some beautiful work. Now, I thought it was interesting that a lot of this work seems to have to do with the ski and travel industry. So once again, you've kept it all pretty close to home and things that you love, right?
Emma's Corporate Ventures and Life Balance
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah, so the Story Creatives, again, the story in mind, is a corporate and branding company. And I really wanted to keep it local, to be honest with you. A lot of the work that I do is not only here in Switzerland, but it's in my valley. It's for cable cars. It's for the ski school. And, you know, that's meant that I've actually- Hotels, beautiful hotel work.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, and hotels as well. But it has meant that I've obviously gone further afield with with international cable companies here and with hotels further afield. But there's nothing there's nothing better than rolling out of the back of my door and literally walking five strides across to film for the cable company.
00:33:57
Speaker
or going to Grindelwald and my commuters up the cable car down the gondola. So yeah, I absolutely love that work. It's still very niche. It's still very storytelling. I let the characters within the films tell the story. There's not a lot of narration in the films apart from the people that I'm actually doing the films for. I let them tell their own story. But yeah,
00:34:23
Speaker
I absolutely love it. I'm really, really blessed and I love the corporate work here. And it helps obviously that I can ski and I have loads of different gear. So I just go out and sometimes I have to pinch myself. I'm sitting there working for the ski school and I've gone off piece for the day to film the off-piste groups. And I'm thinking, oh my God, I'm working. This is insane. Well, that's what it's all about, right? I mean, that's why we do what we do. We do it so that we can follow the love of what we do. And the people that I found
00:34:52
Speaker
that seem to succeed the most, follow the most closely to what they love. So even just keeping it in your valley, as you say, you find some pretty amazing things there. You don't have to go that far far.
00:35:08
Speaker
that far field. And I think that's important for people to understand. Certainly that all think that only videography and pursuing your dream only exists in the big cities. No, very much it can exist in many amazing ways at very high levels of production in so many different nooks and crannies where we live. Yeah, I think
00:35:35
Speaker
Obviously, I mean, I'm very fortunate because the pay is very good in Switzerland, you know, so is the cost of living very high. But so I'm able so working on corporates is very lucrative here. But I think
00:35:51
Speaker
I know that video is, you know, drives traffic and more and more people want videos and films. So, yeah, just to be on top of that. And sometimes it's not even about wanting to film stuff myself, but actually educating, you know, the local tourist office or cable car company that they just need to what they need to be doing in order to get more attention. So, yeah, I am very, very lucky I live in a very picturesque
00:36:19
Speaker
part of Switzerland. That obviously does help, especially with my drone. But yeah, so yeah, I'm very, very lucky. Yeah. So let's just wrapping up, you know, again,
00:36:32
Speaker
The theme that I hear and I see throughout the video about yourself, the video work that you do, it all seems to stem from this idea of balance between your business, your passion. Can you tell us what the secret is for those?
00:36:50
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know what the secret, I think it's the secret is getting, I've always worked and you know, I'm almost 50 and I'd really like to stop working soon and I'm sure that when, you know, I'm sure that in a couple of years my idea of a dream job would be just owning a cafe or something up here.
00:37:12
Speaker
But for sure, for me, I'm sending more my teams now out to film weddings. I love editing. Editing is my real, real passion. And my other real passion is teaching and empowering and inspiring everybody, in particular, female filmmakers.
00:37:32
Speaker
And I think it's all about, on your work side, making sure that you're only working for your ideal clients in your dream locations. And that also is exactly the same for my corporate clients. And that allows you to have more time. I am very, very busy. I work more days than I would like to.
00:37:56
Speaker
It's all baby steps and it's all about reaching a goal. And I think that if you can spend more time with your family, that will make you better at what you do. So I just think that I have to make sure that I have beautiful holidays each year, that I have a lot of skiing with my kids, a lot of walking in the mountains and just living those moments and being in those moments.
00:38:22
Speaker
And I certainly feel that I'm getting much better at literally switching my computer off and closing the office door. My office, by the way, is in the apartment next to my apartment, so I can actually do that. And then if I forget something, run back. But actually switching that computer off and going home and spending time with the family, it's absolutely crucial. Well, it's late in the afternoon, Friday. Yeah.
00:38:49
Speaker
in Jurgen, Switzerland, where you are reaching us from. Did I say that right? Vängen. Vängen. Okay, I did not. Vängen. It's W-E-N-G-E-N, but it's Vängen. Vängen, okay.
00:39:05
Speaker
It's time for you to be able to get back to your weekend. Thank you so much. It has been very inspirational speaking with you. It has been, I hope, inspirational for some of the women listening in our audience as well as the men, as well as the wedding videographers out there, and anyone that is looking to
00:39:25
Speaker
bring the balance to their work that we all need, bring the goal setting to our work that we all need to get to that extra level. Could you just tell us once more where, if we wanted to look up Evolve, where we might do that? Yeah, so my wedding film company is StoryOfYourDay.com and Evolve is EvolveVidiographyTraining.com. Because you do have an- And I'm obviously on Instagram and Facebook and everywhere.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much, Emma. We really appreciate it and look forward to hearing from you again. Okay, thank you so much. A lovely way to wrap up my week.