On February 15th (the 3rd Wednesday), we will feature photographer Jason Groupp, who has spent years working on something he’d been known for – in essence, creating his signature.  The result: The IHNY (I Heart NY) Sessions.  In this program, he shows you how he’s applied years of experience shooting for clients like Vogue, NY Times Magazine, J. Crew and Tiffany’s, to his work as a wedding and portrait photographer. Here he focuses on “million-dollar lighting” on a shoestring budget, how he markets his signature IHNY sessions and how he built a new revenue stream alongside his wedding work.

We will also feature the “Gadget Bag”, which is any tool, tip or idea that you use to make your day more pleasant or easier.  It can be a tripod extension, a slider, a new LED light, a way to hook a client or whatever!  Please bring the item(s) to the next meeting – but email VP Eric Model at emodel@reelmoments.com if you would like to present so he can schedule enough time for everyone who wants to present!   No matter how small or large your gadget is – someone else may not know about it and it can be worth all the time in the world to them.

Ron Bienstock, Esq. was our first guest speaker of 2012 on January 11th, with the subject of music copyright law.  This subject has been in the news lately and Ron filled us in on everything we need to know about using music with our videos.
Ron teaches Entertainment Law as an adjunct professor at New York University and is a frequent guest lecturer for various graduate and undergraduate schools at NYU. Ron has also been a music business commentator for NPR, WBAI, Barely Legal Radio, Tech TV and CNN. He has been a guest lecturer, instructor and panel moderator for BMI, ASCAP, CMJ, NEMO, SXSW, NAMM, PMA, RPMDA, the Florida Music Conference, Miami Music Conference, Atlantic Records’ A&R University, the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), the New Jersey State Bar Association, The Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, St. John’s School of Law, Rutgers School of Law, Seton Hall Law School, Ithaca College, and many other organizations and universities.

Check your inbox for the  NJVA Recorder email, which is filled with many more details about the party

From Alan: “When we have conversations with wedding pros around the country, the discussion inevitably turns to their ROI, or Return on Investment. They want a good ROI from their print ads, their online ads, their emails, their direct mail, their social media, their bridal show participation and really everything they do. However, when we ask how you’re tracking your ROI the conversation gets really quiet, really fast.

While there is a small group who really have a handle on it, most either don’t track it at all, or are using the wrong methods and metrics for calculating their ROI. Even if you do know your ROI you still have to decide if it’s good, or bad and make decisions based upon that.

What we covered:

• What is ROI?

• How to measure and track your results

• How to understand if your return is good

• How you can improve your ROI to achieve greater profitability”

Alan Berg

• author

• professional speaker

• small business marketing expert

author of “If your website was an employee, would you fire it?” and “Don’t Paint the House!”

“Alan is a tremendous speaker and an amazing talent. His advice is invaluable. Best seminar I’ve attended all year.”
Damon Dietz, Absolute Media Productions

founder of the Wedding Industry Leaders Conference

Education, coaching and consulting for highly motivated individuals and businesses

alan@alanberg.com

www.alanberg.com

This presentation got into some of the nitty-gritty of video (and audio) compression. Terminology, current types of file formats, frame sizes, aspect ratios, bit rates, rendering tools and more were discussed.

“EDIT ANYTHING!”

People from the NY-NJ area joined Grass Valley Edius trainer George Dame from 2:30-5:30pm for a 3 hour workshop featuring EDIUS 6.

Participants discoverd why Edius 6 is one of the major tools in the TV News industry and why new stations are switching to Edius every day.

George discussed today’s file based workflow from acquisition to export along with many of the new features and third party tools that are specific to Edius 6 and future versions.

Participants saw why Edius 6 will increase productivity in your Mac or Windows based studio.

Raffle Prize: Edius 6

Congratulations to Pat Fahy, winner of the Edius 6 raffle!

Shoot to thrill triple header! We started with Dan Strickler  and Continuity Shooting.”In event videography, continuity isn’t always called for but in the course of the wedding day, there are several times when continuity is relevant and an experienced videographer should understand how it works” Dan will gave a brief overview of continuity and how it applies to dialog driven filmmaking and reserved the bulk of the workshop for a hands-on exercise that applies specifically to wedding coverage.

Next, it was on to Eric Model and Art Tollefson as they presented various approaches to shooting dance segments. Eric focused more on the documentary style camcorder approach, and Art delved into the DSL Shortform model.
Finally, Julie Conroy provided some simple tips and tricks to greatly improve your reception lighting.

We are greatly saddened to announce the passing this week of long-time NJVA member, Bonnie Durkin. Bonnie joined the NJVA in its earliest days and continued to be an active participant through 2010. During that time, Bonnie served for many terms on the Board of Directors and could always be counted on for her common-sense suggestions and her candor. “In our Board discussions, we benefited from Bonnie’s keen intelligence and her ability to get right to the heart of a matter”, said fellow board member Dan Strickler.

Bonnie was also an excellent presenter. Through the years, she conducted many workshops for NJVA on a wide range of topics, bringing the presentations skills she had honed as a high school history teacher. She was also a great extemporaneous speaker, and was always happy to step in at the last minute to lead a discussion or moderate a panel. She was known nationally, presenting consistently excellent workshops, year after year at WEVA and later for the 4-Ever Group.

Bonnie wasn’t only good at talking about video, her company’s work was often at a very high level. She won several Creative Excellence Awards, including “Gold” from WEVA for her Bar/Bat Mitzvah videos, Wedding videos and Concept Videos.

Robert Allen, the former president of the NJVA and a long-time friend of Bonnie, recalls her as being a lot of fun. “Besides being one of the smartest people I ever knew, she was one of the funniest … she could always make me laugh. I can remember while attending a WEVA convention in Vegas … we went to a hypnotist show and Bonnie was picked out of the audience and hypnotized. She was an absolute riot.”

Roy Chapman, founder and chairman of WEVA International said of Bonnie, “Event video has lost a true pioneer and national industry innovator. Bonnie was not only a Creative Excellence Award-winning filmmaker, she was an engaging and inspiring teacher who shared her insights on new and challenging markets, especially the school markets, as a Featured Speaker at WEVA EXPO over many years. She charted new pathways for so many others to follow, always with a passion for our industry and an abundant sense of humor.”

Like many in our field, Bonnie’s involvement in video came about gradually. She got her start doing videos related to the school where she taught and the schools where her twin boys attended. She specialized in sports and graduation videos, branching out to bar and bat mitzvahs and eventually encompassing corporate clients as well. As D-Vision grew, Bonnie’s husband Mike came on board, handling much of their sports coverage. Bonnie eventually went full-time with the business, expanded her staff and crew, focusing her attention on sales, scriptwriting and editing.

Bonnie prided herself on diversifying her business. D-Vision was equally strong in both the events and corporate arena where she served many companies over the years including an ongoing relationship with M&M Mars.

Bonnie graduated from Livingston High School and then went on to receive a BA degree from Rider University, an MA degree from Montclair State University as well as accruing post-graduate credits from Rutgers University. She is survived by her husband Mike and her two sons, Eric, who is a film and video major at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and Kevin who is a graphic artist. Both are involved in the family business.

For many of the older members of the NJVA both past and current, the death of Bonnie Durkin comes as a blow. She had a lasting effect on the event video industry in its early years and on our association and she will be sorely missed.

A service will be held on Tuesday, September 20th at the Ross Shalom Chapel, 49 Whippany Rd. in Whippany.  The service begins at 1pm, but guests may arrive to speak to Bonnie’s family as early as 12 noon.  Immediately after the service, the burial will be held at the Beth Israel Cemetery in Cedar Knolls. Following the burial, people are invited to the Durkin home to sit shiva (1 Norman Lane, Succasunna)  For those unable to attend on Tuesday, shiva continues Wednesday at the Durkin residence from 2-5pm, and also 6:30-9pm.

How to survive in a tumultuous economy.
Tips and tricks to keep the dollars rolling in.
Use your DSLR for BOTH mediums.
Add on’s that WILL sell.
What to do when they don’t want video – sell it to them anyway! (Its’ a trick!)
Think INSIDE the box.
Plus much, much more!

The August meeting will take place Wednesday, August 17th. The meeting will be held at the home of one of our members and is open to members only. For all those members who could use a good or more recent headshot of yourself, you will be able to have one taken free of charge at this meeting! Details to follow in an email to all members.