1. Introduction: What's your story?
Hey there! My name is David Ho and I'm one of three owners of Focused Journey Media.
Our story begins as friends who simply enjoyed traveling together while capturing memories whether it be in the form of photo or video. While on these trips, we've learned that what we enjoyed most was to capture the moments in between rather than the destination itself. We enjoyed just being in the presence of each other and listening to the stories of one another. Through that, we took it upon ourselves to begin capturing weddings with the same mentality of how we travel. That is to not focus on just the glimmer and glam of the wedding day, but also the moments that happen in between and behind closed doors.
We want to focus on the authentic and rawness of ones love for the other rather because every couple's story is different. To be able to hear the many stories of our couples and learning about their journey (pun intended), we are able to represent them in the best way we could through our creative medium. Our goal is to eventually intertwine our love for traveling with weddings to do more destination-based weddings / elopements to bring it back full circle!
2. How long have you been filming weddings? How many weddings have you filmed?
We've been filming weddings for about 5 years now since 2016. It wasn't until August of 2019 was when we started to create a business name for ourselves to take things to greater heights. Since our first wedding, we've probably filmed around 30 weddings so far. We're excited as we have closed up 2021 bookings and going into 2022 very strong!
3. How would you describe your videography style?
Authentic and true-to-self.
What I mean by that is that there is no cookie cutter approach to these wedding films that we do. We take the time to cultivate a relationship with our clients and by doing so, allows us to best represent them through our films. Whether we're working with a shy, high-energy, emotional, intimate, or reserved couple, we always want to make sure we tailor the film that suits them cause that's what we would want for our very own future films.
4. How well in advance should couples book their wedding videographer?
We believe at least more than 8 months in advance at the very least up to 15 months. The reason being is that when you're booking someone 15 months in advance, you're technically booking them for their skills 15 months later down the line which is a LONG time for growth. On top of that, we've taken it upon ourselves to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to how many weddings we take on in a year. We want to hold to ourselves the utmost best quality work that we can provide and that starts with not rushing the process. That being said, we've had to turn down a handful of weddings for 2021 since couples were inquiring with us 4 - 7 months before their wedding date.
5. What are the different packages that you offer and which one is your most popular package?
We offer a variety of packages but we break it down into both weddings and elopements. Our most popular package usually is a standard 8 - 10 hour day where we include a 4 - 7 minute highlight film along with a variety of other add-ons. While we do offer these packages, we always remind our couples that there is no one-size-fits-all package and that goes back to our saying that every wedding is different and you should book what you think you need rather than pushing for a high package and it having to affect budget, timeline, etc.
6. Are you the wedding videographer who will be filming on the wedding day? How many camera people and cameras will be operating on the day?
I'm usually the wedding videographer that takes lead on the wedding day. We do have another member (Aaron) who does both hybrid photo / video like myself who is extremely talented. He handles a lot of the films when I am booked or busy. Depending on your package, sometimes we'll have me as a solo all the way up to 3 videographers. We've worked with 4 cameras at most on a single wedding day.
7. Do you charge a travel fee? For what distance? What does that cover?
Travel fees are usually added on over a 50 mile radius from San Jose. Everything out of that we usually charge based on the IRS Business Standard.
One of our elopement packages cover for California alone while the other covers for USA domestically.
8. How do you back-up your footage to ensure no footage is lost and for how long do you keep the footage after the wedding?
We cannot stress the importance of having enough back-ups! That's the first action we take when coming home after a wedding is to put it on a external drive. Once everything is backed up and organized on that primary drive, we copy that over to a main NAS drive that holds all of our weddings. Before we format any of our memory cards, we double check to see if both drives are backed up. We don't delete our footage on the drives rather we archive them and use new drives for new weddings.
9. How long after the wedding will the couple receive the video? And how will the video be delivered?
Again, our mantra is quality over quantity. We like to give ourselves up to 5 months to deliver the video in the case of any backlog. Now I know that might sound like a while, but in most cases, we generally deliver earlier which is a win for both the couple and us! We just want to state our terms clear so that the expectations are upfront and there is no miscommunication on the couples end or ours. We generally deliver the films over WedFlow which is an online video gallery that we've recently started using since it's very simple, aesthetically pleasing, and allows our couples to download / share easily!
10. What is your cancellation and/or refund policy?
Your retainer fee is non-refundable as it is used to retain your date on our calendars. If you choose to cancel your wedding or our services, that is considered a loss on the business end where we could've used that date for another prospective client that would have inquired with us. We can only refund the balance if anything were to go happen out of yours or our control on / before the wedding day.
