Access To Luxury: The Wedding Filmmaker Workshop in Review

I’m standing in the main kitchen of the beautiful Casa de La bonita in Aqua Dulce, California. In front of me are 16 filmmakers, lounging comfortably as they type pages of notes, listening to Emma Burke reassure them that spamming social media content for 90 days in a row was not the key to success that an online boot camp had promised her.

The entire room exhaled. 

“Everything is clicking, I just have to change my mindset.”

That one quote stuck with me my entire experience at the Wedding Filmmaker Workshop.

With ever-growing online wedding filmmaking communities, courses, podcasts, seminars and just endless amounts of inspiration everywhere you look, the possibilities for who you are and what you’re selling are endless

But, I am a firm believer in choice paralysis. You can do anything, so you may do nothing. 
Or, choice overload: you can frame your films any way you want, so you try to be everyone else in every film.

What I saw happen at this workshop is not just a group of filmmakers from all over the U.S. say “Oh yes, I want to be in the luxury market!” in unison, but a healthy combination of takeaways: some felt better prepared to strategize their brand for upward momentum, and a few realized the operations of a luxury market were simply not the experience they were longing to create after-all.

Regardless, every filmmaker in the room left the mornings confident that they were moving in their best direction.

There was a simple excitement about the level of clarity and focus in the group. A sense of confidence that they are making a new, firm decision in their brand. No doubt largely due to the seminars of the workshop:

• Manda Worthington of Mae&Co Creative spoke transparently about the relationship between luxury planners and videographers, how to make the planner your client and what “the extra mile” really means to someone serving luxury clientele around the world.
• Kathryn Magic of Blnk films shifted us into the “storyteller” mindset: how to carve unique stories and create edits that feel complete. How many times am I guilty of “shortcutting the ending?”. Yikes – a reminder to slow down and plan.
• Emma Burke reframed everyone’s approach to social media marketing and provided a step-by-step actionable guide to creating an authentic client experience to couples when you are looking to serve the boutique mid-market and high-market, from booking to delivery.

After a morning of homemade meals, education in loungewear (I’m a big fan), it’s time to go out for styled shoots and headshots. I had the pleasure of attending Day 2’s styled shoot at Villa del Sol d’Oro

“I knew this would be good, but this is incredible.

Through-out what was just 2 days, felt like a real escape where filmmakers got to feel like luxury couples themselves. All logistics already planned, everything packaged to be a custom and intimate experience that’s focused on learning and enjoying the industry again, surrounded by others who know what the industry feels like when it’s both struggling and thriving.

And we as a company know what that’s like, and why we believe in sponsoring events like Wedding Film Workshop. It’s fun to pack the goodie bags, host the farewell dinner, see our new fancy logo printed in various corners of the space but it’s truthfully just as valuable that we learn alongside the community the serve. It’s not every day I get to attend the event one of our own clients, Emelie Russell, is shooting and also witness how she views and processes her work.

As of writing this, next year’s Wedding Filmmaker Workshop in Tulum is already sold out (within 7 hours!) but we’re thrilled to return as sponsors and continue supporting the evolution of our industry.

(All photos by Hannah Brooke Photography)