020: Bottlebrush Films – How to Create A One-Of-A-Kind, Blow-Your-Mind Wedding Film

February, 15 2021

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Invest in yourself, not just equipment.”

ANDREW & GRACE – BOTTLEBRUSH FILMS

Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Andrew & Grace of Bottlebrush Films – we are really excited to have them on the show.

Check out some of the biggest points from Andrew & Grace’s interview below:

So, in terms of equipment, because I’m sure that so many videographers, photographers, and general people out there, will look at your work and just think, “They must have some magic or some mental equipment.” Walk us through what you take to a typical wedding, what you use as your go-to, to create what you create?

I love and hate the question about gear, because honestly, it doesn’t matter what camera you use. It doesn’t matter what lenses you use, so long as what you’re capturing is good. I mean, if people look at a shot of ours and go, “Oh, that was shot on a 15 or sort of a 35,” or a cheap plastic lens instead of a really expensive, nice lens, then my philosophy is that you’ve got bigger problems than the lens you use, because obviously the frame that they’re looking at mustn’t be that interesting.

What do you say to photographers or videographers that come in and say, “Okay, this is what I want to do, but I have no idea how much to charge?

Andrew:
Yeah. Honestly, a bit of forward planning helps. Like I think the first thing you need to work out is how many weddings a year is your ideal, and then work out your pricing from there, about sort of how much money do you want to make a year.

Grace:
Yeah. That’s the important one. I might try and look at it as, “Oh, how much should I charge per wedding?” You might now look at like your whole, your entire year. What do you want to earn for a year? And then, okay, what are you going to price your weddings? How many do you need to get there? Like just break it down simply. We didn’t do that in the beginning. We just starting shooting. We picked a random number, which is a terrible, terrible idea. So, just run it like a business, basically.. And see how it goes.

If you guys could add one final piece of advice, maybe something that’s made a big difference to your business or your personal life that you’ve learned over the years, what would that one piece of advice be?

Grace:
It’s hard doing it on your own. We’re lucky to have each other, but also we’re lucky to be like in a really cool crew of creatives in Melbourne, who all do wedding photography and videography. And that makes such a difference. Like once you’ve got a good community around you, like they refer you, they help you out when you’re sick, like all sorts. Cover you when you need it.

Andrew:
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Invest in yourself, not just equipment. Like, your business skills, your marketing skills, your creative skills, all that sort of stuff is really important. Especially for longevity. It’s no secret that a lot of people in this industry getting, they burn bright and they burn out pretty quickly, which is a real shame. And that’s because they take on too much work at too low of a price point, and just burn out. That’s not sustainable.

Thank you!

Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Andrew & Grace for coming on and sharing so much with everyone.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.

See you soon,

Sally