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[00:00:02] John Bunn: Hey, this is John Bunn, a wedding filmmaker, photographer, and educator based in Oklahoma, and you are listening to the Workflows Podcast.
[00:00:15] John Bunn: Let me get my eye line lined up with you. One sec. Nope. The other way. I’ve got this desk and I try to match my eye line to yours. There we go. That’ll be, that’ll be nicer for edit Purpose video Isn’t it nice having a desk that’s adjustable
[00:00:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: like that? I love it.
[00:00:29] John Bunn: Yeah.
[00:00:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I have my, my, my cameras with, uh, the Elgato prompter. and that is not attached to my desk. It’s actually on a c stand behind my desk with all the, my
lights and stuff, so I could raise and lower, but,
um, the camera stays
[00:00:46] John Bunn: I found some kind of clamp to go with this camera and it just goes with it and I’m just like, it’s changed my life. ’cause I used to have to go over there and mess with it based on how much my back is hurting and how straight I wanna sit and stuff, or if I wanna stand. So anyway, I’m a dork. [00:01:00] I’ll be quiet now.
[00:01:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: No, no, I, this, I see, I love this stuff. This is one of the reasons why I, I, uh, I really wanted to start the podcast in the first place was, I. I’m, I’m obsessed with workflows and something as simple as how you mount your camera to your desk for people who do a lot of video calls or podcasts or whatever it is. It’s, it’s a, it’s a simple thing that really can make a big difference
[00:01:26] John Bunn: Yeah. your, for your workflow overall. Right.
Absolutely. I’m, I’m here for all of it, so.
[00:01:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I mean, I, I’m, I, I went as far as, I’ve got Apple shortcut to. Adjust all my lights with a click,
and it’s also on my stream deck, one button just to everything’s in place, um,
with no effort.
So,
[00:01:46] John Bunn: Same. I think we might be friends. I think, did we just become best friends? I think so.
[00:01:50] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I’m pretty sure, pretty sure that’s how it went.so I’m, I’m excited to, to dive into, video today because [00:02:00] for those listening who, It may not be aware. Imagen is launching a video app as well. Um, we’ve had the photo app for over four years at this point and video. Um, while. It may be new to Imagen behind the scenes.
It’s existed for over four years. It just hasn’t been touched in over four years until more recently. John, you may not have known known that
either, but when, when, so we have three co-founders and when Yoav, our, the, co-founder that actually started, Imagen over four years ago himself, when he coded the original prototype, he coded some video. Aspects to
it as well. So like it’s been there in the underlying infrastructure, just dormant. so it’s, it’s exciting to see some movement on it. so I’m
excited about this.
uh, because for one, you are a videographer, right? You not only film weddings. now
Correct.
me If.
I’m wrong, is [00:03:00] film still the terminology the right word to use?
[00:03:03] John Bunn: Uh, you might make some people mad. Uh, I mean, a lot of people call themselves filmmakers, but they’re making cookie cutter things. A lot of people call themselves cinematographers videographers. My favorite is video photographer. Um, but I mean, it depends on who I’m talking to. If I’m talking to other wedding filmmakers, I will say I’m a wedding filmmaker.
If I’m putting it on the internet. Or as like SEO, it’s wedding videographer. I try not to take myself too seriously. I’m not too, romantic about either of it. You know, I don’t need to, it’s my art. So I’m this guy. But, you know, the true filmmakers, you know, I think probably are frustrated with other people saying filmmaker ’cause it’s a lot of times not really a film.
So.
[00:03:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right, right. Yeah. And, and like the fact that it’s not even on film anymore, the fact that it’s purely a digital.
Thing. I, I, I don’t know. It’s one of those things like, [00:04:00] when, like my parents and stuff, you know, we’re at a family thing and we’ve got our phones and they’re like, Hey, did anybody film that?
[00:04:06] John Bunn: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Nope. But I got it recorded,
[00:04:10] John Bunn: I digitized that. Yeah.
[00:04:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Um, anyway, so, so not only are
you?
a film
filmmaker, a, a videographer, um, but you’re, you’re also, um, doing photography at weddings.
You’re also. Teaching, um, wedding videography and, filmmaking to other, other creators. so it’s really exciting. You have a lot going on. and I’m curious, uh, if we can dive into one thing in your,in your video workflow that has been working extremely well for you. now I know that you’ve been using Imagen for photo. for, for, for quite some time at this point. It’s working well. And you’re, you’re actually in the beta testing group for the video side. and I know that imaginable, once we have the personal profiles in there, there’s gonna be a lot that you’ll be able to dig in, to really get it [00:05:00] f you know, fine tuned for yourself. But I’m curious overall, one thing on the video side that has been going really well in your workflow, wherever wherever it might fall.
[00:05:09] John Bunn: Yeah.
and thanks for the intro having me here I am. You know, in my intro I did say I’m a wedding filmmaker. I’m, I’m a photographer, videographer, educator, podcast host and stuff myself, and I get a unique perspective of talking to tens of thousands of wedding videographers and teaching them and hearing what’s working for them and stuff.
And so when you guys asked about me being on this, I was super excited. And as a Imagen user and ambassador, I was like, heck yeah, let’s do it. So thank you for that. as far as like. My workflow now, this is my 19th wedding season. and so I’ve. Personally filmed, videoed over 500 events at this point.
Uh, 500 weddings had a lot of wedding cake. and I’ve been just all over the world shooting weddings and so [00:06:00] different seasons in different parts of my business. Workflows have changed. I used to be the sole editor, I’ve had employees.
Right now I hire an outsourcing company to do most of my editing. For me, so like, the workflow that has really been working for me.
And it is actually my partners in outsourcing right now. like I’m able to, like, I’ve filmed a wedding in Dallas, Texas two weeks ago and on, we had several nights, uh, Thursday night welcome party. Friday night rehearsal, Saturday wedding. And at the hotel every night, I’m uploading all the footage to Dropbox and they’re giving me next day teasers, that I can color grade, that I can put a final touch on.
But like that workflow of me being like, I know that as soon as I get to the hotel room or as soon as I get back to my office, I’m able to get that uploaded to Dropbox or wherever. And I have a team of people that’s not just like, here, I threw you a wedding film, you’re gonna throw me back magic. But I’ve worked with [00:07:00] them and I look at them as like.
An employee that’s in the office next door. And so there’s this collaboration where I can get that to them. And as I’m like recouping from the wedding, I just did one in Sedona last, last weekend, and got home was exhausted. All my footage was uploaded. They’ve already sent me a teaser from it and I’m just like, this is, it’s in version two already.
So that workflow, just to make it really seamless for me to say. I’m getting the stuff I hate doing off of my plate, which is culling and organizing and getting the story kind of put together. But I like directing once. It’s kind of like in a form. I’m like, this is what I want the film to do. This is how I want it to be.
And I’m looking at myself as kind of the lead cinematographer as well as the director. And then I have editors that are there ready to go and. So for me, that workflow has allowed me to add photography. and you know, with photography, Imagen is, I did a shoot last night and it’s like, it’s almost done already.
And I didn’t, I haven’t done anything yet. Um, and so, [00:08:00] but like the workflow side of things, I, I am addicted to. I. Uh, efficiency. I’m an Enneagram three and I want things to be very efficient and very organized and very, you know, I love when things are happening behind the scenes when I’m not physically doing the work.
And so what that does for me is allows me to get back a version one of that wedding in Texas already. And it’s their 10 minute film and I’m like, here are my 100 notes on it. Like I can be fresh, say, make these changes, do this thing. They gimme a version two and then I say, great, gimme the project file.
I’m gonna color grade. I’m gonna do all this stuff to kind of take it over the top. But like that workflow in itself has freed me up. About 40 hours per wedding, on the wedding film video side of things. And so I’m gonna have to say that that’s my favorite, like currently right now in the video world.
And you mentioned the beta color grading and Oh, my, I mean, we’ll, I’m sure we’ll end up talking about it, but that’s kind of the cherry on top for me. it’s gonna, it’s been [00:09:00] so helpful already, just. Not having to spend the countless hours going into my log footage and every single clip and making it, so anyway, I don’t know if that answers all the question
[00:09:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. Uh, I am curious, a couple things. One, the, the team that you’re outsourcing, that you’re, you know, you’re doing a Dropbox dump of, of the, of the video files, they’re doing the initial call and getting you back teasers each day. Is that team overseas? Is that team back at home?
Is it, um. People that you’ve met in person, people, you, it’s only been a virtual thing. Like how does, how does that,
[00:09:34] John Bunn: Yeah. so I found a company online. They ended up becoming sponsors of our podcast. I’ve been friends with them, friendly with them for eight years. Slowly started to send them projects, ones that I kind of didn’t want to do. Just like, here, take it, take it off my plate. It’s not a portfolio piece. I just need it to be clean.
I need it to, you know, and just working alongside their team, they kind of became my team. and [00:10:00] so I’ve met the CEO, the owner, a handful of the employees in person. They’ve been at retreats that I’ve been at, uh, building relationship. And, um, from there, uh, you know, it is like there, there’s a lot of ’em that are overseas.
There’s a lot that are in the states, but there are two or three editors that have all of the notes and understand my style and understand. And it’s a lot of give and take a lot of, feedback where I’m not just like, I don’t like that. I’m like, Hey, the greens need a little bit, you know, cooled down or whatever.
Or, Hey, I don’t love the exit sign in the background, or just little. Things that are, so it is a process like it’s taken a year or so to like really get them kind of all on the same page to where. I know as soon as I upload that footage and give it to ’em, they’ve got songs figured out for me that they know I will want.
They know how to cut it to make it look luxurious and high end and elevated and all these things. So that boom, that next day I’ve got a 15 second little thing and then like [00:11:00] within a week I had ’em one minute teaser and then with two weeks they were done. And you know, during that time I’m able to go.
Do more photo shoots, do my sales calls, do all the things that I wanna do, and some people love that side of things. And I think that’s what I would say to the listener. It’s like, where do you have a bottleneck that of things that you hate, that you keep saying you’re gonna do? And how can you create a workflow or how can you create a system that it gets done?
For you or without you having to, you know, like, I don’t mow my own yard because I can, that’s, that’s a, not because I’m lazy, I actually enjoy it, but it’s like we have three acres. It’s a big yard.
I’m paying somebody and I’m going to be able to either spend time with my family in the pool or edit, you know, it’s like I can hear the lawnmowers buzzing by my office.
I’m like, okay, great. That’s taken care of. It’s not a six hour process and I’m exchanging. Dollars for time. And to me as an efficient Enneagram three, it’s like, man, if I can pay 150 [00:12:00] bucks to go get somebody to mow my yard, what can I be doing with that time? Same thing with the edits. you know, they’re not just throwing me an edit that’s random.
They’ve studied my style. They know what’s important to John Bun films, and they don’t hit the mark. Ever. It’s always like 80%, it’s maybe 85% of the way there. Then I chat with them and get them across the finish line with the film, and it just allows me to be able to create things I never would’ve created.
[00:12:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. it’s, it’s funny you bringing up like things that you, you, might enjoy but don’t wanna do. So you get that, that time back with, with family, whatever it might be. Right? so my wife and I do that for house cleaning.
[00:12:43] John Bunn: Mm-hmm.
[00:12:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: we pay for somebody to come and clean our house every two weeks because otherwise we’ve got one day that’s a weekend day.
The only day that we could do it wiped out. That’s all we’re doing the whole day. Right?
So to us it’s like, I’d rather, we’d rather spend the money so that we could [00:13:00] go to the playground with the kids or go swimming or whatever it might be. whereas mowing the lawn, I don’t have three acres, but, um, enough that I needed a ride on. And,
[00:13:12] John Bunn: Yeah. That’s outsourcing as well, yeah. Yeah. But it’s, it’s, uh, it’s my one hour plus a little over an hour of like me time to just like
[00:13:23] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: zone out, listen to an audio book,
listen to music, ride the mower. And to me it’s, I’m riding the mower for fun and the grass just happens to get moed as like an extra bonus.
[00:13:33] John Bunn: It’s a, it’s a thing that happened to me in my, I’m 40 now, but like somewhere around 32 or 33, I would. Just like watch videos online of people mow yards or watch. I’m just like, when did, when did I become my grandfather? Like, I’m just standing on the side watching someone push the leaves outta my yard this year.
Just like, my wife was like, babe, what are you doing? And I was like, I guess I’ve just been standing here drinking a coffee, watching them blow the leaves out of our yard for 30 minutes. but yeah, I
[00:13:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: [00:14:00] There is something satisfying
[00:14:01] John Bunn: satisfying and interesting.
Like to, I, uh, like Atomic Habits is one of my favorite books.
And just like creating habits that, trigger rewards or create things that trigger the next good thing. A few years ago, I really like, I had gotten up about 20 pounds heavier than I wanted to be, and I was like, my habits are off. And I, it is like I started with. No food after 7:00 PM and I started with, I filled up one of these little water bottles at night and just stuck it on my countertop.
So the next morning it would be room temperature and ready for me to just like guzzle 24 ounces of water first thing in the morning. And that would. Like, I would get up and I’d be like, oh yeah, I’m gonna be healthy today. That’s a, uh, I’m gonna drink that water now. My next thing is I know I’m gonna walk for 30 minutes and after that I know I’m gonna stretch.
And I, and it kinda like builds these systems to where it was like, oh, I’ve lost 30 pounds in the last two years and I can run three miles without stopping and I can do, and it, it’s like all these things that I do now started with I’m going to just get a cup of [00:15:00] water ready in the morning. And that’s how I look at all of the things that I’m doing.
In my business of like, man, I’m backlogged, or, uh, I hate this like with photo like I am, I mean, I, I can’t sing Imagen’s praises enough where it’s like, uh, I hate culling and I hate the putting the base layer of edit on and the whatever. And I. And so I’m so addicted to the fact that it’s like, what used to take me six hours for a session takes me 30 minutes or whatever.
And so those little tweaks are what I’m always looking for because they, they add up to a big difference when you, you know, invest a dollar a day for your whole life, that’s like, oh my goodness, I’m a multimillionaire or whatever, as opposed to like a $5,000 chunk here and a $2,000 chunk there. So that’s what I’m.
Heavily focusing on so that I can be more efficient, so that I can do more of the things that I love.
[00:15:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. on the photo side, you’re, you’re using a profile that you made trained on your own edits,
or are you using a Yep. [00:16:00] Okay. So on the video side, which right now we don’t have personalized profiles, is there a video profile that you’ve tried that you enjoy? above the rest?
[00:16:08] John Bunn: I’ve tried a couple of them. I’ve, the names of them are leaving me. I’ve done a few projects, so what I’ve been doing is pulling in, some of my teasers that have been edited for me and say, Hey, don’t color grade these. Let me run these through the system. there’s two of ’em. One that’s a little more luxurious.
I forget the name of it. And then I just tried one that felt a little more standard just to see if it would give me a base look so that I could then add my lut. ’cause I have a, a lut of my own that has, that has been created. And so, like where I’m at with it right now is, it’s like, it’s almost there for me.
And as soon as I, I know that I can get it in there with my color. Like, I’m watching what it’s doing inside of, premier, and I’m just like, man, this is, I, I can’t tell you how many classes I’ve taken and how many hours I’ve spent. On just understanding [00:17:00] color grading and scopes. And, and I think that’s very important.
But what I really, what I love about it on this efficiency side of things, and some people are like, anti-US ai and I get it, and they’re like, you’re, you’re not being an artist. And I get it. I’m a business owner that uses a creative art field and like. To me, if I can shave hours of time off of something, I’m gonna do it.
I, I don’t find the joy in doing something that’s monotonous that could be done with a click of a button. not just me. So anyway, I know the, in the, like in depth how to color grade At this point, I’ve made tutorials on it. I know how to like, I know how to do that. And it’s like if I, if my computer knows, if my, if Imagen knows, this is the style, this is where it needs to get to the brightness.
This is where the contrast, this is where the greens, the blues, the all the different curves, everything that, that I do and it’s learning me. like the idea that that’s gonna save, like I will spend a full day color grading an eight minute film, [00:18:00] like a full day and 20 weddings to 30 weddings a year. So a month of time, a month and a half of work days.
Just color grading films. And so, yeah, the, the two, I forget, I forget the names. If you said ’em, I would know the names, that stand out.
[00:18:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: there’s so true to life. Motion of light, national natural flow, visual drift harmonica. Frame one. True form might be the one you’re thinking, uh,
primo and modern
muse.
[00:18:27] John Bunn: Yeah, I think true form. And there was one that’s true to life, I think, so that I tried. I’m still messing with it ’cause it’s new, of course. but yeah, there it’s, it, it, I was very skeptical, um, like, what’s this gonna do or how’s it gonna work? And it just, the way that it runs through media encoder and all the different things that it’s doing, I’m just like, okay, this, like, I didn’t know what to expect.
‘
cause video, as you know, video is a completely different ball game than photo. I mean photo you can shoot raw. and video, you can shoot raw, but most people don’t. And I don’t just, ’cause I don’t want to [00:19:00] have five terabytes per wedding of footage, but, so just shooting in log versus shooting in, you know, a, a baked in profile and like, there’s just a lot more.
I say it to people all the time, I do both, video and photo and it’s like video’s so much harder. Like it just is.
[00:19:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. There’s, there’s a lot of moving pieces. Pun intended in video versus, um, versus photo. I mean, there’s still a lot on both, but Yeah, I, I agree. Video is a lot more to worry about.
any other workflow aspect? I’m actually curious because I do technically, I guess I do hybrid because when I, so I, I photograph proposals, and when I do it, I’ve got GoPro, I’ve got an instant 360 Go3S so like I’m recording video at the same time, but I’m, it’s not my focus, right? I’m giving some BTS video footage to my clients as a value add.so I am curious if there’s a workflow [00:20:00] aspect that’s going well that like you couldn’t Imagen yourself not doing behind the camera
when doing video that like just changes the game for you.
[00:20:10] John Bunn: Yeah. Um, that’s a really good question. So what really changed the game for me, like, little context, I am not a luck in the luxury market, I wouldn’t say, but a lot of my wedding films are pushing around a $20,000 mark, for shooting 20,000 and above. There’s some that are under, but so I’m spending like people that are working with me, it’s an elevated brand.
They’re, they want. Beautiful, like color is really important. the ability to show off the wealth and, and design without it being pretentious, like, and just being at a wedding and understanding how to be with people that have wealth. so that context is like, what was really important for me was being able to get really good color.
Consistently on the go every time. [00:21:00] And I kept not being able to do it with my camera. And I would get back to the, like, get back to the editing bay and be like, why does the color look nothing like what was on my screen? and so the workflow that I like, I, I finally figured out what I really needed was.
I have purchased external monitors that go on my cameras and that workflow, um, allows me to input my lut into the monitor and shoot log on my camera. But it shows me on the monitor exactly what’s going to be, in the, in the computer whenever I get to the editing bay. And the screen is seven inches instead of.
2.5 inches. So like I can just see so much better. Um, I like having a small footprint, but people are always asking me like, how do you get those colors? What, like, what are you shooting in? How’s that working? I had to understand how to shoot in log. I had to understand how to, you know, Kelvin temperature.
I don’t do any auto, anything, but like the workflow of just having that monitor, being able to [00:22:00] say. Okay, this is exact, I know exactly like it’s gonna match, you know, frame for frame. Because I would get back into the editing bay and be like, this is blue. Why is this blue? I shot it warm, what’s going on?
And then I was shooting an auto white balance and different things like that. And so updating like my education so that I could, like a lot of people just buy tools. Say I got, I got a new light, I got a new drone. Why am I not? And it’s like, well. You didn’t like, you didn’t learn what was going on or how to really use the equipment and so to me that was just a one that come, like came straight off the top of the head of like shooting on the wedding day.
It allows me to get that beautiful, cinematic, luxurious footage that I like. I know that I’m in focus, you know, movement, live events. I like shooting at low apertures and so like. I would think I was in focus on a shot on my little LED and then now with the seven inch Monitor, I’ve got focus assist and different tools in there.
It’s just like I’m locked in. I know I’m not [00:23:00] overexposed. I know that like all these things. and it’s just become a natural part of me being able to say run and gun. I’m able to get, Very consistent colors and whenever I started really getting consistent colors and consistent look, look in my films, that’s whenever I was going from, you know, a seven to $10,000 to up to 20 or above, like really honing that in alongside my brand.
Of course.
[00:23:25] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: When, when you, so two, two questions to follow up on this one. is I know that the monitor is gonna be wired. It’s not a wireless monitor, but, even with that, the fact that the monitor is in real time having to process the log video footage and apply the lut, and output it potentially 10 80 P 4K, whatever the monitor is, is there a slight lag? If you were to look at your camera screen and then the monitor together is, are they like
[00:23:58] John Bunn: No, yeah, it, it’s [00:24:00] very accurate. Um, Small HD is who I use for their monitors, but like, so basically it’s just laying the lut on top of the, like, it’s not actually processing the LUT into the footage, it’s just putting it on top of whatever the log footage. Like I can turn it off with one button and you see, oh, it’s logged.
So it basically just embeds the color profile on top of whatever’s on the screen. so it’s just. Basically an HDMI port straight to the, to the monitor. So it’s, there’s no lag. It’s not getting hot. It’s not, yeah, it’s, I mean, they’re expensive. I think that monitor is almost 2000 bucks. The one that I have just, you know, so I mean, they’re cheaper ones out there.
I, I haven’t used those.
[00:24:41] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: you also mentioned, like 20, 20 K for a wedding, right? Is that.just doing video or is that video and photo?
[00:24:49] John Bunn: it depends. Most of the time it like my video, like I’ve, I started video in 2007 and built a brand with that. A couple years back I brought [00:25:00] on photography and it hasn’t quite caught up, to the prices that I was charging with video. And so video typically, like I did a wedding last year that was, two days in Oklahoma, two days in Oregon.
It was just video. Um, they had an Indian ceremony in Oklahoma and a western ceremony in Oregon. I think I charged like 35, 36 K for that. And that’s technically like. Two weddings in one. a lot of the weddings last year were like one day, anywhere from 18 to 22,000, I’m sorry, we video, only 18 to 22,000.
Um, this year I lowered prices a little bit. The market felt a little stale for me. I wasn’t getting the bookings I wanted, so I lowered my video prices to. Anywhere like, 12 to 15 kind of starting out. And then the photo was more seven to 10. And so it just depends on, like I’ve got, if I’ve got, you know, like a client that I really want, I will customize a proposal.
I’m doing a wedding next weekend. I. For [00:26:00] like 24 and it’s video and photo, but it’s like one videographer, one photographer, and then one hybrid shooter. So they’re kinda like helping do both. So I’m making more than I would’ve on video. I’m building my photo portfolio, so I’m still kind of like in the catch up phase with my, my photo side of stuff.
But those are averaging any, you know, more in the seven to 10,000 range for my photos. And I’ve been willing to lower, yeah.
[00:26:25] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. It, the pricing is incredible. Like the, you know, the fact that you’re, you’re, you’re making that on, on weddings, especially in 2025, right? Where
it’s, as you said, like it, it’s, a lot of people are struggling just to book,
Right. So the fact that you’re, you’re doing it and getting that those prices is
really good.
[00:26:42] John Bunn: I definitely don’t want people to think I’m trying to come off as pretentious or anything, and I, numbers are always interesting to talk about. I, I talk about ’em a lot on my podcast and stuff, but like, I, I only say that just because I want people to have transparency. I’m not trying to, I, I don’t feel cool.
I, I love making good money, but I’m [00:27:00] not like, look at me. I’m cool because, you know, I made this much or whatever. But like I’ve done, I’ve booked a couple weddings this year for five grand because I really just wanted the wedding. And it was awesome and I wanted to be part of it. And, that was like the lowest I went on one wedding actually.
But point being is like I, I’m always gauging the market. If I have enough bookings, you know, I’ve got four or five for next year already, so I’ve been like keeping my prices high, but if I had none by the time November got here, I would be pulling those prices back down. So, it’s always
[00:27:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: also, like you’re, you’re, um, you’re working your butt off, right?
You are putting out quality work, so. you’ve, you’ve you’ve obviously built the reputation to keep getting bookings at the prices that you want and, and as you said, sometimes you reduce the prices. So, um, there’s give and take and I think, uh, I think it’s, it’s, it’s really cool to see that, like I said, in 2025, right?
Um, you’re, you’re still able to do [00:28:00] what you want, how you’re doing it, and, um,
um,
[00:28:03] John Bunn: the most work that I’ve had to do in the last 10 years to get the bookings that I like. I was kind of wheeling and dealing, uh, in October November to get a handful of bookings for this year and then like really showed off those bookings on social media. And you know, if you wanna book me, you know, in every day in my stories, new, new couple just signed new couple, new couple.
So people that were on the fence, you know, it kind of built some urgency. But yeah, I think I’m sitting at 23 weddings right now for this year, and I think four for next year. So,
[00:28:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That’s fantastic.
let’s move into an area where you might be struggling with. So what part of your, now this, I guess, could be the business overall, right? Um, what, what part of your, of your business, um, workflows are you struggling with in that you’re, you’re taking the time to, to really work through and try to improve and make better?
[00:28:52] John Bunn: Yeah. It’s funny, as a achiever type, Enneagram three type, it’s like, I’m not doing [00:29:00] anything wrong. I’m perfect.
[00:29:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: perfect.
[00:29:01] John Bunn: And then I’m like, wait a second. No, this is, I would say the hardest part for me is the administration, the admin side of stuff. I mean, I’ve got, you know, a CRM that automates a lot of things, taxes, emails, going out with payments, stuff like that.
But there will be things that are just like, oh, I need to mail. A gift to a new client or a hard drive to somebody or, and I know that there’s automated ways to do that, but like little things that it’s just little one-off things like, oh shoot, I need to. That client messaged me and said they lost their film from seven years ago.
Do I still have it? I need to go get a hard drive out and find it and upload, like stuff that doesn’t make me money immediately or make any difference in the business are really hard for me to get organized in an order. So to me, I think it, I keep saying this to my wife, it’s just like I’m running this business and this podcast and education platform.
Um, I’ve got people helping, but I don’t just have like a personal [00:30:00] administrative assistant that I can just say, here you go. I don’t want it. Here you go. I don’t want it. and that, so that’s kind of hard because it’s not worth a full-time salary and I don’t have enough tasks, but they stack up to about every two weeks.
I’m like, well, I guess I’m taking a day to do all this stuff that’s been driving me crazy. Um, so administrative. That’s, that’s where I’m at. If you have any tips for me, I’ll take ’em.
[00:30:22] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Well, I, I mean I, there there’s definitely, um, virtual assistants that would work part-time. Like if you were to say, I definitely need every two weeks. I need you for two days, you know, two full days. Right. there are VAs that would build a contract for you exactly what you need. Right.
and maybe. That would change over time where you need them for three days, every two weeks or something.
But
to get started, I think, I think you could find fairly easily a VA that would be flexible. Not necessarily looking for somebody to have them every single day [00:31:00] doing like something, but you know, knowing that they need you, you, you need them
on a no, and I do have, I don’t have a va, but I have an assistant that does some of, like, those kinds of tasks. I think where I get, bottlenecked is like there’s a VHS tape on my desk right now that someone mailed me. To digitize for their wedding film. And so like, I just need to mail it back to ’em.
[00:31:24] John Bunn: Like it’s just there. The, the, the mother of the bride was like, Hey, can we get our wedding film back? ’cause it’s like their wedding film from the eighties. and I’m like, a virtual assistant can’t do that. I. And I need someone to come into my studio and clean it and organize it and take my mail and go.
And so like, I think that’s kind of the finding The one person that’s like one day of every other week I’m coming over and you gimme your list of stuff. And then, so I think it’s just been like, Ugh, I’ll get to it. I’ll do it later.
[00:31:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: What about going to a local college where they might have film [00:32:00] students?I. It could even be photo students. It doesn’t have to be video, it could be photo, right. Um, where they’re trying to learn. ’cause I went to a, I went to college for photography. Had to take one business class the entire time. You know, getting, finding a student looking for an internship or even just part-time work to learn more about business could be an easy way to not only have. A, a sort of a, an assistant locally, but also somebody that maybe you like the person’s work and maybe they can now be a, an assistant on
the, at the weddings for you at the, same time.
[00:32:40] John Bunn: Yeah, no, I think that’s really smart. And I’ve, at one point I had 11 employees, and lots of interns, lots of, I had a photography team, video team editors, everything in-house. And I think that I have a little PTSD, from teaching all these people that ended up.
Starting their own businesses and competing with me. but I do love [00:33:00] that idea. Like I do think that there’s someone that could do that kind of, that kind of stuff for me. And I, I will accept, I will accept your challenge. See if I can
find somebody
[00:33:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so when I was in college, I was assisting for two.
Incredible portrait photographers. and like I’m talking like doing magazine covers. And this is also pre, Photoshop airbrushing. So
it was like legit, like makeup airbrushing. It was a little over the top stuff, but I was doing ad admin tasks quite often.
Go, go get this gear from the, uh, from the studio and come back to the look like it was. Things that, like,
I’m Not necessarily
learning what I have to do an an errand like that. I’m not necessarily
learning the rest, but I’m still learning the business. Right.
And then, and then I get back to the, to the where, whatever location it was and they’re like, okay, Scott, set up this, this light.
And it’s like, yay, I get to actually play with lights now. so
[00:33:58] John Bunn: I, think that’s a great idea.
[00:33:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: [00:34:00] yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:01] John Bunn: I love it. Uh,
[00:34:03] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so John, this, this is fantastic. I love, I.
love diving into a topic that I’m not a hundred percent familiar with, right. Uh, as I said, I, I dabble in video. Heck, this podcast is recorded in video, but, I, I’m not, I am, I can, I’m far from even. The, I’m so far from the word expert when it comes to video, so I love the fact that,
I get to, I get to learn, um, big time, uh, on this topic. So I appreciate you coming on and sharing, um, some of these good workflow nuggets with us.
where, where can, uh, all the listeners learn more about you, see your, see your
wedding.
work, and also your education?
[00:34:42] John Bunn: Yeah. Uh, and I thank you for that. Thanks for having me on. Um, I love talking about these kinds of things. I have two different spots people can find my wedding work. My name just John Bunn with A B B-U-N-N. Uh, films on Instagram, just @johnbunnfilms and then the education brand is called.
[00:35:00] @howtofilmweddings. So, we teach video, photo, that sort of thing. We’ve got about 410, I think, so episodes at this point. A lot of, a lot of wedding filmmakers we’re expanding, adding more photo content and things like that. So, a lot of changes going on over there, but. At John Bun Films and at how to film weddings.
Feel free to shoot me a DM if you have questions about video, any of that kind of stuff. I’m, I’m here to help. I love educating and, you know, love, love meeting new people all over the world.
[00:35:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Amazing. and I’m, I’m going to try to get you back on in the future once Imagen video has evolved even further and offers more of what you’re looking to accomplish with Imagen on the video side. So,
um, I’m really excited to have that conversation down the road as well.
[00:35:45] John Bunn: Yes, I can’t wait. Thank you so much for this platform and let me come on it and let me chat with you. It’s so good to meet you and I appreciate you and the whole team.
[00:35:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. I appreciate you as well.
[00:36:00]
