Ep. 012 - From Pizza to Perfect Shots: Russell Kent Nicholls' Unique Take on Wedding Videography

Get ready for a fun and inspiring episode as we chat with Russell Kent Nicholls, one of the UK's top wedding videographers. Russell spills the beans on how he built his awesome brand by mixing his quirky personality and love for pizza. You'll discover how adding your own unique twist can make your business stand out and attract loads of happy couples.

Russell also gives us the lowdown on the gear he can't live without on wedding days. From cameras to baby carriers, he shares his go-to equipment and why it rocks for capturing those perfect moments. Whether you're a newbie or thinking about upgrading your kit, his tips will help you make smart choices to take your videos to the next level.

But that's not all! Russell takes us on a journey through his career, sharing the ups and downs that got him to where he is today. Hear about the challenges he faced, the lessons he learned, and the clever moves that helped him grow his business. Aspiring videographers will find his story super motivating and packed with practical advice. Tune in for a fun, informative chat that will help you boost your wedding videography game!

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Danny Rizzo
https://www.instagram.com/rizzo.films

Jase Hunter
https://www.instagram.com/afterglowweddings

Transcript

Russell (00:00:00):

Anybody that is new or wants to really grow their brand. Don't be shy to put yourself forward. Talk to stories. Even if you have to put eight filters on like I do, my skin does not look like that. Just yeah. Talk to your audience, engage, make those connections with people online.

Jase (00:00:27):

Welcome to that Wedding Videographer podcast. I'm Danny. And I'm Jace. And we have a very exciting episode for you once again because we've got someone else joining

Danny (00:00:36):

Us. We do. We have Mr. Russell. Kent Nichols. How are you Russell?

Russell (00:00:40):

I'm very well, thank you. How are you guys?

Danny (00:00:42):

We are good. We are good. We are very good. I'm not going to lie. I was a little bit hungover yesterday. I was dying.

Jase (00:00:50):

Happy birthday Danny, for the weekend.

Danny (00:00:51):

Yes. Yeah, thank you very much. So it's like, it's the annual three days in a row of birthdays. Like Frankie's birthday is on the 3rd of May. I'm the 4th of May, and then my little nephew's on the fifth of me. So it's a mixture of W cake, W of alcohol, and then having to drink stomach more cake on the fifth.

Jase (00:01:14):

But have you timed it so that your kids are going to be able to certain age, like an 18 when you're 50. So that was going to happen one year and it's going to be a mental weekend.

Danny (00:01:22):

Sure. I actually think that on the same year I turn 15, Frankie, he'll be 21. Oh. But I'm not going to see him anyway. I'm not going to see him when he's 21st. He, he'll be dying. I'll be, you'll still be here, Danny, 21st. You'll probably not see me on my 50th. He'll be, God forbid

Jase (00:01:43):

That

Danny (00:01:43):

Is dying.

Russell (00:01:44):

I think you should live that long. I'm confident.

Danny (00:01:47):

Hopefully. Hopefully. Thanks. Oh my God, hopefully. So yeah, Russell, for those of our listeners that don't know who you are, and if you don't know who Russell is, go and have a look. His work is absolutely phenomenal. If you can tell us a little bit about you and your background in the wedding filmmaking.

Russell (00:02:09):

Sure, yeah. Thank you first of all, so much for having me on.

Danny (00:02:12):

Thank you for, it's really,

Russell (00:02:13):

Really exciting seeing your podcast from start to being so popular. So congrats on that. Thank you. Thank you for having me on as a guest. Yeah. So my name is Russell and I, as you can probably tell, I'm a wedding filmmaker, but I also do bridal commercial campaigns as well. I always feel like I start this on every podcast with the same telling, a little bit of background, but I'll give you a little bit of history. Anyway, so I shot a wedding for my best friend 2013. I hope that's right. If I get her anniversary wrong, she'll kill me on my little nick on D 5,100. Absolutely terrible video. But I really enjoyed making that and giving that to her as a wedding present. And then yeah, just messing about with cameras. Always been really into technology and just started offering my services to friends of friends and it just kind of grew from there really when it was all very weird when people were asking me, how much do you charge when it is something that's just starts off as a hobby.

(00:03:17):

You never really think that you'll be able to actually charge people money for it, but it did and just really threw myself into it over the last 10 years whilst working full-time in another role. I was a director of a health supplement business, which I left in 2021 and that business is actually still running 10 minutes away from me, but I don't have anything to do with it anymore because I just felt the time was right, approaching 40 wanted to do. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do and all the travelling and stuff that came with the wedding films, I wanted to do things on my own term and kind of thought, well, it's now or never really. And it's just kind of grown from strength to strength from there. So yeah, I never planned anything or have any expectations. I've just gone along for the journey and if people like what I do, then that is, yeah, it's really, really cool.

Jase (00:04:20):

It's fun how you mentioned the service and charging for your service. I think when everyone starts this, it's like you charge essentially for me, putting a value on yourself initially when you start, this is the weirdest feeling.

Russell (00:04:34):

Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong, it is not easy by any stretch and especially when your prices increase, you think, well, I need to be offering X amount of cameras, audio's got to be perfect, this has got to be done. You've got a shooting log. You've really got to sit down and look at what people are paying and what their expectations should be from that amount. But on the flip side, it still is a hobby really for me. I think you enjoy it. It is a weird thing to get your head around. I always feel guilty increasing prices as well. I was thinking, oh my god, are people really going to pay? But yeah, they do. I think if you are passionate about it, you guys are, and you know that this business is part of your identity and you love it, then you'll always find the way to put maximum effort in and make sure your clients are happy. So yeah, it's been really, really good fun.

Danny (00:05:34):

Yeah, it is funny that what you mentioned, because I think you almost do feel a little bit weird and a little bit guilty sometimes because you actually enjoy your job so much. If I think about what I was like before, the previous job that I left actually was probably the one job in the corporate world that I really, really loved. But I know probably after working there, maybe for, I dunno, five, six years or whatever, I'd be like, right, need something new. And that is generally the case for most people. Most people do not love going to their work and for a lot of people it's a bit of a dread. But I think we are so lucky in this kind of creative space that you kind of bounce out of bed in the morning, don't you? You're going to all these different new locations and new venues and stuff and meeting new people I think is another big point. Cause I think that's a common theme amongst the most creatives. We're all quite people, feels a bit weird sometimes, enjoying your job so much. People must just look at us and go, I hate them. Why are they so happy?

Russell (00:06:44):

So the friend that I did the wedding film for Lauren, she literally thinks she knows I work hard, but we do joke that I basically don't do anything for a living. She's just jealous. Yeah, yeah. I mean I do stay in bed for five months of the year and it is great.

Jase (00:07:04):

Yeah, there is definitely an endless amount of perks when it comes to this job, obviously. I think when you're starting out there's a lot of stresses, but once you figure those things out, then the stresses don't outweigh the joys that come with this job.

Danny (00:07:18):

No, no. It's best job in the world, best job in the world.

Russell (00:07:22):

I still get nervous. People say, oh, do you get nervous? But yeah, every time I'm going to the venue on the morning of a wedding, I'm running through my kit list in my head thinking, because there's a lot to remember, a lot to charge, a lot to format with live events. There is no guarantee that it's going to go the way you think it is. And I think if you are destined to do a good job, you're going to worry about it. You want to do things right, but you never know if things are, you are going to have the right positioning for your tripod during the ceremony. Are your mics going to turn on or I dunno, there's all these things, but luckily if you can think of the worst case scenario and prepare, it's just a lot of overthinking really. And most of the time,

Jase (00:08:07):

Yeah, I think every wedding video ever has this, but what's your recurring nightmare?

Russell (00:08:13):

I haven't pressed record on the tripod during ceremony. So yeah, that is the worst thing.

Danny (00:08:19):

I had one last night.

Russell (00:08:20):

Oh no. For

Danny (00:08:20):

The very, very first time. First time, first time. You lucky first time. But it was one of those dreams that when you're half awake and half asleep kind of thing, but you

Russell (00:08:32):

Dunno if it's real or not.

Danny (00:08:33):

Do you? Yeah. So I was so disoriented. I woke up halfway through and I was like, what the, what's going on? But I don't know why, but the ceremony had just started and I didn't have any tripods up and I didn't have any cameras in place. So I'm down at the very bottom of the aisle and this is like, I was looking, I don't know something, there was a clock somewhere that was ticking and it was like as if had been recording it, it was at 20 minutes. And I'm like, the cameras aren't set up. It was not fun. It's like a horror movie. It was

Jase (00:09:04):

Not fun. My one is that I'm at the bottom of the aisle chasing the bride up aisle. I'm running down the side of the aisle trying to catch up to get to the front. Why didn't they just filming with the bomb? I dunno why, but I'm like, and in the dream you can't run fast. You're like in place like, oh my god, why are they, they're just walking. Why are they going someone faster than me? That's the one I have all the time. And oh, they're

Danny (00:09:24):

Horrible. Yeah, it's not fun because it is like this state of helplessness of you can't do they, we've all been

Russell (00:09:32):

Collapses in front of you.

Danny (00:09:33):

Yeah,

Russell (00:09:34):

We've all been there where the ceremony is happening or we mid speeches and then you clock, something's gone wrong, you can't do anything about it. So you are trapped. You've got cement shoes on, sweating profusely, thinking I really hope I can resolve this quite a lot of the time. Fix it in post.

Danny (00:09:53):

Let's just chat a wee bit about your films because I am obviously a big fan. We chat quite often and I think I said in a previous podcast, I've done a couple of mentoring sessions with you, which is great, but a lot of it is just from when I first came across your work and was like, holy shit, it's phenomenal. Because I remember we were talking about this actually and it was the one that you'd done at Brigadoon.

Russell (00:10:24):

That

Danny (00:10:24):

One. Yeah,

Russell (00:10:25):

JJ did that put me on the Scottish map.

Jase (00:10:28):

Well that's when I was like, who the fuck is this? Who is this guy coming in on our turf? And I'm like, I've never seen Brigadoon look so fucking sexy. It's amazing, honestly. And then that's when I did a deep dive and I'm like, okay, he's in England, it's fine, we're good. But no, that was amazing and what I loved about it's, I hadn't seen Brigadoon look as good as it had been shot a different way. So you definitely go about your cinematography in a non-traditional way and I think we just were curious about where you get your inspiration from, where your ideas for cinematography coming from.

Russell (00:11:06):

I think I probably said this a million times, but I'm so in awe of the US market. To me the way I just remember spending hours and hours on YouTube and I was watching trying to figure it out and I was trying to figure out what makes the look of why do some videos look like what they do? I could not work it out. I was thinking, do I need to buy this canon lens? Is it canon lenses? It used to really puzzle me and I would ask the filmmakers like, oh, what lens did you use? What that, because I was thinking some of it is going to give me the answers of how I can make my stuff look like that. And I couldn't even describe to you what I wanted it to look like. I think it was the motion blur that maybe shutter speed, which obviously comes from using ND filters, not cranking the shutter. So now that is one of my big bug bears. If I see a confetti throw with a shutter at 5,000, I can spot that a mile off and that ruins it for me. I think it was just nailing down all of those settings. So shooting in log, obviously making things look like high dynamic range as possible, shooting to F 2.8. So shooting mostly wide open where you

Speaker 4 (00:12:24):

Can,

Russell (00:12:26):

Working with light and shade, making sure that, especially for the brides, making sure that things are flattering. I think it is a skill to be able to work with people and know what's flattering when it comes to posing and also selecting which bits you're going to use in the edit. So quite often I'll be like, oh, I know that they're not going to like that section. I'll cut that bit out and just stick with what I think will make them look nice. And a tip that I actually do is I always ask people do they have a preferred side of their face? And they go, oh, I don't know. And I say, okay, well when you take a selfie, which side do you do it on? They go, oh yeah, that side's. Okay, cool. And just little things like that help me. I guess I am extremely and self-conscious about my looks that if I was in the same boat, I'd appreciate little things like that in terms of loving yourself and yeah, so mixture really looking at the style was the gimbal movements.

(00:13:31):

I love as much as I have tried to get on board with handheld, I don't think it's, for me, I love the way that gimbals can drift almost like a dream state, but at the same time when you need to, you can obviously lock 'em off and do the handheld looking stuff. So yeah, it was a mixture of slow motion, real-time motion, the correct shutter speed and shooting in log colour grading and just making things look as visually appealing as they could and putting that all together with relatively fast cuts I think was what the direction that I wanted to go down. I really would always be inspired by the US market. I think also the confidence that American clients have in terms of they're not shy British people, they will do whatever you say if you want to give them some prompts. They have great sounding voiceovers in my opinion, and they love the British accent as well, I'm sure. But for me to edit an American speech or vows that psychologically to me makes it even more movie-like because we the accent with Hollywood and stuff like that. Yeah, I dunno. Just really bringing the energy and emotion together with beauty. That was really, really my goal. When I speak to a lot of the American wedding filmmakers, they're really so different. This year I'm part of a couple of educational pieces with two different US filmmaking educational setups. I do struggle, I do struggle with giving advice in those groups because I think things like the budgets, expectations, the venues, it's so different to what we have here

(00:15:37):

Because in my opinion, the majority of British couples are quite reserved or they want something that's a little less. So it's just about understanding the client and knowing how far you go in terms of prompts and setting up. Sometimes at weddings I literally don't get involved in anything. I really just read the room. Whereas a lot of other couples are like, tell us what to do, honestly, just do whatever you want. And in my booking process now I've actually got questionnaire about that, how hands-on do you want me to be? And they pick I trust you or I'd rather let things flow naturally and to really try and gauge that before the wedding day so that I always get it right.

Jase (00:16:28):

Yeah, I think that's really good to have in questionnaires what their expectations of you are because sometimes we often just ask about suppliers, but if you're doing a service for someone, it's so important to understand what service do they expect from you. And I think hearing that is something I absolutely really need to be doing more of. So that's really

Danny (00:16:47):

Good. Yeah, I think it also, I guess it depends on how you portray the brand and stuff like that as well. So I guess if you're portraying the brand as very, very fly on the wall, then I guess that is probably going to be the expectation. But you are almost like the opposite of that and you can lean into that to basically say that if you want a, I think you made quite a funny video on it at one point probably, but if you want a fly in the videographer, I'm not the person for you kind of thing.

Russell (00:17:14):

You

Danny (00:17:14):

Are so involved.

Russell (00:17:17):

I am. But at the same time I think it really varies and obviously people don't, you guys haven't seen me yet how I am actually at a wedding in front of people. I think it's very much read the room, gauge the energy.

Danny (00:17:31):

Definitely. Yeah.

Russell (00:17:32):

And thinking back about that reel, I think, oh maybe people might think I'm a bit over the top because actually I'm not like that unless the energy dictates that. And if it's a cool crowd and they need that kind of hype team, I can give it. If not, I'm happy to be said softly. So it's really just about adapting to your clients and stuff.

Danny (00:18:02):

And you shared that post on threads the other day when it was talking about the psychology of it, which maybe not that many people actually talk about, but it's a totally valid point about because it is an art to be able to read the room properly to then know, okay, what level of energy am I bringing to this wedding?

Russell (00:18:24):

Definitely.

Danny (00:18:25):

Which some people are definitely a lot better at than others.

Russell (00:18:29):

You just can't go in guns blazing. If people don't, people will be completely thrown the other way if they are nervous or if there's family issues at a wedding or something, which can often be happened. Yeah, something might have happened like the day before. We just dunno about, there's so many factors there that I think gauge it. I would be annoyed if I turned up, if I was feeling stressed on my wedding day and somebody came in like a hurricane, I'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's tone it down. You really, yeah, you just have too much to

(00:19:05):

Gauge that. Yeah, I think you might laugh at this, but my mom is a very spiritual person. She's into gems and stuff. Crystals and I have embraced that side. I've been to spiritualist church, I get psychic readings, I love horoscopes. So I feel like reading people's energy is something that I can do straight away. When you meet somebody you already know, you not judging a book by its cover because that's not fair, but you get straight away when you lock eyes with them, you get a vibe. And I think I then look into that and feel is this, what direction should we go from here and go from there. Really

Danny (00:19:46):

It would be good to also just understand what you offer in your packages and then what you're charging for those packages.

Russell (00:19:56):

I kind of consolidated my packages down to three options. So I've got two UK options and one international option. So the first one, I mean they're very tactically named package A and package B. So package A is what I would consider a very easy product to produce. It is like a five minute, let's say video mashup of the highlights, the best bits, and with no sound, obviously it has music over the top by me,

Danny (00:20:39):

No idea.

Russell (00:20:40):

Not a silent movie. It's in black and white itself. Yeah, it is normally set to one music bed song because also the reason being five minutes, how am I going to get two songs? I feel like let's make it one song length with a bit of an intro and a good finisher at the end. And actually I think that product is what most people want.

Speaker 4 (00:21:07):

They

Russell (00:21:07):

Really just want to watch a couple of minutes, like music, video length, that's enough and it literally is just that. And that is how much is that? I think it is 2,500 pounds, but with VAT it's 3000,

Speaker 4 (00:21:21):

Right? Yeah.

Russell (00:21:23):

And then yeah, they don't get speeches, ceremony, although I do record that it is all like one camera and I can be a bit more flexible actually during the ceremony because because I'm not delivering that in full as one long video, I can move around, I can stop recording and go and get in close without thinking, oh shit, I'm standing in my camera view from the other angle. Or

Danny (00:21:49):

It must be quite fitting actually.

Russell (00:21:51):

Oh, it's lovely if someone books a package a I'm like fantastic. And the upside of that is I can deliver that within a day. It's easy and it's fun.

Danny (00:22:02):

So just on that, sorry. So you wouldn't set up another camera on a tripod at all, even just as a potential upsell later on? No,

Russell (00:22:11):

No,

Danny (00:22:11):

No.

Russell (00:22:12):

Can't be bothered. Do you know what the clients are aware of this, by the way. It's not that I just can't be asked. What I'm providing in that package as well is also from my perspective, very carefree. I don't have to worry about, oh my God, there's another tripod that I've got to go and do. And I guess the benefit of introducing that package for me is I can take one bag and have fun with it, but still the client is none the wiser I guess, because that's what they wanted in the first place.

Jase (00:22:49):

So do you find your clients are coming with the expectation that they're not actually too interested in the ceremony or the speeches from the offset? Or how are you educating them with, by the way, if you choose this, we will not have that.

Russell (00:23:04):

I think it does ultimately come down to budget as well. So another psychological aspect of introducing that package was that when people open my brochure, they don't go, oh holy shit, that's expensive. They see the cheaper. Yeah, they see the cheaper option first and they go, okay, and then they keep scrolling and they go, well actually now when I compare package B to package A,

(00:23:31):

Package B seems better value and I don't want to miss out on anything. So I'm going to go for package A, package B, sorry. Because to be honest, nobody goes for that package. A people only want the everything package, which is package B. Package B, which contains a 15 minute highlight film. It contains a one to two minute teaser trailer. It contains the ceremony from two cameras and from start to finish. It contains a speeches from two cameras as well when I'm editing those because some people might be like, oh, he's only using two cameras. But the way that I edit it is that on some of the, cause I'm shooting a six KA lot of the time on some of the angles I will crop in when you cut back to the other camera. So it actually looks like another angle. It's maybe multiple cameras and

(00:24:23):

I would say that most of my clients wouldn't even realise that there was more than one camera. Do you know what I mean? The clients aren't there to technically break it down of what I'm using. They're there just to relive those moments. So to try and see if I could upsell stuff, which I haven't done in the past during the booking process, there is a tick box for six K delivery. So if you want six K delivery, that's an extra 500 quid. If you want a vertical teaser trailer for a real or TikTok or whatever, 150 pound. If you want additional hours, I limit myself now to 10 hours. Whereas before it was kind of unlimited, but I found that I got stuck at places until midnight because I was being too polite to stay for things that really were not worth waiting around for three hours in my opinion. So yeah, just adding on a few extra things. So package B is 4,000 pounds plus VAT makes it 4,800. Then the extras people do tick those. So looking average about 5,200 for a UK wedding.

Jase (00:25:37):

Do you remember what your first package was?

Russell (00:25:40):

Yeah, I was charging 600 quid.

Jase (00:25:42):

What did you get for that?

Russell (00:25:46):

Not much different from what

Jase (00:25:47):

Get now. I was like 600 quid. But you got everything. Absolutely everything. I was just so scared of rejection. I'm like they must want everything for this, but that made it so hard to transition into it. But yeah, it's funny how you go. How quick did you raise that up? Did you stick to that for a while?

Russell (00:26:06):

It went 600, 7 50, 1100, 1500, $2,000. I pushing it now then two and a half and then I was like maybe I need to introduce a cheaper one. So that was when package A came in at like 1800. So it was 1800 and 2,500.

Danny (00:26:24):

Cool. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the kit bag and stuff because you are a Panasonic ambassador. You for now. For now, stay with us. Stay with us. And you have been finding the flag for us pan users, not that many of us.

Jase (00:26:46):

However, your main camera isn't Panasonic.

Danny (00:26:49):

We'll get to that Russell Jason, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. So yes you have, it'd be good to just chat through what you bring to a wedding now because I know that that has evolved over time.

Russell (00:27:02):

Yeah, so I feel like I've slimmed down my kit quite a lot because I do think that it's quite easy to take a lot of stuff with you that actually you never really used. Do you remember I bought a headband with a bloody torch on it. Never used it point there. To be fair,

Jase (00:27:20):

I recently bought a new backpack once and it was low light. You think torch everywhere. Fuck Dun, brag it in that one time it was why need to buy head torch? How deep is your bag?

Russell (00:27:29):

It's like Mary Poppins literally bringing out everything. But yeah, now I put everything in a backpack. So that is my lenses camera body, like the S five two. I take pretty much all my lenses, that'd be 85, 35 50 primes and then a 28 to 70 Sigma F 2.8, which I use for ceremonies because it just gives you that versatility when you pop the tripod up. Massive tripod. I dunno, is it behind me? Yeah, massive tripod. That tripod is so good. It goes up like two metres tall so high that I can't even touch the screen once it's recording. But I just found that that was great because quite often I'll set the tripod up and be like,

Speaker 5 (00:28:14):

Yeah,

Russell (00:28:14):

Happy with that, and then look at it back and it's just the back of people's bloody heads.

(00:28:20):

So this time I'm going up and over the top of people during the ceremony to try and capture groom reaction if that's a possibility. But yeah, lenses, batteries, so audio wise, DGI mic and the road wireless go two, both of those obviously got internal recording for any Whoopsies main camera is DGI, Ronin four D, the eight K version. I don't shoot in eight k, I shoot in 4K, but I just, you know me, I get itchy feet with equipment and I have to have the latest thing. But yeah, that's great. The good thing about that was that you could literally just swap the head over. So whilst the camera retails total for like 12,000, for me the upgrade was about 2000 because you just swap the head over and I have used eight KA few times on commercial shoots just to be able to zoom in and reframe when delivering reels. So there is a benefit to it there.

Jase (00:29:26):

That camera is unbelievable. I don't know anyone else that films on it. I don't know if there's anyone else in the UK that is using it as their main camera. I'm sure there is, but it's unbelievable. I mean

Russell (00:29:36):

There's a couple of people. Yeah.

Jase (00:29:38):

Do you find it, it looks so different to every other camera out there. What was it like adapting to a camera like that?

Russell (00:29:45):

Oh, awful. Do you know what? I was an early adopter and it came and I absolutely hated it. I hated the picture. It was so noisy, the image, and it was just a big white elephant and I tried to sell it. I tried to sell it to a rental shop

(00:30:05):

And I was like, Hey guys, I dunno if you do this, but I've got this camera and I really hate it and I can't send it back. They said, no, sorry, we don't do that. So I thought, shit, I'm stuck with it. So I played around with it and because it's got interchangeable mounts, I changed it from a DL mount, which is the default DGI mount that it comes with. But then you're only limited to a very small selection of DGI lenses that are F 2.8 and pretty much designed for the Inspire series drones, swapped it to the is Sony E mount and tried some Sam Yang lenses. I just felt there's something wrong with the E mount. It was still noisy and weird. Then DGI joined the L Mount L Mount Alliance and all of the problems were solved. There was no noise anymore on the footage.

(00:31:02):

So I dunno if there's maybe some digital interference or something going on, but being able to use the Panasonic lenses now on the Ronin four D for me is amazing. I literally only have four lenses in total and that's what I use. I just work out what's going on at what part of the day and it's fantastic. I do think that having such a big camera, it's definitely not done my body any favours. I feel like I've, oh no. Oh, excuse me, hiccup. I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow. I've spent over 900 pounds at the bloody chiropractor trying to fix the Ronin induced spinal curvature. But yeah, do you know what? I love it. It's great fun. And the other thing that shouldn't matter because I do believe gear is not a pissing contest. It's not, you use whatever you can get the best results with, but when that camera comes out because of the way that it looks, a lot of my clients, mostly the grooms are like, oh yeah, that's the camera that we've seen on your Instagram. It looks so cool. I've never seen people remember it.

Danny (00:32:21):

Well, it's definitely memorable

Russell (00:32:23):

From a USP side. I feel like that has been a benefit as well.

Danny (00:32:30):

Yeah. So are you using that during the ceremony

Russell (00:32:36):

All day,

Danny (00:32:37):

Every

Russell (00:32:37):

Day?

Danny (00:32:38):

So you've your tripod set up for the ceremony and for the speeches and then what you just roam about with it?

Russell (00:32:44):

Yeah, so for example, during the ceremony, I always shoot the ceremony on the Ronan four D with a 50, the LUMIX 51 point A. I just think 50 for me is flexible enough that if you are trapped in the corner or stuck in a tight space, you're not so buggered as if you've chosen an 85. And I think 35 for me is just a tad too wide. I think the intimacy of a ceremony, you need that compression and that field of view from a 50. And then on the tripod, I'll have the S five two usually with a Sigma 28 to 70 or an 85 if I need a little bit more reach that may be locked off on manual focus or I will use now that the firmware has been updated with better autofocus again,

Danny (00:33:46):

Oh, it should get that update.

Russell (00:33:48):

Yeah, it worked. Treat on my last wedding, I

Danny (00:33:49):

Was like, yes,

Russell (00:33:50):

Yeah, actually stuck to the face I wanted, which was great. If only LUMIX users will understand.

Jase (00:33:56):

Welcome to 24 Panasonic,

Russell (00:33:59):

The journey that we've been on. Yeah. Oh my god, yeah, yeah. And then I have the two and I never say to the photographer, don't get in my way. I don't really care,

Jase (00:34:12):

Don't know who I am,

Russell (00:34:15):

Don't miss, no, honestly, I say you do what you need to do. It's not my place to say you can't stand there. That secondary camera on the tripod really is just for emergencies.

Danny (00:34:27):

Backup.

Russell (00:34:29):

Yeah. So I try obviously with the Ronin four D in my mind I think I need to nail this from start to finish on this camera and cut to the other one if I need to because that's going to be the money shots are going to be on that on the A cam, let's say. So manual focus coming down the aisle quite a lot of the time, always terrifying. Ready just to click. There's a little button on the back of the grip to reengage the autofocus at exactly the right moment trying to

Danny (00:35:01):

Work out. Is the auto focus, is that work bit temperamental kind of thing or

Russell (00:35:05):

It's good but not very good if anybody gets in the way. Obviously it's a LIDAR based system, so if anything passes it, you need to be anticipating that with your right middle finger. Click, disengage, yeah, click reengage it. The only thing is when you turn it off and then reengage, there is a slight confirmation hunt, it will be like snap. And so I try and cut those bits out

(00:35:32):

In the edit. I don't think a client would notice, but you want it perfect. Yeah, no, I love it. And then for the speeches, same setup really, but I will most likely use an 85 1 0.8 on the Ronin four D really concentrating on the person speaking. And the great thing about shooting speeches on a gimbal is that you can especially even more so in manual focus is I can focus on the person that is speaking then gradually drift down to say the couple, if they're stood at a top table and just cinematically transition between the two. And if there is the possibility that they're going to mention somebody that's not sat on the top table, hold that sport sport button, sport button mode down, whip to the other side to where that person is quickly manual focus, get their reaction whip pan back to the person speaking and then using that secondary angle on the tripod camera to cut those bits out.

Jase (00:36:34):

Do you use any lighting?

Russell (00:36:36):

I take it with me. I hate using it. I don't think, again, going back to the difference between the US and the UK market. I feel like with the US they expect multiple lighting setups. In the UK people are just not expecting that. I feel like it does really throw a lot of people off. Especially giving a speech at a wedding is not the easiest thing. If you're nervous already, the last thing you want is to look like a deer in headlights with a light shining in your face. So I play it by ear on the day I see how dark is it really? And how dark is it really that my client is going to think that looks a bit dark.

Jase (00:37:19):

But

Russell (00:37:19):

At the same time, most people have chosen their venue for how it looks with their eyes, not how it's going to look with their videos. So does it really matter?

Danny (00:37:27):

So do you not use lights for the dancing either then?

Russell (00:37:30):

Sometimes, yeah, some venues I think I absolutely need that.

Danny (00:37:36):

Some can be quite dark,

Russell (00:37:38):

But you know what, I've had DJs tell me off and say your light is killing the vibe.

Danny (00:37:43):

Yeah, I've had that. Yeah, I've before I've had I guess an all home, can you turn those lights off?

Russell (00:37:52):

And that stayed with me and I thought I don't want stuff. It's also, it's more stuff to take down and more stuff to get knocked over and broken. I take it with me, I charge it up and I've got the LED spotlights. If it needs it, I'll do it, but I will try to not disrupt any ambience. If the dance floor is bright pink because of the pink lights, then that's what the couple's going to remember it looked like anyway. So surely that's

Danny (00:38:27):

Enough

Russell (00:38:28):

More important.

Danny (00:38:29):

That's super interesting. We were talking about this the other day and it is really, really cool just hearing everybody's different approach to delivering ultimately a very similar product. And there's so many ways to 101 ways skin a cat. You're going out with a DGI running four D, some people are going out with eight camera setups, some people are going out with one camera all day, some are doing two. It's cool how everybody has this different approach to the day and is still ultimately able to deliver something amazing for their clients. So

Jase (00:39:06):

Yeah, it's a complete blend of different, you've learned from different places and different people doing it and obviously from the experience of doing it yourself as well. So I think everyone having their own technique, it's fun to kind of pick things apart. I have to admit, I really, really want to try that DGI camera. I think I'd love to, it would suit my style I think because I am quite until you drop it,

Danny (00:39:29):

I haven't dropped, but I've seen you lagging it with a gimbal before. I

Jase (00:39:33):

Know

Danny (00:39:35):

There's a video of him literally getting a guest to chase him. You do not want me dropping an 8,000

Jase (00:39:44):

Pound, I'm not discre

Danny (00:39:45):

Camera

Jase (00:39:45):

On the wedding day is quite what you said earlier about that. I can be crazy with them if they want, but if they don't need that, I should probably do a better job at telling people I don't have to be crazy.

Danny (00:39:57):

Just tone it down. Tone

Jase (00:39:58):

It down. Yeah, I would see that camera.

Danny (00:40:02):

And you mentioned obviously that you are a Panasonic camp, so how did that all come about? Very curious to know.

Russell (00:40:10):

I know as you know Danny, not very many people use Lumix for weddings.

Danny (00:40:16):

I mean, to be fair, I should

Russell (00:40:17):

More are

Danny (00:40:18):

I feel like I should be an ambassador with the amount of people that I've actually brought over from Sony to Panasonic. I'd love to be pastor.

Russell (00:40:26):

And I think now that we do have usable, reliable, and improving, I think it's definitely opened to a lot of people's eyes considering the value for money that you get and the feature sets. And I can only imagine because I dunno legitimately, I dunno what's next, but I can only imagine what will be coming from Panasonic in a year's time or something. I feel like we're going to be like, right finally, this is the camera that we've been waiting for

(00:40:56):

Hopefully. But yeah, so the UK doesn't have a, let's say an actual LUMIX ambassador programme, but there are I guess creators that have been taken under their wing for pre-releasees and PR events and that type of stuff. And that really just came about from obviously being one of the few people doing weddings with LUMIX back in 2019. But really just posting in the Facebook groups. And what you don't realise about all of these official groups is there are staff members lurking in the depths of those Facebook groups. So if you are proud of your work on the system that you're using, share it with others even if they're going to troll you because you never know that a staff member could reach out to you and be like, Hey, we'd like to work with you, or can we use that for our social media platforms? Obviously tagging the brands and the products that you're using when posting on social media will help as well. And just was able to work with them on a couple of things like producing wedding content. And then two years in a row I did the ad for this camera with the S five two and then before that the S five, which was really good fun.

(00:42:22):

Yeah, I'll always have a, even if I don't use lumix as my primary camera, it will always have always a bit of a soft spot for it just because it is the underrated underdog of the mirrorless world. And it's great that people have always come to me with questions and I've always been happy to help people get the best from their cameras. You don't need to spend ridiculous amount of money to get incredible looking footage.

Danny (00:42:51):

So yeah, obviously we are going to be at Coda, which you're speaking at, which is awesome. So you're in quite a lot of the educational spaces and obviously as we were talking about before, you've been in YouTube for quite a while, again in that kind of educational space. Was that always a goal to be in that space? Was that a plan or is that kind of just materialised as you've got better and become more of a voice in the industry?

Russell (00:43:17):

It felt like a natural progression. I guess I've got a bit of a split personality and you'll find this out when you see me in front of a large group of people that I'm actually quite shy and yeah, I am both an introvert and an

Speaker 4 (00:43:31):

Extrovert

Russell (00:43:33):

Depending on my comfort levels. So yeah, I feel like when I was younger I would love to perform, take that dances to my friends and family in the living room, but put me on stage. My God, no way. I would be too shy. So for me, YouTube is my safe outlet and actually talking on stage is my worst nightmare. I've already warned Ru that I'm really, really, I get stage fright big time and people are always surprised because they're like, oh, you come across so confident, but you just have to throw yourself in at the deep end. So I'm going to try and not let my nerves get the better of me. And it's definitely helped my confidence being on YouTube and having a front facing brand. So I guess advice for anybody that thinks I can't do that because I'm too shy or I'm no good on camera. It just takes practise and whatever you are thinking that's going through your brain when you are embarrassed and shy, people are not thinking that it's a you thing, not what other people are thinking. So it just takes a bit of time to I guess get comfortable with that. But yeah, the YouTube just kind of came as I thought I'd give it a go with everything I do really. I thought I'd give it a go and if people like it then cool, I'll do another one.

Danny (00:44:54):

The one thing, and we kind of briefly touched on it, but the Russell Kent Nichols brand, right? It's a strong brand, certainly within the filmmaker community, you've done so well even to the point where like I said, one of the listeners has one of the questions and it's obviously revolving around pizza and stuff like that, but everything that you've done with the brand, it seems to have made it really, really strong. And I guess it was to ask what have you collectively done to make such a strong brand? And if somebody was new at the moment in trying to figure out their brand identity, what kind of advice would you give to them to create such a brand as strong as the one you've made

Russell (00:45:48):

Tomorrow? My presentation is about this same question, building a brand and when anybody asks me this question, it is so amazing to hear that. But the thing is that this stuff that I'm doing is just, I don't have a plan for it. It's just tried to be authentic and also not be so shy to have my brand focused around me. I think a lot of people think that it is narcissistic, which sometimes it can be, but you've got to promote yourself because no one else is going to do it. And just being authentic, having a side of comedy, I think without being offensive directly to the public, but also combining that with quality and resources and value for money and the sharing of knowledge and collaboration and community whilst keeping everything well presented, I think is important because obviously your brand and your website is your shop front and your perceived value of your brand is what your customers and industry peers see. And yeah, I think anybody that is new or wants to really grow their brand, don't be shy to put yourself forward, talk to stories. Even if you have to put eight filters on, I do. My skin does not look like that.

(00:47:25):

Just talk to your audience, engage, make those connections with people online and just you've got to commit a lot of time to it. That is the thing. It is not an easy process. It's a long game. Obviously. I started off with zero Instagram followers, like everybody, there was no magic bullet for magic solution for anything. But just keep going, keep posting your best stuff, be polite to your industry peers and suppliers. There's so much to it that just doing as much of the right thing. I know that sounds really basic, but work as hard as you can to get your name out there. And yeah, I guess that's it. It's taken a long time, but I feel very fortunate that people have enjoyed the stuff I've had to say and the products I've put out there and yeah, it's funny. I think it's funny to think that I'm going to be at Coder stood in front of people that have downloaded my lux and had mentoring sessions with. I'm like, what the hell is going on? Obviously.

Danny (00:48:42):

Yeah, well I mean I'm one of those people I've been using the Ferris wheel work for pretty much since right back at the start when I first started I think. And you've got white loads of different kind of downloadable stuff that obviously that folk, folk can use brochures and stuff again. I've got your brochure, the brochure's awesome.

Russell (00:49:02):

Yeah, it looks so good. Do you know what a few people have sent me what they've done with the brochure and people didn't really change it as much as I would've thought in terms of changing the colours and the layout and I guess it's obviously good because people like what it looks like from by default. But yeah, so cool to see people adding their own videos and stuff in there. I'm like, oh, that looks good, why didn't I think of that? So I've actually gone back and changed mine and been like, right, I'm going to add another video in here and change a few things. But yeah, the brochure templates have been really cool to see people's results with those. And then the final cut effects and the lutz as well. The LUTs is obviously the core of my business. I'm going to be showing people at Coda how I make them. If you're thinking,

Danny (00:49:50):

I've always wanted to know that.

Russell (00:49:52):

I just thought there's a lot of these conferences and things that maybe people don't always come away. I don't want to just talk about me. I want to show practically this is the problem, this is the solution, and do all of these things and you can do something similar. That

Jase (00:50:09):

Is brilliant. That's great. Honestly, it goes right off my head when someone says, I've made a lot and I'm like, what can you send me? I want to download? Yeah, absolutely. I think that's so valuable because it will allow people to really deep dive into their, their style if they know how to do it so that we could look it up. But having someone there to talk you through it, I think that's going to be really valuable at the conference. So excited for that.

Russell (00:50:35):

Yeah, that's what I wanted people to come away from coder with is whatever, they'll be listening and there'll be something that they'll go do you know what? I could do something like that. And I want that to be a turning point for people because it's just not knowing where to start. And sometimes you need to hear, when I listen to podcasts about digital products and stuff, there might just be one sentence that makes me go, I didn't think of that,

(00:51:01):

I didn't think of that and I'm going to not copy that. But that approach I like and I feel like it would work for me. And that's kind of where I want to help people with at the conference as well and actually have people be able to take notes and create themselves a passive income. But also I think it's really important as well that I'm going to show people how to create certain things but not, you can't just go away and copy. Excuse me. You can't just go away and copy the exact same things. That's not good for you either.

Danny (00:51:30):

Yeah, you need individually,

Russell (00:51:33):

Yeah, you need to look at your own business about what do people like from you and then go from there. And I think that's where the lots came from originally. People were like, oh, I really like what light did you use? And I thought, well, do you know what? There could be something here.

Danny (00:51:47):

And they have done pretty well for you business wise, haven't they? Yeah.

Russell (00:51:52):

Fantastic.

Danny (00:51:53):

Yeah. And so all the things that you have as purchases for other filmmakers. So you've got the brochures, you've got the wits, you've mentioned the effects as well, which are really good. You've got a super eight effect and the show slow shutter dragon stuff, which I've played about with I'm starting to dabble in. So you might see someone on my page at some point, but is there anything else that you have?

Russell (00:52:19):

So obviously you've got, there's a couple of free items as well, which it's a whole nother point about how you actually build your audience with digital products. And that is by starting with a free item. That is not necessarily terrible because you do need to have a good quality free item as a hook to build confidence in your brand. So I've got obviously the free luck and also the iOS shortcut. So people that are using iOS or Mac, they can use a software, this little shortcut that lives on your phone that will basically email your clients if you don't have a CRM, which I don't, I just use this shortcut and it looks in my calendar and six weeks before a wedding in my calendar it will email the bride and groom and say like, Hey, there's a template of all the stuff they need to do, like booking a catch up call, links to my insurance documents and all of the stuff and tips, all of that kind of thing. So that's free to download. It does take a little bit of setup. I do include instructions with that as well. And what else? Mentoring sessions, obviously you do a few of those and I think for now that is it. Never say never in terms of new things, but I don't want to just bring out stuff for the sake of bringing out new stuff. I want it to be stuff that people are actually going to use. People are begging me for courses and stuff, but I don't know. I don't know. I feel like with courses, things in this industry change so quickly, social media changes so quickly.

(00:53:53):

My a hundred tips book could admittedly do with an update that it would probably need to be rewritten and just because the way that we're marketing in a digital age is ever changing. So yeah, I dunno. I guess never say never. I don't have anything in mind right now for the future. I'm happy with my little collection.

Danny (00:54:14):

It's a good collection. I think I've pretty much purchased all of it, so

Russell (00:54:18):

Everything. Yeah,

Danny (00:54:19):

I think I have.

Jase (00:54:21):

I'm like your ideal customer.

Russell (00:54:22):

You are.

Jase (00:54:24):

We sort of like to ask everyone to humanise everyone here at that wedding video for podcast is what has been your biggest balls up at a wedding?

Russell (00:54:34):

So I don't think touch wood, technically I haven't had any technical problems that I haven't been able to resolve up in one way or the other. I mean I've had the usual things like microphones have slipped off or dad hasn't wanted to use the mic, but then that's easily justifiable to your client because you can, it's out of your control. This might surprise you. But I have had a couple of people that weren't a hundred percent with their video for whatever reason.

Speaker 4 (00:55:08):

Oh really?

Russell (00:55:09):

Yeah. But I've learned over the years that, and I did a thread about this, of course I've learned that it's not necessarily the work that I did or didn't do, it was more about how the client felt about their wedding day and that was then materialised in the video

(00:55:34):

In terms of how they felt about it. And I think quite a lot of the time photographers and videographers will send the videos to the clients and never hear anything from them ever again. And that for me, I need the closure. I need to know do you love it? Or if you didn't like it, let me know and I'll fix that for you. But yeah, I've had a couple of things where I just thought, oh, I don't know. It does make you think, how can I make this even better and how can I make sure that the clients love it every time? But yeah, just upon reflection, it wasn't anything that I've done or balls up. It was really, I think people's expectations of their own

Speaker 5 (00:56:11):

Wedding,

Russell (00:56:12):

Not necessarily the video. The video is always going to be an accurate representation of the day. There's no hiding that. I think it's just making sure, I think that when you have the Zoom calls with your clients, that you cover everything and really try and get a good understanding of what they want from their day, not just the video but from their day. And that's again why I ask all of the questions on the form to really, really get to know them.

Danny (00:56:40):

So we do have one question from our listeners that had messaged then I think did we, I didn't send the voice note, but so Connor has asked, what is your favourite Domino's order and dip?

Russell (00:56:57):

Okay, so it's very specific. I have to use the app to do it because I know exactly what I'm taking on and what I'm putting off. So taking off and putting on. So we're going to start off with a large, if that's all right

(00:57:10):

And I would like to do a half and half please because I like to have a bit of both. You can alternate. Then as you go round the slices, I'm going to have half as pepperoni passion because I am passionate about pepperoni. The other half is going to be a meteor. So you're starting with a barbecue base there for a bit of sweetness in contrast to the tomato on the pepperoni. Start off with a meteor taking off that disgusting grey sliced sausage. Oh, it looks horrible, doesn't it? And I hate the ground beef like grisly mark. Just awful. Take those two off and I'm going to please put on pineapple and jalapenos. So you've got a beautiful mixture of what's the different flavours? Pepperoni. The meatballs are so underrated with a bit of sweetness from the pineapple and a bit of sour from the jalapenos. And that is a dream,

Jase (00:58:11):

Dare I say. Would you ever calzone that pizza and just fold over into one monstrosity domino? Probably

Russell (00:58:18):

Not with dominoes because it's like 20 qui.

Jase (00:58:22):

You want to save for each slice, right?

Russell (00:58:24):

Yeah.

Jase (00:58:25):

After wedding videography, are you going to open up a pizzeria?

Russell (00:58:28):

I think you should. Oh God. Yeah. I should, shouldn't I?

Jase (00:58:31):

Right. We want everyone to come up with names for Russell Kit Nichols Pizzeria. That would be really interesting for me to see because Imad don't get to work on that. I love a pun.

Danny (00:58:41):

Russell, thank you so, so much for coming on the podcast today. It's been awesome getting to chat with you and just finding out about how you work and everything. So it's been awesome. Thank you very much.

Jase (00:58:53):

Yeah, thank you so much for that. And of course coming your way Russell for featuring on that Wedding Videographer podcast is very exclusive. That Wedding Videographer podcast, very expensive bottle that you can use as a trophy. So please enjoy your

Russell (00:59:08):

Giving me a flashback to a phone in on SMTB Live or something in the early two thousands.

Jase (00:59:16):

Yep. Yeah, that's

Russell (00:59:17):

It. I genuinely felt like a nostalgic feeling. Then when there was talk of a price, say

Jase (00:59:25):

Cherish people just forget all about Blue Peter badges is the new Blue Peter badge is a, that wedding videographer podcast water bottle that's coming it. It's very expensive.

Danny (00:59:34):

It feels expensive. It does actually fuel expensive metal podcast. It's metal.

Russell (00:59:41):

I should expect so for that one.

Danny (00:59:42):

Well,

Jase (00:59:43):

Yeah, thank you so much for being in the podcast. You've been super insightful. Loads of value there, and how can people find out more about you and the e products that you offer everyone?

Russell (00:59:57):

So yeah, my website, it's so funny because I never used to use my middle name and now whenever people refer to me or whatever, they just use my full name all the time. It's Russell Kent nichols.com. On Instagram, it's Russell Kent Nichols on everything. TikTok. My TikTok needs some love, but YouTube, Instagram website. But yeah, Instagram is my favourite place to hang out. You find all of the links and everything on there.

Danny (01:00:27):

Amazing. Me. Cool

Russell (01:00:29):

Guys so much. Thank you so much for having me. No, thank you. It is been really exciting. I love your setup. Thank you. Looking and sounding great. It's really good to see, especially like Danny, you were telling me about doing it not that long ago and then all of a sudden it's here. So yeah. Well done.

Jase (01:00:45):

Russell. We won't keep you yet longer. We've been just having a blast chat, but good

Russell (01:00:49):

Clash.

Jase (01:00:49):

Thank you so much.

Russell (01:00:50):

Yeah, thank you guys. This is probably the longest thing I've ever recorded as well. The camera's still going. No overheating.