We recently connected with Eugene Bussey and have shared our conversation below.

Eugene, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

In my specific industry of wedding cinematography, the biggest challenge to profitability is competitors selling themselves short just to book the client. Granted we all start somewhere but as your skill matures so should your pricing. Thus the challenge, competition maintains a beginners rate well below the Industry average to gain as many clients as possible. Countless times I’ve had potential clients tell me company B said they’d film our wedding for less to which my reply is good luck with them. I have 19years experience at what I do and use an array of state-of-the-art equipment which doesn’t come cheap. Time is money for me and some competitors sell themselves short, as a former DJ, music producer (with Billboard credits), and DP (with IMDB credits) I bring a lot to the table to not under value myself. For me it’s about my state-of-the-art equipment, my time, my expertise, my personality and my passion and care for what I do. I have recently declared myself “The Guardian Of Love” due to the fact I have every wedding I have ever filmed for the last 19years since I started all because I’d hate for someone to tell me they lost their wedding video one way or another and ask for a copy God forbid if that be the case but I can happily tell them yes I still do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

From early on I found that I had a passion to do creative things and simultaneously entertain people with that skill set. It started in High School when a friend of mines named Dave Joseph let me mess around with his turntables and mixer I immediately fell in love with it. Then me and some other friends started a DJ crew. We gained popularity in my original hometown of Brooklyn as the number one High School DJ’s in Brooklyn NY That was myself, Ed Campbell, Tim Willis, and Tyrone Adams. In conjunction with the previous question about profitability challenges my first came as a DJ when competition would charge less than me again to which I didn’t like so I began writing and producing music. At that time it was costly to record music at 24 track studios so competition in that market was fair. I produced multiple songs for Sleeping Bag Records, Emotive Records and collaborated with Toney Lee of “Reach Up”/”Turn Around” fame on Tommy Boy Records and Jump Street Records. As time and advancing technology ushered in the beginning of the digital age once again profitability as a music producer was then devalued as everyone with a computer and some software was now a “music producer” So I left that field and began video and of course once again cheaper equipment and cell phone technology has challenged profitability once again. Harnessing all my skills however keeps me steadfast in the filming industry having done award winning feature films, award nominated music videos. Having worked with Tyler Perry, Lionel Ritchie, The late Sherman Hemsley, Birdman, Trina, Neyo, Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri, Cee Cee Winans, Fred Hammond, 21 Savage, Red Bull to name a few its gonna be film to my last breath.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

What’s been the best source of new clients for me has been associations and word of mouth. Being the people person I am has allotted me great relationships with fellow creatives such as photographers, wedding planners, DJ’s, even fellow filmmakers who sometimes need additional help on shoots. Off and on i do bridal shows which I like the most as I get to introduce myself personally to potential clients which is always received very well. Then it’s word of mouth, someone may have seen one of my videos on Instagram that I did for one of their friends and they then seek me to produce the magic for them,

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What I believe helped me build my reputation in my market is once again relationships with fellow vendors of the wedding industry. Also social media has been a great catalyst in showcasing my work and gaining me clients as I have been told by some brides they stalked my Instagram before they called me lol. Also after years I finally got website that I feel good about representing me. My dilemma has always been a website vs me I still feel I can sell myself better in person but I have had to accept that’s not always possible therefore my website has to have some sort of presence to hopefully attract potential clients. After looking at my analytics and seeing I have seen people from around the world view my website I am humbled and feel its good enough for now but it s not me in the flesh! lol

Contact Info:

• Website: www.weddingfilmpros.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weddingfilmpros/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ATLANTAWEDDINGVIDEOGRAPHERS
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFIsfFx8JgjEgbOEbLQgpw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wedding-film-pros-lawrenceville

Image Credits
All photos were done by Eugene Bussey and are video stills