Ep 255: From Music to Film: Brian Weaver + The Arkansas Love Story Giveaway

You are listening to the IFH podcast network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork.com. To down the podcast, we're diving into the intersection of legacy and reinvention and creative sustainability with a filmmaker whose journey truly embodies all three. Brian Weaver is the founder of Weaver Films. A central Arkansas-based company known for its cinematic wedding storytelling and impactful social documentary work. But before he picked up a camera, Brian was a musician performing over 300 live shows and opening for acts like the plain white tease. His path into filmmaking was sparked by a deeply personal moment, his own wedding, which revealed the power of capturing meaningful memories. Since then, Brian has built a thriving filmmaking business, navigating the evolving landscape of wedding media while staying true to his artistic voice. From adapting to TikTok, to balancing authenticity with client demand, to thinking about what it means to leave behind a creative legacy for his family, Brian's perspective is both grounded and visionary. Brian, how are you today? I'm great. How are you? I'm fine, in fact. Doing fine, I certainly, certainly am. So, it's great to have you on the podcast. It really is. You are the first person to appear on the podcast who shoots weddings, but you shoot them in a completely different way because they are absolutely top notch. I must admit, when I've shot weddings in the past, I'm glad they didn't see any of your workers. I would have been out of business. Thank you for that nice compliment. Not at all. Not at all. Do you transition from a successful music career to wedding filmmaking? What propelled you between composing music and crafting cinematic wedding stories? So always growing up, I always played with a video camera, camcorder, and made my own movies when I was a kid with my neighbor. Ever since then, after playing a lot of shows, I would edit my own music videos. Things like that, low, very low budget, and after my wedding day, it was kind of a light bulb just came off. I was like, "You know, I can do this. I can, with a little more learning and skills, a couple of online courses and learning from the masters, anything's possible." Then from the masters, explain that to me, who are the masters? Oh, you know, Jake Weisler, the three guys from the full-time filmmaker group, I forget his name, though, it's Jake Weisler landing halfway, and I forgot the main guy's name. But anyways, they're like big dogs on YouTube and stuff, and they really know what they're doing. They're in COVID, so they're in COVID, like, I don't know, we'll go on to that. I don't want to go not forever. What was it about your own wedding experience that shifted your perspective on the value of filmmaking? The fact that through video, you can really remember everything. Our photographer wasn't, you know, it was a family friend, and they didn't really do a great job. If you would have had both video and photo, a cute guy, you know, at least some of your memories back. So which family member in particular did this, and why did it? It was just a friend, a nurse friend, one of her friends. But I mean, like, she got the photos, they just, you know, weren't professional. They were a little cold on the beach. But before we get into more of your expertise in wedding filmmaking and cinematography and things of that nature, tell us a bit about your background in music. When I was 16, I joined, like, a metal band, and we played, like, 16 shows that summer in bars, my junior year high school. And ever since then, I just was playing music and playing shows, and I traveled to Austin, Texas, like, five times trying to make it, would play guitar on the street all the time, and just kind of paying my dues that way. A lot of open mics, a lot of opening for semi, you know, mediocre bands, and just really just trying to find myself and figure out, like, what I really want to do in life throughout my 20s. And so really, I just traveled and played music. As a percussionist in a heavy metal band, did you say? Oh, no. Like, I was in a lot of bands. I was a drummer for that band, but I play everything. I sing and play ukulele and acoustic, and so I actually started writing my own songs and singing and playing acoustic guitar most of the time. So how did your background in IT and music prepare you technically and emotionally for storytelling through film? Just a lot of experiences, observing conversations through life, being, it helped me be resilient because I had to go through a lot of hardships of just me being naive and dumb, really, just through all those times of playing music and learning about myself. So I don't know, picking up a camera in a way really just kind of saved me from all of that. Like, it just gave me some purpose because I was just kind of lost, you know. Why were you lost? Just trying to find something that, you know, that like just trying to like, I don't know, just a purpose for me in life. Like I couldn't find, I just, the music is really hard to do. You got to be really good, and I really picked a hard thing to do. And so I felt at that. And so I needed something else to, I don't know, kind of redeem myself, I guess. So what does your current gear and editing pipeline look like for delivering cinematic yet social ready wedding productions? I usually don't take a second shooter with me. So I do everything myself. But as far as gear for the wedding day, it's, that's typically, well, my A cam is a Canon C70. Oh, nice one. And so I love that camera. And then my B and C cam are the Canon R6 with the 7200s for my tripod for the ceremony. So on each side, I'll have a tripod. I basically use three cameras for the ceremony, two on each side, and then I'm holding my gimbal with the C70 throughout the whole day. And then audio devices as far as like task cams, DRL10s. But I switched to the pros and they're, they're a lot better, it seems like. And then for speeches, you know, like the, the Sony TX 660 handheld recorder, the thing is amazing. So it like, it'll pick, you just slide it onto a microphone sleeve and it's ready to rock and roll. But the quality of that piece of gear is pretty superb for everything being so loud at a reception or something. How do you determine what gear is seen as, or is valued as quality? You know, the Canon C70 is not exactly the, the most ideal camera to use for weddings, for sure. It's, it's not ideal for it. It's heavy. It's a very heavy camera, especially with the, the gimbal, but I love the image quality so much that I'll just, I'll take the hit on that, you know, I'll just carry it around all day just because I love the image quality. But the battery life on the Canon C70 is really good. So it's, it's, I'm not switching out. I have three batteries and that's it. You know, so plenty to spare for the rest of the day too. Do you feel pressure to follow trends when you're, you're sharing weddings? No, not at all. I don't follow any trends. I never have. Oh, well, I'll take that back. I see something on Instagram and I'll be like, Hey, that was cool. And then I'll, I'll, I'll copy it. So I lied, I lied that that's, I mean, but I'm not like looking for the trend, you know, I'm just really just doing my thing and like, I'll see something and be like, Hey, that was a cool idea. And then I'll adapt that a little bit, maybe show people that I can do it, you know, that I can edit that way and post like one thing of the trend and then move on. So a lot of the people listening to this podcast have shot weddings or thinking about shooting weddings and do multiple different things to, to fund their narrative work or documentary workers, self shooting filmmakers or even people in production companies. But when you go out and film a wedding or when you speak to potential clients, what do you look for in a great client who wants you to shoot their wedding? You know, someone that could, that just has checked the workout and trust me to do, to do my job. Yeah. That's really what the main thing I'm looking for is just trust and I will trust in me that I'll follow through, which I always do, you know, and let the art, let the art speak for itself. So we talked through email, send them a contract with a deposit all through Honey Book. It's all online. I'm super easy. Honey Book's been a game changer. If you don't have Honey Book, I recommend it. Please do explain to us about Honey Book as well. It's kind of like QuickBooks, but it's just, it's kind of built for photographers, kind of. It seems like it's really built for photographers and, or they had that mindset when they were doing it, but it's built for everybody. But yeah, it's just an amazing software application. It just makes things a lot easier and it's when they, when the client, you know, sees it and opens the app, they're, it's just legitimate, you know? Okay. But no, I do one month. So I get a deposit and then one month before the wedding, they pay in full. If someone was to be late with the payment, do you just say, sorry, buddy, doesn't work for me, brother? As far as like, I don't know, like if they're not, as long as it's before the wedding. So I do a month before the wedding, but you know, I've never had, I mean, I've had a couple of people cancel things like that, but not anybody not want to pay. I'm glad. I'm glad. Yeah. I mean, the other day, like someone canceled because their dog got sick and they took out the video, video budget. So. Oh, wow. They just canceled me out, which was fine. I mean, they didn't pay in full yet. And so, I mean, it was just a deposit. So how do you sometimes handle the tension between artistic videos and client expectations in the commercial wedding space? A lot of times, like for example, they'll say like they want their, so I had a bride want to do vows, but I wasn't going to be there at the time they wanted to do that. So I had eight hours of coverage, but, wow, they were going to do that before that. So they recorded the vows with their iPhone and with no audio. And you know, she was like, can you put this in the video in the final wedding film? You know, that's really not what I would like to do because, you know, I don't want to waste my time and put bad audio into a wedding film. Yeah. And, but you know, so what I do is I'll go out of my way for the client and do two separate versions of the wedding film. So in other words, I'll create the one that I wanted to create and then I'll cut up the vows after I've already created the wedding film and then put throw those into what I've already created. It takes a little more time, but, you know, she gets two versions. She gets the one that I like so I can post to social media and then she gets her memories as well with the vows that she requested. So typically how long is the wedding videos that you shoot and how much of it goes onto social media? You get posted to social media because, you know, so a lot of the wedding films are personal. And so the vows, a lot of the brides don't even want them on social media. Just because the vows are personal and they want that in the wedding film. So it's just kind of a fond lawn, you know, I have to really ask them, you know, but like a teaser or something, I'll post to social media. But a lot of wedding films don't get posted just because of that reason. And how long are these wedding films generally? Four to seven minutes. Ah, okay, great. So you really do capture the best of it? Absolutely. So yeah, out of eight hour a day, you know, four to seven minutes, that's what I'm getting. And it is the best clips throughout the whole day and the best audio. And you've mentioned that your work has shifted from personal passion to purposeful legacy. What does that look like in practice? Oh, it's amazing. You know, I get to work for nonprofits. Last year I got to be in a documentary, more of my footage got to be in the documentary about fentanyl, the fentanyl crisis in America, and just the opportunities that have came my way since doing this is just remarkable, just going out there and, you know, I don't, my first six years of business, I didn't turn down anybody. Okay. I was out just getting it, you know, I was whatever opportunity that came my way, I was taking it just because I wanted to see what would happen, like later down the road, if I did the best job I could. And I mean, it really does work. If you put in the effort and go out there and work hard, yeah, it's definitely not fun all the time, but you do get rewarded. And who are some of the not-for-profit you've worked with? Quite a freedom is one of them. It's a prison ministry, Christian ministry out in Wrightsville, Arkansas. The Confess Project of Litterock, I think, and actually it's just called the Confess Project, but they're based in Litterock and they're actually the number one mental health barber shop movement in America. And he was on the Kelly Clarkson show in 2020. So that was really cool. And I worked with him for a lot. He was actually one of my first clients. And so Lorenzo P. Lewis is his name. And he's doing great things. He's living out in Atlanta now. And then Hope Movement Coalition is the fentanyl. They're fighting the fentanyl crisis. Their really purpose for passionate social work is what you're about, I'm hearing. Right. And I really enjoy doing that. So like Wednesday, I'll be filming for The Pathway to Freedom. And we're going out two hours to Fort Smith and we're going to be doing a testimonial. That's what, like once a year, I'll do a testimonial for them. And so it's someone that's been in prison, that got out, and we go through their whole story of them doing good, you know. And do you imagine we, the films evolving into multi-generational family business? How are you preparing for your children, if at all, to engage with this work? You know, I'm not really sure. I would hope so. That would be cool to see like my son like pick up a camera and like become a filmmaker. But I'm just going to let him do what he wants to do. So is even at the age to start thinking about what he wants to do. Oh yeah. He wants to be a YouTuber already. Yeah. So he sees all the cameras and he's just like, let's do a video dad and let's, he wants to be a gamer. So the film scene in Arkansas, what is that like, whether it be documentary wedding films or narrative projects? The thing about it is, is there's not too many videographers in Arkansas right now. There's, there's a handful of us that are, you know, well, weddings anyways, but as far as the, it's not too saturated. So there's really not much going on, you know, not a lot of people posting work or anything like that. Most videographers around here don't even post their wedding films. Okay. So how far would you have to travel to get some of your work? So like, I go to Northwest Arkansas a lot, it's like three hours. But most of the weddings I do, they're probably like an hour, an hour to three hours away. So your day typically starts at what, when you're shooting a wedding? Probably around like nine AM. Oh, that's not too bad at all. If it's a three hour drive, but like, if it's closer, you know, I won't have to leave till, you know, one o'clock, you know, or something and get there like two, and then spend the whole day there till the send off. So eight hours. And in those times when, or if you've had those times when you've had to film with someone else, what does that look like if you're not just a self shooting videographer for the day? I don't really do that much, but I've done that like second shoot as we're yelling about. I've only done that like a handful of times, but that's actually a lot easier. So I can just kind of sit back and just, he just tells me what to do because everybody has their own style, you know, so I don't, you know, they film different. Yes, I don't know what they want. So. And did you train at all? Did you go to any kind of film school or did you do any courses that you feel was really beneficial to you as a wedding videographer? Absolutely. So the, I recommend the full time filmmaker course in 2020, they were doing a COVID cell on it. And I had been a videographer for a year and a half trying to do weddings and I had like two wedding films in my portfolio and it was just, it wasn't looking very good. Let's just say that it was just a year and a half's gone by, you know, and it literally an ad popped up and it was like $500 for this course, like on sale. And literally I had like $500 in my bank account. Whoa. That was it. And so I like drained it and bought it and watched like binge watched wedding video pro real estate video pro music video pro and I haven't even finished the course since then. So it's like, I watched those, those courses in like three days. And the next wedding I did, I implemented that and I booked 15 weddings from that one wedding video shortly after that for the same year 15, 15 from August 2020 to December. I booked 15 weddings after implementing that course and literally from August to December I did those 15 weddings. And what exactly from those courses helped you? Just as they knew how to do it. They knew, I mean, knowledge is power, right? So it's like, these guys had been out, they already experienced like top tire weddings, you know, the fancies and they just showed me how to do it and like after a year and a half of, of trying to figure it out myself, it actually was a good thing because after watching the course, it was like light bulbs were just coming off, you know, I was bringing off and so it was, I picked it up really easy after that. Not really easy. That's hard. Filmmaking is super hard. I don't know how I say that. I make it look easy. And you mentioned before having the photographer was a friend of your wife's at your own wedding. Have you been in the situation where you've had to shoot a wedding for a friend or family member? And if so, how does that differ from a client? Yeah. So usually, you know, I don't want to be a bummer about it, but like family, friends, you know, you got to give them the discount. You know. Yeah. And, you know, they're, they're not really appreciative as much as like a normal client, I feel like, or if they even hire you at all. That's how. But yeah, I've helped people out. I've helped a lot of friends out of filmed a lot of my friends weddings and get them good deals and they love the product so just a little effort, just a little more effort. That's all. And speaking of discounts, you've got a dealer at the moment, haven't you? You've got an offer on for the people of Arkansas who wish to have their weddings filmed. Oh yeah. So I've got a giveaway coming up. So Arkansas Love Story is what we're calling it. And for anybody that doesn't win, they get $500 off my package. If they entered, entered the contest. And how much is the package? It's $2,997, it's $3,000. $3,000. What is the experience of doing the package? What are some of the things they're expected to care? So they get me at their wedding. That should be the most. That should be a nice. And then, well, they get a wedding film. It's the sorting package. So it's, they get me at their wedding and then they get a beautiful wedding film and a teaser video for social media. So I'm guessing this one minute or 30 seconds teaser video? Well, I've been doing like scenes from the day on Instagram. So they do the carousels and you can like swipe and just see the clips. So I'm doing that, just kind of showing the scenes. And so I thought that was pretty cool. And so I've been doing that lately, but like a teaser, yeah, 45 seconds to like a minute and a half. Yeah. So I'm giving away a whole wedding film, like the whole starting package wedding film and an engagement film. So they're getting like the whole package for free. Nice. And where do you see wedding filmmaking heading in the next 10 to five years or five to 10 years, I should say, sorry, from both a storytelling and technological perspective? No, I think weddings will be for video offers will be around for, yeah, for a while. Let's hope the robots don't take our jobs, but I'm kidding. But yeah, 10 years, you know, and then the robots take over. So I'm just kidding. Maybe I don't know. They did say that 50% of blue collar jobs are going to be wiped out in like five years. Because what other emerging tools do you see playing a part in your workflow or vision? Like the AI tools and premiere. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's a really good feature that you can stretch out clips and it's amazing how they can do that too. So I haven't used that yet because I don't need to. Yeah. I'm sure it'll come in handy one day when I'm when I need to stretch out a clip or something. But I use Premiere Pro and I've been using that since day one and I just can't everybody's switching to DaVinci and I've used DaVinci, but, you know, it's a cool program. It's nice and it's free and I just haven't switched over. I don't really feel the need to. I like Adobe Premiere and I still have to learn so much more, you know, get out the software anyways that, you know, you can't learn at all. And that's it for today's show. A huge thank you to Brian Weaver for sharing his journey from his days as a touring musician, performing over 300 live shows and even opening for the plain white teas to becoming one of the most respected wedding filmmakers in Arkansas. His story is a reminder that creativity doesn't have to stay in one lane. We can reinvent ourselves. Both directions and still build something that lasts. From 300 plus live shows to award winning filmmaker, Brian's path proves that creative careers are never linear. We also talked about navigating career evolution in youth centric industries, building a family focused legacy and how wedding filmmakers can adapt to platforms like Instagram Reels. While still treads, while still, while still staying while staying true to their artistry. What stood out for me in this conversation is how Brian approaches wedding films, not just as a service, but as a way of honouring legacy, giving family something that will outlive trends in technology. That's a powerful reminder for all of us who create. The work we do today can become someone else's treasure tomorrow. And here's a bonus, Brian is launching his Arkansas Love Story campaign on August 18th, giving away $4,797 wedding and engagement film package to couples marrying in Arkansas. You'll find details in the show notes and it's an amazing opportunity for anyone looking to capture their story in a truly cinematic way. With this conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with a friend, colleague or creative who might need encouragement. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a review if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps the show grow. Thank you again for tuning in, until next time, keep telling stories, keep reinventing yourself and never underestimate the power of capturing life's most beautiful moments.