Check Out Brian Garcia’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Garcia

Hi Brian, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been making videos since I was a kid, and during my high school years, but it was all just for fun and class credit. I went to film school at San Diego State University. After I graduated, I decided to pursue my Master’s of Fine Arts Degree at San Francisco State University in Cinema. When I was done with college, I was doing a bit of corporate work until I landed a teaching job in video production at a private high school in Northern California. The cost of living in the Bay Area was high for a teacher salary so I moved to Southern California in 2018 and continued teaching in public high school. When I moved to S. California, it was much more affordable and I had more time to work on my side hustle. While I was teaching, I was filming many of the school events to continue to improve my craft and eventually a coworker asked if I could film his wedding. After filming my first wedding in November, 2018, I began to build relationships with other vendors in the wedding industry in Southern California and saw so much opportunity to convert this side hustle into a full-time gig and I rebranded my social media and website as a wedding videographer. Even though I had one wedding in my portfolio, a lot of couples knew I didn’t really have much experience in weddings so it felt like I needed to show more in that field. All I had was high school sport videos, rallies and corporate videos but it wasn’t attracting engaged couples. I then created a beautiful video of the high school prom that I also used in my portfolio and I noticed there were more couples reaching out to me to film more weddings in 2019. Bookings were coming in fast and it was starting to feel I was onto something that was working for me. Even though I had a significant amount of bookings for the 2019 and 2020 year, I was still going to stay at my full-time job another year before I made this huge career change. Many of my coworkers and a few students noticed that I was passionate about this new opportunity because I was putting more of my time and energy in the wedding industry. It was overwhelming doing both, but I also wanted to make sure this business was going to be sustainable before I made the huge shift. I did enjoy that I had much more freedom and control of my own destiny, I was also able to run my business on my terms, and people kept reaching out to me for my services. In January 2020, I was already fully booked for the entire 2020 year until we did have the unexpected global shut- down a few months later. At the start of the pandemic in 2020, I moved on from the teaching field to support my own children during distant learning while I pursued my business. I resigned in June, 2020 with hopes that all those weddings being postponed will eventually come back. I did have about half of my weddings that couples didn’t want to postpone during 2020 so I was still working in the wedding industry and making sure my own kids were taken care of during the shut downs. It was a bit difficult but I knew this was all going to be temporary. Since I had no idea what was happening with the wedding industry at the time, a few realtors were reaching out to me to take photos and videos of a few properties and a few businesses needed branding videos. I was very close to moving in a different direction, but I didn’t want to dabble into too many things just yet because my kids were still home during the shut downs. As businesses slowly started to reopen, schools were still shut down another year and my kids were still going to continue distant learning. As weddings began to take place again during 2021, I continued to keep my wedding film business going and it’s been busy every year since then. I decided to focus on weddings and keep that niche because it’s what works with my schedule, it’s more sustainable and gives me the freedom to balance life with my family. I have had opportunities to travel for a few beautiful destination weddings across the country like Florida, Oregon, and Washington D.C. and I’ve filmed a few weddings with celebrity performances.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s never smooth. Besides the pandemic, my biggest struggle was learning how to balance my business and personal life. I was taking too much work, and I was saying “yes” to almost every opportunity out there and a few times I felt burnt out. I needed to find time to give myself a break from editing. It could be hard when I’m spending time with my family, or even watching a movie, I’m thinking that “I could be editing right now.” Editing videos takes time, passion and motivation. I will do everything I can to give my couples the best wedding video they’ll love forever and I felt that pressure many times because I was so hard on myself to make everything look perfect. Over time and with the help of many other vendors that mentored me, I learned when to say “no” to a job I felt wasn’t the right fit. This helped me stay motivated, limit the number of weddings I take on and give them my full attention while editing their video. Every client deserves a videographer that will be fully engaged and passionate about their wedding. I made sure to have a system in place to get a better idea who the couple is and what they actually need before booking so we both would know we were the right fit to partner together and that I am going to deliver a video they are fully in love with.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a filmmaker but I specialize in wedding videography. I have established my own business mostly in Southern California, but I also have traveled across the country to film beautiful destination weddings. I’m proud that after so many years learning the craft of filmmaking, I’m able to run my business on my own as an entrepreneur. What sets me apart is the quality of work I’m able to deliver to my couples. I don’t just film the day, I tell their story. I’ve also built a great relationship with many vendors in the wedding industry and I’m very reliable. I put so much effort into editing which many people don’t have the patience for.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I learned how to really niche down. I knew I wanted to make films, but I was all over the place taking any opportunity that came my way. I went from teaching video to high school kids, filming corporate work, real estate videos, taking photos of graduation ceremonies, races (sport events) and family sessions. I was just all over the place but when I just focused on one industry, video only, my business grew even more. It’s fine trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I was undecided but sticking to wedding videos really helped me grow. It also shows couples I am passionate about what I do. I think the biggest problem I had was being called a “Wedding Videographer” instead of a “Film Director” or “Cinematographer” but I got over that and threw my ego out the door since that name helped with my search engine optimization (SEO) demonstrating I was focused on serving my couples with their wedding videos. Figure out a brand, keep it consistent and show people what you can do! Anyone that passes by my social media or website can automatically see this guy films weddings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://briangarciafilms.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briangarciafilms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briangarciafilms
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/briangarciafilms

Image Credits
Still Images by @briangarciafilms