This week’s In The Limelight… Vendor Spotlight… SkyPoint Productions is a husband- Skyler and wife- Kelly team who have captured hundreds of happy wedding couples. Their specialized team of creative filmmakers are bringing a one of a kind style of quality wedding cinematography to Arizona and beyond. Expertise in videographing multi-day Indian and South Asian weddings to beautiful boutique traditional weddings, no matter the size or location they will find your unique story and handcraft that into a piece of timeless art because every story deserves to be told.
Tell us about your company…
Our wedding film business SkyPoint Productions is a husband and wife team. We have captured and told the unique story of over 100 happy wedding couples – priding ourselves and staying true to a “Quality over Quantity” mindset. My bad ass beautiful wife, Kelly, and I, are on a virtuous path to create the most personalized experience when it comes to wedding cinematography. The last 3-4 years we have been gaining deep expertise in videographing Arizona’s most colorful multi-day Indian and South Asian weddings to the most stunning and beautiful “white dress” traditional American weddings. We have been grateful and lucky to produce hand crafted, unique story driven films – bringing to life a once-in-a-lifetime moment – while editing and crafting everything in house. We love it.
How did you get started in the wedding business?
Our wedding business started when I (Skyler) and my then-roommate – who was going to college to become a video editor – decided to film and produce a wedding video for our close friend’s big day and present that for his “wedding gift.” Long story short, that first wedding film not only turned out looking way better than we ever could have imagined but we had a total blast in the process. Fast forward 7+ years later and approximately 100+ more weddings and here we are today.
What makes you different from other businesses in the field?
I imagine one of the things that makes us different from others in the field is our ability to combine the perspective synergy of both a male and female – a yin and yang type of balance – to bring together a proper stability of emotions, excitement, and unique storytelling. Kelly and I play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses in the editing room (and in life) daily, from having a second pair of eyes to our personal music tastes to our shot selections – like the motto “the sum is greater than its individual parts” – we simply just work well together and truly care about the overall quality of each and every video we produce.
Why do you like working with weddings?
Besides the numerous relationships that we have gained and the overall challenge and difficulty of the projects, I think the fact that we get the chance to lose ourselves in the work is why we love working weddings so much. It’s not only our chance to help couples and families relive their big day in a timeless cool way but it’s an opportunity to push ourselves to new levels, by taking what we’ve learned from previous weddings and applying these new skills and tricks to future weddings. There is something about the frenetic and fast pace of weddings blended with the fact that there’s no “retakes” which is so rewarding to us – and knowing we did our absolute best. I’d be lying if I said one of our dreams wasn’t to film and direct a Hollywood feature film one day, so weddings is the perfect method to gain practice and storytelling expertise since often the quality of wedding films these days can literally look like a movie – just much shorter.
What was the most difficult situation you have faced with a client and how did you resolve it?
I think the most difficult situation we have faced is what the whole world is experiencing right now during this Covid-19 pandemic. Usually when we are faced with an obstacle, we can look to past situations to help guide us, or at the very least Google some ideas. With Covid-19 it is new territory for everyone, finding a balance of fairness for us as business owners and our clients has been challenging. We have found that open communication has been the best remedy and looking at it not only from our viewpoint but also the clients. Some of our clients have been planning their wedding for 2 plus years and to have everything change so quickly we know has been heartbreaking for them. We have worked with clients on date changes and are trying to get creative for those who are not changing their date but opting for a smaller guest count by adding live streaming as a service option. We realized during this time that we have a unique service that offers a sense of togetherness and community even when we cannot physically be together.
From a vendor’s perspective, what’s the best piece of advice you can give to engaged couples?
The best piece of advice I can give to engaged couples is communication, communication, communication with all your vendors on what is most important to you – especially specifics that relates to each vendor (ex. DJ vs Photographer). Every wedding is unique and what is important to one couple could not be important to another couple. For example, if there is a family member who is extremely important, or they want to make sure they are in the film, send a picture(s) over, so we know who they are. I cannot tell you how many times we are asked after the wedding takes place if we got footage of so and so or if we got footage of a certain item that we had no idea was even going on. A couple cannot communicate enough in regard to the small details. We find the more detail and communication we have with the couple the better the footage and overall end result.
What or who motivates you?
My two kids and wife motivate me more ways then can be explained. After stepping away from the salary 9 to 5 corporate job approximately 5 years ago and following my own path I’ve been able to live a truer and better life – something I know my kids see day and night.
What do you do when you are not working?
When I’m not working, I’m usually staying active swimming, working out, reading self-improvement books and/or playing basketball. Recently my wife and I built a DIY Chest Freezer that the two of us are absolutely addicted to. Plunging into 40-degree water instantly zaps you into the present moment not to mention cools you off when it’s 110-degrees outside 😉
What would we be surprised to learn about you?
I think most would be surprised to find out how many self-help books I own and read. It’s ironic to even myself as I was never a big reader as a kid or in high school but ever since college, and especially now having two kids (a 2-year old daughter and a 13-year old son) I developed a consistent daily and nightly routine reading non-fiction, self help, currently venturing into some Stoic Philosophy readings. Gaining wisdom is really cheap if you think about it, investing in a $10-$20 book — it’s just helped me in so many ways. Helping me become a better husband, father, business owner, wedding filmmaker, you name the topic or subject and guaranteed there’s a plethora of amazing options to improve your situation. Why not take advantage of that. Reminds me of a quote I’m loving: “Luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca (Roman philosopher)
Check out the rest of our blog to learn more about other fabulous vendors we’ve worked with and to learn more about Skyler, Kelly and SkyPoint Productions, visit their website at skypointproductions.com. When you contact them, make sure to let them know you found them here.
Here’s one of our featured South Asian weddings we’ve worked together in the past in Maharaniweddings.com.
Thank you for reading this week’s In The Limelight… Vendor Spotlight… SkyPoint Productions!
