Today we’d like to introduce you to Eugene Bussey.
Eugene, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a child, I was always compelled to do something creative and so it began with poetry. I had not yet grown my manly skills so this was the most impressive way to approach a girl that I had a crush on lol. This lasted till high school when I found a new love… 2 turntables and a mixer I was now a DJ. Ultimately my crew (Edward Campbell, Tim Willis, Tyrone Adams) and I would go on to become the number one high school DJ’s in Brooklyn New York, we were known as the Mighty 3. Being a DJ lasted until the market got saturated at that point, I entered the world of songwriting and music production. Ironically my poetry and DJ savvy would help me in my music production. I had a pretty good stint in music production writing and producing songs that would chart on Billboard and play worldwide in clubs and on radio. It was incredible to be contacted from people around the world who played my music. The first label I produced on was Tommy Boy records along with my partner Toney “Reach Up”/ “Turn Around’ Lee. We produced a young lady named Paula Brion.
At that time, that meeting was set up by C&C Music Factory’s manager. We were at the label when they signed Queen Latifah literally. When I began doing music it was a costly profession booking 24 track recording studios and musicians but yet again the market would become saturated due to music moving to digital production with the onslaught of Pro Tools. Now every person that had a computer and some software could and would deem themselves a “record producer”. Sometime after that, I picked up a video camera and I have not to this day never put it down even though once again, I’m in a saturated market lol. But this time, I refuse to bend especially with a well-established portfolio that includes works for Tyler Perry. Lucas Films, Walmart, Red Bull, Fox News, Ludacris, Birdman, Jermaine Dupri and more that separates me from a lot of people who do wedding videography. In addition, I have done award-winning feature films, broadcast music videos, and received multiple awards for film and wedding videography. Being blessed with all of that, I continue to unite all my talents, creativity, and uniqueness into my passion for video.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As with most things in life its been a roller coaster ride lol. There have been good days, good years where my phone and email were blowing up, and then there were bad days, bad years whereby I had to make sure my phone was working because it was so inactive lol. The challenge has always been to be in front of potential clients at the right time and be able to convince them that I am the right person for the job. Another challenge that comes into play is one of the things that moved me from DJ’ing was the value of services being lessened by competition that priced services dirt cheap. Fortunately, consumers nowadays are a lot wiser in distinguishing professionals vs. a novice/hobbyist that is out to make money with no real care about the work they do.
What has worked for cinematographers in Hollywood all these years is their union thereby everyone gets the same wage based on their experience no one can low ball another DP. There is a level of value for what you do and you should not sell yourself short but some people do just that. Technology has played a huge part in success and challenges. With ever-evolving technology it has lessened the cost of film/videotape and has been replaced with less costly digital formats SD cards, flash drives, SSD, etc. Another challenge that continues to gain ground is the evolution of the cell phone. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to ask guests at a wedding to not use their cell phones in front of my camera. It’s such a disservice to my client to film them at the altar kissing and someone for the glory of their cell phone step into the aisle to take a picture or video and in worst case, they use an iPad! 1st generation at that lol.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
WeddingFilm Pros was formulated from my longer standing company Creative Filmz. I felt the need to isolate wedding videography from all other aspects of video that I shoot. I felt people seeking a wedding videographer would get distracted on my website with the many other celebrity, corporate and large scale events that I film. I am a videographer/cinematographer, the difference being outside of the film industry and for my company and clientele, I am recognized as a videographer but technically its cinematography because I use a variety of cameras, lenses, lights and equipment to move the cameras. My compositions of shots are also cinematic as much as possible considering I am filming on the fly with little to no setup time as opposed to capturing on a movie set. I am most proud of the emotions I am able to invoke from the work I do whether its smiles and laughter or tears of joy, I get great satisfaction in knowing I am capturing life events that are priceless to my clients and that they will have it years to come. Being able to capture weddings is great knowing that I am helping to preserve that memory for that couple. What separates me from the rest is my background in DJ’ing, music production, feature film experience, and music video experience. I use all of them in conjunction with editing a wedding film. I am also most entertaining while doing my job whether be it cracking jokes, singing or whatever it takes to entertain my clients to smile to look their best for camera.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was raised in a Christian home with both my loving and caring parents. I was fortunate to have both my parents as some of my friends weren’t so fortunate. All 4 of my siblings were older than me, I called myself in later years the oops baby lol, its 13 years between me and my next youngest sibling. I guess I was kinda spoiled but at the same time lonely because all my siblings were grown but I got just about everything I asked for which was compensation for being the only child in the house. I wasn’t a bad kid in school but there were a few times letters home to my parents lead to those fearful words wait till your father gets home yikes! lol. I was brought up to be respectful which I was. I was also very sociable which is one of the things that would get a letter sent home for talking too much in class lol.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 404-998-9983
- Email: info@weddingfilmpros.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weddingfilmpros/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ATLANTAWEDDINGVIDEOGRAPHERS/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeddingFilmPros
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wedding-film-pros-lawrenceville
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/creativefilmz/
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