Ortec Design was founded by John Orgill in 2001.
I got started in wedding videos like a lot
of other people do- I did it for my sister, then her friend and on
it went from there. Being a wedding videographer was never the type
of occupation that you proudly proclaim to strangers at a party. In
fact it took years of beating around the bush calling myself all sorts
of things...anything but a wedding videographer. And I believe there
is reason for the fanatic disdain for wedding videographer. The mere
mention of such a person conjures up images of loud annoying people
dressed in hawaiian shirts, wielding large cameras with bright lights,
annoying all the guests at a reception. That was all I had ever seen.
But for some strange reason, I enjoyed doing wedding videos. I enjoyed
weddings. I enjoyed working with brides and grooms to be more than
corporations. And more than any other factor, I enjoyed having my
own business. That is what I loved even more than weddings. If it
wasn't wedding videos, it would have been something else, but I happened
to be good at wedding videos, so I went with that.
As a side note, my wife and I did start another business. If it interests
you, you can check it out at www.utahcraftconnections.com.
The Style
Everything I do as a wedding videographer is done entirely in opposition
to everything that I hated about wedding videos.
-I thought videos in general were poor quality and filled with ugly
cheesy effects and poses. So I made my videos clean, simple, and full
of immaculate synchronization with candid and beautifully posed images.
-I thought videographers were unprofessional in image and conduct.
So I dressed and acted the part.
-I hated the TV/VCR combo that played a tapes, and usually ended with
no one noticing and so all it played was loud static for most of the
reception. So I created the glass displays, and even before DVD's
were main stream, I always used DVD's instead of VHS so that it could
easily repeat all night long.
The Glass Display
The glass display was lucky I guess. My father in law does art glass.
When I married into the family he roped me into helping him. The type
of work I did most was the type of glass carvings you see in the glass
displays. One of the first projects I did for him was for the Salt
Lake Temple. That was a pretty cool thought for me, to be able to
do some work for that beautiful historic building. If you get married
there, take note of the windows in the sealing room doors...I got
to do most of those!
About the same time I was also doing some part time work for a friend
of mine that was setting up projection systems for universities. I
asked him one day, out of curiosity, what sort of things could a projector
project on to. He rattled off a quite a few things, among which, he
mentioned frosted glass. And the idea sparked in my mind. I experimented
with projections on glass with a carving in it. And after a bit of
trial and error, I came up with a glass display that I tried out at
a friends wedding- to see if it was a stupid idea or not. And it was
a hit, people went crazy over it. I was actually a bit surprised at
the reaction. But even still today, I see the same reaction in people
at every reception I go to. People love it. It has always been something
that people rave about at receptions.
It's unique, because of the plethora of videographers, and millions
of weddings every year, I'm still the only one any where that does
this...as far as I know :)
I'd like to think that I've created something that you can get excited
about. People that come to me for a wedding aren't just booking a
videographer, they come looking for something unique, something different.
They come looking for a video that has feeling and emotion, that is
somehow different than the hundreds of other videos. And something
for the reception that they know people will talk about and remember.
..And I hope you will come for the same reasons too.
