Today we’d like to introduce you to Janna Schmidt.
Hi Janna, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I, Janna, began creating custom wedding films in 2019, though my filmmaking dates back to the good ole days of VHS tapes. As a child, she spent many hours with my parent’s camcorder making movies with friends and family. I discovered my passion for storytelling through film at a young age, but it wasn’t until 2016 that I realized it could become a lifelong career and passion.
My husband and I were married in 2015 and one of our friends was just starting in wedding videography. Watching her journey inspired me to take the step to start filming weddings. Our first wedding was in March of 2019, and the rest is kind of history. My husband Kyle helped with most weddings until 2023.
I was expecting our first baby and needed someone to step in and help Kyle with our summer weddings. Marissa Jensen applied to be our intern that summer. We quickly realized what a great team we made together and decided to make it official. Now we work together as team Meadowlark offering photo and video services to couples getting married, and also to businesses and non-profits.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In 2020, the wedding industry was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. At that point, I had only been doing weddings for a short time, but I knew I wanted to do them full time. I was frustrated at the lack of weddings happening that spring and summer, but it ended up working for the best. I found an online course to help me learn many of the technical aspects of videography I didn’t know, and with the extra time I had without weddings, my work was able to improve so much. After that, there were more weddings than anyone knew what to do with, and it was perfect for someone just starting out and needing to build their portfolio. This season was so uncomfortable at the time, but I’m amazed at what God did to grow me.
In 2023, I was losing steam, and didn’t know if I’d continue the work after having my baby. I prayed for someone to help with the business, and again God provided. Marissa joined the team and her enthusiasm and artistry completely revived my love for filmmaking. I no longer feel like I’m doing this business alone. I have a business partner who is equally as talented, enthusiastic, and ready to make Meadowlark the best it can be!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Every film we create is hand-crafted with love, hope, and intentionality. If you watch our films, you will feel that you know the couple well (though they are probably strangers), and you will feel that each film is completely unique and tells the story of each couple.
Besides delivering individualized films, we focus heavily on knowing and serving each couple we work with well. We believe a wedding day is about a couple’s marriage, and not a video production. With us as your wedding day videographers, you might just forget we’re even there (in a good way!)
From the candid moments we capture to the music we choose, it’s all about telling your unique story as it unfolds. Another unique facet of our work is that we feature the people you care about most, especially including the sound of your voices. It’s not just about beautiful slow motion shots of your cake, flowers, or even you as a couple. Our films are focused on including the people you love most, because the best love stories are built on a foundation first laid by your grandparents, parents, siblings, and closest friends.
Our films feel so real and candid, and I think a big reason for that is we create space for each client to feel known and understood. They feel comfortable with us there, and can be themselves in front of our cameras.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Fargo is such an amazing city to be based in as a wedding vendor. We are a large enough city to have many amazing and unique wedding venues. It is also a thriving hub that boasts a collision of many industries such as medicine, tech, and agriculture. This unique blend provides a place that is small enough to feel like every other wedding vendor is your friend, but big enough to provide really diverse work and some really big budget weddings.
A downside of working in Fargo might be the weather, although we do love having a nice long winter off-season to rest and regroup. It can also be challenging making a place that is so flat geographically look beautiful.
Pricing:
- We offer full-service wedding videography (full-day coverage and a full-length highlight film for $5000.
- Couples have the option to add on many extra edits after the wedding day such as a blooper reel or a full ceremony edit.
- We offer photography only as an add-on to video coverage for $3500. This is also full-day, all inclusive coverage.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meadowlarkfilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meadowlarkfilms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meadowlarkfilms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@meadowlarkmedia6823
