Justin Porter believes that every wedding tells a unique story, and it’s up to the videographer to find that story. And, in the case of Justin Porter Media (JPM), they pride themselves on being the go-to team to find the stories and moments that far too often go uncaptured. JPM’s unique, documentary-style wedding videos, brought to life with talking headshots, candid moments and beautiful B-roll, are really unlike anything happening in the industry.
Being the founder of JPM, Justin Porter is at the center of every project JPM takes on, supported by his team and his essential gear. We had the opportunity to sit down with Justin and dive into his background, process and his advice for videographers looking to break into the industry.
A love for storytelling from the start
According to Justin, he “got into weddings accidentally.” In fact, his introduction into video creation was on the popular short-form video platform Vine.
“I picked up a camera and I wanted to be shooting Vine videos back when Vine was like the hot thing to be on,” Justin tells us. “I remember seeing people like King Bach and like Zach King, like some of these guys just creating stuff in 15 seconds. And I was like, ‘Man, I want to do this.'”
That interest in short-form comedy quickly morphed into a fascination with cinematic visuals.
“Before I knew it, I was binge-watching Film Riot and Matt Johnson. And I’m obsessed at this point with ‘How are you able to make something?’ Like, in my head, shooting it in my living room and it looks like a movie was a sign [that] you made it.”
Eventually, Porter tried his hand at his own projects. Like many creators, Porter’s early projects weren’t lucrative. He shot music videos for “50 bucks … a hundred bucks here and there. Sometimes it was just for some pizza,” Porter says. But he was happy to be getting paid to do what he loved. However, it all changed when he did his first wedding nine years ago.
“They paid me 650 bucks … in my head, I had just hit the jackpot. I was like, I made it.” From there, he focused on weddings and, as a result, his skill expertise grew. However, over time, he grew tired of the same-old, tried-and-true formula of wedding videos.
“I remember telling my wife … I’m done doing weddings. I’m bored with it. I’m capped. I really want to do something creative. This isn’t fulfilling.”
But she gave him a pivotal piece of advice that shifted his entire approach to shooting weddings: “You should just shoot a wedding like you’re filming a movie. Just pretend you’re doing a movie … you got a venue; that’s your location. Your talent is the bride and groom and the family … you got set design and wardrobe. That’s decorations and the outfits that everybody’s wearing.”
From then on, Porter embraced a philosophy of capturing more than just beautiful montages.
“I had to tell myself … there’s no rule to filming a wedding. If I don’t offend anyone, don’t upset anyone, don’t take away from the intimacy of the day, why can’t I bring a light? Why can’t I interview a guest?” Porter tells us.
This approach led to the formation of JPM and an entirely new style of wedding filmmaking — one that envisions couples’ stories as a reality documentary.
Building trust on the wedding day
It’s a unique approach to weddings, one that Justin admits isn’t for every couple. However, for couples who cherish memories and want to celebrate the relationship through storytelling, this style is right up their alley.
To get those candid moments, Porter and his team prioritize their relationship with their clients. “We build rapport off camera … I call it gathering intel, and I’ll just have a conversation with them.” This technique helps Porter draw out authentic details. “To get deep, we got to build a bond. You almost got to feel like I’m just your friend so that you can open up and truly just be comfortable peeling back the layers.”
That approach translates into emotional interviews with family members, candid conversations with guests and, often, once-in-a-lifetime footage. “We filmed a wedding last September, and … the bride’s dad passed away. And we have like the best father of the bride interview, like sit down, on camera interview doc style. And we put together like a little memorial of the thing. He just spoke so highly of her, how proud he was of her. Some of these like really emotional moments. And he got super emotional. But it’s like none of that would have existed had we not started this style.”
The essential gear that makes it all happen
Of course, none of this storytelling would be possible without reliable gear. Early on, Porter learned that lesson the hard way. In 2020, he lost nearly nine terabytes of footage due to storage errors. “My heart dropped. I had two folders in my whole file explorer. Everything was gone … I’m talking everything.”
The experience forced him to overhaul his entire workflow. Today, he relies on a 3-2-1 backup strategy that includes two NAS systems and automated uploads to Dropbox. “It was the hardest pill to swallow, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as [making the] call. I had to call four brides and tell them I don’t have a single clip. Like your whole wedding, every single memory that we’re supposed to be getting [was] gone.”
This is one of the experiences that underscores the importance of keeping his data safe, because no one wants to tell a couple that they lost their footage of their special day.
Porter relies on OWC’s Envoy Pro Elektron SSDs throughout his production pipeline. What he loves most about the Envoy Pro Elektron is how durable it is. “I did a review on these things and I slammed this hard drive. I’m talking everything I had … I dropped it in water on a livestream.” The drive still worked fine despite all his tests. “I was like, ‘Guys, this is the best freaking hard drive ever … I just start spitting out facts about the OWC Elektron, how fast it is … pull out the drive [out of the water]. I gave it a shake, plugged it into my Surface Pro. Boom. The whole thing pops up, all my files on there.'”
For Porter, it all comes down to peace of mind and the reassurance that his data is safe.
“I love the fact that I know that my footage is protected when I put it on.”
His trust in OWC products now extends throughout his entire ecosystem. He uses many products from OWC, from CFexpress cards to card readers to portable SSDs. “[For] all my cameras, we use the CF Express cards from OWC. Their card readers [are] lightning fast … especially copying Thunderbolt 3 and your Thunderbolt 3 ports from an OWC dongle directly to an OWC Elektron. It’s like, I’m talking like five, 600 gigabytes, like green line the whole time, just lightning fast.”
That speed makes a difference during grueling wedding schedules. “We were in Italy, for example, we’re filming, we were there for five days and almost every day we ended at like 10 o’clock and had to start the next day at like 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. And so … we’re tired, we’re just hot, we’re beat up. And it’s like, let’s transfer footage. And as soon as we pop the cards in … it’s so quick.”
Online content and community
Beyond weddings, Porter has also built a strong online presence, thanks in part to his wife, who first started posting behind-the-scenes clips without him knowing. “Before I knew it, she’s like, ‘Babe, you got to download TikTok. We got 300,000 followers.’ And I’m like, ‘300,000? What are you talking about?’… I didn’t even have the app.”
Today, Porter shares everything from editing livestreams to behind-the-scenes footage, mixing education with authenticity. “The biggest thing that I’ve learned through my platform is [people] love to see our progression and journey.” Through his work telling the stories of others, Porter also wants to tell his stories to inspire others looking to break into the industry. His advice to those new filmmakers is to explore and create what resonates with you.
“‘Find out if you like it. And if you like it, run with it your way,'” Porter says. “Block out the noise …”
A new way to do wedding videos
Porter has turned JPM into a brand built on authenticity and reliability. To JPM, it’s all about finding and telling the unique stories of their clients, not just creating a slow-mo montage. That mindset has allowed him to redefine wedding filmmaking, and, with the help of OWC’s storage solutions, capture and deliver moments to couples that they are going to want to remember.
To learn more about OWC’s solution products, you can go to owc.com.
