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Starting a Video Company in Nigeria
Hi,
I am an aspiring young entreprenuer with a vision to create a wow video company that will surely deliver clients expectations in the area of high net worth events, film documentaries and video film recording. I dont have musch experience in the area of photography and video but I have the money and experience in events management. I also have the clients.
My major challenge is the type of camera to start of with. I want to have very high production and a friend who owns a video editing company suggested Sony Z7. This may be because, I also want to rent the camera’s out to movie makers in the Nigeria NOLLYWOOD industry.
I need sound professional advise on which cameras i need to start with, how many of the cameras too.
Best regards
Chibuikem Diala
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3 Replies
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[diala chibuikem] “I need sound professional advise on which cameras i need to start with, how many of the cameras too.”
That is a bit of a tricky question for us with regards to specific cameras. I know that HDV is a very popular format in Nigeria, perhaps even the most popular, but less so here in the US. The question is easier to answer from a business perspective.
–Are there other rental companies that you can look at? What cameras are they renting?
–You might also ask your propects what these other companies are doing well, and what they are doing poorly. Learning from success is good, but learning from other people’s mistakes is even better!
–Since you have clients, though, you would do well to start with them. If the Z7 is the camera they are most interested in, then by all means, focus on that. But you might begin by understanding the JOB they want to do, then helping them understand what the right CAMERA is.
Your friend knows the Z7. Maybe that is the right camera, maybe it is not. But as a business owner, your first job is to understand what your clients want.
Once you understand what they need to DO, you might ask this question in the HDV forum — my clients do this kind of work, I am looking at these cameras, what do you recommend, etc.
One more piece of business advice, though: whatever camera purchase you make, start preparations for the camera purchases you will need to make AFTER that. It is a fact of life for rental companies that clients will always want to have new models of camera — perhaps not the newest of the new, but it will be important for them to see that you are committed to keeping your customers ahead of THEIR competitors.
The whole point of this for them is that you will keep up with buying new equipment so that they do not have to. It is quite likely that your clients will not be asking for the Z7 a year from now.
Please ask any more business questions here! Many of us are entrepreneurs ourselves. These are exactly the situation that we ourselves went through.
Best regards,
Tim -
“I dont have musch experience in the area of photography and video but I have the money and experience in events management.”
2 totally different disciplines.
Before you sink a bunch of money into buying high-end equipment that will be obsolete in a few years, for your first few productions rent the camera and get established. Don’t do the shooting yourself if you don’t know what you are doing, hire professionals. You run the company, and hire other people to do the labor.
The Z7 is a good camera but I would not call it high-end, if you are looking to be a rental place you might want to go with an XDCAM HD or what is currently being used in your area.
Call around to other rental houses in your area to find out what they use.
http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -
Allow me to amplify and add to some of what’s said above.
It’s great that you have “the money and experience in events management. I also have the clients.” That’s a much better start than NOT having them, but not having a basic working knowledge of the operations and technologies is a severe handicap. You have a whole lot more to learn than not knowing what camera(s) to buy.
While you could hire people who know these things, you would be better served by first working somewhere that already has the many operational aspects of running a video business going. As someone with a client following I would think you could easily get in as a “producer,” even though starting out you’d really be more of a salesman.
Do that a year or two or three and you stand a much better chance of succeeding in the long run.
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