$7000 investment in new production company. I Need advice.

[Zvi Twersky]

Ok, guys, don’t get excited…

When I went to the page to order a professional installation:
https://www.google.com/tisp/notfound.html

well… go there yourself and read about the prank
AND you will see more Google April fool pranks from other years! 🙂

[Shayne Weyker]

I’ve been doing this part time for a most of year now after taking classes in the year before that. Here’s a few things I’ve done (or started doing) that seemed to help get me work or keep costs down, though still not enough to pay for all the stuff I’ve bought.

Expect things to start out slow, work half time at something else for money. I work doing support for a website, but other resume building jobs might be AV technician or electronics/camera salesperson, or teaching a video editing continuing Ed course at a college. Meanwhile you hunt for work and edit projects and do free promo projects with your company name and web address on the DVD + box. You only get so many breaks a month and not seeming desperate to get work instantly from them when you talk to people is a plus.

IMMEDIATELY join and go to as many local or regional videographer association meetings as you can and get into conversations with people there, asking about what they do, talking shop/hardware, etc. Be likable, curious and knowledgeable. Give them your business card (very cheap ones are available at vistaprint.com). Let them know you’ll work cheap/free for them the first few times until they know you and have seen your work. It wouldn’t hurt to have a simple but professional looking website with some nice looking sample clips for them to look at.

Work for free/cheap once or twice for lots of people instead of doing this for same person many times. You build more contacts and reputation that way.

Also send resumes and cover letters to every vid production company/videogrpaher in your area. Though if your resume/training is really thin maybe try to get some experience with the face-to-face techniques above first. Next follow up those letters [saying you’d call on a certain date] with phone calls on those dates. If you hate rejection the second part is really hard. Do it anyway.

The anxiety and rejection that comes from asking is worth it for getting to know all the people who might be willing and able to let you learn your craft while getting paid, and for the times when people actually do hire you get seen by other pros and potential clients at the event doing the work, while getting paid to be there.

Next: always be a pro whenever anyone invites you to do or go along on a shoot. That means…

Get the address and time, print directions in advance, give yourself plenty of time to get there, show up a little early and ready to work. Do quality work with a smile and always do a bit more than they expect. If you’re bringing your own gear, pack in advance and use a checklist of what to bring.

If you get to be on a Videographers Association mailing list where clients write in asking for quotes or other videographers ask for cam operator/PA help: check your mail very often and reply to those messages instantly. Drop everything else, and write a coherent professional sounding response and give a quote you’re pretty sure will underbid the other members. You have less overhead and need the experience/references much more than they do.

One kind of work that pays less but has very low requirements in the way of lights and mic (and shot asthetics) is high-school sports videos (recruiting, scouting, team yearbook, etc). I found that shooting for people producing these to be easier to break into than weddings for some reason. You might want to get a used rain cover for a camera if you do a significant number of these though, since you’ll be out in the rain as the game continues sometimes. One other advantage of this work is that one of the cheaper prosumer cameras (the GL2) is actually very good for this kind of work.

When you don’t have sample clip you need to get a certain kind of job, go out and shoot a short demo of the kind of thing they want and email them a QT and WMV of it.

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Here’s a good rule for life that also applies to getting started in the vid business: doing things you haven’t done before will change your life far more than buying some product or service from someone else.

Think about that every time you start to buy something.

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While I think owning a prosumer camera (a GL2, which probably should have been a used PD170/150 in retrospect) helped get me some small jobs which may turn into more later, most of the jobs I’ve had were using other people’s gear and getting work was mostly about doing the above networking and applying with a polished resume that showed some relevant training and skills.

I think you need a good camera in your hands long enough to create solid samples of your work with it in all the types of events/productions you think you might need to show people in order to get the job. After that you can sell the camera if you need to and rent from then on.

Cameras are going obsolescent a bit faster at the moment with the coming of HD and what I read in the Final Cut forums tells me that HDV cameras will depreciate faster than most, and they’re more of a pain to edit than dvcproHD and more expensive to buy the TV monitor + card to edit it than with DV. Of course the dvcproHD cameras are much more expensive. Maybe buying DV now and waiting for an affordable dvcproHD camera is the answer for low-budget folks.

If you can find a way to produce content for the web (a growth area) DV’s lower resolution is pretty much irrelevant since nobody you’ll be dealing with will want to pay to host video above 640×480 size on the web. Be ready to pay for some software that will encode your edited video into two-pass vp6 flash video if you get seriously into producing for the web.

Any camera used for pay really must allow you convenient control over the input level for audio and show you the audio level meters on screen to you don’t get weak, peaked-out, or aggressively-limited audio. The GL-1 doesn’t monitor levels on screen. Nor did my Panasonic GS200. Pick your camera accordingly.

If you need to get comfortable and fast with using cameras with focus and iris rings then you may need to buy a camera with those, used. If you do, every week make yourself go out and shoot different things with it so you get nimble with the controls and zooming to good shot composition. Even if no one’s paying you to do it. Because the sooner you master those things the better video you’ll make and the sooner you’ll be able to charge more and sell your old camera and start renting better cameras.

Don’t feel like you have to keep the camera once you’ve amassed a decent set of demo clips that can help calm any doubts people might have once your marketing (or your networking) has brought them to you.

Now as to equipment on a budget:

Avoid shooting things for money that reveal the weaknesses of your camera.

Don’t even try to shoot in low available light (think nighttime weddings with minimal overhead light) unless you have or know you can rent a PD150/170. (extra tip: If you do shoot low light don’t let your camera add all the gain it wants to on auto. You’re better trying off manipulating levels/gamma in the computer than letting the camera add its last 2 or 3 notches of gain. You don’t want the grain/noise that comes with that.)

Lights: If you need lights on stands, you can try starting out with some collapsable stand halogen shop lights with diffusion material (like Rosco Toughspun Cinegel #3006 ) put over the light’s lens for less $ than even a used light kit. The shop lights are bit heavier and bulkier and lack dimmers (though 250/500/750/1000W selectable is better than nothing). The bonus is that shop lights are harder to tip over and less fragile. If you do impromptu interviews at weddings you’ll need an on-camera light (which you may need to add diffusion to).

Mics: while I know a very good (mostly wedding) videographer who uses wireless a lot (inlcluding a wireless transmitter that pugs into the mixing board) and XLR infrequently, others have told me if you don’t have a camera with XLR inputs (either with adapter or natively) you’re going to have inferior/weak sound.

If you do a lot of events where there’s a PA system and a mix board/multiplier you can plug into, you need XLR inputs and XLR cable or wireless mic kit with a lav and a from-the-board transmitter. XLR also lets you put wired shotgun or lav mics far closer to the sound you can get while keeping the camera back.

Note though that if you can shoot from close enough to the sound that it overwhelms all unwanted sound (like near the front at a concert) a decent quality shotgun mic, even an on-camera one like the rode videomic can get decent results.

Wireless lav mics are of course very very handy for wedding ceremonies and interviews/presentations and cen speed your setup time and remove the need for many re-setups. I recently got a good deal on a used sennheiser ew100 wireless mic kit and like it so far.

Be sure to try used ew100s out in person before buying as the wire connecting to the mic head is fragile and will crackle when moved even slightly once broken. Also check Sennheiser’s frequency finder to see what a good range of frequencies are for your area before buying anything wireless
https://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/mat_dev/frequencyfinder/Freqfinder-open.asp

I’m thinking at the moment I can probably do the most for the least money with a wireless kit like above plus the rode video mic for things the wireless kit’s lav + board transmitter can’t get. Note you can move the rode video mic off the camera with an optional 10′ mini-cable and rest the mic in a clamp on a table (or even hold it) near an interviewee. Note that the rode videomic doesn’t work through XLR adapters like the Sign Video XLRPRO, the camera has to control levels from the rode videomic internally. Note: XLRPRO is better than beachtek because you can adjust it’s levels smoothly while recording.

Tripods: B&H’s kit with the Manfrotto 3011BN and fluid head has been really nice with the GL2 and didn’t cost a lot though it may be too small for a PD170. I recommend getting the carrying strap for it and a step stool to stand on so you can shoot over the tops of crowds while still reaching the camera controls easily. Be sure to get a tripod that will raise up to around 6’/2m.

Monitors for editing: I’ve been happy with a 13″ TV for previews and a dell 24″ LCD widescreen for editing DV, and I survived for a long time with 2 17″ LCDs and the TV.

I like that I can (if I don’t care about preview quality much) use the dell monitor later as a HD TV for previews while editing by switching to the monitor’s component in. I don’t feel the need for a second editing monitor though some folks like them. IF you edit a lot getting a big monitor like this can save some time zooming and panning in the timeline over two small monitors that split the timeline. But if most of your biz is operating cameras for other people early on, your editing gear is mostly irrelevant.

CD printers: These really do make for good presentation of your finished DVD but ink will cost you on large runs. The best quality/cost to operate mix was the epson R200 which you can find refurb or used sometimes. I have an R300 and it prints great but does seem to hog ink. Its nice for making those promotional DVDs that will market me long term but not important to making money in the short run. The cheapest way I found to make nice DVD box inserts is the free medaiface web-based software you get when you buy inserts from neato.com. You will often want to make a PDF of the insert cover (or print one copy) and have your local staples/copy shop make color laser prints/copies of it onto blank DVD insert stock.

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I agree that $7000 is a bit too little to do all the jobs you might need to be able to do to work full time. But you probably won’t build up the connections and references and reel to work full time soon after starting anyway unless you’ve been in film/tv school and working on lots of professional shoots before graduating. So expand the business as you find the opportunity to do so and buy things as you determine you’ll be able to put them to use right away.

Hope this helps,

–Shayne Weyker
shayne@weykervideo.com
https://weykervideo.com

–Shayne Weyker

[Zvi Twersky]

Shayne, I was VERY impressed by your professional and detailed reply. It helped more then you can imagine. Thank you so much.