Just starting out… must be Wedding Videographer?

[Doug Graham]

Wedding video is by no means your only option — and if you don’t like it, then you shouldn’t try to force yourself into that mold.

Believe me, there are a lot of shooters and editors out there doing corporate work who couldn’t get a job with CBS or Cartoon Network either. People who have far less experience than you are billing themselves as video professionals, and are making a living at it.

But, as the Wizard said to the Tin Man, they’ve got one thing you haven’t got…an ego. Work on that self-confidence.

Keep right on interning…or at least learning. Keep right on moonlighting. One of these days, you’re going to find you no longer have time to get it all done, and that’s when you quit the day job and go full time freelance.

[Derek Johnson]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am taking you advice in improving: I devote at least an hour per day to video training.

I guess I should have asked, “HOW can I make a living, without being a Wedding Videographer?”

It seems like the demand for low budget music videos, narrative work, I-mag, and training videos pales to wedding video.

[Doug Graham]

I suggest you get Hal Landen’s “Video Producer Home Study Course”, available at https://www.videouniversity.com

It’s a short course in how to do corporate video. Hal offers a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.

Corporate video projects are more than just training videos. Here are some possibilities:
– Internal video introducing new product to sales force.
– Product demo video for potential clients
– Trade Show demos
– Commercials (for a specific product, or for the company as a whole)
– Video of annual meeting or sales convention
– Message from the CEO
– Record of important meetings or presentations
– Company History
– Company video “newsletter”
– “Roast” video for departing executive
– Video documentation of construction project
– Video documentation of product testing
– And of course, training videos!

[Derek Johnson]

Doug…

Great post. This is exactly what I’m looking for… and more. Guarantee cinches it for me. Will check out course.

Thanks bud…

Derek

[Cpdurham]

I was in the same position 3 years ago, and still searching for the best way to get into “other” types of video work. But weddings have been fun, and the contacts you make there can lead to other types of work.

I would just use the resources you have and get some experience; I video taped a sales conference for an old company I used to work for, I did a commercial for pretty cheap for my sister’s company, I did a training video for a school I was working at….all of these opportunities gave me a chance to build my reel and go out there better prepared to get the bigger jobs.

Best of luck.

Carter Durham
https://www.netinfomercialsecrets.com/?vip=2425

[Bruce Bennett]

Lots of good advice so far. When I started out 14 years ago, I worked 20-hours a week for free at a post house while putting in 40-hours at my paying job. After 6 months, I was hired as a sales guy with the opportunity to advance into production. The post house was a “lower end” house that shot on S-VHS and posted on 3/4-inch while most competitors shot and edited on Betacam SP (in my market, there was no digiBeta, D2, D1 or HDTV back then).
What I did was find smaller, cheaper-speding businesses that didn’t mind cheaper, lower-format quality productions. Eight years later, some clients grew with our business to Betacam SP and Avid editing, others dropped off because they didn’t want to pay for better quality. In my experience, smaller business care more about ROI, content, style and caftsmanship a lot more than what quality format you use.

Good luck!

Bruce Bennett,
Bennett Marketing & Media Production, LLC – http://www.bmmp.com