-
Looking for specific advice on starting a sports highlight video business
Hey guys,
I’m someone with zero experience in filming, I have no idea what to look for in a camera, I have no idea what equipment I need to capture the footage I have in mind to the desired quality. I have very basic editing skills on Sony Vegas, I used to create football compilation videos back in the day and upload them to youtube, and I used to get a lot of views and a lot of great feedback..and that’s it really as far as my experience is concerned.I’m looking to be a videographer/cinematographer for 2 key reasons,
1) I want to escape the 9-5/rat race, have my own business, be my own boss and do things on my own terms.
2) I enjoy the artistic element of telling a story through video.. picking the music and clips to match. It feels good once the work is done. (A couple of examples of “stories” I made a couple years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ogi-3K4wrU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238tklBESAo)
I thought I’d start by filming football (Soccer for you lovely Americans) matches/players specifically and creating highlight reels of them, because I enjoy football, and I think I’d have a lot of fun making others look awesome. I also think that there may be a market for it where I live, I play a lot of football and I’ve never really seen anyone film at the recreational level. So I’m thinking maybe there’s money to be made here. Ofcourse, this is just to start, but I plan to expand into other events if and when needed to grow my business.
So yea, that’s pretty much it, I guess the 1st thing I’d like to know is, what are the minimum equipment I’d need for high quality footage? I’m allll about the quality, and I have savings I’m willing to invest, but at the same time I have no reference point, I don’t know how expensive filming equipment really can be, so I’m guessing I might have to compromise, but I hope not. I also want to get really cool angles, so I was thinking of investing in a drone, but in speaking to a videographer they didn’t seem too thrilled by the idea and I’m not sure why, maybe someone here can tell me. I mean is it hard to operate a drone? Is it hard to zoom in and out and pan across and back really quickly? But yea, what are the minimum equipment required to capture high quality footage (image and sound) from multiple angles. I’m guessing I’ll need to setup multiple cameras in different locations. And if I’m going to be doing this alone, I won’t be able to capture the same incident from every angle exactly to my liking. Hmmmm……is there any way around this? Can editing help?? And speaking of that, what softwares would I need to learn and what processing hardware would I need? I have a decent enough laptop, but even I dont think it’ll be powerful enough to process high quality footage efficiently. What kind of specs in a laptop/PC should I seek for the kind of work I’m looking to do?
I eagerly await your feedback on all of the above, and any further insights you might have.
Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
-
3 Replies
-
I highly suggest that if you have not done this before…that you find a job somewhere that does, to learn how it’s done. A sports production company…become a production assistant, anything…to see how things are done. Now, just because I suggest this, doesn’t mean it’s the only answer, but it will be one of the best ways to figure this out. Having no idea what you are doing, and dropping thousands of dollars on equipment with no guaranteed market out there to buy your end product…that’s a very risky venture, to say the least.
But yes, besides the camera, that will run you a few thousand (unless you get a consumer camcorder)…you’ll need a computer, and then the software to edit, and then a hard drive or few to store all this footage. And multiple cameras with only one person? Means you can’t follow the action on the other cameras. And then you need to know how to link up all those cameras and edit multicamera projects.
It’d be like me trying to open a restaurant because I dabbled in cooking. I have NO IDEA what is needed to bring in customers, how much food to order to have on hand, but not too much as to spoil. Need to hire a wait staff, buy cookware, table ware…TONS of small details. It would be wise for me to get a job in a restaurant first…waiter…sous chef. PREP chef…even dishwasher and work my way up. See how it’s done so I have some idea on what is required.
Trying not to be discouraging, but trying to be realistic. This is fun, and it can be profitable…but know that it will require a lot of financial investment, and there are lots of technical aspects of this type of production that requires experience to deal with.
Camera operation…editing…even drone flying…those are often separate jobs/careers. Specialist. But I know for lower end sports like high school, or local club levels don’t need that always. I’ve cut a highlight reel for a single player from footage shot by the coach and her father over the course of a season of play (football…soccer for us Americans). It was a challenge as the camera was hand held…in the hands of someone not trained to use a camera. So it was tricky.
There are many things that are needed to be learned before you jump in with mulitiple cameras Try one camera and just follow the ball…see if you can make a highlight with that and see if you can drum up interest in having people buy it…see if there is a market to justify the money you will dump into this. You need to make enough to get by, at least.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
WHAT SHANE SAID.
Times 100.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Many can be ready to do this after ten years or so in the business. Took me 15.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up