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Marketing Tips for new HVX200 business in Monterey CA
Any tips to help sell or promote my business using HVX200 & HD possibilitys, in addition getting people to understand a more expensive rate?
Hope this make sense. and hope this was the right place to post this add.
Thanks in advance.
Alex
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10 Replies
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Alex…
As Asimov said in “Foundations”, you have to “create a need.”
Make them want it, for whatever reasons (usually aesthetic).
For my own work, there are a couple of reasons to shoot in HD. One is the ability to create clean green screen composites. Very useful in commercial production which is something we’re just starting to do.
For a television show, it future-proofs episodes and makes it possible to rebroadcast them far down the road when HD becomes more widespread.
HD also has the potential of making a show much more marketable. There’s a shortage of good HD content, and being able to fill that demand is a good financial incentive to produce in HD.
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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Thanaks for the reply Dean.
Iv Produced (filmed & edited) one complete 30 min infomercial for a local morgage business and many many 30 sec commercials for local. however everybody seems to be on a budget in my area if you know what i mean. it was hard for me to justify the cost x work.. but i was looking to be first in the area which i know i am with in 45 minutes of anybody that shoots HD.. Well HDV Dont im not counting. .. Im really looking forward on putting together a good reel of HD to help sell my self to more high end clients.
But have you found it hard to give your clents a hd look in sd format?Iv done one Green screen project check the link. https://magoneproductions.com/video/commercials/gold_star/finalgoldstar_eng.mov (mind my web site as a designer is working to make it all nice..)
Oh yeah I Film all my work on a pd 170 -
[Mag One] “But have you found it hard to give your clents a hd look in sd format?”
It’s not so much the HD look as it is incorporating HD into the workflow to solve some issues such as green screen work. I’ve only done a couple of tests so far, and we just started getting into doing commercial productions. So as far as selling the look is concerned, we haven’t had any issues yet.
For us it’s not a problem convincing a client to do something in HD. We’re planning to make it an integral part of the process rather than an option. Sort of like shooting a commercial spot on film for a particular look or for the options that workflow might provide. So in our case the client doesn’t have an option when it comes to originating the material in SD or HD.
However, for other jobs HD has actually made it possible for me to pick up an assignment or two. Someone I’ve known for years recently hired me to do some pickup work for a couple of documentaries she’s helping to produce. If I weren’t shooting in HD I wouldn’t have gotten those jobs as the projects are being shot in HD — specifically Varicam and in the P2 formats.
And we’re all learning a lot about this along the way. The documentary producer in DC discovered that the P2 Store has some serious file transfer speed issues if it’s being copied from the P2 Store into the Mac. He reported that it took approximately an hour per gigabyte to move files into his Mac-based edit system. Others who had PC-based edit systems reported normal transfer speeds.
For my own setup, I’m shooting to a Firestore for long-form work. When it comes to doing work in-studio I’m going to shoot on a P2 card and use Firewire to transfer from the camera into a Mac Book Pro.
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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Why do you think a camera that cost a fraction of a high end SD camera demands a higher rate? I’m not trying to
be rude here, but one of the things that determines a rate is the cost of amortizing equipment costs. Ten years ago
a high-end Beta-SP camera could cost $60,000+, so the owner/shooter had to amortize that cost plus the expensive deck.
Why should a client pay a “higher rate” for a $5-6,000 camera because it *says* HD (it’s still a 1/3″ chip camera)? A Varicam or HDCam owner has a lot
more invested in his or her equipment, shouldn’t *they* be the ones getting the higher rate? Just curious.
Ed[mag One] “Any tips to help sell or promote my business using HVX200 & HD possibilitys, in addition getting people to understand a more expensive rate?”
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No rudeness taken just good words..
Reason for thought on higher rates would be for this in mind for 1..
Filming on HVX200 to p2 to HD has a demand for more harddrive space and for storing a clients project to i just eat the cost of extra raid drives?. Dual layer DVD and blue ray are more expensive so why should i keep my rate the same for a start to finish HD say Doc or for a work out video for exsample. if that was the case.
i have a dvcam and Beta sp deck not a true DVCpro HD deck so if they ask for a hd tape should i suck it up and buy one then still charge the same low rate??
I do agree it will be a very very long time befor someone wants a true start to finish Hd Production however these
are Just a few thoughts in response.
Alex -
Those extra costs seem like givens. For example, when I shoot, the client pays my day rate plus
tape costs (with a markup). The same should be the case for BlueRay, hard drives for archive, and
deck rentals. A good production company has an expensive camera and expensive decks. Their
day rate reflects their local market for their services. My local market says I get a day rate of $1,050
a day for me and my camera, an additional $400 a day for my sound person, and more for additional
crew. We use a $30,000 camera (I wish it was still worth that) and a $17,000 deck (ditto on current value).
If I bought a $6,000 camera should I still get $1,050 locally, and still charge for deck rental etc. when someone
down the street will shoot with their *real* HD camera (2/3″ chip Varicam for example) for that same day rate,
which will include an HD tape?
It all comes down to what the market is willing to pay.
Ed -
I have to agree with the others. I don’t see quite enough talent (based on your used car spot) to get too excited about charging a bunch for your work. Keep working on your skills. Maybe find a mentor to teach you more about lighting and such. Call Steve at Mac and Ava Motion Pictures in Monterey and volunteer to be a PA for them. He can teach you a ton if you are willing to sit down and just be a sponge. People will pay more IF you are more skilled, no matter what camera you shoot with. Trust me on this one … Keep practicing and working hard like many of the folks here on the COW have, and in time, you’ll get really good and be able to charge more. Meantime, buy an HXV-200 or HDV camera as soon as you can and have fun!
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Where I am, rates are based on a cameraman’s or DP’s skill level. The equipment is a seperate charge.
It can also change based on the nature of the job. For example, a run-and-gun news-type shoot would be less than a commercial shoot where lighting and setup might be more critical for a demanding client.
Equipment fees are charged according to whatever their normal rental rates might be.
So a cameraman’s fee might be $600 a day, for a 10-hour day. Then you add on equipment: Camera (including tripod) for $400/day, audio system for $150/day. Now you have a cameraman with basic equipment for $1150/day.
If a format such as HD is in high demand, then that might skew the day rate a bit.
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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That’s kind of where we’re at as well. Our “day-rate” basic charge is an operator with a camera, basic light kit, and wireless lavs.
The type of job starts the sliding scale going. As for skill level determining the rate, it’s sort of self-regulating. If you tell someone
your rate is over $1,000, they had better find out how you justify it. 🙂
Ed[Dean Sensui] “Where I am, rates are based on a cameraman’s or DP’s skill level. The equipment is a seperate charge.”
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A producer once told me that a particular cameraman was charging a certain rate without his “package”.
I wrote back and said “that’s rather drastic. How’d he remove his ‘package’?”
🙂
The seperate cameraman/package pricing helps keep it flexible. If a client wants Betacam SP, MiniDV, additional lights, Glidecam, etc., it gets priced accordingly. Sort of like ordering ala carte at a restaurant.
As long as it doesn’t get to the restaurant equivalent of “you want fries with that?”
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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