Tips for becoming a full time videographer?

[Jim Brodie]

Ned, that is wise advice that every young filmmaker should listen too.

The other ridiculous term I’ve heard is “sweat equity”…you lower your standard rates with the promise you’ll be called again.
Well, for this particular client he called again, but each time it was to do the same for less.

A project that started out 10 years ago for $50K is now “what can you do for $10K?” And so I go from doing five or six humorous sketches with scores of actors and a decent crew to myself and an assistant rigging GoPros in a car to simulate that Jerry Seinfeld thing. “Project creep” is another irritation where you’re asked to just add another one or two minutes or scenarios for the flat project rate you agreed upon eventhough you spend an extra 30% of your time in post. Your grievance falls on deaf ears: “Oh, but think of it as sweat equity.”

I agree that for a young person to survive or better still thrive you need to research the best people out there, mentor or apprentice with them for nominal rates to build your skill.

The worst thing is to work alone. You’ll end up doing everything yourself and at one point loathing the whole enterprise. Find a core group of people where you can compliment one another’s strengths and grow from there. It’s also a lot more fun.

Ned mentioned that the best opportunity to earn a livable income is to produce. I highly agree. Find a niche and become the best in that niche. If it dries up you’ll need to reinvent or tweak or develop another niche.

I have a friend who has made a good living producing humorous tribute videos for wealthy clients… a very narrow niche. He has evolved from personal tribute videos that involved shooting on three continents to corporate biographies and vision videos. His base work has remained the same but he has continued to branch out into other areas. No one would have thought there was a living to be made in this area, but he did.

His key strength was a background in journalism, an excellent sense of humour and a gregarious nature that attracted clients. He hired crew, editors and other production personnel. He was loyal to his freelancers.

I like the the term: “big ideas and big execution.” Think big, its your life that you are building, make sure the foundation is strong and durable and not built on sand. Specialize in your area of passion but keep the vision of your life big.

All the Best,

Jim

[Ned Miller]

Hey Jim,

Your friend who did the tribute videos, I think a lot of his success is the credibility of having been in journalism. He must have great shmoozing skills like this ex-Chicago news anchor who gets $80K for a video:

https://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-05-18/features/0805140416_1_family-history-wavering-heirloom

A very experienced producer/editor friend of mine, in his late 60’s, landed one of these tribute videos for a billionaire patriarch lately and the cheap bastard wouldn’t pick up lunch or parking! So I don’t know what the factors of success are. If I did I suppose I would be rich but I think it comes down to innate sales skills, charisma. Either you have it or you don’t. I know I don’t. I’m good at what I do but can’t catch a break in terms of selling up at that level.

And Mark’s advice shows he’s a real optimist! As for advice to young people to make their own way, to sell execs on the use of video: Not in the end of the pool I’m in. If I can’t get decision makers to respond to emails, direct mail or voice mails, how can a kid right out of college? And the idea of networking at Chamber of Commerce meetings? I’ve been doing that on and off for 30 years, you just run into insurance agents, chiropractors, financial planners and such. Small service types.

Last week I went to a networking meeting at a former client, the subject was to show how they now have two interns to do their videos internally. They demonstrated to the audience of comm execs of non-profits how to use the 60D, iPhone and Go Pro plus do the editing on iMovie and online edit platforms. This is a major corporation! So I lost a client and the two 22 year olds are making no money. Who wins?

I wouldn’t want my kids to be in the biz now. It’s a fun thing to do but now you can’t make a real living at it. You just jerk from check to check. There’s plenty of demand for video but for the young folks it’s cheap budgets and the buyers for video services expect the quotes to be low. I’m fortunate in that I am well known in various niches so I get work from staring at the phone, but the young people now entering the biz, especially ones delusional enough to just want to do camera work, they won’t make real money. I work with a lot of them and they are busy but there’s a great gulf between being busy and being profitable.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Andy Jackson]

Hi Ned.

I feel your pain.

This is the reason I got out of the business.
Reading the following threads will be an eye opener.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/17/876369

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/12/857674#858248

Also mentions in the threads that Mark Suszko does video part time with a full time paying job.

Hope this info helps. Looks like you have also answered in one of these threads previously too.

The business in my opinion is doomed!!

[Mark Suszko]

Um, Andy, minor correction to your post: I work full-time in video production, celebrating about 33 years of making money at this game, and my thirtieth year at the same place, in 2016, and while eligible for a decent retirement package at that point, I continue to tell everyone in the shop I’m only leaving one of two ways: in handcuffs, or on a gurney. I write, produce, direct, shoot, edit, and change the cakes in the men’s room once a month. I do it all. before I landed this cushy gig, I was the prototypical scrappy young college grad full of attitude and book-learning, and I did a bunch of freelance work, then started a production company, which failed, and I freelanced some more, and I got my current gig, but I still opened a prompter rental company on the side and did weddings on the weekends to build up a nest egg for my growing family. Thanks to my freelance work and the great variety of assignments my “day job” gives me, I have a very wide range of experience across the many disciplines in our business. While I can’t claim to be expert in all of them, I know enough to be dangerous (or at least sometimes useful) in many of them. And every day I read up about what others know here, to learn more.

You might have confused my full-time video production job with the additional work I do freelance on the side these days, mostly as a writer. Need a good script, fast? Need an “explainer”? Need good ad or PSA copy that’s producible on a budget? I’m your guy.

Andy, I’m beginning to think you’re just happier being unhappy. People give you advice …good advice, from respected people… and you continually swat it away. There’s always an excuse why it doesn’t apply to you. You’ve been threatening to quit the business for years now. And yet, here we are. Again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3nh0MvCqSI

On behalf of the video industry, I formally accept your resignation. There, now; don’t you feel better? Now you’re free to try something new and different, maybe something that’s a better fit for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0

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[Ned Miller]

Andy,

I would say there is a point in one’s late twenties/early thirties that if you aren’t “making it” financially in your chosen field you need to reassess. I know, I have two kids in that age range. I can only speak from my perspective of being a freelance DP (also produce), Chicago based, specializing in Corporate, Documentaries and Nonfiction TV Shows, so I can not give advice for LA or NYC, features, doing post skills, doing weddings, union crewing, etc. those perspectives would be different. From my place in the video food chain you’d have to have a hole in your head to try to start a career as freelance video DP now, unless you come from or married into a wealthy family. Freelancing is incredibly Darwinian and the best and strongest do not necessarily survive.

We have addressed ad nauseam as to why the rates are now so low and freelancer survival rates into one’s early thirties are minimal unless you have an esoteric, highly paid niche skill. The recession before the latest one I saw many people in the biz get flushed out but they resurrected themselves like phoenixes in the mortgage business and had a few great years making $100K+ a year before the next crash. You have to find a way to make decent money and it may not be in the video biz. I run ads several times a year on Craigslist for PAs, Lite Grips, DPs when I run out of my usual crew members. I have noticed in the last couple of years that the responses I get when I call or email the respondents are more often “got out of the industry” rather then as in the past: “went to LA”, “took a staff job at a production company”. So you are not alone and I can understand you feeling bitter.

This week I was on a 5 cameramen crew and I was the roving, handheld, “go find cool angles” shooter. I’m 62 (but in great shape) and the others were in the 25-30 range. When we discussed their rates I knew that they couldn’t make it in the near long run, especially now that we’re entering a new phase where gear and glass (4K and beyond) is about to get much more expensive. If they must rent they’ll make even less. And with their lower rates they will have to average more days per week, but that won’t happen with today’s glut of shooters.

So don’t be glum. Figure out what today’s version of a 2006 mortgage salesman is. Read the biz trade like Forbes, Smart Money, etc. to figure out what the next best growing biz is that PAYS WELL. What industry is really happening. Yes there’s a lot of video camera work out there but trying to make a sustainable revenue stream at it I think is impossible for young entrants into the field today.

Good luck!

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com