” Worth It Anymore”??

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah it’s tough- really depends on the market, etc. And also finding clients that value a specific level of service over bottom-line pricing. Competing with a kid with a DSLR and a MacBook will put ya right out of business.

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero.

[Mark Suszko]

[Noah Kadner] “Competing with a kid with a DSLR and a MacBook will put ya right out of business”

So don’t. You can’t afford to compete with that. The “answer” is to work harder to find the clients that will pay you what your work is worth. They could be in other fields, in more specialized niches. You have to concentrate on the things you do, that the college kid can’t do. You can’t compete in an arena where the work is commoditized and price is the only consideration. They call that a “race to the bottom”. You have to find high-margin work, and it may involve acquiring new or additional skill sets to enable you to play in that arena. When you can’t find the job you want, you may have to first create it. No, it isn’t easy, it is simple to say stuff like this, and much harder to DO it, and I don’t for a second envy your situation. Most of us would much rather work at our craft than take time away from it to be salesmen and marketers. But without patrons, you die a starving artist. The alternative is to quit the biz and go into something else with higher margins and more opportunity, for less stress.

[Andy Jackson]

If it does not pick up by the end of the year I may just do that.

Long time since I`ve had a guaranteed monthly paycheck.

Could do any brain dead job for the minimum wage and get some tax credits on top. Could earn around 250 week.
Better still become a binman 350 week.

Will probably earn more than I`ve done over the past 2 years.

It seems that creatives are in the worst paid jobs at the moment and no one values it.

When i get a call for a job (probably about 1 every 3 months) and thats with marketing in all types of sectors their first question is “how much will it cost” not can i see your work.

Most companies now want videos done in-house on the cheap by a geek employee who likes to play around in his spare time. Does not matter if its professionaly put together, all they want is the message to get across and then posted on their site or crappy youtube.

They will buy a cheap 150 camcorder and use some free editing software of the web or better still purchase the FCP 10 software if their mac based now for 190 pounds.
Apple have reduced their software prices as have Avid.
This either proves they are struggling or the market is oversaturated with so called video experts who now have the market monopoly on the prices they will pay.

More people are starting their one man band video companies.
Clients are now playing one against the other because they know there is so many of us in the business to get the best deal.
Ever video guy wants the business so they will bid the lowest rate and so on.
I hear the sentence alot that not all video producers will play the lowest bid game but in reality they do…I know!

Have you checked the site “people per hour”– This will prove my point.

Funny enough i lost a job today due to a school wanting to film their show (which was booked 5 months ago)but at the last minute copyright issues from the writers put a stop to it. Made 150 deposit but also lost 1000.00 in orders. Its disheartning.

—–
In this business you can never plan your future.
You never know what or when work is coming in.
Most jobs are one offs then you have to look again for more work.
Never any solid guaranteed contracts.
No guarnteed salary…. Shall I go on?
—–

Most video guys I know now do the business part time and get a proper job to pay the bills.

I think i will be doing the same.

[Noah Kadner]

Learn iOS programming- those folks are making a killing. https://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/whats-new.html

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero.

[Andy Jackson]

Taken me years to learn what i know now.

Might take the easy option and do a no brainer.. Give me a rest with less stress.

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah well a lot of guys were great at 3/4″ cutting and shooting Betacam too. Those that didn’t adapt went out of business or into another.

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero.

[Andy Jackson]

I was one of those brave ones.

Went from umaticsp and betacamsp to digital. Had to go with the times and never looked back.

Problem now is anyone can afford the gear even at hobby level.

And that causes problems for all video professionals

[Mark Suszko]

Are you doing this because you love it, or just for a paycheck? For the level of commitment involved, if you don’t love what you’re doing, you really should change careers. You wanna put food on the table, bin man as you call it is not a degrading job and pays steady. All work, any work, is noble. The current market calls on you to step up your game, or get out. Either way to go is valid, nobody can judge you for the path… as long as you pick a path.

I have read where the kids of todays’ generation can look forward to six or more separate, unrelated careers in their lives… not six odd jobs, mind you, but six complete CAREERS, where you come in at entry level, and move up to management level. In my youth a resume’ or CV with a lot of different jobs on it, all with durations of less than five years each, was considered “damaged goods” and a thing to hide. Today, it’s not only typical of applicants but perhaps expected, as it shows drive and ambition to advance, (in a world where there is no more “social contract” between worker and employer) Complete with re-training and additional education to distinguish yourself in each of those careers.

In my dad’s day, you found a place with one firm, pretty much for life, until pension age. I’m on my 24th or so year on this current job, and I would find it difficult indeed to jump back into today’s job pool, or live like a freelancer, not because I can’t do stuff, but because that constant churn, uncertainty, and needing to be on the hunt for the next gig is an alien way of life to me, I like some stability, and I need to give it to the family I support. The family, however, doesn’t really care directly about what I do to support them. It’s cool that dad works in TV, but it’s cooler that dad brings home a check every two weeks.

If I couldn’t at least match my current salary doing video someplace else, I would look into something completely different from video, just to put bread on the family table, long as it paid well enough. Then I’d still have video on the side in some capacity as something I do that activates my creative muse and makes me happy and self-actualized. I wouldn’t want to grow to hate it or feel jealousy towards it for no longer being able to sustain me financially. If I hate my job, I do it badly. If I love it, I excel.

My teenaged son is having a hard time finding work of any sort, particularly doing things he feels most comfortable doing… which narrows his range quite a bit. What I tell him is that taking a step in any random direction, good or bad, particulalrly at his young age without responsibilities, is better than just standing in one spot, hoping something will change for the better. This goes for jobs as well as relationships. If you don’t like where you are, and don’t know which direction to go, take a random step in any direction, and at least you will have your life back in motion, and a perspective you didn’t have before. You already know where the spot you’re standing still in now, leads you. Take a brave little step into something else. Nobody can fault you for trying. Only for doing nothing but standing there, bitching about it all. The kid with the camcorder that is killing your business took a step: he acquired the tools and is learning something new (to him). You are on a different place in that continuum from the kid, but like him, you should be trying new things, until you hit on something that works and makes you happy.

[Andy Jackson]

Thanks for your input but you note you have been working for a company for 24 years and you would never go freelance as you enjoy having the guaranteed paycheck.

Its easy for someone like yourself come up with the suggestions you have in the situation you are in.

Im 41 and probably around the same age as yourself so some of your advise has gone out of the window.. sorry if it sound rude but im not looking for a life coach.

I enjoy what i do and it has been my full time career.
All i was asking is if anyone else feels the same as me who are self employed and probably going through the same difficulties

[Andrew Rendell]

I don’t even attempt to compete with the one man band doing stuff on the cheap. I’ve always enjoyed the teamwork/collaboration aspect of the job and the fact that I’m always learning. I compete on the quality of what I do rather than the price, so although there is an aspect of devising ways to do things more cheaply, any cost savings will be in the way the job is organised, not through lowering my fee.

I had a few quiet months in the first half of 2010 (then it picked up last July and I’ve been reasonably busy since then), but really the only time I got depressed about work was on a job a couple of years ago where there were two co-producers (a USA broadcaster and a UK broadcaster) and a load of internal politics and I wasn’t allowed to really contribute – I basically spent the thick end of two months sitting in an edit suite pressing buttons, doing what I was told to do, and I got frustrated over having some excellent footage sitting there but not being allowed to do anything decent with it!