[Aaron Cadieux]

It’s almost impossible to get a real answer to that on the cow. You’re not going to get a lot of hard number answers from many people. Lots of people adjust their rates depending on how much they think the client will go for. For a guy like me, producing work on a local level, I charge by the hour. My hourly rate (depending on the complexity of the shoot) usually runs between 75 to 100 an hour. On an edit (depending on the complexity of the edit) I charge between 100 – 500 dollars per finished minue of edited video. I’ve been told my rates are too low, but I have little overhead. I’m also usually not producing work on a national level. I’d say my freelance work is on the higher end of local productions. I hope this helps.

-Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

And yes, I realize there are spelling mistakes in my prior post. “Haveing” being the most obvious one.

[Aaron Cadieux]

Hey everyone,

Just some clarification here. And this may help others who are considering sports videography as a venture. I have been filming football for over 10 years and, not to brag, consider myself a good game videographer. A lot of people are asking me how I can use the same game footage for other players if I’m “focusing”, or “isolating” on the client’s son. Football game films should always be shot at a wide angle to capture all of the action. This should be the rule whether you’re shooting an entire team, or shooting an idividual play. I make sure the kid I am shooting is always visible in the shot, but I am careful not to zoom in tight on him. Zooming in tight creates multiple problems. College recruiters want to see how the player is reacting to what’s going on around him. In this player’s case, he is a slot receiver. Coaches want to see how he is reacting to what the quarterback is doing. They also want to see how he blocks for other players who are carrying the ball. If I zoom in on a slot receiver, I have no way of knowing the route he is about to run. I could be thinking he is going to run a 15 yard out, and then he ends up running a 15 yard in, and I could miss the shot entirely. To get around the issue of haveing “no isolated shot”, I shoot the games in HD, and edit them in SD. This allows me to show the play once from a wide angle in properly downcoverted SD, and again in a replay that isolates on the player in question (for this I use the HD footage in an SD timeline that automatically is “zoomed” in upon importing it into the timeline). For now that works, because there aren’t any recruiters (that I’ve come across) that are looking for Blu Ray discs. Recruiters are currently taking DVDs, or watching the videos online (usually YouTube). Obviously, the videos would work as HD online, but the results of properly encoded SD video on YouTube still look good.

Best,

Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Just to clarify one other thing. In the edited reel, a play is usually shown from the wide angle fist, as it was shot. I usually put a red arrow on the screen before the ball is snapped to show the player’s location. After the play is shown, I will “replay” it from the closer vantage point using the HD clip in the SD timeline.

[Aaron Cadieux]

Bill,

Thanks for your input. Maybe I should explain my workflow and how recruiting reels work for colleges. I shoot the games in HD and deliver them in SD. That way I can import HD footage into an SD timeline and isolate on specific players during specific plays. Having the wide shot available is important to college recruiters. Recruiters have no use for a super-zooomed-in shot. They need to see how a player reacts to what is going on around them, especially in football. For example, if an offensive lineman has a specific blocking assignment during a play, the recruiter needs to see the play develop from a wide angle to really know whether or not that player is doing an acceptable job. In this case, I was filming to cover a slot receiver. If I zoom in close from a birds-eye view on a slot receiver, it is very difficult to follow what they’re doing. I have no heads-up on the route that they’re running, and could very easily lose track of them once the ball is snapped. Staying wide ensures I won’t miss anything. Like I said, I bring the HD footage into an SD timeline, which allows me to isolate closer on things in post production.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Mark,

Thanks for your help. I think the cop with the dark complexion looking better had more to do with my f-stop and less to do with his skin color. I opened the iris to get a brighter exposer on his face, which in turn slightly increased the exposure of the entire image (including the BG). I think that extra exposure made keying his footage a little easier. But I will definately check out that tutorial. Thanks again.

-Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

By the way. The blue background is temporary.

[Aaron Cadieux]

Hey Guys,

Here is an update to my own post. I tinkered all morning with different settings and different ideas to get this key to look halfway respectable.

Here is a link to a quick shot of a test result.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsEMx5lwyv8

What I ended up doing was a long drawn-out process. I ended up splitting the video keying each officer separately. Oddly enough, the officer on the left was keyed using the “Chromakey” effect in Premiere CS3. For some reason, that gave me the best results for that officer. The officer on the right did not respond as well to the “Chromakey” effect. The officer on the right was exported from Premiere as a Quicktime file with an alpha channel. I brought it into AE and applied multiple “Color Range” effects until all of the green was gone. I finished him off with a “spill supressor” effect to drown-out any leftover green. I will end up needing to apply some spill supression to the officer on the left as well.

So these were the best results I’ve gotten so far.

-Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Mike,

I simply said “attached you will find blah blah blah . . . Please fill it out, scan and re-attach”. It was very professional, polite and matter-of-fact.

It makes me nervous that they are so opposed to the contract. To me, that’s basically their way of saying “yeah, we’ll never be able to pay you in the time you require”.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Michael,

I didn’t think I was being unreasonable. I was just making sure that this wasn’t an unheard of practice. Thanks for your response.

-Aaron