[Ned Miller]

I am primarily a freelance DP and have about 5-8 clients who I would categorize as editors who became producers. Several of them invested a good sum into shooting gear, figuring they could learn it and keep that aspect “in house”, but after awhile they gave up and now hire me. What I think happens is if you do not learn under someone knowledgable, where you can observe and ask questions, and shoot quite regularly, you will not become competent at shooting. Also, buying the camera, support, lights and audio is just the start. There’s a world of doo-dads you need besides, so the production aspect becomes a deep money pit.

I think you’d be better off having a stable of several local shooters who can satisfy various budget ranges and styles, and use them for the shooting portion of the project. You will never get as good as they are so why not let them sink their funds into gear?

Also remember “Cash is King”, don’t go into debt for assets that instantly depreciate. If you want to hang your shingle out as a micro prod co you should put every spare cent into landing new clients, such as a killer website, Google Ad, SEO, etc. Camera hardware becomes outdated quickly and your results won’t compare to a pro anyway. Recognize your core skill as post and branch out by networking and selling. But beware, the local producers who need editing services and learn you are producing won’t want to bring their post work to you. I know, I wouldn’t bring an edit job to a potential competitor. Editors are in close communication with one’s client and I wouldn’t trust that.

That’s my two cents.

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

[Ned Miller]

Amanda,

I speed read cover letters/emails looking for bullet points of skills that I would find useable for my productions. If I see a lot of copy then I have to search for your benefits, so definitely get to the point with bullets. Such as:

• Detailed note taker.
• Download and manage media on location.
• Strong editor with Premier and FCPX.
• Basic make up & hair skills.
• Own large SUV for prop transport.
• Experienced with craft services that keep the crew happy.
• Can operate teleprompter.

etc., etc.

Remember this cruel fact of after college adulthood: No one cares about you. The recipient only cares what you can do for them, their operation, in terms of saving them money, making them look good, impressing the client, being efficient, etc. So in sum, keep all the details about you such as GPA, charity work, etc. to a minimum and laden the cover letter and resume with benefits to them.

Everything else is filler. Keep the paragraphs short. This is not your average industry, it’s creative, so be creative with your pitching materials.

I personally use only freelancers so if a cover letter implies that the person is looking for a staff job I immediately throw it out. Shot themselves in the foot.

If you have a friendly phone persona I would suggest using it to your advantage. Often people like yourself will be hired to do a lot of phone work so if the recipient realizes you have a great business phone persona that is a feather in your cap that a paper resume can’t get across. Tailor your cover letter specifically to the industry it is addressed to, so if it’s sports related the recipient should learn that you live and breathe SPORTS, even if it’s an exaggeration. Be extremely careful with grammar, spelling and punctuation in your follow up emails. I look at young people’s incoming emails to me and ask myself if I want to have them communicating with my clients.

Lastly, now that you are about to leave academia create a more professional email address with your name in it, separate from your personal/friends email address. Have a real signature in your emails with your cell phone listed so it’s easier to call you. Make a very professional, mature sounding OGM. Definitely enclose a business card, even if it’s just your name and phone and says Video Production because most people will pitch your paper work yet keep your bc in a pile on their desk. I know that’s what I do.

Good luck,

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

[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

[Ned Miller]

Rich, how do you get such great SEO?

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

[Ned Miller]

Since you have a staff job and “supplement” your income with the side video business of Vintage, you may not have noticed and felt the disruption of our biz since The Crash. You wrote:

“For the most part, our business has been from word of mouth”

I am a producer and freelance DP. We all love referrals because they are effortless and free, however, there is an incredible amount of new, cheap competition that has entered our biz so your prospects are now inundated with video vendors, some willing to work for free or peanuts, some as a hobby, many are DIY. Unlike 20 years ago ALL companies now have “someone who does IT” and these guys are tech savvy enough to figure out how to “run camera”. At my local chamber of commerce there’s a not half bad producer who will do any member’s video for $350! I get requests from clients asking how to get good audio into their iPads so they can do it in-house. It’s now quite common for prospects to ask about my “hourly rate”.

My success rate for winning cost estimates has plummeted in the last few years and when I inquire as to why they went with someone else, the answer 90% of the time is cost. There is a new paradigm of “good enough”. You wrote that you are “not cheap”, well good luck, that’s what the market has decided: Video is Cheap.

As to drumming up your own projects by pitching ideas, I and partners have done a ton of that over the years and it’s a gamble, takes a lot of lead time. You have to have an inside pipeline to the decision makers which now is nearly impossible. If you do independent video services full time there’s only so many hours of the day you can market “ideas” and pitches to them but you need to find Real Paying Clients Who Are Not Cheap. That’s like finding hens’ teeth. Much easier said then done. So selling prospects on ideas is not a sure thing and an easy way to slowly go broke.

If you want to pump up Vintage nowadays you have to spend money on marketing: SEO services, Google Ads, a website optimized for mobile, ads on directories, direct mail pieces, blast emails, the humiliation of bidding on posts at crowd sourcing sites, be active on Linked In and learn how to use its Advance Search function, do person-to-person networking. It’s a constant hustle, no more sitting back and getting “word of mouth” clients. It’s now a new world of marketing for us video vendors and I have seen a decline in folks like yourself who keep a toe in the water with a side biz, perhaps for the tax write offs. We are all now competing against 25 year olds with a $3K camera and Premiere, who have zero expenses and can do a “not half bad” marketing video for $1500, which ten years ago would have been $6-$8K easily. In fact, $1500 now seems to be a magical number: One day (solo) shoot and one day edit = $1500. Anything under four minutes they don’t want to spend more than that. My guess is that’s an easy number to get department approval for a video spend? I get a lot of calls and emails for a video for $1500 now. Yet it may be a two day shoot, some crew members, a pro narrator and some graphics/animation, but they were told to find a video producer to “do a video for $1500.” And then they have the audacity to ask if I throw in a drone. Plus they all expect two cameras now for the interviews. So obviously a freelance pro can’t do it for $1500 but thanks to the crowd sourcing sites they will definitely find someone “good enough”.

But I don’t want to leave you depressed so here’s my advice: Go only after B2B clients. Go only after execs with the keyword of Marketing in their title (that’s the dept with the $!). Go only after industries that spend money on marketing like crazy (sports, pharma, financial services, etc.) Read the local business press to find out what specific local companies are growing. Go after prospects who definitely need QUALITY videos and would shoot themselves in the foot with homemade, cheap, videos such as medical device manufacturers who must create an aura of quality in their videos. Go after prospects who seem to need a steady diet of video rather than One Offs. Whatever you do, don’t deal with the public or small, one man band entrepreneurs who are spending from their own wallet. Markets that used to pay well (realtors, lawyers, website videos) have gone incredibly cheap.

In sum, that’s what I do, the northern suburbs of Chicago are full of pharma and health care related companies that want high quality videos, so on a slow day that’s who I hit up, but just the marketing execs. Everything else is filler and getting cheaper and cheaper. I look for larger start ups (in the biz press) that are well funded because that means they’re throwing money into marketing, which means videos. And don’t forget hitting up marketing (not advertising) agencies since some companies won’t hire us direct, they have a contract with an agency.

Last year a little before Christmas I got a call from a very large Fortune 100’s marketing department and they wanted to know how much I would charge for 10 two minute, new hire vignette documentaries for college recruitment and if I could quickly submit that in writing and they would cut a PO. Sure I will! What I found out after New Years was that they had to spend down all their FY marketing budget or they would not get approved for their new year budget. My point is: target the marketing folks.

Well, I will practice what I preach until noon then it’s off to the dog park. Good luck.

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

[Ned Miller]

Thanks Mark. The client prefers one long video because this is for Continuing Legal Education credits so she feels the viewer will bookmark, watch a little, and return several times. Also, I suggested doing 8 videos and wanted more money but when she didn’t offer any, then fine, one long video. I had no idea there would be this many PP slides!

What settings should I use for FCP7 export knowing it is for the web only? Although I shot in 1080 I set up the sequence for 720 and can tell it’s not as crisp looking. Is it possible in 7 for me to change my sequence settings to 1080 without re-rendering 3.5 hours?

I have a powerful 27″ iMac with Thunderbolt 1TB drive.

Thanks,

Ned

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

[Ned Miller]

Thanks for the advice on nitrate. I will let you know how it goes.

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

[Ned Miller]

Thanks Mark. I am trying that now.

But I thought it would be the best quality if it was exported out of FCP 7 rather than using a converter, right? What settings would you suggest?

I just did a conversion and it made a great looking MP4 but it is a whopping 8GB! I had used the data rate setting of 70.12mbps.

Any idea as to how to get this down to a workable size yet still look great?

Thanks,

Ned

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

[Ned Miller]

I now remember why I use direct mail! It’s been a few months since I’ve been slow and this week I have nothing to do. So after alphabetizing my spice rack and rearranging my sock drawer I decided I better do some marketing.

I have various tricks to collect exec names with certain titles that ignite my Pavlovian response and I know if I contact them, and then they have a need for a video and the desire for a new vendor, WHAM! I’m in.

However, after spending the last couple of hours hunting down their emails, which everyone hides, I now remember that my direct mail piece was the only way to reach them, even though it’s expensive. I don’t leave voice mail anymore. So in sum, I will update my brochure and mail them to the execs who seem like great targets yet I can’t dig up their email address. It’s easy to get their brick and mortar address and I have often experienced them passing the brochure around. So I will soon order a run.

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

[Ned Miller]

Yes, shoot days are a wild card as is size of crew. I assume these are solo crews? Yet their examples are high end, in no way are they one-man-bands.

In sum, I feel this is just a way to capture the curious prospect’s contact info for a follow up and upsell. I’ve seen it on sites for insurance salesmen, CFP’s, etc. It’s a teaser.

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