[Ned Miller]

It depends….I am (mainly) a freelance videographer, 30+ years experience and have shot many a sports event, both amateur and pro, and also I hire many freelance shooters.

First off, the non-union industry runs on a ten hour day. This is a given. Presently I have several ads on Production Hub looking for shooters and the starting point is a 10 hour day. By the way, you should use Production Hub rather than CL. So the best way to phrase your ad would be $X for the first ten hours plus $X for the next two hours of OT. If you do not do that the pros will consider it a slave labor situation. To get great cooperation offer to pay at the end of the day, that’s common when shooting live events for out-of-town strangers, tell them to bring their invoice and have them fill out a W9 on site. When people know there is a check at the end of the day they are happy. Thirty years ago they would be paid in cash…

You did not mention the type of sporting event. Will the person need to be on their feet ALL DAY, following tight whoever has the ball or puck and racking focus constantly? I assume so since you said it’s 12 hours, that implies a tournament? That is extremely fatiguing so if I were you I would pay the main cameraman more, meaning an older, very experienced shooter who knows that particular model camera you are bringing. There would be a premium for that shooter and he or she would be the one you travel. You had said these shooters would be to supplement your team so I assume the more important camera positions will be your experienced pros?

As Walt had said, $500 is a good starting point because it’s about as low as a pro would go for a 10 hour day and if it’s a big city pro they would have to be hungry. Once you offer below that you are getting more of the recent college graduate crowd that are not trust worthy technically. In the Chicago area, a 10 hour day for someone who will arrive on time, has experience is $500-$650. If they bring their own tripod and camera most shooters will want $250 at least, a nice ENG package with a zoom lens with reach may be $400-$600, but everything is negotiable. An experienced shooter will want a specific amount for labor but will wheel and deal on the gear.

If people are going to be handed a camera they have never seen before you will need to get them there earlier and have your regular shooters run them through the basics, especially media management. I have found that people exaggerate their capabilities, sometimes outright lie, just to get the work. Perhaps send them days before a PDF explaining the camera so when they arrive they can hit the ground running.

When I post an ad on CL I can’t believe the desperation out there, people offering to work dirt cheap for experience. The problem with sports is that it is a live event, unforgiving if there’s a tech f up, unless you’re going for a “highlights” video thing. Other situations like concerts you can throw many, cheap, not very experienced shooters in the mix and still come out with something decent, but not sports, so you’re forced to give a decent rate to get shooters that won’t mess it up.

Caution: Do not give them coffee in the morning unless you also pass out Depends, since they can’t stop what they’re doing and hit the porta potty.

So in sum, I would offer $500 for 10 plus say $100-$150 “extra” for the OT, plus lunch and snackage, check at the end of the day, and free parking. Below that, based on my extensive experience hiring additonal shooters, you would be dealing with the “iffy” crowd, unless you luck out.

That’s my .02¢.

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

[Ned Miller]

Thanks Nick for the kudos! I’m blushing.

And Mark, I don’t know much about the Chicago union scene which all these TV series work within. Perhaps there’s lots of jobs but I have heard getting into the union isn’t so easy, and the Chicagoans get the scraps that the LA people don’t want. So perhaps there’s a lot of work in that area I am not familiar with since I hang out in the non-union, non-fiction TV show, corporate video and indie documentary scene, primarily in production. Our new governor is considering rolling back the movie company tax breaks so much of this may evaporate shortly.

BTW, I am vehemently anti-film biz union because when I first started and was working a lot as a film AC, they wouldn’t let me in. Only the sons and nephews were accepted. Females, minorities and the un-related were not allowed in. In fact, here in Chicago we have an expression: “We don’t want nobody that nobody sent.”

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

[Ned Miller]

I guess I should have titled the thread:

“What would you say if you gave a commencement address to film school grads WHO PLAN TO STAY IN CHICAGO?” LA, and to a lesser degree NYC, the odds of survival are greater. I counsel young folks, especially those that love the narrative format, to get out of Chicago asap before they fall in love, get car payments, sign a lease, put down an anchor. Then it’s too late. At that point one needs to make real money, steady money. The true beginning of adulthood.

As to business acumen, when I was coming up business courses, (just like proms, fraternities, etc.) weren’t cool and I wish I had taken some. But our biz is more about entrepreneurship since we are mainly independents, at least in my universe. Fortunately I am entrepreneurial through my genes: on my dad’s side no male had ever had “a job”, for as long as anyone knew they all had small service businesses. When I met my mentor who was 22 years older than me, he said something to me that I always tell the rookies: “Forget what you learned in school. We’re starting all over. Now here’s how you do it…”

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

[Ned Miller]

Some of you guys really see the glass half full, huh? I work cheek to jowl with the twenty-somethings in production (not post) and rates and prices are now so depressed they just can’t afford to go on into their thirties in the biz. Just reporting what I’ve been seeing, especially since The Crash, not theorizing.

A narrator I use for VO teaches at a local for profit broadcast school, the kind we denigrate, and a few years ago asked me to speak to his class about freelancing, finding work, managing clients, hassling to get your check, etc. I guess I scared them because afterwards he said next time please don’t hit them so hard, and I have not been asked back.

I think if someone has great computer skills there may be hope for them in our biz, perhaps in audio post, grading, animation, etc. and if the video biz won’t support them they can take their skill set to other fields. Geeks shall inherit the earth. The only other area I see a glimmer of hope is if a guy likes shooting, and his parents will buy him a package with basic lights and audio gear, and he has a vehicle large enough, then at least he has something to “offer”. Nowadays the parents can set their grad up for $8-12K and he’s “in business”.

One thing I try to hammer home to the young uns is that video is first and foremost a business, since after all, you’re using video to pay your rent, something they seem to overlook. Nowadays anyone who is Creative and Technical can make a great looking, effective video but the third leg of the stool is Business Acumen. When I got out of film school the only way to learn the biz was to be an apprentice in the true sense of the word, the Middle Ages sense of the word. I attached myself as a Man Friday to a highly successful DP and studio owner and he became my mentor and taught me the ropes. He taught me everything about running a film business including the two essentials: Getting Clients & Collecting Payment. These grads know nothing about how to run a business, even if it’s a business of one, such as myself.

In sum, these kids are just thrown into the frying pan of the real video world once they graduate, their professors didn’t teach them anything about the business aspect probably because they don’t know themselves. These kids were not forewarned that our biz is now intensely overcrowded, how the low cost of entry and ease of equipment use has made it extremely difficult to survive as a freelancer or find a staff gig because there’s an oversupply of newbies clamoring to be in it. If you do land a low paid staff job in your twenties there are ten people offering to do it for free. Those are the interns…

I would not want my 28 and 29 year old kids in this business now. They grew up on crews and worked quite a lot as my grips and PAs so if anyone might make it they could. Sure, they’d have fun in production, be able to brag at parties and on FB post their cool production stills. But survive? No way. At least not in the adult, middle class sense, past the ramen noodles phase which is where they are now in their late twenties. I’d probably have to dip into my savings to keep them afloat!

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

[Ned Miller]

Well, most gigs are not downtown, nowhere near mass transit. I’ve developed my crewing preferences based on experience, which can not be denied. Those who do not drive a lot are chronically late. Can’t argue with facts.

I have two kids in their late twenties in similar over saturated fields: Environmentalism and Adventure Travel, so I see them going through what the young folks in our biz are experiencing. Similar to video in that it is heavy on unpaid internships and volunteering, no money except for those who majored in engineering or science. Most others are still hungry in their late twenties. If you aren’t making it by then you need to reboot in something else.

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

[Ned Miller]

Hey Mark

This is off the commencement topic but I avoid crew who don’t have their OWN car. Many of our gigs are in the suburbs and if someone doesn’t drive Chicago a lot, they don’t know where the construction is, how rush hour, snow or rain will slow them down. Based on my many years of experience with people renting or borrowing cars they are invariably late. Even when I tell them to leave really early…

As to what you say about: “There’s money and fame to be made, still, and there is the potential for expansion and inclusion and invention and innovation as never before… ”

Where? How? Who? That’s too general to tell a grad. That sounds like a commencement address for a growing field like IT. The growth of video is like a hockey stick but income is way down. Us older types are more insulated since we have connections and relationships. These kids don’t.

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

[Ned Miller]

OK, here’s my last advice. One of my many subspecialties is litigation support, so over the years I’ve been inundated with non-relevant emails from medical animation EXHIBIT companies. That’s what they call themselves. So in your search for medical animation try putting the words “litigation support” in front of what you’ve been trying and you’ll see there’s a whole arcane field that makes anatomical animation just for high stakes lawsuits. They even sell templates that can be added to or your editor can pimp up.

If that works out you owe me a cold glass of milk.

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

[Ned Miller]

OK, if I understand you correctly it can be impressionistic? If so go to:

https://www.motionvfx.com/store,project_803,p1362.html

FF to 1:18, there’s your beating heart. If this works out you owe me a case of beer. Fat Tire will do.

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

[Ned Miller]

My first thought is to look at the imaging machine the hospital has, it’s probably either Philips, GE or Siemens. There will be a big logo on it, usually in the corner.

Next, contact the PR and/or marketing department of that company and I bet they will have some footage that is HIPAA cleared. They will have that footage from their previous video projects of hearts undergoing angiograms Tell them if they give you the footage you will be sure to show their logo on the machine. Quid pro quo.

Also, there will be an account exec from the CT machine provider in charge of that hospital’s imaging department relationship and he or she will bend over backwards helping the hospital gain more biz thru your spot. Betcha.

If it works out you owe me a good bottle of wine.

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

[Ned Miller]

Do not do two entities, I did that for around 15 years. You’re doubling your marketing efforts and costs, from logo creation, printing, ads, two websites, two SEO efforts, ugh! And whatever you do, don’t incorporate the two, even as a DBA (Doing Business As). That’s twice the IRS and state paperwork.

I had one entity for producing and one for just DP services figuring my target markets were distinctly different. Now I have just one, but I have three types of business cards in my wallet depending on who I am hitting up:

• me as Producer/Micro Production Company
• me as freelance DP
• me as a litigation support video service just for attorneys and law firms (conservative font)

So having different business cards would be the cheaper, less confusing, way to go. And here’s a really important tidbit: Try to incorporate your name in the company name. The reason is, when offering creative services, if you are small, it’s easier for the clients to remember you since after all, it’s you pulling the train. You are the brand. The clients you work with will remember your name but a year or so down the road, or when new execs come in, they may not remember your company’s name. I’ve seen this happen quite a lot. However, if your company is mid size where you’re offering the services of others, then you’d want a branded company name.

Lastly, many websites that you will want to be listed on and even pay for are, unbelievably, still alphabetical! So stay close to A so you can be on the first page of results.

That will be $100.

Good luck,

Ned

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