[Ned Miller]

I visited your site. There is no way you can survive offering complete videos for $400. Forget about getting rich, your first goal is survival. You may be a great editor but if you don’t have the business aspect down you can’t be on your own, because basically freelancing is running your own business.

I have been freelancing for 30 years. Your expenses will be higher than you expect although you can write more off. So my advice is get that home page offer of $400 videos off your site and move up the local production food chain so you have a chance of making it. The one main benefit is that you can have a home office so you’ll see your daughter more but…when you’re not shooting and editing, as a freelancer you will be spending all your other waking hours looking for new clients, billing, repairs, trying to collect, etc. You will be happier on your own but only if you survive. It’s a very Darwinian field and only the best freelancers make it over time. There are many people who don’t have the stomach for the financial ups and downs. You must be a saver to make it, like a squirrel getting ready for the winter. It really helps to be part of a couple, especially if she has a steady job that provides you with health insurance coverage.

Also, don’t make the leap until you’ve lined up clients you know you can count on, without poaching them from your present employer. Perhaps offer to work as a freelancer for your current boss until you can wean yourself away. And most importantly, don’t do anything until you figure out what to do about health insurance. That’s the most common topic among freelancers right after who is a slow payer!

The advice I give the folks on my crews just starting out is: Anyone who is some what technical and half way creative can produce a video, especially now with the ease of use and low cost of entry, but only a very small portion will survive by figuring out how to make it as a business, generating a sustainable living month in and month out. That’s the hard part. I know because I’ve witnessed it for so long. Look for good, deep pocket clients who need video regularly. Add a ZERO to that figure on your website, don’t bottom feed and you might make it.

Good luck!

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

[Ned Miller]

Too late Mike. The tempest in a teapot is over.

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

[Ned Miller]

Thanks Mark. I’m looking to send them to a turnkey place that does this a lot. I personally don’t have the post skills to do what you described.

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

[Ned Miller]

Thank you Chen for proving you are really in the biz.

Best regards,

Ned

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

[Ned Miller]

Have you ever heard the Texas expression, “All Hat, No Cattle”

If you are not familiar with this expression you can find the definition here:

https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/all+hat,+no+cattle.html

Please do not take any personal offense. You may find http://www.dvxuser.com more to your liking, they don’t care about anonymity. Here, we like to know who we are communicating with and learning from. How can we value someone’s advice if they may be “blowing smoke”? See:

https://www.thehindu.com/education/know-your-english/article3248063.ece

I’d love to be able to produce by hiring crew at one third the rate of pros like you do, please teach us how. Since this is the Business forum we’d all like to know how to increase profits by hiring recent grads without them screwing up. But let us see what it looks like. If you have no proof then how can we continue this thread of yours? Send us a link. We don’t want your phone number or home address. But an end credit saying Produced by Chen Wu Xin would give you credibility and not threaten your personal anonymity at all.

So, show us your cattle…

Many thanks,

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

[Ned Miller]

Well….this is suppose to be a community. You say you’re doing:

Right now i’m in current production of:
– a 13ep x 22min business round-table show, à la “dinner for five”, or filmfellas
– a 13ep x 22min Eco/green home show à la HGTV
– a one off x 52min about architecture in my city
– a one off x 52min about the awesome scale of statistics in my city (“90 million taxi rides a month, WTF”)à la discovery channel megastructures etc

We here on this forum are trying to understand the quality level you achieve with the type of crew you hire and their (low) rate structure. Yet we can’t view it? We have no idea if you’re real.

No offense. I’d like to see them to understand you’re point of view.

Best regards,

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

[Ned Miller]

Dear Chen,

Where can we see these programs you have produced so we all know what we are talking about here? I see no evidence on the internet of your existence. Please advise.

Sincerely,

Ned

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

[Ned Miller]

I’ve had two leases. My advice is to go with what your CPA says, it’s too complicated for regular folks to understand what the best tax angles are. There have been situations where my CPA told me to just lay out the cash, other times he approved the lease option.

As my memory recalls, I believe in Illinois we can’t avoid tax due to leasing. And although I had the proverbial “$1 Buy Out” there was an end fee of a couple of hundred bucks for some reason that I argued about but there it was in super small legalese. I see in your avatar you are using a director’s viewfinder so you should be able to read the small print with it.

If you are leasing from the finance company that Canon or it’s best retailers recommend, post a thread at this site and I bet you can get detailed reviews of them at:

https://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?246-C300

Lastly, the Sony FS700 is $8000 less than the C300 and I don’t think the clients can see the difference. Here in Chicago my competitors (who have more money than I do) are migrating to the FS700 if they did not buy into the F3 earlier. The FS700 is becoming the popular flavor now.

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

[Ned Miller]

I hire a LOT of freelancers and yes, Herb is right. I’ve been a freelance shooter for 30 years and I live in the very far suburbs of Chicago. I can’t penalize the clients just because I want to live way out where the schools are better. I haven’t seen portal-to-portal of residences in decades. However, most grip truck owners I have used usually will charge mileage from wherever the truck is stationed, and that may be in the gaffer’s driveway way out in the burbs, that’s because they are so costly in terms of mpg. There is no way I would pay him for his drive time unless the location was way out of the city. So it is always best to ask these questions before the budget is figured. It is easy to be taken advantage of.

As to the DIT guy charging for the cart, that is a shameful thing on his part, what a cheapskate. Makes him look bad.

As to grips charging OT in traffic after leaving the set- if they left the set to go back to a starting point, or “launch pad” where everyone first met in the morning and parked their cars, then yes they should charge until they get back to their cars. That is normal. Often everyone meets in the production company or client’s parking lot and that is when the clock starts and ends. Only a chump would pay portal-to-portal to residences. A few networks still pay home portal-to-portaldo with union crew members.

I don’t know how long you’ve been doing this but they may have felt you easy to take advantage of and thought you would not contest their invoices. Or perhaps they were upset about something like lack of lunch, etc. and this was their way of getting even. That is not uncommon if they don’t care to work with you again.

Here’s what I do that you may find useful- I call, email or text a new crew member about their availability and day rate for 10 hours, when they reply affirmative I ask them to send an email (no text or vm) to confirm all their costs involved. That way there’s no grey areas. But no way in hell I’d pay from the time from their house. That would make me a chump. I am also making every non-incorporated crew member sign an Independent Contractor Agreement but that’s for another thread.

Best regards,

Ned

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

[Ned Miller]

The original poster is absolutely right. I can tell you from my perspective of 33 years, the rates have plummeted and if it wasn’t for me having so many long time clients and being well known, I would be out of business. There is now an upper end and a gigantic lower end, little in the middle. Video Pros are going the way of America’s Middle Class: disappearing. Here are some examples:

Last week a prospect called me with such a ridiculously low price that I said I would help him out and put it on Chicago’s Craigslist. In 3 days I received 53 responses, 90% were highly qualified, usually with a DSLR. People are absolutely desperate, and I mean DESPERATE, to get in or stay in the biz. I could have gotten several to do it for free to build their reel.

Yesterday a media savvy doctor called me about my estimate to shoot him for a half day rate in a green screen studio and since he felt it would only take him one hour to do his delivery, he only wanted to pay for one hour. And this guy has done many videos!

I have seen many trends, a dangerous one was the Flip camera craze where clients were doing it themselves. But this DSLR movement (and iMovie/FCPX) has totally destroyed the price structure of the biz because of the flood of video “vendors”. Forget quality, storytelling, etc. it is now about price. I know this as a freelance videographer and independent producer who fields many calls a week. Video is no longer respected as a highly skilled profession except among experienced clients like agencies.

I was taught that anyone can learn the gear and software but only a small few can figure out how to make a sustainable living at it, where you can afford all your expenses. I am one of the lucky few. But now with this absolute flood of people coming in, every prospect we all know, and all the ones we don’t know, are well acquainted with someone who can produce them a very acceptable video dirt cheap.

I am writing this on the road from a hotel, shooting 3 days for one of the country’s largest beverage companies. They pay well, they demand quality, they are afraid of kids with DSLRs. However, upon my return I will be fielding the calls that the original poster complained about, and in the last two years I have seen them steadily increase. People wanting us pros to work for about half the normal rate. If that is the majority of calls and you turn them down, you go out of business. Drop your rate to meet heir demand and you will also go out of business. I receive email notices from a board that posts crew positions for reality shows out of LA & NY mainly. I see the amount they are offering is less and less. It is all across the industry.

The posters in this thread who don’t seem to be too worried about these changes probably are sitting fat and happy with some deep pocket, steady clients who they feel will stay forever. But as a survivor I am a keen observer of trends and this declining rate trend due to too many people offering pro video services is more like a total restructuring of our industry and we will not make the rates of the tradesmen listed in a post above. One’s only hope is to find and keep satisfied a wide variety of deep pocket clients who demand high quality, plus mine niches. And network, network, network!

Bob Zelin wrote: “There are a lot of TV channels, who need a lot of media. There is more corporate video than ever before. There is more educational video, more training video, more web shows than ever before. Every company has an AV department, every magazine has a web magazine. Every company has a YouTube video for their products.”

Yes the above is true, I made my living off them for years, and they have all gone cheap, cheap, cheap. Many have gone DIY or got a kid on staff. 90% of the producers and production companies I shoot for now have their own DSLR or prosumer camera they want me to shoot with for just my labor rate, so how can a DP make a living? I now cringe when the caller wants a web video. Have you noticed everyone now wants a $600 video because the people he called before you all quoted around $600 and he’s hoping you are $500? That happens a few times a week…A few years ago it was normal to get $1500 for a two minute video…

If any of you doubt my words above, post on your local big city’s Craigslist an ad for exactly what you do and post a ridiculously low rate like I had to do. When you see the responses you will be shocked and depressed but realize I have a realistic viewpoint: The biz has gone to the dogs in terms of rates. Simple Econ 101: supply and demand. We now have way too much supply.

And please don’t respond to my post if you are on staff receiving a steady paycheck because this forum is about the Business & Marketing of pro video, something a staff person doesn’t need to concern themselves with.

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