How to get lots and lots of paying gigs

[monster]

I take my camera, a mono pod, wireless mic, and lots of batteries to trade shows, conventions, etc and make little videos of some of the booths. I basically interview the people who are there to promote their company and edit it into a 2 or 3 minute spot for them.

Some turn out great, others are boring as hell so I just dump those. I have enough that turn out great to get me plenty of business for paying gigs.

Hell, I am still a noob and am working more than I want to and getting paid decently.

Of course there are often rules against bring in cameras so you have to just break the rules. Usually everyone just mistakes you for approved media and they don't ask any questions. Don't try to call ahead and get the convention to give you a press pass because their trained robots will just shoot you down.

I just wanted to share this with you because I often see people complaining they don't have money for a camera or other equipment. I just bought a new DVX and paid for itself in about one week. There is no reason for not getting work unless you live in the boonies.

If you live in an area where there are not many expos or conventions I would say you could just go to local businesses and offer to make some sort of promotional type video of their business. When you edit the footage just make sure you put a little advert for your business at the start of the tape.

[Rasquachemedia]

monster do you have any clips and do you use music to accompany the videos, if so where do you get the music from?

[Sumfun]

I'm curious, do the exhibitors themselves buy these videos? Do they get to see them before purchasing? Do you approach bigger or smaller exhibitors? And how much do you charge?

[Daniel_Runyon]

Greets, Monster...

I'm very interested in what you're saying, but would like a step by step of the whole deal. So you just walk up to the booths and tell the people what, exactly...and do they just whip money out of their pockets on the spot, or on delivery. And the final product is a DVD with a bunch of different vendors talking about their businesses? Where does that become useful to them, where would it be screened? Break it down for us, brother!

Daniel

[monster]

No, I don't use music

I don't charge them a penny. The idea is to impress them and then they will hire you for other projects or refer you to other people. Plus other people will watch the videos and the first thing they see is your short advert at the beginning.

I have gotten a ton of work just from going to a handful of expos. These companies are at the expos FOR exposure. So making a clip of them promoting their business is the most flattering thing you could do for them.

[Sumfun]

But aren't most of the exhibitors from out of town?

[Terry_Lasater]

Hey monster, that's very entrepreneurial of you. I've made very good money shooting for corporations at their own conferences, but was hired in advance so I knew exactly what I was getting and exactly what I was getting into. Your idea is a very good one.

I think you are to be commended for having a go-getter attitude. :thumbsup:

[monster]

But aren't most of the exhibitors from out of town?

If you are in a city like Vegas then the answer is Yes. But there are lots of conventions where many of the companies are local.

[Sumfun]

Thanks for the info. I think that's a great approach to meeting new customers, and I'll have to commend you for your initiative!

[Robert86]

Thats a great way to go Moster. I will def. try that in the near future, now if I can only relocate to a city that actually have conventions, trade shows ect...

[galt]

There is always something to shoot.

When I bought my first camera, I went out and shot a fund-raising street fair and edited it just for practice. 1 chip cam, no audio, lots of shots of my feet, auto-everything.

http://www.VeniceDigitalVideo.com/GHTB2004.htm

Then I went back to the event organizers the next year, and said, "Pay me to do this again, but with a voice-over, better coverage of vendors, and better music". They agreed, and then the project took on it's own life. It grew far beyond an event with voice-over. Now it is leading to a ton of work from all kinds of related organizations and events.

Here is this years project for them.

http://www.VeniceDigitalVideo.com/GHTB.htm

I think the sale was easy because they could see how I covered THEIR event, even though I spent less than 6 hours (2 shooting, 4 editing) on their initial demo. I think it is more productive to have a meaningful demo than to have a beautiful one. FWIW, the street festival segment was shot this year using the same 1CCD camera in auto mode.

But I like the idea of doing conferences & trade shows the same way. I assume you explain to the people in the booth what you are going to do with the footage, or do you just ask to interview them without offering any credentials or explanation? I would htink most companies would want to know what station they might appear on....