Would like to know how do you market to dancing studios. I had an inquiry from a dancing studio hosting an event for two days and they want to try a new service provider. Their current provider charges about $25 per DVD or download. The customer says they expect about 400 people and I am not sure if I can generate enough sales on location to justify a multi camera live production. There will be two performances about an 1.5 hours a day for a total of four performances over two days. I would prefer to cahrge a fee and the studio sell it to their clients, but they want a free production and we can collect the fees from sales. What's is your
Dance Recital Videos
- Thread starter Ken1212
- Start date
Justin Kuhn
Veteran
Maybe ask how many copies they've sold in previous years and see how low you can make your costs...are you renting gear? Day rates? 3 guys on GH5s could be cost effective.
david dominguez
Well-known member
honestly I would walk away if I were you. They are wanting you to provide a service and potentially print many DVDs with no guarantee you'll make money?
They should pay you your rate instead of having you take the financial risk.
They should pay you your rate instead of having you take the financial risk.
Bassman2003
Veteran
If you are interested in the job, I would ask about their student enrollment number, not the number of people at the show. Take this enrollment number and look at 40% to 50% as being your normal sales possibility. Since you are new the parents might be hesitant not knowing you or your product although $25 is pretty affordable, so you might be ok.
I would not use 3 dlsr/mirrorless, but that just me. Dance is fluid, so expect to be changing zoom quite a lot if you want an interesting video.
The way I market to the studios is the old fashioned way, go knock on their door around 3:00 before classes begin at 4:00.
I would not use 3 dlsr/mirrorless, but that just me. Dance is fluid, so expect to be changing zoom quite a lot if you want an interesting video.
The way I market to the studios is the old fashioned way, go knock on their door around 3:00 before classes begin at 4:00.
I hear you, I provided a competitive quote to do the job and deliver a digital file and they would have to sort our sales. I stopped working with DVD several years back.
The event is taking place at a local high school theater. They are expecting about 400 people over two days and four performances. If this was a single performance in one day with 400 people I might consider the job based on unit sales, but I do not think an average of 100 people per performance is enough.
I would use two video cameras with zoom controllers, and they have to be manned with skilled operators as they have to follow a lot movement all over the floor. I would use one for a wide and another for a medium shot. Would use a BM switcher so we do not have to do any editing. That's three operators right there. I do own the equipment but still have to pay two operators for two days and make a profit. I am not good at knocking doors or sales
If I had a weak portfolio I would do it based on sales but that's not the case.What's surprising to me is the company they are using now does it at no cost, but they have to guarantee a minimum sales per day, something like $1000. This company specializes in this niche and works with many dancing schools. They must be making a profit but I am not sure if it's the kind of profit that would get me hyped.
paulears
Veteran
Recent dance show - two performances, approx 800 people at each (sold seats). The video company used two large format Sonys, plus a single GoPro hidden on stage. One fixed Sony in front of stage offset to one side on wide, and one operator in the follow spot box hanging from the auditorium roof - excellent view and fairly close. They were selling the video for 28UKP, so that's around $35 or so. This is about typical here.
Interesting. I like to have two camera operators as dancers will be all over the place and each segment will have different number of performers, you really have to follow the action. I do like the idea of a gopro on stage. Ideally if I am running three cameras is to do live switching to avoid post editing. I prefer a setup where the main camera is center at eye level and might have to use wireless video transmitters to avoid using cables on the two b cameras. If the 400 attendees is for one event in the same day I might take a chance based on unit sales. For a live setup like this I would normally quote a minimum of $3000 for up to 8 hour a day. I quoted $1500 a day for a total of $3000 for two days to help out. This will basically pay for two camera operators and my equipment. I would be running the switcher and software. I am practically volunteering my time and expertise at this price. That's why I want to deliver a finished product at the end of the day so I do not have to deal with editing and syncing camera edits in post for their small budget.
paulears
Veteran
That kind of price flies commercially in a production making lots of money but it's wildly high for amateurs. I can get two camera ops here in the UK for $220 a day each if I've done the conversion right. I have a portable production unit and they can have that 3 people in total and all the equipment to feed into big screens for around $1200. Includes cables, comms and local travel. It's not broadcast so you cannot get broadcast rates here. Camera ops jump up to around $350 a day if we go to these rates. A 1000 seat venue can be hired here for around 3000 a day so that's $3500 or so? That's a venue and the staff. Adding video would put their costs up a very large amount. I doubt they make enough to make video a workable add on at US rates. I did a one man DVD for a worthy cause here expecting it to be a freebie. They amazingly sold 40 DVDs at £10 each. That's better than I ever thought, and brought in around £350 after real costs. Probably ten hours of edit time and eight hours of production time. I expected I'd make nothing at all but made double what working in McDonald's would have got me. Clearly as a self employed person I'd make this in just a few hours from a commercial client, but it did pay the bills.
Reality here means my income stream from my business has three rates. Full price commercial rates, cheaper amateur client rates and rock bottom rates when I feel it's worth doing.
Reality here means my income stream from my business has three rates. Full price commercial rates, cheaper amateur client rates and rock bottom rates when I feel it's worth doing.
What do you do about licensing the music played during the performance? In the US that is a whole different license that needs to be handled over the regular public performance rights that the dance/theater company needs to secure. That applies even if they bring in their own orchestra to play the music. Recording it for publication is a rather costly thing over here.
paulears
Veteran
We have a system called a limited manufacture licence, available from PRS, one of our licensing organisations. You pick a quantity of DVDs, pay a fee and away you go. They do the same thing for limited streams and CDs. Works pretty well, and is quick to setup and doesn't require long lists of the music.