do you or have you made money with your gear?

do you or have you made money with your gear?

  • yes - regularly

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • yes - a little

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • no

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • what gear?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    2
My DVX paid for itself with my first short, but I only do gigs of my own choosing so it's not like money is pouring in all the time, but I am doing the work I want so I'm happy... Having another full-time job keeps the income coming in to buy new camera toys...
 
In my book when you earn your DVX back with your first short you making a nice buck :-) I hope I can say once the same but maybe it is easier in the US to make money since their film industry is much bigger than over here.
 
Yeah but Cees, is that 'nice buck' enough to pay the mortgage and feed the kids as well? Not always.

I think (back me up here guys) that most here survive from job to job and you're not always sure where the next one's coming from. I'm not complaining - we chose to live this way - and it can be great, but it's not necessarily the road to riches ...

And I don't think that most are in the 'film industry' as such - there's many ways to make money with your DVX or whatever. I'm certainly not. I'm in the UK anyway.
 
I earn fairly good money fairly regularly, but it's as a second job. I have anice niche in the classical music audio/video scene. I suspect I could make a living doing such full time... but so far haven't been willing to take the risk given a cushy job, insurance, etc. But soon, perhaps... I do 70-80 paid gigs a year, and could easily do a lot more if I weren't bogged down by a full-time job...
 
i just got mine so it hasn't made any money for me yet.. but i would be psyched if i paid for it in one gig. more realitically depending on what order they fall in it will take between 2-4 gigs. i am just a hobbiest so if i can do some paying gigs to pay for the camera then i am doing a expensive hobby for free and i can shot the stuff i really love for free
 
Michael_Bott said:
Yeah but Cees, is that 'nice buck' enough to pay the mortgage and feed the kids as well? Not always.
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It's enough when you don't own a home or have any kids.
:thumbsup:

I think (back me up here guys) that most here survive from job to job and you're not always sure where the next one's coming from.
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I'll definitely agree that I don't always know where the next one is coming from - but luckily I'm not surviving 'job to job' anymore. Then again, it took me quite a few years to be able to say that... I've spent more than enough months in the past wondering how I was going to pay the rent. Finally the leg work of those years has started to pay off, and my workload is now pretty steady - it's a good feeling when you can actually turn down a job and still sleep at night.

But yeah, I never know where the next one is coming from, and there are still times in the year when it thins out quite a bit - of course I wouldn't trade this stress for the stress I felt while I had someone to report to (boss).

it's not necessarily the road to riches ...
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Definitely not.

And I don't think that most are in the 'film industry' as such
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I can tell you that I'm not.
Any 'film' related projects that I do, or 'creative projects' if you prefer, are usually done in my spare time, or for a much lower rate that I would normally get (if it's a job for someone else).

The bulk of my income is from corporate video, local and regional commercials, online marketing videos and other projects that most people would find very mundane. But, I've come to appreciate the mundane ... mundane pays the bills.

But yeah, it's not like I'm working in any sort of glamorous 'industry' here.
 
Cees Mutsaers said:
In my book when you earn your DVX back with your first short you making a nice buck :-)
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Ah, I just got lucky and made something that some people and festivals happened to enjoy. Now how much $ have I made from my DVX from stuff besides sales related to that first short? Like $750. But I'm in a much different situation than a lot of you guys, I am not doing this as a steady source of income. I wish I could, but I'm not at the level and definitely not in the film industry. He he! I wish!

Just working at my own pace on projects of my choosing. Besides shorts I shoot bands that I dig when they request it, but it's not like I am shooting weddings for strangers and stuff like that. I couldn't do what, for example what Luis Caffesse does. That takes some serious effort of a different kind and I don't have the stomach for it. It's cool to see how we're all using our beloved cams in different ways. And good to hear people are using this cam to make ends meet, makes me happy.
 
the-lyons-den.com said:
I couldn't do what, for example what Luis Caffesse does. That takes some serious effort of a different kind and I don't have the stomach for it.
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Some days I don't have the stomach for it myself.
:)

Meanwhile I'm sitting over here thinking - 'wish I could have paid for a camera with a short film instead'

But I guess it doesn't matter if it's a short film, commercial, or a corporate training piece - as long as it's paying for the gear which let's us shoot the stuff we want to shoot.
 
I'm in a good an bad situation. The bad situation is that I spent about 20k putting together my DVX, lighting, editing, etc. for a company that I got kicked out of in all of about 10 months. I've managed to rent some of my lights and grip equipment to a pastor at a church. Grand total for 3 weeks of rental..... wait for it....$150. :)

The good situation is that I married well and haven't been kicked out of the house...yet...yet..
 
Just today I picked up two jobs, surprise surprise. They are low paying, but as I said every cent I earn from my DVX goes toward a HVX at the moment.. so thats a small step closer.
 
Ok a lot of you say you make a nice bundle from doing ads with your DVX. How much do you make ruffly and what types of ads are these?


Mike :thumbsup:
 
OK confirmed one job for this Saturday its a live show. I will get a massive $300 US dollars :P But too me thats an awesome effort all things considered, and just one of the many steps along the way. So I am making my small steps, but I love this.
 
How much do you make ruffly and what types of ads are these?
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Ads are a tough business to get into. I've done 'em as low as $1500 for a two-hour-shoot, same-day-post, hand-over-the-tape-and-walk-away job, and I've worked on $100,000+ spots (but not DVX at that level!) Most of the local ads have been in the $3,500 to $10,000 range.

But you really need to be hooked up with an agency, or several agencies, to make the ad thing work. Low-end local commercials are a dead-end business; you're in competition with the cable company, who will produce the ad for free if the customer buys an airtime package, and it's tough to argue with free...

I would hazard a guess that most of those individual owner-operators making money with their cameras are doing so as hired stringers or as wedding shooters. A hired camera op with camera can pull $400 to $850/day fairly easily. Weddings seem to go from $1500 to around $3500; I know one shooter at the top end of the scale who's booked every weekend doing $3500 wedding packages. That's a *lot* of work and it takes a special personality to handle the stress that goes with it though.
 
I was at a wedding last year and the video cost close to £1000 I guess that's about $1500 or so but it looked like crap. Ultra shakey handheld garbage and he was far too far away for sound.

I'd be too scared of messing up someones big day but this was a profesional outfit doing a lot of business and I could do a better job with my sony stills camera.

I think the wedding video is still fairly new to many here in the UK the couples I know who have been married recently wouldn't do it because they don't want to be on camera but this is changing.

I would be interested in how people make money with their shooting in the UK as we don't have quite the same level of work available.
 
Personally, I bought the gear to allow me to do creative stuff. If I can get some paying jobs on the side to pay off the gear, that'll be great. I just found myself getting older and less happy with what I'm doing. At best I can spin this off into a new direction for my career. At worst, it's probably no more costly than any other major hobby. (ex. boating, hotrodding, flying)
 
I am on my 3rd DVX and my clients love it. I have one client that calls it 15mm (like just under 16mm) I live in a really nice part of town & eat much better than pretzals, so I say YES ! you can make loads of cash with one.

Steve
 
Barry's right on the local ad thing - I've got a decent relationship with an agency in town, as well as a couple of TV stations who throw work my way...but even then the local ads are a tough way to try to make a go of it. As he mentioned, you're always fighting with the "But the Cable company will do it for free" mentality. And you can say what you want about quality - but it's REALLY tough to beat free in most people's minds.

Most of my spots have been in the 3K-5K range - though I've also done quite a few "show up and shoot it" spots for less (the one shot guy talking to the camera, cut to a graphic and your out type spots).

Majority of my tv clients have been locally owned businesses - grocery store, restauratns...and of course (everyone's favorite) the car dealerships.
Say what you will - car dealerships have kept a roof over my head more than once.

But like Barry mentioned - it's tough to try to strictly do ads if you dont' have some good ties to agencies. Which is why I do quite a bit of corporate work as well.
 
Excellent!!! Just found out for the live show Saturday I get to go in tomorrow and select / deselect add lighting with an actual stage lighting guy who basically has a kit worth big $$, does many live shows (larger variety) in Tokyo! That made my day!
 
depending on the gig (DVD, EPK, Trailers, TV Spots) I make $550 to $1100 per day as a freelance editor/producer. I cut on both Avid and FCP. My clients include all the major studios and their home video counterparts. This month my producing partner and I have started our own post-production company -- Sabi, LLC. We will be taking DVD and EPK gigs to pay off the loan for the bays. The budgets for these things range from $10,000 (ie. Tristan & Isolde) to $180,000 (ie. Lady in the Water) so we stand to make a lot more money.
 
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