GH4 earning money

R

RedChalice

Active member
A lot of these threads are feeding into everyones obsession with gear. Now that we splurged on these cameras, I was hoping we can have a discussion about ways to earn money with video.

I'm aware people will say weddings, etc.. but starting from the bottom, which direction can new videographers take to earn a quick buck?

Videography is a luxury to most individuals. How do we convince them or their business that it is a necessity.
 
i will say weddings seem to be the place you can get in with absolutely 0 proof of your skill. SOMEONE will be willing to pay $100 or $200 for a wedding video even if you are completely unproven (put an ad on craigslist saying youll work for those amounts and see if im not right). not saying these are remotely good rates, but it is money. dont think same applies to biz/corp world. they may hire you for FREE but to get paid will want proof theyre not going to get garbage.
 
The way I got into wedding and commercials was I did one of each for free, both for friends. I treated both projects like I was getting paid a lot, rented lights for the commercial, set up multiple cameras, brought in a buddy to help me on the wedding. I really went all out (for what I had at the time) for each. Confession: I went into both thinking I knew everything and both turned into tremendous learning experiences, but both turned out pretty good and then I showed them to my next clients. I told them I didn't have a ton of experience but that "These are my most recent works." (I didn't say I'd only really done 1 wedding). I charged them a low price ($200 for the wedding and $300 for the commercial I believe) and then, again, went out and made them the best I could. I got better (weddings particularly, especially starting to use an external recorder for sound, and tapping into soundboards when possible) and I started having a portfolio. A good quality portfolio builds and then you have a lot more say in how much you charge.
 
It's crucial to have a good reel - and that doesn't just mean a reel shot with an expensive camera.

The footage is important, of course. No shaky video... I don't care if you love your $600 kickstarter gimbal-joystick-thing - if it's not solidly stabilized video, don't put it on your reel. Micro-jitters from bad in-cam stabilization? Toss that too. Show a range of shots, and unless your target market is a real estate developer - minimize those shots of fields, trees, oceans, and landscapes. Focus on people, *applicable* exterior shots, interiors and product shots.

Equally important is the edit. That means no bad cuts, avoiding lip flap, and actually spending some time learning to design attactive titles for your vids (tip: It doesn't get much more amateur than Times New Roman sliding in from the left over a 50% black box). Use good transitions - but not EVERY transition.
 
Do a good job on somebody's wedding and you will have a instant reference for life and they tell their friends and so on and so forth. Always talk to the photographers and wedding coordinators and more work comes from that as well. I got into weddings the same way as blazer003, do a couple for free, then charge a little more and more as you build a reel. Weddings don't require a ton of gear, couple of decent cameras and tripods, wireless mics, on camera lights, and your set. Get better gear as the money gets better and before long you've got the equipment to go on to commercial work if you want or if your like me weddings become your bread and butter.
 
Develop a reel first. Work for free if you need, because you'll get something from the deal (subjects to film).

Try doing a stint in local broadcast news photog. Wages are at burger-flipping levels, but you'll learn how to work quickly and well with (usually) clapped-out trash equipment.

There is a veritable pantsload of national companies that have arisen that contract near-beginning videographers to shoot things like business and author profiles. Some of these are even shoot + edit jobs. The expected quality of the videos isn't stellar (think small market local broadcast commercial quality). The rates are usually borderline pitiful, but heck... I'll even take them when offered if I'd not be working otherwise.

ADDENDUM:
Do your first work related to another area of your experience... for example, car enthusiasts shooting car videos, hunters shooting hunting videos, skaters shooting skating, scherenschnitters shooting scherenschnitting, shooters shooting shooters shooting, ad nauseum, ... in my own case, I started with a career in biosciences and parlayed that into ongoing work with my largest client shooting, of all things, bioscience content.
 
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times have changed. When I started out in LA the HOT gig for aspiring Dp's was to work for a camera rental place. That's where you got to know people and have a chance to "play" with equipment, it let to jobs as assistant etc . But it also depends on what career path you want to venture on.
I' say film your friends, skateboarders, musicians, creative people of all trades and create a strong reel with that footage
narrative shorts are tricky, unless they are exceptionally good, they tend to look like filmschool stuff and most producers don't like that.
 
Regarding wedding videos, I see a lot of these short (4-5 min) films of a couple changing, corny flower shots, music, etc..

is this acceptable for the client? Or are they expecting the dialogue to be recorded between the copuple/priest as well?

I wouldnt mind get paid $500 just to do the simple 5 min summarization and make it look great instead of having to deal with multiple cameras, wireless mics etc.

What Im asking is: is it more common to present a client with a shorter, beautifully done video?

or a lengthy one that crams in as much **** from their wedding as possible?
 
It's sort of asking like "what does the average client want for a TV commercial"? Other than it's probably :30 in length, it depends on the client.

Same for weddings. It depends on what the couple wants. Some want a short film. Others want a full "documentation". Or a bit of both.
 
To answer OP,

The short answer is don't try to be just a videographer - its a hard lonely climb to get to a place of steady freelance income - its easier to diversify your skill set and work up from there. Working on a larger sets opens the doors to understanding what high-paying, high-quality production looks like - after a year or two, you'll have a better idea how to approach being a Videographer, and hopefully have some crew connections to call on when you need help.

-- Attend Local Networking events related to film/photography/video - meet people!
-- Work on sets - Even as a PA, you gain a lot of XP - its also a great place to meet and network with local crew. If people like working with you, you'll be brought on other productions = more opportunity.
-- Be a Professional - no Attitude, no complaining, and never be rude to ANYONE. Industry is tight and you'll burn lots of opportunities not following the basic codes of conduct.
-- Be more interested in return clients / long term on-going jobs then the short-term daily rate.
 
Most of the wedding videos I do are a bit of both, highlights and cleaned up documentation. It's critical to know what the couple is looking for and you've only got one chance to get it right. Better to have too much footage than not enough, especially on an occasion such as a wedding. There are family and friends there, parents, grandparents, etc.. you never know how much it means to be able to film everyone together because life happens, someone in the family passes away and the video might be the last documentation of them. I'd never shoot a ceremony with 1 camera, most churches won't allow you to move around during the service so with 1 camera you've only got one angle to work with. Also in the event it malfunctions you've got no backup and then you might be looking at a lawsuit. It's no joke an upset bride can ruin your reputation and jeopardize future gigs. At a very minimum you must use a wireless or pocket recorder to pick up the vows, mic the groom. I'd recommend a handheld mic for getting messages from guests during the reception. It may sound like a lot but going in unprepared and under equipped will make editing very difficult.
 
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