How Do You Make Money with Your XDCam?

basspig

basspig

Veteran
In an effort to start brainstorming for ways to capitalize on on the features of the EX1/EX3 camera line, what sort of opportunities has this camera opened for you, over earlier cameras or cameras utilizing conventional workflow?

The goal here is to generate ideas for how we EX1 owners can challenge our competition within our respective markets, based on the advantages this camera offers (ie., quality, workflow, database capability, etc.)

Since the EX1 is so new to the market, those that own it, will enjoy the possibility of some new-found opportunities that their competitors who are still locked into their mortgages on betacam SP and other costly SD cameras will be passing up.

It's not all easy though: the market is still largely ignorant of HD and doesn't know that it may want it at all. I personally know a couple of videographers that make $20,000/weekend shooting events with their PD150s, selling over 200 DVDs @ $40 and up, each. HD is simply not pulling a lot of market share just yet.

So how can we leverage our 'earlybird' status as shooters who have an eye for beautiful imagery?

A number of you are probably shooting stock footage, but realizing there is a LOT of competition, and due to our post 9/11 social rules, many public places are now off-limits to video and photography in the USA today.

That leaves traditional income-earning work-for-hire, such as TV commercials, training, weddings/events, etc., as the remaining options. In this context, how do you set yourself apart from your competitors, to gain new footholds in your local market?
 
Well I have just crawled out of bed after a very long Saturday ( 8am until 11pm) shooting a wedding. This is my 4th year in the wedding videography business and the EX1 has been the best camera I have used in those 4 years ( FX1, ZU1, HVX200, EX1)

The camera paid for itself three weeks after I purchased it and has made me solid money all the way.

I am the most expensive wedding videographer in the area and won't drop my prices. If a prospective customer tries the line, "well I have spoken to X and Y and they are cheaper than you", I say, well you get what you pay for and I am more expensive because I am the best. Do you want to risk having a poor wedding film over a few hundred pounds? And they send me the booking fee.

The EX1 knocks those other cameras I have used into a cocked hat. I was on the dancefloor last night surrounded by 40-50 girls letting their hair down ( I love this job!) and I avoided using a camera light ( gets intrusive) and only went to +3 gain.

I am the only videographer in the are who currently offers Blu-ray dvd as standard. 6 SD dvds and a blu-ray dvd fully mastered with chapters, motion menues, all in the beautiful presentation case. And all for my flat standard price. The opposition are still mostly in PD170's. I stay ahead of the competition with business savvy and stay ahead with camera/technology savvy.

I also change my camera every two years. Although I have a backup camera, really I never want to use that except for pickup shots, and I can't afford soething to go wrong (touch wood it hasn't yet) and like BA change their planes after they are 4 years old (you reading this Quantas?) a new camera is less likely to go wrong than one getting on a bit ( though with plenty of life still in it)

Now HD delivery. Most are not yet on the blu-ray bandwagon. In fact 1 in 5 is Blu-ray savvy and has a PS3. 1 in 10 haven't much of a clue when I tell them they will be getting a blu-ray dvd of their wedding day. But they get one, and they can store it, and they can bring it out and play it 3 years from now when they go and buy a blu-ray player from Amazon or Curries (UK shop) or wherever. With Architect 5 now able to make blu-ray dvds with chapters and menues, there is now nothig to stop anyone from making a fully authored blu-ray dvd. ( and I have to come from FCP on a mac to architect 5 on a pc)

So I say this. Sell the technology to the customer, even though a lot of them don't have a clue what you are talking about. Make is sound like they have to have it. Don't blind them with science, and make it sound like the film will leap out of the screen and make it feel like they are there again. Push HD blu-ray dvd as though it's a must have. Who wants 4:3 SD when you can have 16:9 widescreen HD for not a lot more?

The EX1 is the perfect wedding camera. I use 6 16Gb cards and a couple of 8Gb cards and shoot all day with no fears of running out of media. Its unobtrusive, doesn't scare the living daylights out of guests when I interview them, and I jig around the dancefloor surrounded by people enjoying themselves without it bashing into them.
 
Haha! Thats actually brilliant Steve good for you - good way to do business! I run a production company that does corporate, promo's, effects (mid market commissions) and for that the rules are different with customers...

I think bassbig your onto a loss with trying to hype the particular elements of the EX cam in a corporate setting at least. For a start (great tho the EX pluses are) if its competition is mainly from poor buggers on SD, then it has nothing unique over other prosumer up HD cameras.

I should know, in my business we compete in very aggressive tenders (think Spartacus - trident and net) and i can just imagine the look on clients faces when the pitch consists of...

'And unlike other HD cams, our range of Cams shoot 'real' HD...'

Backed no doubt by some pictorial examples (never good - always tacky!)

Any good salesman worth his salt knows how to sell their gear as unique and superior to the competition. Find me a Cornflake box and a jam jar and i could still pitch it as if i were shooting out of Gods ass!

Everyone uses the term 'broadcast hd' when there trying to indicate that their using real hd cameras. What one ends up sounding like - (if they try to promote tech specifics...) is like some dubious plasma screen salesman. Which is what 'blinding them with science - steve' can do.

In fact, i remember a guy that did 'steve's approach once, for an engineering company (in front of their marketing director and chairman) - i was there as backup. I'll never forget what the chairman bloody said -

'F**kin h*ll - you a sales man for JVC or your own company? Enough of that technical shite - we've seen the dvd (showreel), how much is this gonna cost me?'

The Chairman said this with er such venom and condescending tone, that we knew we'd just treated the guy like some shop floor customer (so of course it might work for joe bloggs getting his wedding video) but in business. Try it at your peril - and with an EX... come on... NONE of the prosumer cameras will razzle and dazzle, and NONE in business (for real/decent commissions) are easily swayed by gimmicks. (Belief so until the day your brutally shot down!)

There are just so many things that go into a sale, that technical efficiency of gear is often the last thing that helps to win the business. That just lets you do the job of producing the film you won the commission for...

The most unique selling point for the EX, is not anything technical. Its the enthusiasm of the guy and his new toy - who should go out and shoot a nice new promo with it. Promo / showreels sell (with long lists of references and name dropping).
 
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I think that Blu-ray is a big part of the answer. If you are shooting high end weddings and the client is paying top dollar, you should convince them to buy a Blu-ray player (or perhaps offer it in the package). I would show them a HD vs SD demo. This is what 4x3 sd footage looks like and this is what 16x9 full HD looks like. They will see the difference right away.

That helps sell the quality of the camera. You also need to sell your own skills. I've done a few wedding videos before and the key seems to be good editing (just as important as capturing quality images). Those cheaper guys will often just give the client hours of lame footage. The client has been taught to think that getting hours of footage is a good thing. It's not. In fact, those videos are boring. Show them a short demo of your work that shows that you can take a wedding day and edit into a compelling story (music montages, interviews, etc...). There videos (the competition) look like raw home video footage.

You are the best and you use the best equipment.
 
I am a motion graphics designer and director and this is the first camera I have owned. Most of what I do involves greenscreen, and up to now there were no really compelling affordable options that would have been suitable (hvx200 came close). Now I can have the control on shoots that using the same camera every time allows. I get to charge rental, and I am getting more live action shoots, plus renting it to DPs and producers I have worked with. If I get 2 or 3 days rental a month I will start making profit next year, and it seems unlikely that any other camera is going to render the EX1 obsolete for several years (I am not convinced that resolutions above 1080p are going to catch on for a very long time, and in a couple of years there will probably be plenty of small cheap SDI capture boxes you can stick on to bypass the XDCAM compression).
The real advantage of owning the camera is that it allows you to try things that you wouldn't be able to do with a rental cam, which is good for taking your skills forwards.
 
basspig said:
Ihow do you set yourself apart from your competitors, to gain new footholds in your local market?
Click to expand...

For a start, all my competition are using Z1s (some upgraded to Z7). Even my wife - an accountant by trade - can spot the difference between Z1 footage and EX1 footage. The shallower DoF, the non-burned highlights, the rich shadow detail and most of all the sharpness (partly because of a good lens, mostly because everything is progressive rather than deinterlaced), all work together in concert for an 'expensive' look.

Secondly, those clients that have used me since I upgraded now demand the EX1 - even though I've upped my rate by about $100 per day (for the moment, that extra bit is to fund more cards as I still rent extra cards for bigger shoots). To them, it's worth more - it's closer to a Digibeta crew than a Z1 DV Director in their eyes.

The odd thing is that I used to get a lot of extra income because I charge for ingest of DV tapes. I could ingest a dozen tapes in a day, mow the lawn, play with my son, do some training, open a bottle of something, and still make my daily rate by feeding tapes into a deck. I don't get that with EX1 - and there's the cost of the BluRay backups, the external hard drives and so on. I'm beginning to charge for the BluRay backups at a similar rate as if for an hour of DVCAM, but it's not quite as lucrative. A BD-R is similar to a mini-DV and to be truthful takes less time to burn, but a tape is a tape. I have to work at making a BD-R. But I have to do it anyway, so may as well make two. 15 mins each for an hour to 90 mins of rushes.

I'd say the biggest selling point is the sharpness, then an even split between highlight detail and DoF. Then there's the workflow. Clients love to walk away from a shoot with a hard disk copy of MY hard disk.

FYI, I shoot corporates mainly for web, PowerPoint (WMV at 1024x576 or 1280x720) and SD DVD. I edit most of what I shoot (and also edit what other people shot - from Z1 to esoteric HD, but mostly DSR-570).

Tomorrow I'm shooting a chromakey job that I got BECAUSE I am an EX1 shooter. She can't afford DigiBeta, doesn't accept DV or HDV. Have done similar shoot for one of her associates, and they raved about the difference in quality in chromakey and general image.

The Sales line? Apart from 'we're capturing you and your passion in the medium of 'video cinema' - high definition, big impact, futureproof, pristine quality' (tm)? It's not about technology, it's about images and sound. HDV's run out of puff, you can't get away with SD any more. Look at the EX1 on a true 1080 monitor. Compare with Z1. Job done. Heard of 9.5mm film? No? Popular in the 1930s. Will your future generations hear of HDV? No. Insanely popular in the early 2Ks. Disappeared within years of launch.

I'm pitching at Z1 upgraders (no ingest, fast turnaround, better image) and DigiBeta wannabes with limited budgets (sharp image, DoF at pocket money budget, small and compact). I'm not seriously pitching HD as in Europe it's not really there yet. 16:9 PAL is 1024x576, which is not far off 12080x720, so true HD is 1080p - harder in post, pushing prices up, when 720p is 'good enough' most days.

Well, that's opened the Kimono for long enough... :)
 
basspig said:
In an effort to start brainstorming for ways to capitalize on on the features of the EX1/EX3 camera line, what sort of opportunities has this camera opened for you, over earlier cameras or cameras utilizing conventional workflow?

The goal here is to generate ideas for how we EX1 owners can challenge our competition within our respective markets, based on the advantages this camera offers (ie., quality, workflow, database capability, etc.)

Since the EX1 is so new to the market, those that own it, will enjoy the possibility of some new-found opportunities that their competitors who are still locked into their mortgages on betacam SP and other costly SD cameras will be passing up.

It's not all easy though: the market is still largely ignorant of HD and doesn't know that it may want it at all. I personally know a couple of videographers that make $20,000/weekend shooting events with their PD150s, selling over 200 DVDs @ $40 and up, each. HD is simply not pulling a lot of market share just yet.

So how can we leverage our 'earlybird' status as shooters who have an eye for beautiful imagery?

A number of you are probably shooting stock footage, but realizing there is a LOT of competition, and due to our post 9/11 social rules, many public places are now off-limits to video and photography in the USA today.

That leaves traditional income-earning work-for-hire, such as TV commercials, training, weddings/events, etc., as the remaining options. In this context, how do you set yourself apart from your competitors, to gain new footholds in your local market?
Click to expand...

I find that hard to believe, 1 Videographer with a PD150 making $20,000 on the weekends. Sorry I just don't buy it. I can see if your a HVX, EX1 user and your getting between 5-10 gigs a week (7 days) you could make between $5,000 +
 
Howdy....

I have a business shooting Real Estate related video. Everything we do is on EX-1, sometimes using a Steadicam Pilot...

Let me know what you think:

http://www.vmlh.com

Best,

Ben

----------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Freedman
VisitMyLuxuryHome.com
480.240.9262
 
Benefit of the doubt...

Benefit of the doubt...

Film it said:
Sorry I just don't buy it.
Click to expand...

Maybe a misquote following a fisherman's tale, as a multiple PD150 shoot over a weekend, plus 5-8 days post, could push comfortably into five figures with a dollar sign in front.

But even then I'd like to be there at the signing (of the contract). <gd&r>

Also, I think such tales are pre credit crunch. I guess a $10k video is a pretty easy sell for some (I'm UK based and cannot touch Wedding stuff - too much work for too little money). I've seen stuff at $20k that's nice, 4:3, bit of steadicam, full coverage, so it's not unheard of. Just not Uncle Joe and His Amazing Handicam.

But lets get real. It's the cream. Most PD150s are doing the whey and earning less than the photographer.
 
Film it said:
I find that hard to believe, 1 Videographer with a PD150 making $20,000 on the weekends. Sorry I just don't buy it. I can see if your a HVX, EX1 user and your getting between 5-10 gigs a week (7 days) you could make between $5,000 +
Click to expand...

5K for a week of work including service and camera rental is a low denominator.


Does anyone shoot Commercial and Narrative with the EX-1 and make decent money? That's what I do with my 200A and as much as I want to grab the EX-1 I can't find anyone that's making the same amount of money with the XDCam EX doing these types of jobs.

Anyone out there?
 
thefilmaddict said:
I think that Blu-ray is a big part of the answer. If you are shooting high end weddings and the client is paying top dollar, you should convince them to buy a Blu-ray player (or perhaps offer it in the package). I would show them a HD vs SD demo. This is what 4x3 sd footage looks like and this is what 16x9 full HD looks like. They will see the difference right away.

That helps sell the quality of the camera. You also need to sell your own skills. I've done a few wedding videos before and the key seems to be good editing (just as important as capturing quality images). Those cheaper guys will often just give the client hours of lame footage. The client has been taught to think that getting hours of footage is a good thing. It's not. In fact, those videos are boring. Show them a short demo of your work that shows that you can take a wedding day and edit into a compelling story (music montages, interviews, etc...). There videos (the competition) look like raw home video footage.

You are the best and you use the best equipment.
Click to expand...

Spot on post. A friend of mine in the same game ( and our areas overlap) gets a wedding by dropping his price until they say yes. Crazy IMO and I have told him numerous times. Sometimes he will film a wedding for as low as £500 ($1000) and that's a ful day as well. I call him a busy fool. He has a full diary, but makes much less than me. And I have my feet up while he is sweating over missing a shot!:laugh: Never drop your prices is my moto and I have stuck with it all the way. It is now paying off and my friend doesn't understand how I can get away with the prices I charge.

MattDavis said:
Also, I think such tales are pre credit crunch. I guess a $10k video is a pretty easy sell for some (I'm UK based and cannot touch Wedding stuff - too much work for too little money).
Click to expand...

Matt, it can be very lucrative. You just have to sell the wedding film as something your rivals are not capable of doing, and as someone has said on here, make it sound like your opposition's film will look like Uncle Albert with his HC3. Couples are happy to pay £2000 ($4000) for a photographer. I sell myself as being more important than a photographer.

It can be hard work but I have the whole job done and dusted in three days(four inc the wedding). A day filming on the Saturday. Sunday is day of rest as I am knackered, but I get the footage onto the Mac and into FCP. Monday morning start the edit. Done by about 5 pm. Render and burn dvd for wife to watch and make notes for alterations. Tuesday I work all day on final edit, musical montage, photo montage ( I take about 50 candid photos throughout the day). Rendered out overnight as a quicktime hd movie, and as a SD movie in compressor for DVDSP.

Wednesday I make the dvd in DVDSP and also in Architect 5 for blu-ray. Burn the dvds, make the covers and print the dvds. Parcel up and done by Wednesday evening.
 
Working on a Mac I wish there was way to burn a Blu-ray DVD.
I did a few events recently with my new EX1 and was blown away at the clear low light footage. I couldn't wait until I showed it to my clients. They were getting way more than what they paid for.
Then I burned the SD DVD and I was bummed.
SD down rez looks so bad after you've been looking at the HD.
They didn't have Blu-ray players and I can't burn one anyway.
No complaints from clients- SD is what it is and they never saw the HD anyway- so they never knew what they could have had. It's a shame.

If anyone knows how to burn BD on Mac- let me know.
 
Bokes said:
Working on a Mac I wish there was way to burn a Blu-ray DVD. If anyone knows how to burn BD on Mac- let me know.
Click to expand...

LG does a BluRay burner on USB. Doesn't say Mac on the box, but it works a treat. I bought mine and now use it regularly after watching this:

http://www.macvideo.tv/dvd-authoring/reviews/index.cfm?reviewId=101802

Toast 9 does a sort of basic BD disc playable on PlayStation 3. I haven't yet managed to convince my accountant that I need a PlayStation 3 and a 1080p plasma (lesson: don't marry your accountant), but I am assured that it works.

BTW - @Apple: Get with the program and support BluRay!
 
MattDavis- The LG looks like a great deal.
Are you running the LG on the MacOS or windowsXP?
 
I have the LG blu ray burner in the PC and there was a couple of reasons why I didn't buy the external recorder. First off it didn't say it was mac compatable anywhere, and secondly I just couldn't get decent transcoding of the footage with encore cs3. Everytime I used it it transcoded the footage and it looked crap on the plasma, with jaggies along angles. Architect makes a super job of it and I just copy the finished quicktime file over from FCP to the PC and import it into Architect 5, make the dvd, it transcodes it and produces a full meued blu-ray dvd which looks spectacular.

For some unfathomable reason Apple are draging their heels with DVDSP having blu-ray compatability. It's a ridiculous situation to be in and Appple should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves in letting down even videographers who are desperate for a simple workflow which will allow blu-ray authoring which is now in demand, certainly for wedding videographers like myself.
 
:badputer:Steve, I believe you are right in pushing the blue-ray format. Here, in the US on Feb 17th 2009, television broadcast as we know it, will disapear! On Feb 18, people will turn on the TV and see static, like in the Twilight Zone, and finally come to the conclusion that something has changed. The option is to buy a digital converter for thier old TV, or replace it with a new Digital 1920x1080p flat screen plasma or DLP TV. Once the public sees the visual difference playing their sd dvd's against digital programing or cable, they will want to have a personal source for HD. In steps blue-ray and the wedding or corporate videographer with his HD disk. I think at that point the reality of HD as being permanent in the broadcast world here, will be the demise of the standard DVD. The world was not the same after the first A-bomb in 1945, and the US will not be the same after Analog broadcasting in 2009 is shut-off! -Carl
 
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Film It: Those numbers come from two highly-respected VX2000 mailing list users from Las Vegas, NV. They sell an average of 500 DVDs at $40 each at the end of each event they shoot. The math reveals the income.

Steve: I can't believe Adobe Media Encoder is giving you so many problems with picture quality. Your desciption sounds exactly like the problems I was having with Vegas 7. Poor scaling algorithms and jaggies galore on export. Since I switched to the Premiere Pro CS3, the exported footage is beautifully-anti-aliased. My SD DVDs look so good that the MAJORITY of my clients have initiated comments to the effect that they thought the DVD was somehow HD. I manage to retain sharp detail, yet it is free of jaggies (unlike what I get with HDV footage out of my V1Us.)

Carl: I'm not so optimistic about public acceptance of HD. The reason? The viewing distance. In the majority of homes, the TV is 15' away from the viewer. That means the screen would have to be 110" across to make a difference between SD and HD visible.
With upscaling DVD players doing such a good job of smoothing edges, and the resulting picture looking about as crisp as what we see in the typical downtown movie theater from 12th row center, I think many people who are not "pixel pokers" will be happy with that new look on their new HDTV. I know I was impressed the first time I saw my SD DVDs on my Oppo DV-981HD--it looked really film-like. Yes, Blu-ray is a quantum leap better, but only if you sit within 5-1/2' of your 47" screen AND have 20/20 vision. A lot of people don't, so I can't see them doing so until they believe that Blu-ray is simply better to own from a longevity standpoint, and that the prices are the same as DVD, leaving no obstacles to purchase, other than owning a BD player.
At present, with the multiple licencing for copy protection technologies in BD, that price will be in the stratosphere for some time to come.
 
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