On making money with the DVX

P

PaulK

Well-known member
I was wondering if anybody could please recommend some good books on how to make money using the DVX (or any camcorder, of course)? In particular, books that explain how to get started shooting things like corporate films, television commercials, even weddings, preferably with info on the ins and outs of the business side of things.

Also, how viable is a career as a videographer? Has anyone in this forum successfully transitioned from amateur to pro?

Thanks! :)
 
Re: On making money with the DVX

www.weva.org is the source for all things wedding and event related (events would include things like retirement parties, bat mitzvahs, etc).

Freelance shooters usually get around $85 to $100/hr around here, editing and duplication is more. Commercials and corporates are a tough business to get into, it's probably easier to start out by going after weddings and by trying to get yourself hired as a shooter by an established prodco.

I've seen this advertised too, but I know nothing about it, so it's just a mention, not an endorsement:
http://videouniversity.com/50web.htm
 
Re: On making money with the DVX

Thanks Barry, I'll check those sites out. :)

Does anyone have any books they can recommend? And I'm still curious if anyone on this forum has made the successful transition from video hobbiest to professional videographer. If so, I would welcome any and all sage advice. Thanks!
 
Re: On making money with the DVX

Again, depends on what kind of work you want to do. If you want to tape events (like weddings and bat mitzvahs) then yes, there are dozens and dozens of professional videographers in basically every city, getting anywhere from $500 to $3500 per event.

There are so many ways to get hired: you can shoot Video News Releases, you can get hired to shoot news for a TV station (although usually that's pretty cheap labor as far as wages go), you can get hired to shoot specific events like sports tryouts... about six years ago when I had a yellow pages ad, people would call all the time wanting to get someone to videotape their student athlete, for college scholarship purposes, so they'd want you to go and tape their kid pitching a baseball to show their pitcher's form, etc., which they could then send to the coach at the university... The going rate at the time was $85 to $100/hr, I never did any of these so I don't know how much business there is in it, but obviously it's seasonal, summer is the busy time when people are getting their kids ready for college.

You can tape corporate parties -- at Westwood we'd hire videographers to tape our corporate anniversary parties and special events. Those guys got maybe $500 to $1000 per event.

You can try your hand at producing commercials, infomercials, and corporate films. I've done tons of this, there can be some real money in it but you've really got to be good and really have your act together.

You can try producing special-purpose TV shows, like for lawyers, real estate agents, and car dealers. I've done some of that, it's a bit of work but it can be steady and can really grow into something big.

If you live in a music city like Nashville or L.A., etc., you can try making music videos for bands and record labels. Here in Vegas I've done a couple of entertainer demo reel tapes, there can be decent money in that if you're good at it. Especially when they need to order more tapes, I think I made about 200 copies for one of the guys, at $10 each... blank tape stock plus label and sleeve was about a buck, so that's $1800 profit for pressing "play" and "record" on a bunch of decks repeatedly.

When I first started in video I used to tape kids' school band concerts, figuring "parents got bucks and will spend 'em on their kids", so we'd go to middle schools (biggest bands, don't you know) and set up three cameras and make a really slick tape, and donate part of the proceeds to the school so we could market it as a fundraiser. Cleared over $3000 at one concert, others were as low as $1000. Not bad for an hour's shooting, but post was a lot of work (three-camera edit) and then duping tapes... ugh... 175 copies of an hour-long show takes a while. The key to landing those jobs was that we wouldn't charge the school a penny. Lots of vidoegraphers would go in and say "give us $500 and we'll tape your concert", and then you'd see what they'd do: you'd see some lazy slob parked on a chair with a cheapo Velbon tripod and a bogus S-VHSC camera that he'd pan back and forth. Horrible. We'd go in with three cameras, two on tripod and one on a steadicam Jr., and we wouldn't charge the school a dime, in fact we'd GIVE the school money if they'd help promote the video (which they were all too happy to do, they'd send flyers home with the kids and they'd call it a fundraiser, which it was... beats buying them overpriced candy bars, right?) We'd sell the tapes at $20 apiece, keep the first $1500 and give the school 50% of any tape sales beyond that. Gave one school $1200 cash ... not bad, paid for their music for the whole year, and we walked away with a decent chunk of change too.

For a beginner, learn to shoot, and do stuff like the school band concerts and low-buck weddings, that's probably the easiest stuff to get hired for. That and photo montages -- everyone wants those still-photo montages where you set photos to music, add some motion and zooms to the photos and lots of transitions. Easy (but tedious) work, and you can get $2 to $4 per photo.

Anyway, there's some stuff to get you started. I don't know how out-of-date that info is, I haven't done most of it in years, I do primarily commercials, corporate films and TV shows now, none of which I'd classify as "videography"... so hopefully someone else who's currently working as a videographer will write in and fill in the blanks and update as to current business climate.
 
Re: On making money with the DVX

www.tvgigsonline.com

A lot of the freelancers at my TV station use MiniDV cameras. One guy has 2 XL1's he uses. The other guys use other MiniDv cameras but their work looks just like BetaSp a lot of times it looks better!
 
Re: On making money with the DVX

Thanks, BG, that was a lot of useful info! :)

And thanks for the link, DVX100Shooter. I'll check it out.

Gabe: Ah yes, I can dream. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top