Recomendations for "quick" videograpghy?

S

Snapper123

Well-known member
Hey guys, I really plan on building my business from the ground up, and since I have very little equipment, I plan on earning my starting income by advertising specifically for "quick videos" (mainly for the businesses and folks that need a cheap, quick, simple video for Youtube but don't want to search far or pay hundreds of bucks.)

So first off, what do you think I should charge? Obviously minimum wage is around $8, but since I'll be specializing in quick, easy shoots for the clients, (and will only be doing a few shoots a day) I feel like the product should cost more as education and work does go into my passion for videograpghy the other 10 hours of the day that involve things beyond specifically the shooting time. As a guess, I'd personall charge $35 for any type of quick Youtube video, with a $5 add-on each for any specialty shots or specialty editing.

And since I have a T2i, should I advertise that the product is 1080p, or should I be more honest with clients and say that that only 720p can be pulled out of the final product? One look at any of these "1080p" videos show where they are incredibly blurry; I'd rather a client be "wow'd" by a 720p video full-rez than view a full-rez 1080p clip and them ask what's wrong with it. What should I do?

Also, if my starting videos are truly just "blog video" type shoots, would the on-board mic be useable enough to at least earn enough money to buy a decent mic? As it is, I'm just trying for a quick, hand-it-right-to-the-client product, and as long as the person is up close, shouldn't it be "okay"?
 
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I see a couple of flags here.

One, you're going to be lowballing video production in your area. That's a great way to draw loads of animosity from other videographers and production companies. That can hurt your business.

Two, don't back yourself into a corner. Okay, so you only have the camera. Charge a fair rate for your talent (assuming, and this is not a personal slam at all, that you have the talent to back up your price). If you are limited by the gear you own, rent the rest that you need per project and pass that rental cost on to the client.

You might think that starting off with an $8/hr. project base using just your camera and the terrible in-camera audio is a great way to start, but it screws the market and produces sub-par content at the same time. That will come back to bite you later when you decide you're in a better spot with better gear, and all your clients are suddenly dissatisfied with the fact that you won't charge peanuts to churn out low-quality videos anymore. And what will you do to replace your clients? Your reel certainly won't have anything worthwhile on it because you've been making, essentially, Flip videos the whole time. You'll have built a (cheap) brand that you don't intend to keep, and a client base that won't stick around... so you'll be building your business from scratch for a second time.

And $35 for a web promo? You'll spend that on gas just getting to and from the shoots, and lunch in between. There's no gain in that.

This doesn't mean that you're completely on the wrong track, though. There's always a way to work with smaller-budget clients. Just be sure that you are offering them a more affordable taste of bigger budget production without lowballing the fair market value of the service. You can rent audio and lighting gear for a very reasonable rate as needed, and you'll give those clients reason to consider investing in something better when you can offer it.
 
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Yah, big problems are that if you start out insanely cheap not only will you piss off every other videographer around you but you will forever cement yourself in that price range with your clients. I agree with c2v, if you have the talent to make the videos charge what other videographers are charging and just rent the equipment that you are lacking. That way you will start off in the right price range and decrease the tension between you and the others in that market in your area.
 
You shouldn't be afraid to piss off other videographers by offering low rates- they're your competition. $35 is just insane though. Do you have any links to previous work? If you're editing I wouldn't go below $200, and that's on the extreme extreme low end. Also, when dealing with a flat rate like this be sure to agree on a number of revisions before you even sit down to cut. I've found the clients that pay the least and lowball at every corner are also the ones always demand the most. If you don't protect yourself beforehand, that could mean 10+ revisions for no additional money.
 
In my experience, no one will take you seriously at that price.
People expect to get what they pay for, and if you are too cheap real clients will assume you don't believe enough in your products (which may be true for all we know).

I've worked with many videogeaphers in the past, even on "cheapo YouTube" projects, and even the cheap ones charge more than that just to show up.
 
nicksnow said:
You shouldn't be afraid to piss off other videographers by offering low rates- they're your competition. $35 is just insane though. Do you have any links to previous work? If you're editing I wouldn't go below $200, and that's on the extreme extreme low end. Also, when dealing with a flat rate like this be sure to agree on a number of revisions before you even sit down to cut. I've found the clients that pay the least and lowball at every corner are also the ones always demand the most. If you don't protect yourself beforehand, that could mean 10+ revisions for no additional money.
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Pissing off competitors because you do better work or you charge a little less is one thing.....charging $35 for a shoot and edit is completely different, it is damaging to the industry. As stated by someone earlier ESPECIALLY if you are doing editing as well I would be charging AT LEAST a few hundred dollars. And even that can be really cheap depending on the project.
 
If I was looking for someone to shoot something, I would be VERY wary of the person offering to do it for $35. Most of these company's will have a budget, so you should charge what you deserve for your talents. If you don't have any work to show, offer to do one video for a company on spec. They only pay if they like and want to use the end product.
 
If you want to work that low to build up a resume if anything just do it for Free. This way you are working with people for Free and when you do charge, you charge them accordingly. EVERYONE has done a free project, but charge very low will only be impossible to raise your prices.



I once did a project for $350 and the second time around I charged that same person $1000. It was very hard to convince them to pay more for essentially the same job. Lessons learned is do it for Free or charge your price, NEVER charge to low because it will only hurt you in the end.
 
Aside from pissing off videographers (it attracts pissy people and isn't that tight) , I agree with everything said.
You won't build a business, you'll just flop around like a fish in the bottom of a boat, screw up a lot of customers, develop a reputation as a joke or scammer and just make it harder for everyone trying to make living in a business that's already too full of details.

You simply can't make a profit with that structure.
 
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