GH2 Who is doing Corporate Film Work on GH2? Examples?

Hi

Sorry to go a bit off this topic but I'm a happy GH2 user and I’ve potentially secured some corporate work (first proper paid project!) but I’m not sure how much/how to charge!

Please check out the following video links as examples (not my work) of the kind of video I would be asked to produce and of similar length.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH_PYWSEidA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUNOYqGK7m0

I’d appreciate any thoughts on how to charge for this type of work.

…Thanks…
 
Well, quite a while since I started this thread but just fnished shooting on location for two videos with Alex Welgraven as DP. He is a member here. I am quite pleased with his work and creative use of lenses and motion, especially for corporate.

We rented a bunch of gear (glad to have had a budget) including lite panels, ikan LED's and Ziess lenses. We shot with GH2 as main and an AF100 for integrated audio for our interviews. The AF100 was on a Kessler pocket dolly. All the B-Roll was on the GH2. I will be able to post links once editing is done.

I learned a LOT from Alex, some by just watching.
 
kujina said:
Hi

Sorry to go a bit off this topic but I'm a happy GH2 user and I’ve potentially secured some corporate work (first proper paid project!) but I’m not sure how much/how to charge!

Please check out the following video links as examples (not my work) of the kind of video I would be asked to produce and of similar length.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH_PYWSEidA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUNOYqGK7m0

I’d appreciate any thoughts on how to charge for this type of work.

…Thanks…
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First of all, congratulations. Figuring out pricing (for me, at least) is one of the hardest parts of the job. I'm just into my third year of owning my own business, and I'm sure it gets easier over time. I can't tell you what to charge without knowing detailed information (which I wouldn't encourage you to give out on a public forum). And even if I did, someone else's view might be way off from mine. It's all about finding the balance between making enough for it to be worth your time-- and not quoting so high that the client's eyes bulge at the figure and them lose interest entirely. You can always come down in price, but you can never go up (unless they later decide to add more onto the project). But you also can't just make a really high quote with the intention of coming way down because like I said before, they may lose interest with that high price.

So you've never done a paid job, right? If so, take into consideration that you need to prove yourself to this client and future clients-- and you need a reel and/ or portfolio (I wouldn't use that word, though). I'm assuming you already have video work to show, but you need PAID completed work to show, too. So don't cut yourself short, but keep it reasonable.

Some things to consider:

The size of your city. I'm in a medium sized city. An hour or so from Atlanta, but not close enough to be considered "Metro Atlanta". So if you're working in Atlanta, Chicago, NYC, etc., you should be charging more than someone in a medium sized city. Base this on where your client is located, not where you are. The Nielson list of TV market size is actually a good way to base this. Even though this isn't news, and may not even be something that is shown as a local TV commercial-- it's still a good thing to take into consideration. Like Atlanta is #9, but my city is in the 100-teens (110 - 119). By the way, I don't mind someone knowing where I am on here-- I just don't like writing forum posts with my city name where it could come up in a Google search for someone looking for someone to hire for a job in my city. So I'd appreciate anyone respecting that if you know where I'm talking about.

Do you need a teleprompter? That's more work and you have to rent it or make a solution (I'd try a tablet setup before renting one of the old beasts). Plus you need a PA that you should pay.. well you don't NEED one, but it would be helpful with a prompter. You probably don't need a teleprompter, though.

How many days of shooting will you have to do?

What's the final length? Sometimes people base their price on $x per finished minute. If it's a basic set of interviews, mixed with some broll, you might try $100 per finished minute. So 4 mins-- $400. DON'T tell the client that you're quoting them on this factor. Otherwise, you'd eventually get a sociopath that asks you to make a revision that shortens the video, and then only want to pay you $200 for those two minutes, even though you did the same amount of work, plus a little more.

(Related advice: try to avoid working for sociopaths. They're hard to spot at first, but you eventually become good at seeing the signs.)

Will there be any graphics work required, other than the basic stuff? If so, that's more money.

And depending on what your current equipment is, you may need to rent or buy new stuff. If you're renting, make sure you're not going to end up taking a loss or not make much. If you're buying, it's ok to take a loss or not make much as long as it's equipment you can use on future jobs.

And you have to consider who/ what the business is-- how much they can afford, how big they are, etc.

Try not to give a price-- even an estimation-- while in person or over the phone. Tell them you'll go to your office and write up a quote and email it to them. Write up the proposal of the job (scope of project), with specifics on how the project is planned to be and work. Put your business information at the top.. it doesn't have to be fancy letterhead, but put that at the top. Then put the clients name and info. Then put the scope and any other pertinent information. Then put the quote/ price at the bottom. If you're in person and the price is spoken, it can become like working with a car dealer or a pawn shop and they try to talk you down. When it's on paper (or a digital document, any way), it carries more weight. They may still need you to come down, which is fine for them to ask, but at least it's not a haggle then.

I hope something here was helpful. PM me if you have any questions you think I could help with.

Oh, and don't get discouraged when a potential client decides not to have you do the job, whether it's because of price or if they decide to use someone else. I don't know what my ratio is, but if you only get one job out of every four that you meet over and quote-- in my opinion, that's quite good.
 
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Here is a non HD screen capture from vimeo on one of our upcoming corporate videos. Shot with GH/Zeiss f1.4 85

Screen Shot 2012-10-06 at 12.04.19 PM.jpg
 
This was shot on a GH2 along with a 7D and a T2i (ironically as it's about using a 'camcorder'):


-Noah
 
So would promotional work for a college/ university count? If so, I can post some of my stuff.
 
Inprogress said:
My word, it is amazing how many of you do corporate work for internal only videos. Yeah....flabbergasted.
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To be honest there are a lot of things that are just well... purpose driven. That's a good way to say it. ;) They are really just talking heads intro pieces to websites or videos embedded into SCORM compatible e-learning courses. I get paid to do it and the client is happy with it, it serves its purpose. But it's not some whiz bang kind of piece you're going to go show everyone.

There are also a lot of videos I've shot in the past that are no longer used by the client. So putting them up and displaying them now may not jive well with the client. Especially if it was for a limited promotion period.

But I did highlight one project I did here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?283516-DSO-Behind-the-Scenes&highlight=

The first interview was shot on a hacked GH1. Everything else an XHA1.

Just for fun, here is one I shot on a Nikon D7000:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_2Hfr8WvY

It's not always under our control. For instance I'm under contract by a company that the client hires. So I'm not hired directly by the client. Which makes it even more difficult to get clearance for showing stuff because you have to go through two entities above you. And you never get credit personally.
 
My word, it is amazing how many of you do corporate work for internal only videos. Yeah....flabbergasted.
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it's big business. especially here in the oil and gas biz in houston. you show the wrong clip without asking client approval first and at best you may lose that client or worst - get sued.
 
Inprogress said:
My word, it is amazing how many of you do corporate work for internal only videos. Yeah....flabbergasted.
Click to expand...

Actually, I wasn't thinking of one of my jobs as being internal use only at first, but now that I think about it, it really is. I'm on a retainer for a weekly job that is multiple videos, each of which just goes to a single person, and aren't publicly viewable. I also do lots of public promotional material for them. But the internal one is where I make the most with them.


Heartfelt said:
Cool, Noah.


Brandon, i would love to see it.
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Ok, cool. :)

(Standard disclaimer: Even though it's plain to see watching the video, please don't post any specific names of people or organizations involved in the video. I don't want any of my forum posts appearing in related Google searches. Thank you.)


Pretty standard, quick interview, quick b-roll I did last week. I enjoy these. I had just gotten my ePhoto 900 LED. In this bright room with big windows that let a lot of sun in, it just was a little bit of a hairlight is all. It's a beautiful room that is great for the camera with a lot of different angle possibilities. But the echo is really bad. The music helps, but only to a certain degree. I keep saying we're going to stop using this room, but it's just so beautiful and accessible. There was only so much b-roll I could get in the time we had, so I edited in a 720p timeline and did a digital zoom to cover what would have been a jump cut in a couple of places. I have a big ENG camera, but don't like bringing it for quick shoots for a two cam setup. But when I get my GH3, I'm going to keep the GH2 in the bag, and then on one interview shoots, I can do a two cam with matched style and then I can edit much more easily.

Here's one that was part of a larger series. It was more documentary style and I hadn't had the camera for very long and only had my kit lens and 20mm. I wasn't happy with a lot of my shots. Didn't have enough light in a lot of parts, had some white balance issues, and audio issues because I don't have a wireless and didn't at the time have a boom and couldn't get a PA that day, any way. My wired lav wouldn't have been practical. So with all of those things that I was trying to make better in post, I was later than I should have been getting this one finished. I was confident with the rest of the project, but this one was the one I was regretting showing the client. I was there when he reviewed it, and he didn't see the bad things that I saw, he absolutely loved the content and it was his favorite out of the entire series. So, strive for the best, but it's not always about having the perfect image.

Similar story on this one:

This one is more recent with my 50mm. Didn't have a chance for b-roll, but with three interviews, it's easy to edit. I take all my good sound bites and put them in the timeline. Then I start putting them together in a way that makes it seem like all of the people are almost like having a complete conversation/ telling a whole story. That has kind of become my specialty.
 
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