Why Did i Choose video as a business

S

sadude

Active member
This is such a hard medium to sell. There are not so many people out there that want video, it's difficult to keep this profession sustainable.

Today i tried to give a video "FOR FREE" in exchange for the guy keeping it on his website, the thinking being that allot of his customers find him through the web and his customers are also my type of customers as he is in the signage industry.

After two hours of filming he starts getting all paranoid and telling me that video doesn't help sell business and he thought it would just take half an hour or so.

cold calling/warm calling and networking does not work. The only work i really get is through the website but it seems everyone is competing against my website now.
 
I don't know the S. African market, but it's very competitive pretty much everywhere now that camera gear is so cheap. Everybody and their brother has a dslr, and is a "dp". It drives me crazy, I love filmmaking, but to sustain my life, I have another business, and teach film on top of that. So yeah, it's a hard sale. I think now with the internet becoming the main source of entertainment, there will always be work, but it's hard to lock it down with so much competition. I can only hope that some of these wanna be production co. go under and return the market back to the pros.
 
maranfilms said:
I don't know the S. African market, but it's very competitive pretty much everywhere now that camera gear is so cheap. Everybody and their brother has a dslr, and is a "dp". It drives me crazy, I love filmmaking, but to sustain my life, I have another business, and teach film on top of that. So yeah, it's a hard sale. I think now with the internet becoming the main source of entertainment, there will always be work, but it's hard to lock it down with so much competition. I can only hope that some of these wanna be production co. go under and return the market back to the pros.
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Anyone can afford digital production gear and all the tutorials you need to get good with it are online. There is an endless supply of new young smart people that are interested in video production. It's never going back to the old days when you had to invest in equipment most people couldn't afford and there were few places where you could learn how to use it. You will always be competing wiht a 25 year old that has a 5d Mark something and has done all the youtube tutorials and read all the manuals and has access to a copy of Adobe Master Suite.

Welcome to 2013.
 
maranfilms said:
I don't know the S. African market, but it's very competitive pretty much everywhere now that camera gear is so cheap. Everybody and their brother has a dslr, and is a "dp". It drives me crazy, I love filmmaking, but to sustain my life, I have another business, and teach film on top of that. So yeah, it's a hard sale. I think now with the internet becoming the main source of entertainment, there will always be work, but it's hard to lock it down with so much competition. I can only hope that some of these wanna be production co. go under and return the market back to the pros.
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i think i need to get another small business on the side as well. something that not every one else can do
 
They need to learn the business, work on some projects, intern, get a grasp of how things work. I have no issue with those that want to learn, otherwise I wouldn't teach filmmaking, but there's lots and lots of people out there that buy a camera, post an ad that their a pro dp, then undercut the market. Yeah in time they usually weed themselves out, but it still has residual effects. It's like when the neighbor kid buys a second hand lawnmower, then put flyers in mailboxes stating their a professional landscaper, in time they can be, but you don't start off as a pro because you bought a lawnmower.
Anyone can afford digital production gear and all the tutorials you need to get good with it are online
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I agree that there's lots of great tutorials on line, but there's no substitute for experience. You can watch and read all day long, but if you don't put that knowledge to use, it will only help so much, and thats what I'm getting at, The only way to become a pro is to work in the field, execute your knowledge into real world experience. Like I said, everyone is a newb at some point, the difference is some newbs continue to learn till they move up to the pro category, some give up before it can happen happens. That's all i'm saying.
 
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I got into video work because the bottom fell out of the still photo market once professional digital cameras became relatively cheap. When all we had was film and polaroids, you had to be pretty damn good to make a great photograph, as there was no room for mistakes. Digital cameras and Photoshop changed all of this.

The main bright spot for me with video, is that it's not easy to be really good at everything ( camera, lighting, sound, directing, writing, producing, etc... ) so I was able to translate most of my professional photo skills to video, and then went through a big learning curve with audio and post-production.

The one area that I am still quite bad at is marketing and self-promotion, which is something I am actively working on fixing. ( it was the curse of my photo career too, as I loved production but hated the business end of things )
 
mcgeedigital said:
http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2013/08/01/how-to-succeed-as-a-creative-long-term-know-your-c-o-d-b/
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Damn. Those numbers, facts & figures make my head spin. I've come to the personal conclusion that freelance is a tough nut to crack. I'm better off working for someone else and collecting a paycheck. Honestly, I'll take a lower rate of pay provided it's stable. I don't have the business savvy or patience waiting for slow clients to pay up.

The best possible scenario (for me) is "both worlds" ie, have steady income, but the flexibility to take on freelance projects that pay wonderfully. I'm still trying to work out that balancing act.

OTOH......

This is such a hard medium to sell. There are not so many people out there that want video, it's difficult to keep this profession sustainable.
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I beg to differ. I have found plenty of work in recent years. It is all about what you want to shoot, who you know and dealing with clients. And we've talked about it recently, but I think the demand for quality video is on the rise. The young kid with the DSLR & laptop may be talented, but there's more to it than just that.*

To the OP: if business has dried up, a change of location might be in order, which can be a hard fact to process. I don't know your story though. Just network with successful people, thats my closing thought.
 
mcgeedigital said:
http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2013/08/01/how-to-succeed-as-a-creative-long-term-know-your-c-o-d-b/
Click to expand...
i know im in sa and money here is completely different to the states, not only the exchange value but also the earning value. those values seem really high, the higher you charge the less days you work and work drps off very quickly when the price is high. if i had to be realistic with the charges i think i would be the most expensive video guy in town. although that doesnt mean its wrong it just might mean this business is not a money maker
 
he following is based on a true story (actually this is exactly what happened)

So im going to see a client about a possible shoot and the security guard recognizes me. He usually does a breath test for alcohol at the gate but this time he didn't which was weird. He comes up to me and says "Hay you do the photo stuff, I want to do photo and video things too, but i looked at the cost of the equipment and it is too expensive, what do you do with your old equipment".

Am i allowed to swear? This is the security guy who now wants in on the action, he has no training, no experience and i don't even think he is educated. This really did happen today.
 
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