What kinds of production do you?
 

What kinds of production do you?

Can you quickly tell us what kind of productions you do?

I'll start:
- full time
- 3 to 5 jobs a month of shooting/editing (13 to 22 days a month), plus a few days of admin/location scout/meeting
- daily flat rate, regardless of task
- One man band 95% of my time
- 80% of clients are small business owners, the remainder is mixed.

- with my consul, clients take on the role of the producer / pre production
- I do the production and post production
- I have an edit suite in a spare bedroom with CRT & a large screen panel for the client. It has a small permanently mounted background/lighting/audio recording setup
- I own my own equipment; a few cams, lots of lights & grip & audio accumulated throughout the years

Types of work I do (might not work on Chrome)
boxoutsidemediaDOTcom/our-work-1

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Full-time
Film Quinceanera's (events)
3-5 quinces a month
Single shooter. Last time shooting multi cam back in 2007

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

-"full-time" freelancer
-between 3 and 20 day a month (GOOD TIMES!)
-videographer, grip, editor, and teleprompter operator ("that's a thing?" Yes, it is).
-stay away from producing/consulting/scripting areas, come in for shooting/field work/occasional post-production aspect of production
-clients a mix of directly working with end client and working with production companies. End clients themselves can be anyone and everyone. Except weddings. Sorry wedding guys, DO NOT LIKE/DO WEDDINGS. Guess that's probably good for you, though.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

- All freelance, all the time...
- ... which means sometimes more time and sometimes less time.
- mostly 1-man band
- camera operator, videographer, gaffer, grip, sound recordist, teleprompter operator (often all at once)
- occasional editing
- 95% documentary style - traditional, talking heads, b-roll, demonstration, scientific, doc-style business profiles, etc.
- 1-2 projects a year (so far) for broadcast; majority of remainder for primary web delivery

Some samples (why not):

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Going full-time as of Feb 28th (the long awaited layoffs have come at the day job...FREEDOM!)
- Business intros, product demos, non-profit fundraising vids, public speakers so far. Would love to get into documentaries and eventually some shorts but have to get the business self-sustaining first.
- Currently have one project going and probably two more in the next month...spending a lot of time at networking meetings right now.
- Been a one-man-band 100% of the time now but occasionally get my wife to ask the interview questions so I can concentrate on the technical.
- I do everything from pre through post and make a lot of suggestions for the client on how to effectively use the finished product.
- Working on connecting with the Dallas production community to get work as a freelancer, too.
- Own my basic setup of Sony EX3 plus sound and light gear. Looking at sliders and jibs next to add production value.

Glad we have this forum now, too...I don't feel so alone:-)

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Sports, sports, and more sports for me. Lot's of athlete interviews. I do a ton of remote productions out of trucks and what not but when it's just me, I'm doing a lot of sit down interviews and such. I've recently started entertaining the idea of doing more documentary type stuff for broadcast and I love making music videos for car clubs.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I've done it all but I'll just say what I do 80% of time. I'm a specialist in conference and event capture mostly involving Rich Media Capture. Which is synchronized audio, video and power points combined in a player to give those who couldn't attend the conference or meeting an on par experience with those who did.
My company is obviously called the capture experts.
I also do live streaming of events as well. I spend my free time with photography and videotaping local bands.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Very nice work Kevin McRoberts. Very nice.
Al

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

part time (headed back to college and moving overseas soon)
sports/autosport events on contracts 25% (auto track events mostly, some sports)
commercial photography 30% (products, menu's, etc)
corporate/small business/legal photography and videography on contracts 35% (training/demo etc)
weddings/'personal' events occasionally (i actually try to avoid them or rent my gear to assistants/others and outsource it, or take a commission and give it to my partner) 10%
assistant 40-50% of the time

5-15 days a month

I also rent out my equipment when not needed, and have another job as a small business marketing/advertising consultant which ties in with photography and videography. i also work with a startup non-profit and several of their affiliates, organizations, and sponsors.

Most likely i will get out of the field in the next year or two. i actually hate weddings and personal event work, will most likely transition to corporate/small business and commercial photography only during this next college tour, and wind down before graduation as my field of study and work intentions have little to nothing to do with this field. I started out in photography, and took jobs to fund the expensive hobby, then branched into videography and again took jobs to fund gear purchases while starting a webshow (which ultimately fell apart). I haven't done much personal work in 2-3 years, and i look forwards to both skills becoming simply a hobby again.

Most of my gear is on the cheaper side (not that i wouldn't love a nice 10 bit 4:2:2 3-chip camera or two instead) because i also have an expensive hobby in sports cars and travel along with my GF, and those three always take priority over equipment.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Almost 10 years ago now, I lost my job as a TV news videographer/editor. I had a PD 150, a lighting kit, a couple microphones and FCP so out of desperation I started trying to sell my services. Some crazy times along the way, but I'm still doing it. Not a lot has changed as I'm in a small town in Alaska and have limits to how much I can grow, but I have a couple Super 35 HD cameras now, green screen, steadicam, motorized slider, and so on. Still mostly doing it all myself, usually hire an assistant about 3 or 4 times a year for big jobs. I do all the shooting, editing, lighting, sound, graphics, music and all the normal one man production company duties.

Type of stuff I do:

TV commercials
Corporate promo videos
Non Profit videos to encourage giving
Government videos. This has been a big area of growth for me. Instructional videos for
city/state to put online
Weddings/Events
Work for other production companies that need video from Alaska
Live video webcasts
Consulting/teaching for marketing departments who have never done video and
have print people suddenly charged with doing video production
Documentaries with the Forest Service
Overflow work that the local PBS station cannot keep up with.
DVD sales of local sports/events
DVD sales of my own 'Alaska style' nature films to tourists

Basically I do anything and everything video related. I rarely turn down any work if someone is
willing to pay my day rate. Some of it is really boring, but overall, it's really neat. I feel privileged
to have been able to 'create' a job out of nowhere! I'm not getting rich, but honestly it's not too bad
(it sure beats TV news pay and I work a TON less hours) and this year is looking like my best one so far.
Some months I work 15 days. Others I only work if I make projects for myself that I hope to turn into
money. I figure if I'm not getting client work, I can always create my own and try to sell it.
For examples of stuff I've done you can check out my website at:

www.gforcevideo.com

and click on the 'demos' button.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Full time for 27 years audio and video production, but last 10 years video only.

70% weddings (I love 'em) the rest a mix of multi camera school production shoots, corporate, and the odd band or choir shoot. Also work in 3d if required.

Just myself helped by my wife who now does most of the editing. We can take 2 weddings as my wife is a very competent videographer, or two cameras as neccessary. Multi camera shoots are always 2 operated and two locked down or remote control cameras. To cover most eventualities, have 5 HD cams including 1x3d, lighting, various mics wired and radio, 2 x 4channel vision mixers, 8 channel audio mixer with 8 track recording to PC and stereo mix out for cameras. 4track audio mixer with onboard usb recording, various tripods, remotes etc

Roger

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I got laid off after 30 years of work as an electronics technician, a vanishing line of work due to the price drop in electronics. Looked around and decided to turn my hobby into "bread on the table".

Got certified as a legal videographer and that's what I do for the most part, but occasionally something different pops up - a corporate conference, a church or school event.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

30 years in video-12 years before that in stills. Video work has been tons and tons of weddings (over 2000) and training vids, live event camera work (seminars and conferences) some TV work, believe it or not, lots of AV work (fairly easy work, good money) Now since I've cut down the weddings and am getting out of them I'm doing more webamerecials, promos, and starting to do legacy videos but still doing AV work. Why not. Money is money.
One man band for the most part, so it's lighting, audio, camera, editing, grip, gaffer, bottle washer and coffee getter. Oh yeah, I stick a broom up my a%^ and sweep the floors too.
Wouldn't have it any other way. My business, my rules.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Since my buddy Don has listed I figured I would add some info too.

Weekends I do weddings but the occasional one during the week as they are becoming popular due to lower prices for venues. Otherwise I do property condition reports during the week for rental properties before a new tenant moves in...usually anything between 3 and 5 shoots a week and it's great cos you work totally on your own, you terms and times. It's a bit "un-creative" as you are simply filming empty homes to show both good and bad conditions but it's real easy ..They normally take around an hour or so and no editing is needed..just one clip per room with a running commentary and dump the clips to SD DVD into a pre-made template. It's great for solo shooters as all you need is a single cam (everything is shot full wide) and I just use a lav mic on my shirt. It certainly pays the bills and the nice bit is that on a Monday morning I can wake up and watch the poor suckers fighting the rush hour traffic while I relax as I seldom start any weekday shoot before 9:30am!!

Weddings are 99% solo shoots too ..I might use an assistant in rare cases where the groom and bride are getting ready at the same time but in different locations ...so I only need her for an hour or so.

Unlike Don I'm not trying to reduce weddings as I only book one per weekend anyway (I'm lazy!) so I normally do around 30 in a season which is plenty to keep me busy.

Chris

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I just found this thread. Think it's a great idea, though I'm a bit embarrassed to list myself among so many other, more experienced contributors. I'm such a novice in comparison, to the purists out there I might even qualify as a "hack".

I got downsized from a corporate job working with mainframe systems for 28 yrs. Used severance to get a degree in Communications, majored in Public Speaking. Did some VO training, worked as a PA for a local indie, learned a lot there. Bought my first computer, software (Adobe CS2), camera (Panny HVX), and tripod w/a 401k loan. Learned to use the camera, (still learning, in fact), then worked as 3rd, 2nd, and eventually 1st/single camera. Have been working alone (with rare exceptions) and acquiring addtn'l equipment since 2006. Got one of the "certifications" for legal video, but that's a tough field to break into (at least locally).

When people ask what I do, I usually reply "No weddings, no mitzvahs, no adult content, but just about anything else". I've done some wedding work for family, and worked as "2nd unit" for another shooter on a multi-location shoot in Manhattan. (Boy, what a day that was). Primarily have done/do:
- legal (depositions, construction, DILs, and editing),
- lots of equestrian events, primarily barrel racing and English/Hunter/Jumper,
- horse-for-sale highlghts,
- lots of small-business promo web spots,
- keynote speakers at business seminars,
- local drama group performances,
- some interviews/business testimonials,
- some corporate green-screen,
- a couple of demolition derbies,
along with editing (my own footage, and others), DVD authoring/menu creation/burning/printing, some VO work, some promotional writing, DVD duplication, VHS-to-digital transfers, some still photography, slide shows. (Was real good w/PowerPoint when getting a degree, but have been away from that concentrating on video since graduating). I think I spend as much time looking for work as I do doing work. On occasion, I'll land a job where I may need an assistant for a shoot, but those are too few and too far between.
I'll occasionally rent out equipment, but only to those I know.

Am always looking for work, if you think I might be able to help, please get in touch.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I produce a fishing show in Hawaii.

After 24 years I left the newspaper business and made the transition from news photography to full-time TV production. The transition took place over many years as I was learning all about video production in small steps. But when the time came to make the jump, everything was in place. I had the right skill set and the equipment.

It's entirely a one-man band operation in the field, especially on boats where space is at a premium. I shoot, edit, write scripts and handle just about every aspect of the company incuding bookkeeping.

We have three terrific hosts and I work alongside some very nice folks whenever I need a second camera for multi-cam shoots.

A degree in journalism helps a lot when it comes to coming up with a storyline from random real-life events.

It's nice to see what others are doing. Sometimes there's a nice solution or workflow suggestion to be found. Was particularly interesting to see that the guys who shoot "Wicked Tuna" are doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing, including using the same camera, a Sony EX-1.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Corporate work, mostly 2-5 minute pieces destined for b2b sales or internet distribution.

Just finished a three-part series for ReadyOC:

Ready & Freddy Preparedness PSA - YouTube

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Five camera concert video shoots. By myself.

I carry all the equipment necessary in a custom-built backpack. Here's an example of a five camera shoot: Adele - Rolling In The Deep - Highwood School of Rock - YouTube

I have one camera set for a wide view of the whole stage, two that I control manually - one for close-ups, one for medium shots - and two on pan-tilt heads for cross angles that I control with a remote. I do a board feed, as well as a pair of audience mics, and I record audio on all the cameras to sync for edit.

After the shoot, I import all the camera videos into my editing program and do a multicam edit. I'm quite proud of my workflow, and have managed to do as many as four two-hour shows in two days, delivering all the edited masters in a week.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I do mostly documentary-style, unscripted, seated interviews to create short productions for non-profits, municipalities, and small businesses. 95% of the time, it's just me as a "one man band" on-location. Most of these short films are for the web or fundraising events, although I still dupe quite a few DVDs each year. Roughly a half-dozen times a year I'll get asked to run a 2nd camera for another producer, and this is nice to turn off the camera and collect a check, knowing I don't have to head home and edit!

I also teach about 4-6 classes a quarter at a regional, private cooperative in DSLR filmmaking and Adobe post-production software. They also line me up with one-on-one training gigs maybe a dozen times a year. I enjoy teaching, and it keeps me on my toes to always be learning something myself in order to teach it.

Just this year, I decided to pursue my passion as a historical documentary filmmaker and am self-producing a feature-length doc on a "ghost" ski area just up the road from me in the National Park. I did a bit of crowd-sourcing for it, and have raised a little over $2k so far. The premiere is scheduled for July, and would love it if I could sell out the room of 500.

YouTube Channel: BrownCow Productions - YouTube
Documentary film Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SkiHiddenValleyEstesPark

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Really interesting to read all of the varied workflows and experiences among the board members.

My situation is again, quite different!

I graduated from University in 2006 and I've since been working different jobs whilst producing video and shooting stills on the side. I currently work full time at a National Museum, which is one of my main clients for video and exhibition graphics. I've produced documentaries and gallery content for web and on site. In 2010 I worked two part time jobs, one working at the museum, and the other as camera operator for an independant TV company in the city.

I do just about everything video related, including assistant camera on narrative films, documentary for TV and music videos. I do about 2-3 projects a month for money, and there's a few in the pipeline for fun. I've just bought my first house, so I'm hesitant of going full time freelance, not until the economy improves a little at least.

I've been lucky enough to shoot on a varied range of cameras, from the PD170, EX3, HDSLRS, the RED ONE and I'm currently shooting on the Canon C100 and 7D as a b-roll camera, but I own a GoPro HD2 for anything that needs it.

I did own FCPS3 but I sold it and made a £200 profit when FCPX was released. I now own FCPX and I edit on Premiere Pro CS6 at the museum.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Test, training, product, promotional...

Omega Broadcast Group - YouTube

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I do a lot of work producing editorial-style videos for car makers. I filmed at Pike's Peak last year for Mitsubishi as they were running a pair of electric cars in the race. I shot a season of Global Rallycross for Ford, in addition to Brian Deegan and his Lucas Truck in 2011. Filmed some Drifting for Mazda last year. This season I'm mainly working on a documentary-style series that involves Subaru in addition to filming car reviews for my web/TV series Driving Sports. I also help companies with their digital distribution strategy.

For years I shot with an NX5U, which was handy but had its limits. I shot a small documentary last year with a Sony A77 as I transitioned to the FS100, which I now use as a primary camera (with an A77 as a B-Cam).

Here's a trailer for the documentary I shot with the A77. Hated having to fuss with a second sound system in the thick of things. This one was just picked up by IndieFlix.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Fun reading everyone's posts here.

I've been a weekend warrior for about 13 years now, holding down a day job as a mechanical engineer all this time. Back in the mid to late 90s when I was single, my friends and I were travelling all over the place in college and shortly after graduating. I was using my dad's 8mm camera to film our adventures. Later when we started planning bigger trips to places like New York and DC etc, I took things up a notch and plunked out the cash for a Canon GL1. A few months later, another one of us bought another GL1. Around 2000 We had a local cable access channel and thought it would be fun to try and do a comedy show to put on it so we started working on that. While working on the pilot, I got a call from another friend to help shoot a wedding. From that point on, I've never lookied back and found it's been a fun way to make some nice cash on the side.

Originally, there were 3 of us working together, but over time and life changes etc we broke the partnership up in 2008 and I've been working solo since then.

Now, all I do is weddings and some promo work for local photographers etc. Since I'm a one man show I try to keep things simple as possible. My Sony NX5U is my main camera and I've got a Canon HV40 and GoPro Hero2 that I use regularly for B roll. I also recently started using a Nikon 1 V1 as well.

I don't do anything fancy with audio, but I do use a Sennheiser ME66 and a G3 wireless system when needed. I also have a Tascam DR40 (similar to a Zoom H4) but I have yet to use it.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Mostly corporate video for the internet. Also work as camera operator or various AV jobs. Along with the higher paying corporate work, which involves a lot of time editing, I really enjoy shooting sports for a couple of established clients. Run and done plus getting paid quickly is a nice break.

Jobs with a lot of editing pay a lot more, but I get feeling cooped-up.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Documentary
Product
Advertisement

Most of my productions are solo, occasionally I'll have one assistant.

Documentary:

Demo Reel

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Dean, post collage pre-kids my wife and I lived in Hilo, HI. Loved it there, such a great place.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Philip... I was Kona just this past weekend. Did a bunch of dive surveys to get a sense of diversity and number of fish. While the "fish houses" weren't all that clear, some of the sites were amazing. I don't get to spend time in water with that kind of clarity!

Hoping to get out there more often.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Have been shooting documentary series for Discovery, Animal Planet, Nat Geo in Africa. Mainly a one man band, although I do follow subjects around. Each year I direct, shoot, edit, produce about 10 episodes. Started shooting on an Xl1s and today shoot everything on Red Epic. Most of my gear stays in Africa.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I'm a video journalist for ITV in the UK and do occasional corporate bits on the side.

At the risk of moaning, we VJs are a much-maligned species with many craft camerapeople assuming we're all incompetent morons who just put the camera on auto and can barely compose a shot...!

I hope that I do better than this (for a start, it's in full manual control and I try my damnedest to make it look nice) but I'm always keen to learn more hence popping by on this forum whenever I get a chance.

Regards
Dave

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I run a production company, mostly me day-to-day but I work with a couple of guys regularly. I mostly shoot music video and corporate video but also do live events, acting showreels and edit only jobs.

It's my full time job and has been for 5+ years. I am very lucky to have turned my hobby into my job and one I love.

I shoot Canon 5D or Sony PMW and EX cameras but am moving into RED and Alexa slowly. I edit using Premiere and I also dabble in After Effects.

I run everything from our website to taking meetings, planning projects, sourcing crew, kit, actors, props, locations to doing the invoicing, editing, final distribution to the client and so on.

I studied film at College and then Uni and then had experience running on adverts before my own short film work led to some work on my own and then I gave it a go at getting my own work and it went from there. It's tough these days and I think starting a company now would be extremely hard.

Here's our recent vlog with some examples of our work in...

Thanks
Geoff

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Exclusively high end real estate. Asked often to produce for others in the business but it's time consuming so I only do it for my own clients.

Website: Duane Adam at Sotheby's

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Shot and edited and voiced this on an iPhone:

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I do mostly music videos, audio recording and film burlesque shows.
I'm also a performing artist and DJ by accident (a 20 year long accident!).

Hope to expand the video/film parts. I like the performing arts though but there's not much money in it.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

We're pretty exclusively for weddings, which includes Save the Date videos and a photo booth. Maybe, someday, we'll move over to include other kinds of work, but we're just too green and uninformed.

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Now that sounds like fun, and something that I could branch out into from concerts. Anything to avoid doing weddings.

Since I posted back in March, I've added a pair of GoPro HD Hero 2 cameras to my kit, that I use to add some unique shots. One I particularly love is the "DrummerCam", a GoPro mounted just above the snare.


It comes in very handy, as some of the musicians I shoot are very short:

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Thought I'd chime in here...

I've been playing with cameras since I was a kid, and doing it professionally for about 4 years now. I started a small video production business in January this year with the goal of growing my client base. It's primarily just me, with a couple of local freelancers that I contract out when I need the help.

I shoot on my JVC HM600 for event work, my new Sony EA50 for real estate, interviews, etc, and a Canon XA10 and GoPro 3 when I need them. I edit on Avid Media Composer and use After Effects and Photoshop for basic gfx work.

At the moment I'm doing a lot of real estate work, as well as promotional videos, events and even a couple of short documentaries and a TV commercial.

Still learning and making mistakes every day, and my price reflects that fact. Although so far I've had 100% extremely happy clients and a lot of word-of-mouth work :) Absolutely love the work, love the industry, life is good!

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

I fall under the class of amateur. I have a day job and I do this part time.

I have created various nature/wildlife productions. Some have been larger projects over years, which I have used as part of lectures that I do about a number of topics. Other projects have been smaller films for local nature based organizations. The idea for me is to do everything from shooting, editing, scripts, voiceover and even writing and recording the music. I guess my goal is to learn and get better with every project that I do.

I have also shot some video for larger professional productions such as one entitled "The Beaver Whisperers" which appeared on Canada's premiere nature/science program; "The Nature of Things".

Re: What kinds of production do you?
 

Short Documentary
for the art

Educational and commercial (museums, pedagogy, colleges, small businesses)
for the money

Husband/Wife team, I handle technical aspects and produce and she handles conceptual and directs or co-directs our documentary work.