Is there any job security working in video?
 

The following question has been riddling me for several days now and I'm torn- your opinions are needed. Do you think there is any job security making a living with video work? The reason I ask is it is becoming easier and easier for one to get started in the business and produce video that is fairly good even at a beginner's level. A double-edged sword as I am glad I have been able to learn and begin. But also worry-some as I can see how easy it would be for others to do the same as well. Quality equipment is now affordable. Even consumer cameras are becoming respectable... I have a cousin who is not even through with grade school who can edit with movie maker. Yes, windows movie maker is super easy to learn but you see where I am going with this. I'm thinking about five years from now when who knows what is available to the masses. Will this negate the need for our type? Or is there enough to go around? On a positive note video is going in different directions and subsequently new work has been created- the internet for example. I'd like to hear what you all think. Has this crossed your mind?

job security? whaddat?

I feel like I should be more specific. One can employ themselves so it's not like getting fired is a worry. Rather the fact that it seems there could be 8 million videographers in a year and therefore no work.

Don't quit your day job! Although Tom Clancy didn't quit selling insurance until HUNT FOR RED OCT. hit big. : )

Brandon,

I have shared your concern as well. You are correct that descent quality equipment is coming down in price and that more people have access to it and along with that more avenues are opening up. I guess the way I look at it is most industries are flooded with people competing for work. The video industry was maybe not as bad because of the cost of the equipment, now that is changing. But the one thing that isn't changing is the way you succeed. Which is being better than the next guy and treating your customers right. Just because someone can plop down 3K and get a camera does not make them good nor does it assure they are going spend the time it takes to get really good. I think in any industry the people who truely succeed are the ones who love what they are doing and take the time to get really good at what they are doing. If you love it who cares how many people are doing it...you will do it anyway and that tends to lead to sucess.

My two cents anyway.

What are you "torn" about? There is as much job security in freelance video work as there is in any other kind of creative, work-for-hire industry. It's not for the faint of heart. If you want a more traditional job still working in video, with a position and salary and benefits, those jobs exist too, you just have to find them and possibly relocate.

I'm not worried about spiffy cameras and entry level software taking away market share from professionals, because there's so much more to this work than just being able to hit "record" or burn a DVD on your computer. As long as people are demanding compelling video content there will be work for dedicated professionals.

If you can make decent videos and market yourself successfully in an area with a large population you may find plenty of work, but competition is making it difficult to charge a fair price. Plus most people don't have any clue how much work goes into making a good video after the initial recording is done, so they often don't understand why video costs so much. It's a tough business with lots of potential but plenty of risk too, so the advice "don't quit your day job" is a good one until you get a better sense what's possible.

The only job security is to be absolutely brilliant, and even then it's iffy.

There are no "safe" jobs anymore.

It's not unknown for large companies like Boeing to lay off thousands of workers at the stroke of a pen.

Even in the newspaper industry where I was employed, a job at a major daily in town meant "employment for life". Not anymore.

Now that I'm freelancing here's the issues to face:

Find a way to rise above the rest. Graphic artists worried that the advent of desktop publishing would put them out of work. But I told friends who were doing that kind of work that the amateurs who created horrible newsletters with crooked lines will now be creating horrible newsletters with straight lines. You still need a designer. And with advances in video technology it's the same way. You still need a good production crew.

Getting called for work. There's some agreement among those in the industry here in Hawaii that those who work well with others are more likely to get called than more talented folks who are a pain in the butt. It's probably the same elsewhere.

Developing a show. If you can sell the idea of people giving you money for your product, you're going to do well. If not, then you won't.

Partners. It's all fine and dandy until you run into a disagreement. And if you don't have an operating agreement -- well, that will be a problem. Take it from someone in that exact situation right now. Get your expectations in writing and have them sign it in indelible ink with witnesses. You might be good friends now but you'd be surprised at what can make some people crumple.

After a quarter century in a large company and a few years as an independent here's my take: You can get a job in a "safe" place and that's OK if you can accept corporate boundaries. Or you can take a major gamble and do what you think is worthwhile and reap the benefits. Thrash in the lows and revel in the highs.

If it doesn't work out, you can always find some other line of steady employment. Be a welder for the federal government at a shipyard. Become an active member of the stevedore union -- some of those guys get six-figure salaries!!! But if you have the skill and willingness to take control of your own destiny, then by all means do so.

Most of all, never be afraid to fail a few times. Learn from your mistakes. Plan well. And go forth with intent.

And for chrissakes have fun with it! :-)

The camera and lens part of video production is quickly becoming a commodity. One sure sign: trade school TV ads promising a career in video production ("You like to watch TV? Why not make your passion a career! Enroll in our video production school today kids!").

The money, and what job security there is to be had (not much), is in the control of rights. And it does not hurt to be brilliant.

Having run a company, worked for myself and worked for a large company (which I do now) I can say none of them come with security. However, working for yourself or running a small to medium sized company means at least you call the shots and can see things coming. My background previously besides chemistry \ biology was in both photography and computing. I ran the technical side of a decent sized hosting company and I saw the market turning from needing 50k to even think about starting anything serious to kids being able to start a company on paper route money. Their formula was simple, buy a server, buy in some talent to dig them out of trouble when it did occur and oversell. They simply didnt have business plans. However, I got out of that market at the right time. Photography, the drop in the price of decent kit has meants that yes it is cheaper to get the kit, however, you cannot buy in the skill without turning yourself into a middleman. Yes people have more expensive cameras at home, loads of people have dslr's with half decent lenses and take them along to weddings. Thing is theres always a professional photographer there being paid big bucks. Sure the odd guest gets the bride to thinking why pay when uncle fred had a canon eos big tonka until he gets the shots back and the dress is gray and theres no definition in the highlights and her teeth show nicotine stains.
Kit is only part of the story, I'm playing about with video and my dads wedding is coming up in two months, I have no objections to photographing it, thats my game, but I wouldnt dream of shooting the video.
I understand your concerns, and to some degree you will lose a bit of business at the lower end of the market, but seriously, if you have talent and a bit of luck you will get by and eventually do quite well. Cheap kit does not mean.
In all the years I was shooting the best shots I ever took (and I would rate my skill as mediocre \ competant) were taken whilst on holiday with a canon 10d (maybe 1200 bucks?) and a sigma 28-300mm f6.3 lens (about 90 bucks off fleabay) which was without a doubt the worst lens known to man (only benefit was weight and zoom range). I got asked at short notice to cover an event for a hotel on a beach at sunset in hawai'i. Because I had half a clue how to work around the mediocre kit I got some shots I loved, so good kit does not equal good results. Give me a video camera and I would probably film the sand and the lens cap and drop it in the ocean with nerves. The same will happen to all the guys who run out and buy a hv20 and all of a sudden are wedding videographers. Three bad jobs and they will give up and go home.
At the end of the day your talent will be your job security. If you arent talented you simply won't last, if you are it will take a while for you to build up your reputation and client base, then when you have a mature business you will be fine. Just don't lose heart in the lean patches, they happen to everyone, just flip burgers a while till it picks back up.

My Advice..........

Dont make it a full time job if you have a family, or a mortage. I just came off of decade in the music recording industry and at the end, no matter how "brilliant" i was, Business was slowing becuase Companies were making software so affordable and easy to use that artists started realizing that for the money, they could buy gear and do it themselves anytime they wanted. What is killing the industry is software that not only gives you the recording basics(8tracks) but loops of royalty free beats to use so there goes the producer. now Im new to video, but I wont quit my day job even though i have a gig to shoot almost every weekend. Its great xtra cash, love doing it but I would need to feel secure enough to leave a job that i know will pay me at the end of the week. wife, kids and mortage!

Harsh, but here's the reality as I see it.

As a rule, it's difficult to work with people who fret overmuch about anything - including their so called job security.

The people who others can't wait to work with are the people who walk in, exhibit competence, humor, ease, and confidence.

And nearly everyone I know who exhibits these qualities do so because they at some point got over thinking about "if" and changed their heads to start planning for "when"

I know it's hard when you're starting out. It's SUPPOSED to be hard. If you make it PAST all the hard stuff, BINGO you're a professional. If you don't, you're not.

The irony is that people who spend too much time thinking about "job security" are precisely the ones who hardly ever have any.

For what it's worth.

It might seem like it, but think about this...

Many years ago, I heard a motivational speaker refer to a business plan that looked like it was the best thing since sliced bread. A mathematician analyzed this business plan, and decided that since it was so good, literally everybody would be involved in a very short time, leaving nobody to be the customers. Now, if this were true, you and I would both currently be involved in that business, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Like I said, just something to think about. Really, I think if you have good work ethics, you’re honest in your dealings and you do a good job, you’ll have plenty of work now, and in the future. Like someone else said, it can’t hurt to be brilliant!

Mark

Here's the way I see it,

There are different levels of video production, as a videographer.

I straddle them, at a low level.


You have videographers who are also their own production company, and deal directly with a client (e.g. if Joe's Cars wants a commercial, you write a script, shoot it, edit it, etc.).

You also have videographers who never deal with the client (original client, that is) directly, and whose clients are production companies.

I do both.

Now, the guys that deal directly with clients, like wedding videographers, are the ones who compete with all the newbies buying gear and putting themselves out there. The ones working for production companies really don't, because no production company of any repute is gonna hire someone who just up and bought a camera. The people they hire will have reels and established levels of work that they can provide. If you happen to be one of these videographers, then even some guy who just started, bought his own gear and offering low rates (or works for free) isn't going to sway a production company from using the DPs/Videographers they've been trusting for years, 'cause they know it'd be a bad idea. Only people who don't know better will see the better rate and jump on it without doing research.

In a way, a freelancer has MORE job security than someone who works as a staffer/fulltime for a production company, in that if you work at one place and lose your job, that's it, you're unemployed. If you're a freelancer with a stream of multiple, steady clients (this takes a while, though), and one drops you, you still have the others, and you'll pick up new ones. The downside is how long it takes to get to a steady client base.

Another thing is to diversify. For instance, I shoot, teleprompt, occasionally grip, and very occasionally edit. The more you do, the more clients you can have, as they'll need for you different things, instead of just one. Some people, of course, just want to do one thing, and that's fine, it's just going to be harder to find work that way.

Here's my .02

In the early 90's I went to Vancouver film school in the evenings and then started taking time off my regular job to work on commercial productions. One of my instructors was a fairly steady working DOP, and I had some other contacts. The commercials were great because they generally were only a day or 3 at a time. The time came though where I had to make a decision to work in production or keep my job (paying 40k back in the day). I asked my DOP friend what he thought, he said if you want to work in production, you've gotta 'wait tables', 'drive a cab', or do whatever to make ends meet between gigs.

Well, I decided to play it safe, and just did film/video on the side. Got married, bought a house, had kids... video work started to become less and less a priority. Then 2 years ago, I realized that I wasn't living the life I wanted to live. After 20 years, I realized my supposed 'secure' job wasn't, and I was really pretty miserable. So I started making plans, and a year ago got back into video in a big way.

Now, I'm still working my job, and running a fledgling production company, but I'm really stoked everyday about being able to be creative, expressive and sometimes even relevant.

My goal is to be financially self-sufficient in Video, though I love to make (non-paying) socially conscious films.

There's an old saying, 'If you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life.'

I think that what might be throwing you is the fact that this isn't just a localized professional shift, at least not in my view, but a real cultural shift. It occurred to me at some point that what all this "democratization of technology" stuff was really contributing to was the development of a new literature, a new kind of letters. This might sound a bit grand but I think it's on point. How many hours a day does the average Joe spend watching moving images as opposed to reading books? We all know the answer to that one. This is the medium through which most of our information is received. This is something that has been ingested, absorbed, a visual and audio "language" that has been learned by several generations. It's only natural now that when people go to communicate that this would be a language many would choose to use. If a picture is worth a thousand words consider thirty per second combined with sound.

I don't know exactly when it was that scribes began to hit the unemployment lines. I can imagine them carping about the ready availability of paper and pencils and education. No one needed them anymore to sign for them, write their love letters, or take care of business records. But did the art of writing disappear? Obviously not.
No one needs a videographer or film maker to take care of the ordinary things anymore. That's history. Do they and will they still need artists and professionals to take care of the more demanding tasks? Of course. Will there be jobs for moving image workers? Yes, if they're up to the task. Will there be job security? Fergedaboudit.

This may be only tangentially related to the question, but take it as you wish.

A friend of mine gets occasional pieces of work as assistant to local videographers. As a result, he's seen some interesting (and apparently successful) business models.

There's a fellow in my area who tapes local 'color guard' events - the young women who twirl the batons and catch them? He then sells the dvds to the parents who are there watching their kids. When I first heard this, I thought 'oh, a parent hires him to come with his camera' but I found out later he just shows up. No editing whatsover, no closeups, just a big wide shot. Parents are apparently happy to part with $ to get a video of this.

Also, another fellow cold calls local businesses and convinces them how much a promotional video will help their business. Apparently, he's been doing it successfully for years.

I'm posting it here because it struck me how creative and determined people can find niches where they can make a living. I'm not a full time videographer either, so take whatever I say with a plus-size grain of salt.

But I do feel inspired when I think it's possible to create your own opportunity.

In this biz, it is a trade off. The more job security you have, the less money you make. I ONLY do freelance work for other people and when I do, I generally make 2X to 5X what a staff person would make. The key is relationship and positioning. I dont even touch jobs that arent either $500 a day or a $3K total project. I have less people to deal with and higher income per hour worked. I live in the 60th or so ranked market and I generally have a 2-3 month backlog of work and there are currently 2 guys that are making most their living on referrals from me. This could all vanish tomorrow as I have VERY few longterm clients so... that is the risk.

As far as gear getting cheaper? Big whoop... guitars getting cheaper didnt make a bunch of great song writers or more rockstars. You could give everyone in the world an F950 and it wouldnt change the dynamic much.




ash =o)

I first picked a camera up for pay in 1975, and I'm still going. The industry was up, then way up, then down a little, then way down, then way, way down, then middling for a long while, then up, then down...

you get the idea. Actually, over all this time I'm just very glad and not a little proud to say that only once, early on, did I actually get a day job working as a temp tech on computers, and that was for a month or so when a critical (to me) job start date was pushed back. For all the rest of the time I've been making movies or television, pretty much continuously.

For the past dozen years, I was solidly employed in TV post production -- right up until last Thanksgiving when the network job spot I had dried up and I found myself in mid season without an editor's chair. And I had long ago lost the freelancer's nimble mind, mouth, Rolodex and dialing finger...

That was very, very hard. Still is, I'm definitely feeling the tail end of the effects of that particular lean period. Selling stuff to make rent and to pay your kid's school fees really makes an impression. Real, lasting friends make another.

I'm back locked into the next season now, but there was a while earlier on this year when I started taking whatever I could find that I could do, and somehow in the midst of all of that, I wound up behind my cameras again, after many years of not.

And the crazy thing is? I woke up the morning of the first shoot day feeling something I'd not felt in so many years that I had real difficulty identifying what that feeling was.

Excitement.

So now, yes, I'm still doing my day job. But I've taken one that lets me edit at home, so now I have no commute and my evenings and weekends free.

Guess who's just finishing building a new 35mm lens adaptor??

In the last eight years or so, I'd say 'Job Security' is a bit of an oxymoron, a bit like Military Intelligence. One has to get used to being fluid. Go where the action is, or even create some action and see who comes to you.

I'm somewhere between freelance and a small production company, and I never want a full time job, or to work for a company ever again - they don't pay enough, the hours suck (even though my hours at the moment are extreme - but every hour is billable!), and I wouldn't get an appropriate share of the rewards.

Rule 1: Give a CineAlta or even a Z1 to an inexperienced user, and you'll get awful images. Give a handycam to a Pro, and it will look great. Feed rushes from a Pro shoot to someone without awareness of the power and responsibility of an editor, and you'll get a string of shots glued together with transitions. Provide holiday footage to an editor and you'll get a compelling story.

It's not the kit that counts. The newer lower priced kit will enable those who were once priced out of the market to develop their craft. The work I do now simply did not exist 10 years ago. Which segues neatly to your final point:

Almost all my work is for the web. Broadcast work doesn't pay enough.

There's a fascinating market that's begining to open up for 'movies' on the web and for mobile devices. Check out Prom Queen and TikiBar (www.veoh.com I think) - maybe not to everyone's taste, but the folks behind them are doing well. Then there's the viral market. I'm exploring the corporate side of the < 5min genre - stuff that's episodic, works well on the small screen, compelling content and so on.

One thing you'll notice is that ideas win over raw tech quality, but most importantly, the best ones are made by very talented professionals: 'Human Skateboard' is by the animation master PES, 'that treadmill video' is for a well established band called OKGo, and so on.

And my tape's about to finish ingesting. HTH.

Just because I can read and write, doesn't make me William Shakespear.

I'd have thought that it being easier to enter the industry would be a cause of celebration. When I started everything was unionized and jobs were few and far between and it was really tough to get started (cue strings).

If you're any good, and you market yourself properly you'll be fine. The cream always rises to the top, mind you, I'm rubbish and I've survived in this industry for well over twenty years.

Good luck,

Liam.

If you're any good, and you market yourself properly you'll be fine. The cream always rises to the top, mind you, I'm rubbish and I've survived in this industry for well over twenty years.

Good luck,

Liam.[/QUOTE]


To the OP, see. THIS is what I was talking about.

When you KNOW what you're doing, that confidence lets you post something like this "mind you, I'm rubbish" and nobody takes it seriously.

The fact that Liam can publically SAY something like that, is awfully good evidence that it's patently false.

In the same way that needing to discuss about whether "job security" exists is de facto evidence that someone is feeling insecure about their ability to attract and hold clients.

Nothing wrong with feeling that way now and again - we've ALL been there.

But my advice is when you find yourself spending much time thinking about stuff like this that isn't really about MAKING VIDEO - get you're butt up and go make a video! ANY video. At the end of that experience you'll be better - and do that enough and you'll be good - and the job security thing will take care of it self.

For what it's worth.

There is no job security in working in video.
There is no job security in working in entertainment.

Unless you have a steady job working in video. Or entertainment.

They do exist. And they're highly sought after.

So - I guess your question boils down to something like these -

Are you better than the others to get those few jobs? More skilled? Smarter? More experienced?

Do you bring something extra to the table that the others don't? Are your stories powerful, moving, impactful, marketable?

Is your technique so impeccable that people don't even see it, they're so engrossed in your stories?

Are you clever at business? Can you see a scam coming a month away? An impending layoff? A bounced check? A downsize?

Know how to dodge those bullets?

Know anybody else who does?



This reminds me of another thread in the aviation industry fora...

"There are three absolutely foolproof, sure fire ways to make a perfect landing, any place, every time.

Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly what they are."

One more thing about job security... make sure you widen your areas of expertise. Outside of the high end graphic guys, most the guys making a good living are doing it by being diverse. In the last 6 weeks I have been hired on different projects as a director, DP, cinematographer, first AC, consultant and editor. I have also rented out my gear in that time. Cast your web wide and you will catch more fish.



ash =o)

Ash, what's the difference between a DP (director of photography) and a cinematographer?

About $800 a day:)

Liam.

There's no job security in almost any profession, period. Job security is an illusion - social needs change making particular jobs obsolete (seen any applicants-wanted ads for buggy-whip craftsmen lately?), companies go out of business, get restructured, change directions all the time. You'll be going along after 20 years thinking everything is peachy and you're set until retirement then BOOM you show up to work one Monday to find a padlock on the door and as you start to digest the implications of this, your cell phone starts ringing with the bank calling to tell you last Friday's paycheque bounced. Think it doesn't happen?

But if you follow your passion with what you choose to do in life you'll get by okay.

Discussions like this could go on forever because everyone involved in this industry has had so many different experiences with success and failure. So, I'm not even going to begin trying to explain potential ways to be successful. I think one of the biggest propagators contributing to the flood of interest of this industry are these colleges with advanced production courses and the non degree art institutes with flashy promos stating, but not promising, would you like to get a great job in the film or video production industry? Well, you can do it and we can help. I was lucky enough to attend NYU film school but not one my employers in this industry has ever asked where I went to school. All they want to see is a reel and/or my resume and sometimes they will check references because anyone can recut reels that aren't theirs and/or exaggerate a resume. Now, there's nothing wrong with providing training and showing such a positive message toward success in this industry but I bet these colleges and art institutes don't talk much about the placement and success of most graduates from their programs. If they do, it's an exceptional case and not typical. They sometimes place Results not Typical in little bitty type at the bottom of the screen or the announcer says it real fast. They also may say that a certain percentage go on to work for some big names like any of the news networks or on network shows. However, what they don't tell you is that most of those people are working as unpaid or lowly paid interns and/or pa's and sometimes the overrated "producer" title which carries many duties these days. I have worked on some shows where the field producer, our boss, was made to shoot B-roll on their way out of town just to keep us shooters from getting OT. They didn't get paid any extra to do that but were expected to do it in addition to their already insane workload. My point is that just because you work on a big project, that doesn't mean it is paying the bills well enough to make it a career. I will say that the hands on experience with equipment, although sometimes outdated, provided by these colleges and art institutes is better than nothing though.

As strange as it sounds, the order of how successful employment is achieved is a little backwards and can be very frustrating. It's not necessarily what you know as much as who you know in this industry that determines if you get the job. The what you know part will come after who you know offers you a job. Your skill set is very important but it can't be used if you don't know the key players. So building strong relationships with key players is the path to success in this industry.

I've asked myself the same question and still do every day. The problem, DV cameras are cheap, NLEs are cheaper, and egos just get bigger. IMO what once was a place to make a good living is now saturated. Everyone and their kid owns a $200+ DV cam and some sort of editing software. EVERYONE is a filmmaker now. This totally devalues what we do, as many of those folks now think they can do it just as well (with no experience or education). Many delude themselves further by actually believing their work IS superior.

Now I'm referring to the actual work many of us get paid to do -events, weddings, shows, small corporate stuff etc. I HAD a graduation to film tomorrow, but instead I get a call from the client saying her oldest nephew is going to shoot it with his "camcorder". I was amazed! They are going to trust a once-in-a-lifetime event to a 17 year-old with a Hi8 POS camera! Why? Price. I don't know about the rest of you but here in Phoenix there are a million videographers and a million want-a-be's who undercut the seasoned and educated production folks. This is a HUGE problem. I didn't buy $8K in equipment to film a graduation for $50!!! (hell the tape is almost 10% of that cost!) This makes it really hard to bid on jobs when some schmuck is charging 80% less just because he can!

My point? Find a niche, something no one is doing yet or no one is doing well, yet. Seriously, why would I want to call you for the same work over the guy who charges 80% less? BUT if you are one of the only people doing X type of work, guess what? - you are the go to person. I found a niche and to this day I am the only one in AZ that is doing it (don't look, I am not advertising it yet).

If you are in this business to make money, get in line with the rest of us, lol... buy some real estate, you'll make a bigger quicker profit. Can you make a daily living in this biz, heck yeah! The bigger problem is HOW.

James makes a GREAT point. It is almost entirely about who you know.

Sounds like the old saying:

"Hey, I've listened to five or six symphonies last month alone - I should be able to write one, easy"..

Did you notice the same things happening when the PC first came out?

Giving them a word processor and a novel to read doesn't make them an author.

Giving a kid a video camera and an NLE doesn't make that kid a filmmaker.

If your client wants to hire the kid, let them. More money for you when you make them pay the penalty later on to fix/reshoot/rescue that production.
And believe me, I do. Make them pay more.

I believe it was a far back as Chekov who wished the stage were as wide and treacherous as a tightrope, and all those unskilled enough to tread unwarily upon it would fall to their deaths...

Maybe that kid will turn out to be the bext best thing in filmmaking.
Chances are, though, not.

A niche can be just a high technical level. Just make sure you at least read through your manuals and learn to make your camera really perform well. That's just like a pro pianist practicing scales every day. If you don't, well, there's always another younger pianist who does practice every day...

Go through your job from stem to stern with a tradition and expectation of only the highest excellence. Shamelessly ask for retakes, even reshoots, if at all possible, because it's your signature on the end of those programs.

Doubtless, the kid will ask his dad for $16k to compete with your company. If he's any good, he may get it too. So what do you have that the kid doesn't have? If you answer is "nothing", well, then maybe the kid is right after all.

I seriously doubt it, though.

I was just scalped in a network job by a young editor who thought she was better than me, and convinced the execs that she was. I was fired from the job (senior editor) and had a hard time surviving until the beginning of the present season. She botched the job completely, left indignant, and is now on a cool young crew of the next best show in Hollywood. This is typical, not unusual at all.

The execs from the original show did not call me up, but if they had I would have tripled my rate to clean up her mess. Just to let them know how much I appreciated their business.

I agree with that but here is yet another catch to being the unique or first when offering a particular service especially when in a small town. Over the last few years, I have been the first in my area not to create but to offer several useful services before any others. However, the problem with that is these were way ahead of their time and it just didn't catch on because my area is just not up to speed with technology as with many other smaller areas. The problem with this is that by the time the area does catch up to technology, others have discovered these new services to be offered and it is then saturated or worse, offered with a lower rate and less than acceptable support which makes everyone doing it look bad. A great example of this are these video sharing sites that have the broadcasters, actors and oh yes, advertisers really concerned. Those sites are taking tv viewers away and cheapening media delivery. At first, reality shows were the big concerns for the actors but the networks love it because they don't have to pay the cast anything which is more profit for them from the advertisers. Wireless video delivery to phones and PDAs is slowly becoming mainstream and the networks are giving in by supplying their programming because if they don't, someone else will. The next few years in this industry should be real interesting. My advice for anyone thinking about getting into this industry is to get a degree in something that has a more stable income and do this on the side until it makes money. If you are past that point don't quit your current job at least until you win the lottery.

True BUT
It makes them a filmmaker in their eyes and their family's eyes. People are, well, gullable (too be nice). They want to believe so bad that their son or daughter is the best at everything, it blinds them to the point of making bad decisions. It may even blind them to the point of seeing a "great video". I've been to a few houses and have had a few people show me their aspiring son's work in which the "whole family" agrees is the best. Sorry to say neither I nor my crew could even come close in appreciation. Whatever works I guess, I try not to bash too much. But it is those decisions bad decisions that hurt our income. It amounts to the CEO of a large company saying "Oh well my 16 year old Johnny can add 2+2, lets have him to our taxes this year." or is that extreme, lol

OH I TOTALLY AGREE!!! Heck I don't want to film a graduation anyway, it started as a favor! The problem is that many people are too embarrassed to call after the damage...


Sucks that girl ripped you like that and then gets even more deals! Argh! That would take a 12 pack or two, jk.

In response to Brandon's original question, Yes there could be 8 million videographers out there in 5 years, however, Buying a camera and I movie doesn't make you a pro, it also doesn't make you a good businessman either. As a lot of experienced people have already said, there is no job security in any profession. As many here will tell you, yes you can make a good living in video producion, whether you work for yourself or a company.

Brandon, here's how I did it. I spent years working for tv stations and production companies, In fact I still work for a production company, But I also "freelanced" for a year saved the money I made and bought all of my own gear. I paid cash for everything by the way, no debt to anyone. I started my own company and now get the tax benefits. I have marketed my company thru friends businesses and thru word of mouth and so on. I still have my "day" job, but I work nights and weekends for myself. So I look at that as my "job security." Cause 1 day I may not have my day job, I have little to no control over that. So I am setting myself up with my own "job security." In the mean time I am saving my profits since my equipment is all paid for.

I hope this helps you and gives you a good model for working in this business.

Nearly half my work is either repairing or re-doing something that someone either tried to do themselves or tried to save money on by going with the "cheap" guy.



ash =o)

If you don't love working in post or production get out before it's too late. You'll never make enough money to "make-up" for all the stress, long hours, and degraded social life demanded by this industry. But if you love it, there's nothing better than the feeling of getting a project out the door after you've gone thru hell and high water to finish it under deadline.


Touching on the slightly OT topic of the democratization of video production, I'd dare say there are more jobs now than they were 15 years ago if you include all the networks, the hundreds of cable channels, original internet content, and the DVD market (both direct-to-DVD content as well as behind-the-scenes content on DVD features). Of course there is more competition now than ever, but much/most of that is at the low end. The music, print, literary and photography fields have all gone thru this "shake-up" and managed to survive so I think the video/film industry will too. Like they say, just because you have a baseball bat in the garage doesn't mean you can swing like Babe Ruth.


-A

"dare say there are more jobs now than they were 15 years ago if you include all the networks"

i agree and will add that on average most of those new jobs are paying less $$, IMO overall wages have dropped over the past 10 years ... there are so many out there looking for work (and they have the skills) = the old suppy vs. demand theory ...
i think you'll find that most of these lower wages are in the low- med budget areas of ALL production ( from wedding to commercials to features) ...

i see friends out there working for 5-800 day (w/camera) - which may sound good but 10 years ago that same type project was paying 1200-1500 day ( w/camera) ...

and on the subject of job security ...
sometimes one has to make a choice ?
you can have job security and dislike what you are doing ...
you can love what you're doing and have no job security ..
then there is probably something between those -
i went into the business , loved the work ... the subject of job security never came up ... looking back i can see there was never any job security ...

Agree, Don.

I believe the job security nowadays is in what you do. So, as an editor, I've been going from job to job for over 15 years now. So far I've only had a couple of close scrapes, but that's probably because I never really saved any backup money. I've also spent a lot on diversifying my own business (product, as against service) so that's meant sailing a little closer to the wind than I'd normally do, but that also means an income or investment return in the coming years that normally a retirement account would (perhaps) provide.

So yes, I think one creates one's own "security", in a sense.

Also, I do believe that the economy, like many things, is cyclical. I can remember turning down a job after I'd bid on it because the amount awarded for that job (a series of commercials) was around half the amount I'd bid for the same job for the same client some ten years before that. And that happened in the late 80's.

Then the prices went up again, and now they're down again.

But like the price of gas, they're never down quite as far as they were last time. At least, not for me.

But like the economists say, it's not simply a matter of the same service for less. By that token, a 50MB hard drive should cost less than five bucks new these days. No, they still want your $200-250 for the drive (okay, $199), but now they give you 300GB for that same price.

So the price of entry, at least on a technological level, is constantly climbing. I can remember the words "offline edit" or "rough cut". Remember those words? They actually meant something to people, not too long ago. So now, for the same or slightly more money than before, I am essentially finishing a cut so that the execs can peruse it at their leisure, and pick their notes out of a hat, as they always have.

Value added, I believe they call it.

I read an article recent talking about how people in their 30's are making less now than they previous did at the same age. So much for always moving on ward and up ward.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/25/pf/m...ex.htm?cnn=yes


-A

Pen and paper are accessible to everyone, but not everyone is a successful novelist. Similarly, video and film are about telling stories visually. Giving everyone a camera will not make them a successful story teller.

The craft is in the mind, not in the tools. Everyone may have the tools, but not everyone has the craft.