Everything Old is New Again
 

New member here. Just starting out.

I'm the lone engineer in a family of artists, writers and businessmen. I've always loved films and from the time I first saw Star Wars (the real one, not the ret-conned, re-sequenced, prequel-full silliness) I wanted to do Computer Graphics. At the time I was a 16-year-old super-geek programmer getting started in the burgeoning world of microcomputers. Went to engineering school, got my Computer Science degree and got into programming operating systems instead of Computer Graphics.

Jump cut 30 some odd years.

My son, who is a film geek as well as an excellent writer wants to join the rest of the starry-eyed kids who want to write/direct/produce their own films. From seeing my own brother get swallowed up by LA trying to start a screen writing career, I knew that if you didn't own the equipment to make your own films you would always be subject to the whims of those that did.

So I told my son he could go to LA and take his chances or I'd finance the camera / lighting / editing equipment and we'd make a little film right here in Colorado. He was more than happy to and I can say that it's been a kick ever since.

Right now were about to start filming our first short feature. It's a little scary, truth be told. We were lucky to attract some very good young actors and the short script that my son wrote is actually quite good, even if he is my son.

We have a nice DSLR film rig, acceptable lighting kit, good script, good actors and we just took care of finding our last location. Finding the right location was unexpectedly hard. Something that I couldn't imagine. How hard would it be to find a Victorian house where someone would let us film? Harder than you'd expect. As Robert Rodriguez says, write not just what you know but what you *have*. I tried but couldn't find a creative solution to get a free house for filming so I hosed the problem down with money. One week worth of filming in a large, furnished, historic Victorian almost-mansion = $1000. Ouch, but it would probably be a lot more expensive in LA.

So if everything goes according to plan we start filming on Dec 28th. (crosses fingers)

We have some outdoor scenes that we film in mid-Spring 2011 and then it all goes into post, where hopefully after a couple months of editing / ADO / sound etc we get ready for the early film festivals.

Good luck in your endeavors....

Welcome aboard, Jim! I'm really excited to hear more about your short. Make sure you visit our Techniques for Independent Production Forum at DVinfo.net

I'm from Denver, so it's nice to see more filmmaking action out there!

Heath

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I've always been in theatre classes all throughout middle and high school and I love stage acting. But even more so, I love directing and editing. I attended Austin Community College for an Associates in Film.

After that I made a couple short films and helped make one that even won and award. I've always wanted to be a star, revered for awesome art films with great stories. Not some b.s. like *inserthollywooddirectorhere*. Dreaming of one day making millions of dollars, I started teamkproductions.com | About 2 years later I started taking things more seriously.

I still have a dayjob/career. I am a Service Advisor at First Texas Honda. I've been working in the dealership enviorment for the past 10 years. That job pays me well enough to cover bills, but not well enough to pay for ALL the startup costs I'm encountering.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I left video production last year to pursue a writing career at TopTenREVIEWS.com, but I still dabble in video, doing small freelance gigs here and there. In South Florida, the rates for production dropped so low, that I was hired as a one-man band doing commercials for Comcast Spotlight.

No film work since April/May 2008.

Heath

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I only just now noticed this thread, and thought it would be a good time to add my story.
I worked for 36 years in the aviation industry, and retired last summer at 55.

I'd never had any intention to retire at 55. 2006 changed that for me. I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in my jaw, and after many surgeries, radiation and chemo over the course of a year of suffering, I realized that life was far too short to put things off.

So, retire I did. Two weeks later, my wife was promoted and transferred to a new city where we knew no one, about 500 miles away. My retirement plans had photography and videography in them, jsut not in a brand new city in the middle of the Canadian Prairies.

I finally arrived the beginning of October, only to leave 5 days later to work on a humanitarian/medical/dental aid trip to central America. I was the trip photographer, and one of the "gofers"

Returning to Canada, I was told that the Dentist I had gone down with was being given a humanitarian award, and since I had just finished shooting one of his trips, would I be interested in producing a tribute video for the awards presentation.

I jumped on the opportunity, and over the course of three months met and interviewed a large number of people from all levels of business and government. During this shoot, I discovered that the area we were now living in had a huge hole in the videography market; hundreds of camcorder wedding shooters, a couple of full scale production houses doing T.V. work and no one doing smaller scale stuff.

By the time the first project was delivered, I had 5 additional ones signed. The day after the presentation was shown, I had increased that number to 14.

I developed extremely good connections throughout business and governement very quickly, and have been doing work for the Provincial Government, the Lieutenant Governors office and did a shoot last week for a federal agency. There is enough work around that I've started to seriously consider bringing another camera operator on board. It's funny how it's worked out so far....what initially appeared to be a sentence to purgatory is now looking more and more like a vibrant business opportunity. It's definetly a step away from where many videographers start out..with wedding work. Nothing wrong with it at all...it pays well. it's just not my thing, and I promised myself when I retired I would do stuff I LIKED to do, not HAD to do.

I like doing interviews, scripting, shooting, and editing...the full package stuff. I'm going to keep doing it too, until they catch on :^)

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

WOW! Congrats!

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Wow, Wayne, what a great story! I'm glad you're doing well with the business and life! Congrats and welcome aboard!

Heath

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis. : (

The rest of your story is very inspiring!

To give my story: I'm a stay at home mom with kids getting a little older and I am able to do more with my small videography business. It's amazing how much stuff is coming out of the woodwork! I have a couple weddings booked, a video bio I'm working on, some music videos I do for my niece, and have recently been approached by a local mom's ministry group who want to promote themselves. I find it all very exciting and challenging. I am very blessed to be able to work on stuff I love slowly and in pace with making sure I'm here for my kids.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I have been on the corporate, educational and marketing side of the video business for 40 years. Yes, a long time. I have done a lot of medical and corporate videos for fortune 500 companies in a variety of formats both for delivery as well as production. My career has followed the technology pretty closely. I have shot on 1/2 inch Sony and Panasonic BW reel to reel, 3/4 inch, 1" tape, Beta, Beta SP, DVCAM, P2, XDCAM. Have produced for multimedia slide shows, laser disc players, CDs, DVDs, and the web. You name it. Still do not get bored. Great business to be in. Back is still holding up. Gear has lightened up and the quality has increased dramatically.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

What a fantastic story Wayne! I retired a few days before my 55th birthday from a cancer laboratory to start my business up. Well, the last five years or so more than half of my time at work was in the cancer lab, the other half in the main lab, but still getting work on cancer patients there too.

I'm so glad you managed to get your business going despite all the adversity. Perhaps that's why you were able to get your business going, you'd already dealt with real adversity far greater than that of starting a business in a recession. Good for you! Go get 'em tiger. It's wonderful to be able to enjoy your work so much.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Guess it's time for me to come clean...

My degree is in music performance/music production. I started working right from my internship at a recording studio in upstate NY recording and producing albums and commercials along with the occasional audio post for video. As the studio grew we veered more heavily into post and even leased a chunk of the studio space to a video production company. I kept peeking over the video editor's shoulders thinking, "that looks like fun!"

After twelve years of that, I moved to Phoenix to become production manager and chief audio engineer at a commercial studio. After a few years, the boss and I didn't see eye to eye so I started my company yipDog Studios which primarily focused on audio. I also got my real estate license (while the market was hot) and gave that a go for a couple of years.

To complete a simple video for a friend, I decided to purchase FCP after a week of torture in iMovie realizing I couldn't do half of what I needed. I read the entire 10 pounds of printed manuals in one week and BAM! I was a FCP user!

One week later a head hunter called and noticed I had listed that on my resume under skills and there was a position available at a company which was a startup. I interviewed, did an audition, interviewed some more and became employee number 4 in the company and was now one of three "senior video editors" on staff.

4 years later, when the economy went south the owner let us video editors go to refocus the business but kept using my company to do various custom projects and all the advertising work which allowed yipDog to grow to what it is today! Through word of mouth and some well placed ads, I've been able to grow enough to build my own studio/edit space right next to my house.

So officially, I've been in the "production" biz for 23 years with the last 7 heavy into video. As several people have mentioned, the variety of work is what I love...no two days are alike! And my motto of "Never say no" has forced me to learn new things very quickly and also has built up a large circle of talented experts I can call on as my "virtual staff"

I'm pretty darn lucky to be able to do this for a living and being my own boss allows me to spend plenty of time with my family which is invaluable to me!

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Great story Robert. I recently commented on one of your other posts. I also checked out your website. Looks good!

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I've been around these forums for two or three years now, and I finally have a reason to post in this thread!

I've been a server in a restaurant for almost four years, making short films in my spare time. In 2009 I started my own company on the side doing wedding and event videography, but with this economy I've found business difficult to drum up. I've done videos for friends and family for little or no money to try to build up my reel. In fact this fall will herald my first wedding where my client will pay full price for my services.

I've invested significant time making connections in my area, and it's started to pay off. I was recently asked to intern at a cable access station here. Little did I know their production manager was leaving and they were vetting replacements. Can you guess who landed the job?

ME!!!

Now I'm extremely busy trying to juggle three jobs and have very little time to make movies, but I'm hoping this will be an extremely educational experience that will prepare me to move forward in making independent features, which is the path I'd eventually like to be on.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Hey all,

I've been interested in video production for a long time, pretty much since my senior year in high school when I took a video course. At the time, I borrowed my parents monstrous video camera that recorded directly to vhs tapes. Things have come a long way! Back in 2006 or so I bought a Sony DCR SR40 so that I could film live concerts of bands I love. Then , when Sony released the HDR SR12, I moved up to that. Last week, I bought the Sony NX5, and it's a HUGE step up not only in quality, but the learning curve. There's more buttons and dials on this beast than I know what to do with, but I knew that going into it. I'm learning more about it everyday. I plan to film as many concerts as I can with it, but I bought it mainly so I could start work on a small documentary of my favorite band.

I don't own a company, I barely know anything about making a documentary, but I know I love what I'm doing right now and that I can make it happen. My full time job is as a Signal Maintainer for the BNSF Railway here in Portland, Or. I basically test, maintain, and fix things like crossings, signals, switches, and bridges. It's a good job, and it pays well enough that I can buy things like the NX5 and try to make my dream a reality.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Thought I'd update what I'm doing these days. I now work for doddle, which has an excellent iPhone and Android app for filmmakers and video producers, with a directory and interactive call sheet maker:

Doddle - Production Guide and Directory

I work on the news side. I still do some video production; I have two clients that I shoot and edit commercials and YouTube videos (one went viral), and the other company is strictly corporate video. Film? Well, not much of late, though I finally finished my first short in years, Hellevator:

Hellevator, My New Short Film Written By Comic Book Legend David Michelinie | heath mcknight dot com

heath

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I own a videoproduction company and I make videocontent for corporate clients (retail, IT, industry) and (semi)-public organisations (ranging from local traffic education for primary school to international seminars). Besides that I sometimes make very short films.
It's fun and creative work :-)

Since I'm located in The Netherlands my website is Dutch, so most of you won't be able to read and understand it. ;-)
A little dictionary for people visiting my portfolio:
Bedrijfsfilm = corporate video
Videoclip = music video
Sfeerimpressie = impression
Paasgroet = 'easter greetings'
Engelstalig = English

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Nice one Walter

i didn't need your Dutch dictionary to read the site - just used Google Chrome!!
:-)

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/...brokxmedia.jpg

I'm struggling to make a living at the moment (wedding scene), spent 32 years in the Defence Forces, finally left late last year, sort of forced out, the recession is hitting hard here, jobs are scarce. But forever the optimist :-)

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Bought my 1st camera in 1986 to get shots of kids growing up & then started covering various types of work, weddings, parties, property video etc 26 yrs on, my wife & I are semi-retired but find enough work to keep us busy & pay for foreign travel.

Cams now are 2 x Z7`s, HXR-NX5, HXR-MC50e & a Canon HC30. Editing on Liquid 7.1 & Edius vers 6.

Recently covered the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera "The Mikado" for a local Am-Dram Society which turned out well.

Involved freelance for a well known on-line advertising company shooting company videos.

I`m 67 & have no thoughts on fully retiring :-)

www.videos4all.org

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm a freelance vision engineer.. Which basicly means that in multicamera productions I make sure all the cameras match in color, brightness, contour levels and blacklevel. Aside from that I'm also responsible that the monitors on the studio floor are setup and work with the correct signal patched to them, and depending on the production that the equipment in the OBV or studio also does it's job.

As a hobby I like to mess around with old cameras and homebuilt projects (not earning a living with this).. So I have a Philips LDK100, Panasonic AJ-D700, Ikegami HL-V55 and a Sony AVC-3250.. But I also have a Panasonic GH2 in a shoulder rig with a B4 lens and a GoPro HD Hero 2 for more modern stuff :)

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I graduated with a journalism degree in 1979 and was prepared to go to work as a writer and photographer for a Georgia outdoor publication when it was eliminated by state budget cuts. I then went to work as a federal park ranger on a major southeastern lake and stayed there 30 years. Was initially responsible for agency public relations and on camera talent then moved over into park operations and law enforcement. After 911 was detailed with doing Dam and Powerhouse security assessments, drafting security enhancement programs as well as conducting threat response training. I retired from the agency in 2009 and went back to my roots of nature photography and video production. I currently produce and distribute nature DVDs to state and federal park visitor centers.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I am an internet datacenter technician, primarily working on more advanced systems and networks. Several virtualization technologies, Cisco Nexus devices, IBM blade servers, etc etc. I also do small time site development in my spare time.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Holy this thread is like 10 years old!!! Is that a record?? I work as a Full Time cameraman for The Weather Network in Oakville, Ont. Canada. I am actually moving to Calgary in September where we are opening a new office!!!

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm an in-house media producer for a design and manufacturing company in San Diego, CA. My primary responsibilities are product photography and creating training and promotional videos for our line of diagnostic products. In my free time I produce personal history videos and web promos for non-profits on a pro-bono basis. My pre-video background is photography and sales.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I’m adding my two cents worth to this thread as I am kind of excited, and need to share! I started my working life with a tool-making apprenticeship, and went on to spend 37½ years at Ford’s Product Development Center in the UK. Most of that time as a design engineer, working with a small team designing test instrumentation, but I always had access to a machine shop to prove out the mechanical aspects of our designs.

During that time I did three years of night school learning photography and film production, and later joined a local amateur film and video club making two international award winning dramas — the second as assistant director. I eventually left the club when the some of the crew’s egos became bigger than the talent’s. Hard to believe, I know 

Westcliff Film & Video Club

Now I am retired, living in New Zealand, and taking stills commercial jobs when they interest me, but my focus is switching more and more to video production. I am loving the learning curve, and NLEs are light years ahead of the linear editing suites I used to use. I have an extensive stills kit, and am now carefully building up a video kit — going slowly, trying not to waste dollars on bad choices, but here’s the thing…

Grip equipment is either serious money, or cheap, and frankly, not up to the job. I thought back longingly to the facilities I used to have available, and decided to do something about it. An email to the secretary of a local model club (boats, steam trains, sort of thing) was forwarded to someone I actually used know, and who has a machine shop any hobby engineer would die for. Earlier this evening he phoned me, and offered me full use of his equipment in return for helping him out with my skill set. I am so excited I had to write to this thread.

Sliders, cranes, camera cage/rig, dolly, skater etc. etc. all for the price of the materials, and my time, (plus anodising the aluminium components). I will also need to find my old copy of Autocad, and hope it will run on 64 bit Windows 7.

Of course, the biggest problem is diverting time and effort from core function — i.e. making movies.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm the producer of Driving Sports TV, a show broadcast on a few domestic channels (USA) and the Ignition Channel in South Africa. The series also has a large online following.

When I'm not working on Driving Sports, I produce action sports videos for the likes of Ford Racing, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mazda and others.

http://www.drivingsports.com

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Well, I'm living my dream.

Ever since I was a kid I wanted to fly airplanes and make movies.

I work as a pilot for an ophthalmology group in the Pacific Northwest, and I run my production company Reel Inspirations as well.

My flying job offers me a lot of free time to edit and work on my MBP while waiting for the surgeons to finish. It also helps that my flying job is part-time, roughly 2.5 days per week.

I fly a Citation CJ3 Jet which is loads of fun.

Hoping to save up enough for the new Sony F5 some day.

I can't complain.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Hi,

My name is Juan. I work for the local government in LA in the IT department at helpdesk (lawa). I started to love filming when i got involved at my church. My work has a small filming studio which someday might able to use. For my church i am using a mac pro 8 core 32gb rams 4tb hdd. My little camera i use is a sony hxr mc50u. All the equipment i paid for them from money in my pocket. That's all what i do.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Hi. My husband and I have had a footage company for 12 years. Coming from a FX and filmmaking backgrounds, we create all our stock and custom footage ourselves. Most of the footage clips are royalty-free and we've been fortunate enough to have done custom work for as varied clients as American Idol and Terrence Malick. We are considering moving more into narrative filmmaking... we'll see.

Best of luck to you!


A Luna Blue
Stock Video - Stock Footage - Stock Video Backgrounds - A Luna Blue
Creative imagery for your imagination.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I should probably introduce myself here.

I am a 20 something Canadian film maker who has recently started working in Documentaries and Video Journalism with a nonprofit organization called PhotogenX (photogenX.net). I am working on a project of my own called "A [Hope] Film" which will be a series of documentaries that tell the stories of individuals bringing hope to their communities. I am basically a missionary who makes films, but I still try to produce entertaining and enjoyable content that is not necessarily slanted to a religious viewpoint.

I am currently in Central Germany, and looking to stay in the area. I just recieved a brand new JVC GY HM600 Camera plus all of the gear I need to start up my own productions. It is a very exciting time for me and I'm excited to put some content out as I can!

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Hello from Las Vegas,

I am currently heading the video department for MGM Grand Hotel & Casino for all on property shoots.
Top Rank, UFC, Iheartradio, Billboard awards, Comedy Central, National Rodeo Finals, Professional Bull Riders to name a tiny bit of what I've directed. Currently working on MGM TV which is on pre-prod.

When I have time I like to work on narratives with locals from Las Vegas of all skill levels.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

currently unemployed but looking for job if possible in the U.S or any other country related to video

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Here's me.

Duane Adam at Sotheby's

Video production helped put me at the top of my field in 2014. Learned a ton on this website.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

Hey Duane. Followed the link and have to say I'm jealous.

Laguna Seca? Seriously! A dream/bucket-list item.

Yup. THAT is what I'm jealous of.

Thanks for sharing!

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm a fulltime student, studying Economics and Business Administration.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I am currently unemployed, but have worked in business administration for nearly 10 years and hate it with a passion!

I would like to be self-employed as a videographer someday.

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm a self-employed videographer who does primarily corporate video and occasional local TV.

_________________________________

NORTH END MEDIA
_________________________________

Re: What do you do for a living?
 

I'm a Quality Inspector for a global bath and body products, cosmetics and beauty gifts business.

Camera history is I started shooting with film on my fathers Pentax ME Super when I was 14 but and shot pretty much every stile of film camera 35mm, medium format and large format (5x4) ) before digital came along.
I've shot stills and video with Canon gear until 2015
Still Canon 300D, 20D ,40D, 7D ,7D mark II as a part and full time photographer.
Video Canon XM1, XL1 ,XL1S and XL2 part time and personal work.

This year I move to a GH4 and sold all my Canon gear (the video gear had gone a while back) these days it's more personal projects both commercial (hopefully) and none commercial and also friends bands etc.

I used to be into 3D graphics until I came across a project that seemed easier to do shooting for real with a RC helicopter so got into fly cameras on various RC platforms, which I have done for over 8 years on and off and finally just got myself a Phantom 3 Pro which has blown my mind how easy it is to get a shot straight out of the box from flying all the big helis I used to fly which were very difficult.