Corporate Video

[Shootblue]

I was looking at the idea of trying to do some work in the realm of corporate video...would be a closed looped system-shooting, editing, distribution. Clients would be mostly small-medium sized businesses...looking for clients with enough of a budget to keep things reasonable.

I was looking for some input from those with more experience with the grumblings and reality of this idea. Obviously dvd/multimedia and web offerings are big things, but what are other trends? What are the downsides to this all? What are the best methods to attract clients, heck, even get them to listen to the pitch?

[Chestfever]

We've done a little of this, exercise, vacation sales in Southern California and Mexico. I usually stick to shooting and editing...let the client struggle with distribution. Back in the day of VHS you could make some good money on fulfillment....making dubs and shipping. But not much margin on DVDs.

I'd suggest using the web to find clients. If they already have worthwhile video it will be on their site. If not, maybe they're worth pitching.

You might also want to get a site of your own. It's easily done with a templete, or by a designer for under $1000.

Also, don't overlook the higher end remodeling trades. The average plumber won't have a video on his site, but we sold an insulation company a simple VNR on their new spray process.
Good luck!

[exassignedphotog]

Don't overlook process training videos. Especially for small companies, use the video to cut down on training time=cheaper than a leghthy training process.

Also you could produce videos for use at trade shows.

I hear it's a good biz if you can get it. I worked with a producer that left the station to go to work for NCR in the TV and media department

[Shootblue]

Those are a couple of the avenues I had looked at. Trade shows have definite potential, particuarly if the video is general enough that it can be distributed online, on dvd, etc. I know that the biggest thing at this juncture is looking across all platforms to access the message. A general market video can easily be played on the website, on a vhs in front of potential clients, on a dvd that is ordered by mail, in front of trade show attendees, or used as b-roll for broadcast clients.

Of course they will want a sample...while I am normally a news shooter, I have some contacts that I have made from prior stories that would allow for me to use their company as a place to get a demo prepared.

[exassignedphotog]

start with those places, offer to do it for free. If they like the quality and are happy with the results, then have them recomend you to friends who need videos shot.

Since you are just getting started, word of mouth is going to be your best advertising.

I had a side gig of video taping homes for a local realtor, who really liked it because he could put the video's on his website. I did the first couple shoots for free. Then he had me doing roughly 10 homes in a weekend, he paid me $250 a day plus gas. And I "rented" the equipment from the station I worked at (they let people rent gear for personal projects for $30 a day)

Not a bad deal at all, but his realty merged with a bigger company and they didn't need me after that.

[Run&Gun]

...offer to do it for free.


WHAT!!!:eek:

Show them your work from other projects, but don't offer to shoot something that they can use for free! Does anyone else want to jump in here?

[exassignedphotog]

WHAT!!!:eek:

Show them your work from other projects, but don't offer to shoot something that they can use for free! Does anyone else want to jump in here?

Yes offer to do it free, once. remember he is trying to make a name for himself, free is hard for someone to pass up. Especially if he doesn't have a resume of other projects, just news shooting. If they don't like the work, you leave with the dvd you showed them so they don't keep "something they can use"

If they like it, they will pay for other projects. Free is not a bad word when you are getting started.

[Nino]

The word free doesn’t bother me as much as someone thinking that after doing one or two commercial jobs (for free nevertheless) all in a sudden has made a name for himself and can start charging real money. What ever happen of working for a production company and step out on your own when you are good and ready. The free thing is alive and well and it’s called internship, if you have to give something away for nothing do with someone that you can learn something from. There’s no quick fix in this business, no instant gratification, quality takes time to learn. Once you made a name for poor quality there’s no way out, you’ll be bad and cheap forever.

Now back to market the commercial business. Do yourself a favor; don’t go after clients that already have videos. Just think about this, you have no experience, no track record, why in the world would they give you their business unless you are the only game in town or you are really cheap, and if this is the case you’ll be servicing this client until someone even cheaper comes along, and so on.

One of my commercial clients is a producer that I’ve been working with for the last 20 years. This guy is an innovator. He comes out with idea that companies ever wonder how they ever did business without it.
We’ve been doing resorts destinations for the last 20 years but for a few years that business was down to nothing. He came up with new marketing ideas on how our video should be oriented and we are back in full swing.

For the last 2 years we’ve been doing real estate developments. So what’s new about that? Well, we produce a full marketing video before the developer even sink a single shovel into the ground. We shoot high quality footage of everyhitng the location has to offer. including aerial footage, and use animation to show the finished real estate. Some of these virtual reality animations are so real that sometime they fool me. Some of these developers sold out before putting any money into constructions saving them a fortune in bank interests alone, many times the cost of the video.

He even got me thinking this way. My wife is the office manager of a large manufacturer of pre-cast concrete forms. She always complained of how much time they spend in new employees’ orientation about company benefits and safety (OSHA). On top of that they have to do it in two languages (English and Spanish). I told her to stop complaining and just make two DVDs, let the employees sit down in front of a monitor and look at the videos, once they are finished they can ask any question and they can keep the video for future references. They love the idea so much that they want me to do it; the problem is that they have 30 plants across the US and Canada and each plant will need its own video. My problem is that I just don’t have the time to do it, but it was my idea and they are willing to wait.

In conclusion, companies are not interest in helping you; they need you to help them.

[F4 Fan]

There can be a lot of corporate work out there, much of aimed these days for the web.
Be it realtors, contractors, self-help gurus, lawyers, reality show wannabes, the work is there if you want it.

Since the web is where much of this content is going it is where clients will find you. One company I worked for was going to let their ad in the yellow pages expire because virtually all of their new clients found them via the web.

Some things to consider, a lot of the calls you will get are of the “You’ll only need to shoot for an hour or two.” This may be true, but the question becomes, is an hour or two of work for maybe $35-$50 an hour really worth your time? Factoring in travel and prep time I never thought so. I eventually established a flat rate for three hours minimum. If the shoot was 30 minutes or three hours it paid the same. And I turned down those “Will you do this shoot for free so that we can evaluate your work?” scenarios. I don’t do this for a hobby and neither should you.

Have you considered liability insurance and insurance for your equipment? All costs to factor in.

Plus I’ve e even worked for small contractors that had public relations firms producing the video. Most of these people don’t know much about television, (example – what’s a white balance?) but they know enough to be dangerous. Even seemingly small, simple shoots can have big headaches. Get at least a third of your money up front, with a third the day of the shoot and the remainder upon delivery. Have firm booking and cancellation policies. Search the posts of Baltimore shooter – as he has some of the best advice available on this.

Corporate stuff can be fun and challenging, but you can’t approach it like an ENG shoot.

[Shootblue]

Free is not a huge problem. I am not going to spend weeks and weeks and weeks working for free. I am not going to do thirty free projects hoping for a paying job. I am looking at about three projects to build a demo. If it doesn't work, then so be it.

I respect your opinions greatly Nino, but to an extent I must disagree. I have worked, albeit in a small market, for going on 8 years. I have shot almost 6 of those. I've done the variety of things that a news photog does...things that help you plan, think on your feet, and make the best out of a crappy situation. I graduated from Norman in 2004. I've had chances to work better places. I have made this a hobby as well as a job. I have stacks of magazines,manuals, web printouts, etc. I have a good set of lighting, audio, compostion, storytelling, scripting, editing, and quality control skills.

Now that being said, I know that I do not have nearly as much experience as some on this board. I don't shoot for ESPN. I haven't done one on one's with the president. I haven't shot major commercials or events for Fortune 500 companies. But, I have seen some of the work of others around me. I know what the crappy 'production' companies do in my area. I've watched their demo work online or seen it in person. I have seen some of the crap that companies from Springfield, Tulsa or KC put out for VNR's, etc. A majority of it is subpar. Some shockers sometimes, but a lot of the time you can tell that the person behind the camera didn't want to be there, didn't care, and only wants a paycheck. I'm tired of jackasses with a PD-150 being a 'camera crew'. When I say small and medium companies, I am talking just that. I know that I can do the quality that local and regional companies need. I know my skill set is not developed yet to do major corporation kinda videos. But I know that I have the skills to talk with clients to find out their needs, budget and goals. I know that I can put those things onto tape, whether that best be done in an interview, video, or graphics. I know I can script it out, edit it professionally, and output it to its final medium. I am giving it a shot. That's the best anyone can do. I know you have not had the liberty of seeing my work before, so I can guess that you, and with good cause, expect kinda crappy video out of a newbie, especially when his city says market 144. I've got some other respected posters here who have seen my work and I honestly believe would back me up on my ability to do the jobs I have described. I am not going to be likely competing for jobs that you are doing anytime soon.

I am a quality component more so than most on this board. I'm not going to let crap leave with my name on it. I am sometimes almost handicapped by my desire to come out with a good looking product.

I know that the biggest fault of text is it's inability to carry context-a problem of letters, text messages, IM's, and message boards. I'm not here to get uppity or show myself, I am merely explaining my POV. I do respect your opinions and professionalism.

[freedom]

Fact:
Small companies don't have the budget to pay decent rates, large companies are inundated with production companies selling their wares. I had a friend take 3 years just to get a meeting with a fortune 500 company. Good luck...

$250 per day? WTF

[Nino]

Shootblue, I’m sorry that you feel shot down because you did not get the answer that you were looking for, next time tell us so and we can tell you exactly what you want to hear.
How do you think that I come up with answers? Just to be controversial or to shoot you down? June of this year was my 36th year in this business, I believe a few years before you were born, right? I still feel that I have so much more to learn. Over the years I’ve seen them come and go by the hundreds, all with ideas of making it quick in the business; all with over inflated opinions on their level of knowledge. They all disappeared and went on to do something else because once you get a bad reputation in this business you are done. The years that will take to fix it doesn’t make it worth it to stay in this business.
You can take my suggestions any way you want to, it makes no difference to me.

I think the real problem here is that we are taking apples and oranges. When I saw that $250 a day equipment included or people getting calls to work for an hour or two, by the hour I realized that we are talking about totally different productions.

It’s easy to be a Monday morning QB and tell yourself that you can do that job better than your competition did. But first you must realize that the major cause of poor quality production is not the bad shooters, is the poor quality budgets. Before you criticize other people’s work, have you any idea of what the budget was for that job? Good quality takes time and time is money. Unless you are independently wealthy you can’t survive by giving more that you are being paid for.
So you want to go after these clients? Big mistake. I can tell you without even seeing the work or knowing the client that the budgets for those videos that you mentioned were microscopic. There are only two ways that you can get that client. One is that you will offer a better quality for the same price, and you will lose money doing the job, or two is that you will do the same quality of work for less money, the end result will bethe same, you will lose money.

After you see somebody else work is easy to say I can do better quality work. Why do you think that some shooters are consistently busy even thou the quality of their work might not be really that outstanding. You see, quality, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s all a matter of personal opinion of what constitute good quality. But there’s something considerably more important that optimum quality, and that’s problem solving abilities. That’s the unique quality that separates the men from the boys. On any production big or small there are problems, the bigger the production the more the problems. The smaller the budgets and the more critical the problem solving abilities become. Problems can make the difference between making and losing money. A photographer that can analyze any situation and quickly come up with workable solutions time after time will get the jobs time after times. Problems solving is what leads to consistent quality work, and the only way to obtain this is with experience, and at the early stages of one’s career the only way to learn problem solving is to work with experienced people, that’s internship.

[BluesCam]

I would dare say the best way to get corporate clients is from referrals and networking. I have had very little luck with cold calls.

I have been doing a series of instructional videos for a product manufacturer. We have done English, Spanish and French versions. I'm not making a lot of money, but it's not bad and will lead to other opportunities.

I just saw a DVD demo from a CA producer. Every job on there was $100,000 and up. Very fancy animation and lots of motion (jibs, dollies). I wish I could get into that arena.

Try to check out a few business networking groups. They are usually listed in the business section of the paper. Is there a small business development center in your town? Check with SCORE for resources.

Be sure you have a decent website and an e-mail address that is from the site. Videoguy@rocketmail.xxx is not a good one for corporate work.

Give it a shot. Good luck.

[Nino]

Large corporate accounts that spend 100K for a production will never deal directly with an all in one cameramen/producers/script writers/editors/etc. So don’t even waste your time trying to get these accounts.
Finding the right individuals to delegate responsibilities is the key for success. This is how corporations work. The same rule applies to their vendors. Everybody would like to spend less, corporations are no exception, but there’s the right and the wrong way to save money. Corporations will deal with producers who also know how to delegate responsibilities. One who can understand the company needs, who can work on multiple projects at the same time, often under pressure and most important meet deadlines.
In order to meet these requirements a good producers has to have an infrastructure of independent resources that includes writers, crews, voiceover artists, graphic artists and animators, composers, editors, etc. His job as a producer is to delegate and coordinate all these elements at once until the production(s) is completed. As a cameraman the best that you can hope for, if you would like to work on these big projects, is to find one of these producers and become one of his vendors. A word of caution, you better be good because the producer’s success depends on his vendors. I’ve seen producers after an hour on the shoot calling-in a new crew and fire the current one on the spot.

[Douglas]

Nino, you should write a book and it should be required reading for every freelancer. As always, your advice is 99.9% right on the mark.

Doug

[grassland]

Your potential clients will regard your price as an indication of your value. If you do it for free, they won't place much value on what you do when it comes to future work. If you want to develop samples of your work that you can show to others, how about offering your "free" work as a contribution to a local non-profit--the United Way, Red Cross, Homeless Shelter, etc. Make a really effective training, fund raising, or awareness program for one of these agencies and then show it to other clients to introduce your services. When they as "how much did that cost?" you can honestly say, "That was done as a contribution to the organization, but production of this quality costs $$$".

Most commercial clients who use your service for free will want it for free the next time they call.

[Baltimore Shooter]

Everybody would like to spend less, corporations are no exception, but there’s the right and the wrong way to save money.

That quote needs to be displayed on EVERY wall in companies all over the world! One of the best quotes ever! Much more direct and meaningful than that "penny wise, pound foolish" and other cliches.

Warren

[freedom]

Grassland
Excellent idea!