Need video? Freelance camera operator, DP or TD? Call me! 714-608-4495.
#video #freelance
Video Resume
First Impressions Video is “COVID-19 Certified” and ready for your next project! Contact me…STAT to book your next video! This is an annual certification, so hopefully, a year from now I won’t need a renewal! In the meantime, call, write, email me or “Request a Quote” on this website!!
2019 was a great ride, and now it’s time to “drive” right into 2020! Need a Videographer, Director of Photography, Director/TD, Cinematographer, or just a good ol’ Camera Operator? Give me a call!
To all of my clients, freelance colleagues and friends, my sincere thanks and a tip of the hat you you all!
How much is a college scholarship worth to your family? If you’re reading this article, you’re probably thinking about that question. A highlight video may be the essential vehicle to secure an athletic scholarship, and for many, this may be the only way an athlete could ever aspire to attend college.
Coaches, scouts and recruiters don’t have the time or budget to visit with every potential recruit, so why not take the recruit to them – through a professionally produced highlight video. Coaches want to see the athlete’s skill, hear his or her speaking abilities, and observe his or her work ethic in the gym or practice field. One key factor is how to bundle those highlights to make the athlete stand out from all the others vying for scholarships. But the best packages require cost considerations that are—far too often—overlooked or ignored. This is NOT about whipping out your smartphone and shooting away…there is purpose and process to the capture of a compelling sports video.
# # # # # # # # #
I get several requests a year from parents looking for video for their aspiring young athletes. I shoot high-school sports for Fox Sports PrepZone, plus I played a game or two in my youth, so I have a bit of an understanding how to do it. That being said, when it comes to capturing the kind of video that would make a compelling “recruiting reel,” there are several things to consider.
Let’s start with equipment. You need good quality cameras capable of adjusting to wide ranges of light (from very bright sunlight, to dark, with the field illuminated). All the major camera manufacturers have gear that will get the job done. Personally, I favor Sony. Audio capture should be a shotgun mic capable of picking up the field announcer.
Next, you need access to the field. This may require permission from the home school’s athletic director, who will also authorize credentials for the stands (and sidelines, if that’s part of the arrangement). Also, check with the AD to see if releases are required. And don’t even think about showing up for a professional (paid) assignment without business insurance. If a parent trips over a tripod or cable and falls, and you’re NOT insured…..well, you just don’t even want to go there!!
So you’ve made it into the stadium! Now you need a vantage point. Depending on the arrangement, you will want to be as high as possible to capture the action. Back to equipment, the camera must have a good zoom range to be able to move in on the action as the play develops—and keep in focus! You need to get to the stadium early…repeat, EARLY, to get that spot. Parents, family and boosters will be there, and they have NO obligation to give you space to shoot. If you’re lucky enough to get in or on top of the press box, consider yourself fortunate…that’s usually where you’ll find me, with my Fox Sports camera!
High school football games typically last 2 – 3 hours, plus halftime, plus the aforementioned early arrival, and strike (tear down) time. So, the total time on property can be 5 to 7 hours. And then, there’s post-production. This entails reviewing ALL the game footage, looking for those “gems” to go into the finished product. Then time has to be allotted for editing, including game “isolations” (called “ISOS”), graphics, personal statistics and any other desired elements.
# # # # # # # # #
So, taking all of this into consideration, what does a recruiting video cost? Prices, complete with stats panels, isolations of the athlete, slow-motion “snippets” of plays and contact information can range from $500 to $1,500 and higher, often per game. There are several national companies that do this and some use networks of videographers to capture the video footage, with post production done at a headquarters location.
These videos, done at the professional level, aren’t cheap. But go back to the first question in this essay and ask it again. A four-year scholarship to UCLA, Alabama, or Ohio State could save a family a six-figure investment, so even at the high end for a recruiting video, that’s a pretty solid return on investment!
I would be happy to speak with you regarding your sports video needs and the initial consultation is free. Call or email me for more information!
In my May 21st blog, last year (“Can you give me a ‘ballpark’ quote?”), I broke down the elements of a video production to illustrate what goes into a bid for a project. In that article, I mentioned that post-production is a subject that should have its own story, so here it comes today!
To review, the components that play into how a job is priced includes:
Production Rate
Equipment
Personnel
Post Production
So let’s unpack that last one: Post production. A simplistic definition would describe it as everything that happens after production wraps, leading up to the delivery of the finished video product. It’s only when we drill down further that we find out what that really means…
- Editing. The art of taking the raw footage—with its audio—and turning it into something useful. I believe too many on the “client side” have limited understanding of what goes into good editing, especially the time it takes to do it right. And there is NO correlation between the aggregate time of the source footage and a finished sequence. Even if the desired time for a video is one minute, it could take hours (or even days) to whittle a lot of raw footage into that really special promo/talking head/commercial piece! A good shooter will capture footage with editing in mind (especially if it’s the same person doing both tasks), but editing is still the process that can take the most time*.
- Audio. This subject actually has two definitions. The first pertains to adjustments that are often necessary to “sweeten” the audio captured with the source footage. Depending on the quality of that sound, it may not require much work—but it can! A good editor typically has an audio application just as robust as the editing program and I’m pleased to have the Adobe suite that includes Audition, in my workflow arsenal. Nothing can undermine a video like bad audio, so major attention needs to be paid to this crucial element. The second context pertains to the music bed that sometimes rides under the video. This sound track should complement the tone of the visuals and NEVER compete with it. We’ve all seen videos with the audio track WAY TOO LOUD (yes, I’m yelling!), and even with volume controls, an audio track should never overwhelm any spoken word in the video.
- Titles, Graphics & Effects. Call this the “glue” that brings everything together, “TG&E” make for a nice opening and closing to your video. Effects should never be so dramatic that they become a distraction; they should be an enhancement to your presentation.
I hope this addresses the point that creating a video is comprised of many moving parts. Make sure your video production company understands them all and can pull the “pieces of the puzzle” together into a cohesive, compelling video!
Happy New Year!
* I am often asked how long it takes to edit a project. And while there is no specific answer (no dodge here!), reputable sources (plural) say that it can take from 1 to 5 hours to produce 1 minute of finished video. The range represents the complexity of the edit; the more elements (footage, graphics, titles, music, effects, rendering, color correction and others) the longer it will take. In the context of the “ballpark quote” article, post production can easily be equal to—or even higher than—the cost of production itself.
As we close out the crazy year known as 2016, I would be remiss if I didn’t say a sincere THANK YOU to all the clients I served. And as we head into 2017, there is only one question: GOT VIDEO?
Let’s do something together in this next year and you can see what other clients have learned: Great video does NOT have to break the bank!
Cheers!
First, my sincere thanks to all my clients who entrusted their video work to First Impressions Video! Whether a direct production or as a freelance contributor, 2016 was a very special year, and I am truly grateful! And as we head into 2017, just remember this important axiom: Rule #1…don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule #2…it’s ALL small stuff!
May we all be wildly successful in our respective endeavors in the coming year!
~TRW
For the last few weeks, I’ve been insanely busy with projects, plus, I took 10 days off to visit my home town of Oberlin, Ohio for one of those “milestone” high school reunions. So I haven’t been able to produce any of my own content. But don’t despair! The following is a collection of “shares” of relevant articles regarding video that I hope will resonate with you. And if any of them do, please touch base and let’s flush out an idea just for you!
- 6 Common Video Questions to Answer Before Your Next Shoot: http://bit.ly/2dyoobW
- Using Video During Your Events: http://bit.ly/2dpi32O
- The 4-Step Guide To Boosting Employee Engagement With Video: http://bit.ly/2dyr0Xs
- 3 B2B Video Ideas for Your Inbound Strategy: http://bit.ly/2dywYHO
Got video?
I hear that question a lot. Unfortunately, there are a number of elements that affect the price of a video. No, that’s not a dodge, it’s the truth. What would you say if someone asked you this question:
How much does an airplane cost?
In thinking about the variables in play to answer this question, you begin to get the idea there are a lot of things to consider! I know my way around aircraft and there are easily thousands of questions, like are we talking about fixed wing or rotary wing (helicopter)? So let’s dump the airplane example and get back to video. Let’s start by posing a few questions that should be addressed before we answer “that other question.”
- Rate. Often described as hourly, half-day and day rate. Many videographers don’t price by the hour and some only price on a full day-rate basis. Hourly averages range between $25 an hour from that film school grad you know to $250 an hour for a top-flight video veteran. My hourly average hits right about the center: around a hundred bucks an hour. Which lends me to…
- Equipment. Sure you could whip out your smartphone and shoot away, but is that really the look you’re going for? If so, stop reading! Otherwise, continue. There are $20,000 cameras out there (don’t forget lenses!), $2,000 microphones, and lights that weigh as much as a Volkswagen, but is that really necessary? Is there a line item charge in the project budget for equipment? I have professional level gear that you may not see Spielberg using, but it will produce corporate video that will resonate with your audience and you won’t need stockholder approval to shoot! Oh, and my rate includes the aforementioned pro-level gear! Cameras, mics, lights, sliders, tripods, gimbals…oh my! Only if I have to create a specific effect might extra equipment fees enter the equation. I don’t have a drone, though I have access to one through an industry colleague, and this is considered specialized equipment.
- Personnel. I started my business as a single person crew (“SPC”) to be able to deliver quality work at an affordable rate. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be multiple cameras, mics and lights…it does mean that I know how to be efficient in the deployment of this hardware (including setup and take down) by myself. And in those instances where it just makes sense to have a grip, 2nd camera op or sound person along, I have a rolodex full of these folks that can be called in. Also in the category of personnel: talent. Does the project require professional acting talent or will we be shooting personnel from the company being filmed?
- Time. How comprehensive is the project? Can we do it in a day? A few hours? What will be required to edit the acquired footage? When is the project due? And by the way, just because the finished deliverable is “only” 5 minutes long doesn’t mean that hours, and sometimes days of production didn’t go into what is ultimately seen on screen.
- Post-production. Because this is a future article all by itself, I’ll be brief here. Post-production includes the components that help make the video “pop.” Editing, music selection, titles, graphics, animations, voice-overs, special effects. A word of caution here: less is often more.
So there you have just a few of the key elements of a video. Truthfully, anyone who would just throw out a “ballpark” quote without reasonable consideration of the variables I’ve shared here is asking for trouble. I would much rather take a modest amount of time to talk about those elements so I could provide a quote that would be meaningful for all parties involved. I may miss out on a few jobs taking this approach but I’m as professional in my business methodology as I presume you are in yours. Consultations are free, and the result will be a production that achieves its desired results at a rate everyone finds acceptable.
First Impressions Video 