What kinds of production do you?

[Mike Calla]

What kinds of production do you?

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

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

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

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

[Monday Isa]

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

[Josh Bass]

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

[Kevin McRoberts]

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

Some samples (why not):

DEMO 2013 draft2 on Vimeo

[Tom More]

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

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

[Mark Koha]

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

[Al Gardner]

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

Carole Osborne Continuing Edu on Vimeo

[Al Gardner]

Very nice work Kevin McRoberts. Very nice.
Al

[Panagiotis Raris]

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

5-15 days a month

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

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

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

[Gabe Strong]

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

Type of stuff I do:

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

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

www.gforcevideo.com

and click on the 'demos' button.

[Roger Gunkel]

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

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

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

Roger

[Ervin Farkas]

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

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

[Don Bloom]

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

[Chris Harding]

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

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

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

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

Chris

[Denis Danatzko]

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

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

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

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