Ways to make a living ?

[Michael Chen]

I am glad to see so many posts came up. It does give me encouragement and i'm glad for it.

Have u guys thought of making a movie or something someday?

I am going to open another thread and give my rough idea of a proposal, and would like to know what do you guys think.

Thanks for all the encouraging words so far, and if there's further interesting stories, i'd be glad to hear.

I am qutting my job soon. My only concern now is that I'll have to make enough for my own living expenses while doing something I like. As i am doing accounting, there's no way i can convince my company to do something like this hehe.

[Peter Summers]

Hi Michael et al,

I just wanted to add to the highly encouraging and motivating remarks on this thread. I come from a theatre directing background, trained at drama college in London and worked in London on small plays and touring companies.

My involvement with DV has come about because of a growing frustration with the limitations of theatre as a story-telling medium. For me, the technical aspects and availability of DV has been completely empowering in this respect. It levels the playing field. But what it doesn't do is provide you with the one thing that I feel we all need as artists/storytellers/filmmakers: courage. It takes guts to stand up and try! I take my hat off to you, keep at it and accomplish your dream!

As far as "bread and butter work" goes, I make fundraising videos for charities and voluntary organisations. I made the first two for free, got a showreel out of them and then used the showreel to get a business start up grant. It is as much about presenting yourself well as it is about what you can do.

All the best,
Peter.

[Bill Ravens]

Hi Frank.....

Welcome to DVinfo. Long live DV.com, eh? Good to see ya.
Shooting funerals???
Sounds like a novel approach. Do people really want video of Aunt Gertie's funeral?

[Chris Hurd]

I've never done a funeral, but I've heard this is an expanding area of video production. What makes this interesting and potentially a substantial gig is turning a funeral video into a life accomplishments video by working in a bio with still photos, other video, etc. like a life history of the deceased. There is a growing market for this sort of thing.

[Frank Granovski]

Hi Bill!

I can't get into DV.com with my DOS 6.22/WIN 3.11 'puter. I've got this other one now, and yes, it's faster and all, but I'm on a regular phone line. That means DV.com's bloated JAVA coding and 1 million ads and cookies are out for this bloke.

Concerning funerals, I think most people would want their loved ones remembered with pics and video. Maybe it's a culture thing everywhere except the US?

[Bill Ravens]

hmmm...interesting thought/concept. Around here, there are a million descanso's(you know those roadside crosses where people have died in auto wrecks). Perhaps there is a market there.

As for boated websites.....I don't go to DV.com much anymore. Can't follow any threads very effectively. Got your site DVfreak.com bookmarked, tho'.

[Adrian Douglas]

Frank,

I've heard the new Pentium 75 is pretty good, and Windows the new Windows OS should go well on it. I think they're calling it Windows 95.

[Frank Granovski]

Ha! No, it's a P3 with WIN 98 ME (I hate WIN 95). My old 'puter is a HP Vectra VL 5/100. That's a P100. Plenty fast for 6.22/WIN 3.11.

Regarding the original topic. I've had good results making instructional videos, and marketing them through ads and the web.

Another good one is to get a photography partner (or subordinate) to do the stills while you shoot the video for weddings. There's great money to be made here. My wife's cousin owns a photo shop and charges about $5000 Can. for such a gig. And, yes, he does lots of weddings. If my knees were not so bad, I'd do the same darn thing full time (my cat's gotta eat you know).

[Michael Chen]

Wow, how time has really flies since I first started posting here.
I have stopped coming to the forum for a long, long time, and I don't know, but I suddenly had a feeling today to just check out my initial posts when I first started.

Can't believe 9 years has passed, and I really remembered the time when I first created this post, with all sort of dilemmas in pursuing my dream and getting advice from all the people here.

I would like to provide an update on how far I've come. I have made numerous TV programs, series, TV commercials and a few movies to date. My latest films were financed by established investors and stars some very well known casts from South East Asia. I am also now an established filmmaker who has been featured by numerous medias, making a mark in the industry.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people here. You've been an inspiration and were there to give me the encouragement when I really needed it. Without you, my career path and life could have been very different. And to all the newcomers who has just started, don't give up. I would never have imagined I would be here 9 years back when I first posted. You could do it too.
Big thank you too all!


Regards,
Michael

[Doug Bailey]

Hi Michael and the other Posters,
Congratulations on your success and thanks for coming back and sharing your story. Great inspiration and great reading all the other opportunities out there.

Funerals & celebration of life... hmm.
Videos for fundraisers... another hmm.

Have the courage to follow your dreams!

Regards & happy shooting,
Doug.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Congratulations Michael!

It is good that you came back to post your story. Did you take the plunge directly after posting the thread here or did you wait and take you time before quitting your day job?

It is really nice to hear that your life changed for the better and your dreams came true.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Michael Chen]

Hi Sabyasachi,

I took the plunge right away. I just needed a some push and motivation and someone to tell me that I'm doing the right thing.

First few years was tough, but it was worth it!

[Chris Hurd]

September 5th of this year will mark a decade of forum posts on DV Info Net.

Congrats Michael on all you do and thanks for coming back to check us out!

[Michael Chen]

Thanks Chris.

You guys are an inspiration. This forum has helped and will continue to help a lot of people like myself. Congrats on the 10th year mark!

[Harry Simpson]

Amazing thread. It's not til I read the last comments in the thread that I realized your original question was 2002!!
It'd be great if you could talk about those first years after you quit your job. Heck the last 9 years bio would be a pretty interesting movie for a lot of us Michael.
Glad I found and read this thread! These are the gems in DVinfo!