Your Thoughts plz.. Is this really just a man's business?

[Meryem Ersoz]

to do this successfully, you have to be good at several things, not just one thing...shooting, yes, but you also have to be good at running a business. if you're a good shooter but have no concept about running a business, your best bet is to try to find work as a shooter with an already existing business. this will help you to make industry contacts, build a portfolio, and make some money. it will allow you to observe how the business is run. running your own business takes a lot of time and energy. being a good shooter takes a lot of time, practice, and dedication. so does being a good editor. doing all three simultaneously, well, that's having a lot on your plate....

i don't know that many 20 year olds with the maturity to run their own business. i'm not saying *you* don't, just that generally speaking, a 20 year old is still in the identity-seeking phase of life rather than in the place of creating a solid and realistic vision of a career. i live in a big college town, and most of the twenty-somethings i encounter and work with, are still fairly vague about what it is realistic to expect from a career or even just from themselves personally. i have a 22 year old PA, and he is great at taking instructions and he is quite naturally a decent shooter, but he hasn't yet figured out how to self-start, even though i fully support him taking on more responsibility. maturity is not age-based, necessarily, but a little seasoning certainly helps.

having said all that, usually when i walk into a room with 30 video producers, 2 are women. that's about the accurate ratio in this region. some of my female friends and i started a video production discussion group, where we meet monthly and screen footage together, to help each other take our production skills to new levels. sometimes there is more wine-drinking and idle chatter than screening, but it's always fun. it started out about seven years ago, and at that time, everyone in the group was an amateur. now the group is entirely composed of professionals (and one academic) who are running their own businesses (and now we meet whenever everyone can figure out a time to make it, since we're all so madly busy....). it helps to make friends with other women who are doing this, because you feel less isolated. plus, it's fun to be part of a social work group.

[Jenna Klingensmith]

Thanks so much for all the replies, and encouragement!

I will definetly keep on "truckin!" I've offered my services for free, but I am having trouble finding anyone serious, (especially bands.. you'd think they'd love a free video to promote themselves.. especially with youtube/myspace being so popular these days).. Hopefully I will eventually book something solid with someone who is actually serious about wanting a video.

Well, I don't have much under my belt, just a few "nature" music videos, and a project I did in highschool (which was my first video, and still in my opinion the best piece of work i've done so far).. so that said.. I'd appreciate it if you guys (and girls) would take a look at this particular video.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=1369508816

tell me what you think, keep in mind, it was a highschool project, it was my first time EVER editing.. and my first time making a music video. This is what made me want to do music videos.

Well I hope you enjoy it.

[Dana Salsbury]

I'll just say this; for the last two/three weddings, my wife had the money shot. In one of them she unclipped from the tripod and was running with the couple as they were running down the isle. (My wife was on the outside of the people). She is amazing, to the point that I would not have pursued this venture without her.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Quality work on that video. I found one serious issue when playing it back. The audio is distorting/clipping badly. I don't usually have this problem on myspace or youtube video, so it's probably your clip. Something may have gone wrong with the audio levels when you converted. Perhaps someone else can verify what I experienced.

Regardless, your work looks good and is a whole lot better than most bands could ever get for free. Perhaps you have problem with "perceived value". Maybe they think if it's for free it won't be good. I don't know how to get beyond that with people that don't have any money. Make sure to be able to show your work to them in some way through a DVD or just bring your camcorder for playback of a tape. You could also have a storyboard of some ideas you have for their video and if they like even one of them you have a place to start working.

[Timothy Harry]

Jenna

3 pieces of advice:

1. Get your stuff off of myspace and get a real website. (but dont use my 10 minute iweb webpage as an example haha) Your video is too good be be on a myspace page. I know most every band in the world has a myspace page, and it is a great place to network, but you really need to have a professional website to be taken as seriously as you want to be. (background on your myspace page is way to distracting and hard to read) remember to keep it simple because you want to sell your video not your webpage

2. Make sure your audio levels on your videos are perfect before you upload them. Audio is at least 50% of what makes a good video, and if the audio is crappy, people will perceive your masterpiece to be crappy. I killed the audio on the computer while watching your "My Immortal" and I was blown away by the video. Your skills in high school were incredible, I can just imagine what hey will turn into in another 10 years!

3. Don't let anyone tell you that you cant, and when they tell you that you can't, show them that you can and will.

[Jenna Klingensmith]

Yeah, I have been considering getting an actual website, but I am assuming you are talking about buying a webspace right? Can you recommend any hosts? Should I higher someone to build a website for me? Is that expensive?

When it came to the audio.. I know.. when it gets loud, it gets distorted, and It was fine .. BEFORE I uploaded it.. I've posted threads on other parts of the forum asking for advice on how to get my video to look better and sound better, how to compress them, but I'm still basically clueless. I know that my video quality makes me look even more like an ammature, and it really bothers me. I know nothing about putting video on websites, even if I bought a website, I wouldn't know how to get it on there, I know I see people who have flash, or wmv playing their videos right off of the site, with amazing quality and clarity, and I am jealous! Lol.

I'm sorry my background was distracting, I just liked the background picture so much that i made my tables transparent. I suppose I will just make a new background, and use tables that aren't transparent (but I do like to show off my photoshoping on my backgrounds, so I'll just have to work my way around it) But as of now, it has to stay the way it is because myspace won't let me edit my profile at all. *Grr*

But the reason I use myspace IS because there are so many bands on there, and often times they are to lazy to visit and external link and go to an actual website and watch my videos. So I tried to offer the convience of being able to watch them right on my myspace. Alot of other film myspaces have amazing quality videos, and I don't understand HOW they got it to look so good!? Perhaps I will offer both onsite videos and offsite videos, for anyone who is concerned about quality. ANY advice on quality would also be fantastic!

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. I am lucky that I have professionals such as yourselves to offer advice.

-Jenna Rose

[Jason Robinson]

The age old debate regarding hosts. :-) I personally use myself as the host (I operate a reseller account with my ISP) so that means i can host lots of domains on my shared server. As far as the actual web design.... that is a different matter. I use an install of joomla.com since I am just starting out. It has what I need, a like to a contact page where someone can fill out a form and send me an email. It also has the ability to post lots of content in an organized way (but is a bit overwhelming to figure out where to do that.

lots of people here on DVI can give your pointers. Some are even web designers as well. I wouldn't sink hundred of dollars into a design unless ou can prove that web is a major customer attractor. For me, I bought my hosting plan ($240 / yr) and I decided to experiment with the design / layout on my own rather than paying a designer ~$300-600 for a site. When / if I find out that my site is holding me back or costing me customers, then I might invest in a better site.

jason

[Timothy Harry]

Jenna,

Webspace is pretty cheap. I use 1and1.com. I am on the 1and1 business plan because of the amount of web traffic to my site (transfer volume). it costs me $7.49 per month. they have one that is 2.99 per month but the transfer volume may be too low for your needs (video can take a ton of transfer volume especially once you hand out your business cards)

As for web design, i would recommend you use dreamweaver. The new version is in most of the 50 editions of adobe creative suite. It is the main WYSIWYG software program that web design pros use. If you can edit video you can definitely put together a webpage on your own. It is pretty simple. Go to lynda.com and pick up H.O.T. for the dreamweaver version you purchase. For a cheap version of dreamweaver check out edirectsoftware.com. If you are on a mac as I am, you may want to look into using iWeb. It is very easy to use and very very fast. I designed the majority of my site during a lunchbreak last october, and it has proven effective enough to not have redesigned at the moment.

[Timothy Harry]

jenna,

FOrgot to mention one other thing. When you have your own domain name such as JennaKlingensmith.com you can create email addresses that go with your domain. email from a professional domain looks 10 times more professional than a hotmail, gmail or any other type of address. You will have the appearance to be a much bigger company than you really are. THat helps a lot in a competitive market, because your competition will most definitely not be using a hotmail address.

[Jason Magbanua]

4 out of 5 of my shooters are women.

We have 7 full time editors now. All ladies.

And of course the company would be like a headless chicken without my wife.

Practice and persevere.