Howcast has a program for filmmakers called “Howcast Emerging Filmmakers Program” where you can basically look for assignments to shoot, edit and upload. If you’re lucky and your video gets a lot of views, they’ll share the revenue from the advertising with you. I haven’t had much time to look into this program in much depth, but if you’re a starving artist it might not be such a bad way to get some cash and have some opportunities to work on your reel.

I met a fashion/commercial photographer named Eugene Uhuad who runs a company called 3TEN Photo here in Edmonton. They do some wedding photography under their other company name Ideal Wedding Photography but mainly their focus is on fashion and commercial photography. I met up with Eugene after the Bridal Fantasy to talk about the possibility of our two companies working together somehow. Right now we’re not too clear on what we’re going to do, but certainly this is the ideal type of business relationship, where both companies can benefit from each other, and not have to fork over too much cash.

Our goal is to eventually move up from wedding videography and onto things like corporate video, television commercials, music videos, and finally feature films of course. By networking with a company like 3TEN Photo it points us in the right direction towards that goal. It’s important to network and partner up with as many businesses as you can, especially those in related fields. One may feel as though they are your competition, but in the long run you will end up benefiting each other more than you compete against each other, and in this case we don’t do photography so there is no conflict at all.

3TEN Photo at work

We produced a couple of short videos to help promote our services, one that is 30 seconds or so which is playing on Hype Advertising’s digital signage network, and another which we will be playing on an LCD while we are at the expo. This is the first video:

Wedding Promo 30s

The second video is slightly longer than the first one, and includes more information on our pricing:

Wedding Promo 180s

For all you with film ambitions, I am going to start doing some more book reviews of books I have read and suggest for you guys to buy.  I can’t stress enough how useful it is to read a lot of film books.  Any film book is good, but I’ll suggest some specific ones that I own.

The experience of doing wedding videography was valuable to me in a number of ways, however I have decided that I really don’t want to do it again, but I do have a couple of weddings to do this summer (not 16 or so like last year). The most important lesson I learned from doing it was learning that I do not want to be involved in customer service in any capacity. I do not like dealing with clients very much, and maybe this means that if I succeed in my film career that I should find myself a good producing partner to deal with the investors. I am not that great, or comfortable with, the whole schmoozing thing.

Another valuable thing that I gained from the experience was a slightly thicker skin. It was hard work doing all those weddings. There were some very long days, and at times I wanted to just leave, but I couldn’t do that, just like I couldn’t just leave a film set if I felt like it.

I also managed to become very good with Final Cut Pro, and DVD Studio Pro, which I’m sure will help me when I go to film school. Also, the fact that I now own all my own equipment will give me a distinct advantage when I’m editing my work.

I would certainly caution anyone who wanted to get into this business, but I certainly think it is a great way to get a start in this business.

Mistake #1: Under Estimating How Long it Would Take

We under estimated the amount of time it would take us to finish each video, and get each client out of our lives. We said that we would finish each of our clients’ videos, and have a rough draft in their hands 5 weeks from the day of their wedding. The problem was not that we couldn’t finish the video in that amount of time, but that we started getting overwhelmed with past projects, especially from clients who couldn’t make up their minds on what they might or might not want changed in their videos. This leads us to our next mistake.

Mistake #2: Not Placing a Time Limit on Requests for Revisions

We would give our clients a draft DVD to view, and then give us some feedback on things they may or may not want changed. We did this to insure our clients were happy with their product, but also to give our clients an added bonus to sign with us back in the sales stage since we had not been around as long and had to find an extra edge. The problem was we never made any stipulation about how long they had to make up their minds about revisions, so we had to constantly hound people to finish off the project. This gave us added pressure because while this was happening we were also trying to finish editing more recent weddings. Then when we started to be late in finishing these newer clients’ videos we got some more heat, and after finishing their draft videos late we couldn’t really put much pressure on them for being late, because we were late first, but because of clients like them beforehand!

Lessons to be Learned:

#1: Do not under estimate how long it will take you to finish each video, and always give yourself a buffer, because life happens

#2: Do not give your clients an unlimited amount of time to review their draft, and stipulate a maximum number of revisions you’re willing to do, and quite frankly I’m not sure a draft is necessary, if you’re good you shouldn’t need it (unless you screw something up). Although a draft can be a handy way of making sure you didn’t forget something, because trust me the bride won’t.

#3: Be extremely careful with all terms of every contract you ever sign, and if you’re the one creating it, consider some professional legal advice.

As I write this message now, we are currently trying to hound almost half of our clients for final revisions on their DVDs, and still need to collect somewhere between 15-20% of our wedding revenues from summer 2005, so take my advice, please.

The best thing one can do is to try find a way to make money that will further your skills in your areas of interest. For me that’s video production and film. So to make money I’ve started a media productions business along with a friend of mine. Our main source of revenue so far has been filming weddings, which is certainly not as glorious as working as a director, but we’ve learned a lot from it. We’ve learned a lot about business, from acquiring clients to keeping the books in order. We’ve become really comfortable with Apple’s Final Cut Studio, which is going to be very helpful when I arrive at NYFA. We’ve become great at filming live events, and while I’m not very interested in doing documentaries it is helpful to watch people in a natural environment and just observe how they act. Finally, something we’ve done along the way without any conscious effort, is we’ve met a lot of other business people who do a lot of different things. If you want to be successful in the entertainment business I think it’s pretty important to be good at social networking, something we’re going to make a conscious effort to do in the future.

So, if you’re thinking of heading off to film school in NYC, or some other major city (where things are very expensive) you’d better have some rich backers, or you had better be entrepreneurial. I’d say being entrepreneurial is your best bet, because you want to be willing to do things on your own and make things happen for yourself. Nobody is going to hand you a movie to direct, or a huge part in a Spielberg movie, so you’d better go get things done yourself.

This of course is all very hypocritical of me to say because I am lucky enough to have parents that believe in my goals, and are willing to back me at film school. Although, if things continue going well with our business, I may not need the handout anymore (which is something I’d really like to achieve).

As time goes by I’ll give out some information on how to make some money on the side, without having to wait tables, or get some other crappy job. I’ll explain a bit more about filming weddings, and other ways to start a successful business.