I’ve been working in tv for over 10 years and before that on educational/corporate videos, etc. I taught myself almost everything I know but had a few kind individuals help me along the way. Can I help anyone else or help increase the reach of this sub? Sorry if this is not the best way to go about doing this but just got excited to see this sub and want to help aspiring producers and directors. Thanks guys!

As we begin a new year, budgets are going to be resetting and people are on vacation so a lot of the video industry quiets down for a bit. This can be scary for some who don't have an established business or marketing game plan. For me, it's relatively normal that Thanksgiving to mid January winds up being slow.

So I had some free time and decided to ask ChatGPT (an artificial intelligence chatbot) to give me twenty ways to get new clients for my videography business. Here's what it came up with along with my advice/responses (in bold) after running a video production company for ten years. Let me know your thoughts!

1. Network with other professionals in related fields, such as photographers, event planners, and marketing agencies. This is probably my biggest path to success. I built a local crew of 7-8 people that all help each other out, hire out if they need a second hand, etc. By filling in the gaps and slower weeks working for them and obtaining a group of people I can trust to cover for me.

2. Join local business organizations and networking groups. I joined the local chamber and in my area it was a partial bust only because the types of people that were members and poor leadership. I found a local BNI chapter that had an SEO company, a promotional products company, a done for you email/newsletter marketing company and an IT firm all of which became massive referral partners for me. Lesson learned - these can be good options but only if the members compliment your industry.

3. Attend industry events and conferences. I've attended shows as big as NAB (if you haven't been to the Vegas one it's amazing and gives you access to big name companies) and it has allowed me to build some great connections that didn't necessarily lead to work but were good to have people in my corner. Probably something I'd hold to do on a rainy day and not a direct lead to work.

4. Create a strong online presence, including a professional website and social media accounts. I probably spent the last ten years redesigning my site and updating every 1-1.5 years. It helped to condense my messaging and get clear on showing what services I offer, answering questions potential clients have but it doesn't directly lead to clients. I invested in SEO for two years and it ranked well but I'd get too many people reaching out for wedding video and not corporate (which is what I do). Corporate work tends to come more from referrals while family and social events seem to be 50/50 of people Googling or getting a referral.

5. Offer special promotions or discounts to attract new clients. This doesn't exactly work unless you can get the offer in front of a lot of people. I partnered with a C-suite/business coach and made an offer to her audience that we would produce a speakers reel/pitch reel for CEOs and executives for only $500 but she was able to get 37 people to sign up for it and we filmed their pitches over 2 days. $18,500 is a great haul but again this wouldn't have happened if I didn't have access to an audience to advertise it to. Now I rarely discount my pricing for any reason at all other than they're a returning client and I want to reward them for being loyal, not because they asked.

6. Collaborate with other videographers or creatives on projects. This definitely points back to number 1 which is to this day my best bang for the buck. You could easily Google the top 20, 30 or 50 local videographers, PR firms, marketing consultants etc. in your area and set up coffee meetings or appointments to learn more about them. I really think the network is the gold mine and the more people you can have in yours the better. Sometimes all it takes is 2 or 3 really good referral partners.

7. Create and share video content on social media and online video platforms. I think this is good to do and I will say once my YouTube channel took off I was starting to run into people that would say, hey you're that guy that talks about live streaming on YouTube so the recognition does help people in trusting me and my work. It's not that hard to script and film 52 "shorts" that are less than 60 seconds and schedule them to go out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok one a week for the next year. Having that recognition builds credibility. If you're stuck creating 52 topics I'd say check out the ChatGPT I linked to above, it's pretty nifty and while it won't perfectly script out all of your videos it could easily generate your topics for you. By the way I don't get paid for mentioning it, it's a free tool for anyone to use.

8. Write articles or blog posts about your videography work and share them on your website and social media. I think this helps for SEO on your website but I don't think that anyone is simply going to hire you just because you wrote an article. I would say save this for a rainy day activity but if you can stack up a bunch of articles that are original content it will help your website rank locally. I'd probably vote for building your Google Business profile before doing this if you want to show up in local search.

9. Offer free or discounted services to non-profits or charitable organizations as a way to gain exposure and build your portfolio. This one is tough for me because I understand that someone getting off the ground might want to do this. Typically I would vote this one out. I don't think it makes sense to offer free services because people won't value what you're providing unless they have some skin in the game. If you have zero portfolio I would think hard about three really good companies or organizations to do portfolio work for but I would A. explain to the client here's the value of what this would cost normally so they don't take advantage and ask for another project for free or a low price and B. after those three are done DO NOT take any more work for free. If you've got three really good portfolio pieces that should be all you need to prove your worth.

10. Join freelancing platforms or job boards to find new clients. Fiverr, Upwork, Thumbtack - it's all a crapshoot because on those platforms you're a dime a dozen. There's hundreds of video editors in other countries willing to do the same work for pennies on the dollar. ProductionHub, Mandy, etc. it's all the same even when it does get industry specific because there's hundreds if not thousands of others just like you vying for the work. Again, ok for a few portfolio pieces otherwise not profitable for the long haul.

11. Reach out to past clients to see if they have any new projects coming up. Yes, 100% once you are established this is a great thing to do especially at the beginning of the year. Send off a quick email to every person you invoiced in the last two years.

12. Ask for referrals from satisfied clients. I would expand this and send an email that asks for 1) a review on Google business page and 2) if there's anyone they can think of that they could introduce you to. Don't focus on asking for a referral because they might not know someone who needs you right away. Use it as a networking chance to meet someone outside your network.

13. Create a email newsletter and send it to your email list to showcase your work and promote your services. I've avoided an email list for years only because of the amount of work it takes and I hate being on other people's email lists. I think this is a valid method for staying top of mind but I don't think it's going to be a quick path to success.

14. Partner with local businesses to create video content for their websites or social media channels. Sure but what does partnership mean? Make sure that you get something out of it. If it's the promise of later on sending work your way, no, that's a wasted promise. Refer back to my $18.5K gig with the business coach - that's a better way to "partner" where it's a win/win. She got to give her clients a resource that was massively valuable to them at a highly discounted price and I walked away with $18K in 24 hours.

15. Offer video production training or workshops to individuals or businesses. I think this can be a good option once you are established. I've had realtors ask me to come in and train their teams but this is something that often times means training someone to do it instead of hiring you so I'd recommend have some kind of offer like, we'll teach you how to film better real estate property tours and if you sign up with me today, my team will edit all of your videos for the next year for $X.

16. Create a strong portfolio of your work and use it to showcase your skills and capabilities to potential clients. That's just the thing - where are you going to showcase it that you can actually get it in front of enough eyeballs that it converts into paid work? I don't think I've updated my website portfolio or my business YouTube channel in a couple years now.

17. Use paid advertising to reach new clients, such as Google AdWords or Facebook ads. Google AdWords can work, Facebook is a little tougher because you have to target interests rather than someone directly searching for "Videographer in Chicago" but this can get pricy and again might lead to the same kind of leads we got from SEO where it was people looking for a wedding videographer and not a corporate gig.

18. Participate in online communities or forums related to videography and offer your expertise and services. I built one of these communities (specifically Videographers Connect on Facebook) that has 10K people in it and this has been a great resource of referral work from other videographers. The more you participate the more familiar you will be in the group. If you ask a bunch of very elementary questions though it might not lead to work but if you prove that you know your stuff you'll stick out.

19. Use SEO techniques to improve the visibility of your website and online profiles in search engine results. Similar to the blog posts, I've done this and hired an SEO company that got my ranking quite well for a good amount of time but I still think that managing your Google Business profile and making sure you've got some good 5-star reviews will get you on the map.

20. Offer video editing or post-production services in addition to video production. I think this one is a given and if you're a one man band like me you already do this but consider offering editing packages for people who might want to record their own content. There could be realtors wanting to make shorts on social media or dentists that record their own testimonial videos of clients but they want someone who can spice it up a little.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with the list that an AI came up with for growing a video production business. I think it does boil down to networking and who you know, not what you know. Building a good inner circle of others in the industry that you trust locally combined with building a good outer circle of those in complimentary industries (photographer, event planner, marketing, PR firm, IT firm, web designer, SEO, etc.) has been my core method and then from there I'll do the other things on a rainy day like updating the website, some SEO work, creating content/blog posts and participating in online communities. If you're looking for the fastest return on investment, the best method is to just meet as many people as you can, add value to their lives and become a super connector. Lead with the desire to help others first and it will pay off.

I hope everyone has a productive year ahead and if you have any big plans you're implementing in your business this year I'd be curious to hear what your plan is!

For those that don't know, Adobe Podcast is a web browser tool you get access to if you have a Creative Cloud subscription, and it is AWESOME. You give it crappy audio of someone talking and it spits out near studio level sound quality. For most of my videos, I've stopped using a good mic, I just use my macbook's internal mic if I'm doing computer recordings or I use a random crappy lav mic and then throw the audio into Adobe Podcast.

Testing Write-Up

Adobe Podcast vs Premiere Pro Enhance Speech

Adobe Podcast (cloud-based) is vastly superior to Premiere Pro's speech enhancement (local processing). They're completely different tools.

What Adobe Podcast Excels At

Background Noise Removal

• Wind noise: Exceptional performance, clearly optimized for this common use case

• Industrial fans/machinery: Removes background noise very effectively

• Vacuum cleaners: Great at isolating voice from consistent mechanical sounds

• Construction sites: Even with jackhammer-level noise, background removal was impressive

• Music/other voices: Completely removes background speech or music. Even if the speech is almost as loud as your speaker it knows who the main speaker is supposed to be.

Specific Scenarios Where It Shines

• Clipped audio: Surprisingly good at fixing badly clipped recordings like where the mic's gain is set too high.

• Background noise: holy moly it is good at background removal.

• AirPods: Works exceptionally well, likely due to consistent mic-to-mouth distance. Note that unfortunately the default camera app on iPhone uses the iPhone's mic NOT airpods. And there is no in-built option to use the airpods as the mic source.

• Removing echo: You don't need a sound-proofed studio

• Improving voice quality from lower end mics: Think about it as adding 5x improvement to the quality of whatever mic you are using. Its not going to turn a $20 mic into a $1000 mic but it will turn the $20 mic into a $100 mic. Obviously, a super high end mic is the ceiling. It's not going to make a super high end mic and recording studio set up sound better.

Where It Struggles

Voice Quality Improvements

• Ultra loud environment: Doesn't significantly improve voice quality when there is so much background noise that your voice gets drowned out. It will remove the background noise but it wont fix your voice completely.

• iPhone built-in mic: Background removal is good, but voice enhancement is minimal and sometimes makes it sound worse

• Distance variations: Doesn't compensate well when speakers move closer/farther from mic

Artifacts and Limitations

• Extreme noise levels: Introduces glitches and artifacts when processing extremely loud background noise

• Dynamic situations: Can cause voice to sound "gargly" or "clicky" when iPhone auto-adjusts levels during very loud background noise

• Not magic: Won't turn a terrible recording into studio quality - it's primarily a noise removal tool

Equipment-Specific Results

If you want to hear for yourself what it sounds like in these different situations when Adobe Podcast is used vs not, here is the full video.

Hope this helps someone out there.

I’m a personal trainer running my own social media pages to get more clients. I post workout tips, form corrections, and motivational clips. Tutorial videos are boring, you know. But it’s a constant struggle to keep the content looking fresh without spending hours editing.

I wasn't really looking for a fancy topic; I just wanted my videos to look professional. I’ve noticed that on social media, crisp, high-quality videos tend to perform better — but filming in a busy gym with mixed lighting makes it tricky to get that “pro look.”

For those who’ve been doing this longer: what’s your best tip for making social media videos look clean and professional without crazy gear?

I know some folks like to build a reel and take some jobs cheap, but please try to resist and build your reel with self-produced or budget projects. I have run a video agency for almost 30 years and I STILL get contacted by clients to do weeks of work for almost nothing. Here's my standard response:

If you do not have a sufficient budget, iPhones are amazing these days. Definitely produce the project by yourself with your iPhone.

I've done the math. If your project doesn't pay over $5k do NOT take the job. And that's only if it's a job for a few days. If longer, minimum $20-30k. You WILL go out of business if you keep taking clients that don't have budgets.

We developed an AI plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro, designed to quickly pick the best shots, saving loads of editing time. Like many of you, I’m a filmmaker(DOP & Editor) with over a decade of pro-experience, including big names like Saks Fifth Avenue, the Federal Government and big Youtube stars, I know the grind of video editing. That's why my team and I created Spingle, an AI that learns editing techniques to speed up the process, letting creators like me focus on the artistic side.

Spingle is already making waves, being used in HBO Max (In Canada) behind-the-scenes for a new show airing in 2024.You can join the waitlist at Spingle.ai

We've trained Spingle.ai with professional editing data, so it can easily weed out unusable footage. Plus, you can tailor it to your style, choosing from Handheld, Gimbal, Drone, Tripod, and more. It's meant to streamline the dull parts of editing, not replace the human touch.

Head over to our website to learn more about the problem we tackled and the solution we're presenting with Spingle.ai

I'm eager to get your feedback and answer any questions you may have about my creation and the journey thus far.

So firstly, don't judge on the cinematic masterpiece that is HSM2 (lol) but I was listening to the album track and when I came to watch the videos ripped from the film there were plenty of noticeable audio differences.

The album tracks are super polished and are produced incredibly well and tight yet in the actual film some of the lines during the leads are a little offset. Like they are noticably out of sync to the beat - just every now in again in a few songs. Also the audio levels on some of the vocals are pushed higher unnecessarily and draw negative attention (IMO)

Also some of the background vocals are slightly different in some parts of the album.

I assumed they would have the tracks ready for filming/editing and used these master tracks and added foley and boom.

Not sure why but this is so interesting to me to know what went on in post as it's seems deliberate and would have been screened and proofed.

I have been creating videos since I was a kid, I graduated from San Francisco State's Television and Radio Broadcasting department in 2011, I have worked for companies like ESPN, SF Giants, and edit for all sorts of world renowned companies.

Recent video made for Super 7 for Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B_OF7NvgZxg/

You can find my main site here: https://www.ejlpro.com

and my wedding films company here https://www.deweddingfilms.com

you can email [email protected] and I will get started on your project today!

Looking for remote editing projects, looking to help anyone in need as well, so let me know!

Hi everyone, I’ve come today to ask a question. I’m running a small video team and trying to break into higher-ticket corporate work (events, conferences, internal content, etc)

most of what I’ve gotten so far is smaller gigs, but I’m starting to realize the bigger contracts seem to come from specific events, launches, etc

I’ve come to ask for anyone who’s landed those, where did they actually come from? inbound, relationships, or something else?

Thank you 🙏

Hello fellow video gurus! So as a young green-nose video producer/editor, I don't have access to (nor can I afford) some of the more high-end software such as Premiere Pro that I learned how to edit on in college. So let me share with you some free, or lower cost, programs that I've found over the years. Feel free to add to my list in the comments!

General video editing: Davinci Resolve. This versatile NLE is the best free video editor I've found so far. In my opinion, other programs like Blender are a lot clunkier and the learning curve is a little bit higher. Resolve is a lot closer to NLE's I've been used to working with, like Premiere, and where it really shines is color correction.

Audio editing: Audacity. From noise reduction to multi-channel mixing, this amazing audio software does it all for free. While Resolve does have a baked in audio editor, I prefer working in Audacity for most of my audio needs just because I like it's interface a lot more.

DVD Burning: DVD Flick. Just a basic DVD burner to get ya going. Can create menus and other basic options.

Video compression: HandBrake. This versatile video compressor can really encode well, and if you follow some easy-to-find online tutorials you can really reduce file size a lot with minimal quality loss.

File conversion: Zamzar. This online file convertor can handle almost any format you can think of, from .mov to .mp4, or .mp3 to .wav, or even .docx to .pdf.

VHS to digital conversion: NCH Suite's Debut Video Capture. This one-time license cost us about 15 bucks if my memory serves correctly, and boy was it worth it! Using a composite video to USB convertor (I got mine from StarTech on Amazon) you can record a high fidelity copy of your VHS home movie, or archival footage, or whatever you're working with, and save it as a digital file. As a reminder, be very careful when working with copyrighted material!

OBS (Open Broadcasting Software): By now, I'm sure all of Reddit already knows about OBS but I just wanted to sing it's praises again. This is the definitive go to software for Live Video, Multi-Cam Switching, and Screen Capture/Game Capture. I've worked with many other programs, and even premium software like LiveStream or CamTwist don't come anywhere close.

So we planned on buying a UGREEN NAS awhile back and figured out everything we needed and then just didn't end up making the purchase.

We have a NAS now with a capacity of 100TB and it's basically full.

We found out yesterday that we're going to lose access to it because of some complicated new ownership I won't go into. Basically we can take the files but we're losing the NAS. So we're back to needing to buy a new one.

So I pulled up the info one the one we were going to buy awhile back with the intention of just buying more hard drives this time. But wait! Now there's a huge HDD shortage I didn't know about. Not only is everything way more expensive than it was just over a month ago when I checked, but I can't even find the ability to purchase the 32TB Ironwolf Pros we would need to maximize the 4-Bay NAS we were going to buy.

I'm wondering what my option are? We have about 100TB we need to transfer, could maybe get away with less for now and just purge some stuff due to the situation. But I'm not very well versed in how the NAS stuff works anyway, and we have a ton of footage, assets, and projects that need moved over to something within the next month.

IT started out as a fall-back but somehow became my life. I was attracted to the money without taking stock in the toll it would take on me. I've recently realized just how barren it is from a creativity perspective. I want out. Drama was the only thing that got me out of high school alive. I worked for a few years at two TV stations working live news and commercial production in the '90s. I have a knack for editing. I have a B.A. in History. I know Adobe Premiere, After Effects, & Photoshop pretty well, but no professional experience with them. The dream is full-time creative video/film work that pays enough to thrive. I don't want to spend years shooting weddings (as an example), but if that is an avenue that will take me where I do want to be, I'd jump in with both feet. What am I not seeing in this endeavor? What can you tell me of your experiences? Thank you!

So this video production hustle is my side job. I work in the oil fields of Northern Canada during the day. After hours and weekends I write, shoot and produce commercial promos for small companies in town.

I have done 5 paid projects for companies. I am able to get 1 or 2 jobs a month through networking.

My expenses are

$250 per year for my website $80 per year for Vimeo $300 per year for Epidemic Sound

All my gear is paid for. I Essentially have zero expenses other than my own time I spend.

Gear: GH4 Zhiyun Crane V1 Benro tripod Mavic Air Edits on FCPX on a 2015 macbook pro

My setup is good enough to charge $300-$500 a video for clients.

I was thinking of saving up for a GH5, Mavic Mini or one of those Laowa probe lenses. The IBiS could add some production value and the probe could be a gimick that I could use as a selling tactic in order to close new clients. The Mavic mini could get me making drone money in town. (I am in Canada and I need my Advanced Licence for flying in the city.)

What do you guys think? Doesn’t even have to be gear related.

I think that improving my own closing skills will get me more clients so maybe something to help with that.

I am a one man show and rarely hire a second shooter.

Any advice on what to spend my revenue on within my one man show video production business?

Www.vimeo.com/justinbishop

I’m a social and emotional learning resource teacher and know nothing about videography so if I’m posting in the wrong place or this goes against your group rules, I apologize and understand if the post gets deleted. I’m desperate for help though.

This year I have been working with a group of students with various disabilities (autism, PTSD, ADHD, etc...). My goal was to use theatre as a vehicle to teach them social and coping skills. Last September, they were exposed to the musical Hamilton in a lesson. In all of my years of teaching I have never seen a group of students relate to something as much as they related to that story. They picked 3 songs to perform and worked every single day to prepare for their performance in April.

Fast forward to March and they received the news that school was going to be cancelled. This meant that their production would be cancelled as well. The word devastated doesn’t even come close to describing what we felt.

I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to give them their moment! I happened to see a video of Jimmy Fallon doing a song with the Roots. The video was set up to look like it was happening live on Zoom with each person in their home singing/playing their part. I’ve taught enough Zoom classes now to know this probably isn’t how it actually happened.

I was hoping to have each child film themselves singing their part (listening to the music with earbuds) and then put it all together so it looks like a Zoom video. The problem is, I have no idea how to do this. I can get all of the kids’ clips together but beyond that I’m lost. I was hoping there might be a videographer or editor (professional or hobbyist) who might be willing to help me bring this project together. Unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to pay for this service (I’m so sorry). I’m a teacher so I make next to nothing.

So if anyone is quarantining and looking for a feel good project to help with please message me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been in the content and creative industry for a long time, and most of my clients have come from the nonprofit and advocacy sectors. Over the years, I’ve learned to wear just about every hat there is: writer, researcher, scriptwriter, shooter, editor, and sometimes the entire production team rolled into one. Lately, though, I’ve been wondering where else I can take these skills. Some of my former clients have built in-house creative teams. Others have gone all-in on AI-generated content, churning out materials faster than you can say “content calendar.” And while I understand that the industry is evolving, I can’t help wondering where the human side of this craft still has room to grow. For those of you working in other industries, what sectors or niches do you think could use someone with my kind of skill set? I can handle projects from concept development and research to writing, filming, editing, and final delivery, usually without needing to build an entire crew around me. I’m not necessarily looking to do more of the same. I’m looking for new territory, new problems to solve, and industries where good storytelling and solid execution still matter. Would love to hear your thoughts, recommendations, or even stories from your own experience. Where would you take a one-man creative operation in this strange, AI-saturated landscape we’re all trying to navigate?

We do a lot of doc-style video productions for healthcare and healthcare adjacent industries.

The biggest hurdle i'm finding over and over when working with founders during an interview is getting them to understand how to talk about emotional impact.

I had this one guy who created something like a injectable gel that help regrow tendons. He could speak on the technical specs and science for hours... which is great. BUT the video is for future patients... not people who understand all the jargon.

I asked him to speak about the emotional impact their technology; it's almost something he didn't understand.

Incredibly bright healthcare entrepreneur... but blind to the feelings he's producing in his clients/ patients.

How do you communicate this to your interview subjects?

I work for a small social media agency as a photographer/videographer and have essentially created my own position within the company and in doing so have allowed them to charge for a new service them, and their other employees couldn't do.

Currently we're making about double our expenses each month sometimes more, and I'm wanting to ask for a pay increase but as a young creative I don't really understand all the ins and outs of business per say.

They mentioned that as they are investing in this side of the business a normal business owner should aim to see a 3 times return on investment and that should be our goal.

Is this normal? I did some googling and all I found is usually business owners should be seeing a 20-30% profit margin. We're currently doing at least 40-50% per month.

So i suppose im just asking as owners of video production company's what's your profit margin like? Is this a red flag?

Thanks