HYPER-CHARGE YOUR WORKFLOW ON SET

The light is fading; the client is waiting... efficiency on set is always at a premium.  Speed and ease of setup is especially important to me because most of the time I’m working alone, without a sound engineer, grip, or production assistant.  My clients don’t want me to spend two hours setting up, but they do want me to pay attention to them.  So tools that help me maintain the highest quality while focusing on them are game-changers.  Here are five of them.

 

Number 5:

A boom pole holder.  I know this sounds really slight, but I love how easy this is to use.  I used to just put my boom directly into my grip head, but then I was always worried that the grip would damage the pole if over-tightened.  Which it did on occasion. It became a balancing act between tightening it enough to hold the pole, but not enough to damage it.  And if you’re not using grip heads, they’re awesome in terms of simplicity, strength, and reliability.  When you add the simplicity of the boom pole holder, you’ve got a professional, streamlined process that lets you focus on other things.

 

Number 4:  Tripod.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one, because when it come to a speed tool, it doesn’t matter what kind of tripod.  You should buy the tripod that best fits your needs and the style you shoot. But what I have found is HAVING the tripod there gives me a portable table to place my camera, freeing up my hands to do other work without worrying about my baby getting dirty or trampled.  This means I try to bring a tripod even when I know there won’t be any tripod shots.  I’ll just bring a small portable one.  Even a mini, table-top tripod is helpful if you have to travel light.

 

Number 3:  Arca Plates.  Now it doesn’t have to be Arca, they are high quality quick release plates that are a little less expensive.  The key here is to buy an abundance of them and use one system across all of your equipment.  I have Arca plates permanently attached to my tripods, gimbal, and cage, allowing me to move the camera around with a minimum of fuss.  The permanent plates mean I can move my camera from tripod to a fully balanced gimbal in about 30 seconds, and to a cage in about 10. $40 bucks in Arca plates will save you hours in the field.

 

Number 2:  Xume filter holders.  Now these are kind of pricey.  I’m honestly surprised that there aren’t inexpensive Chinese knock-offs of the Xume, because they can’t cost much to make, they’re simple, and very useful.  The annoyance of filters is that they take time to put on, especially if the threads on your lens or filter get damaged.  If you’re in a hurry, it’s sometimes easier to crank up the shutter speed to keep your aperture setting, but that’s just not optimum. If you’ve watched my Tilta Mini Matte Box review, you know that I also use these for my matte box, too—though with the caveat that you have to be gentle with it attached, and not all of the magnets are equally strong.  

In the Xume system, you need one attachment for your camera lens, and another for your filter.  I’ve got holders on the three lenses I use the most, and on two filters.  The lens attachment is about $35, and the filter attachment is another $15.  This means I’ve dropped roughly $135 into this system, but I have to say it’s been worth it for me.  The one bummer is that it can be difficult to get your lens cap back on, depending on the style and the individual cap. They sell lens magnetic caps, but that’s another 15.

Number 1:  The number one thing that speeds up my workflow on set isn’t sexy, it’s not going to impress my client or getting anyone excited.  But this one tool speeds up my workflow more than any other, and saves me from headaches in the field:  it’s how I pack my bag.  It’s not about a specific technique, it’s about always packing it the same way, or as close to the same as possible.  This means I always know exactly where my tools are.  I can grab them quickly, I can pack them quickly because I’m not trying figure out their best placement, and I can also see that they’re packed at the end of the shoot.  

This is really about good prep, and that principle applies to a number of things that can speed up your workflow and raise the quality of your work.  “Prep”… is scouting your location before the shoot date so you can strategize the setup and what to bring.  Prep is getting your client prepared before they show up.  Prep is knowing the sequence of events so you can have the right tools ready.  It’s a shot list for a narrative piece, or a storyboard if that helps you understand the set-up better.  It’s coordinating your crew if you’re lucky enough to have one.  And all it costs is the time it takes to do your prep.

Now there are a number of other things that help speed up my workflow:  wireless mics, like the Rode Go are great, though wireless systems always come with a slightly degraded sound quality compared to a wired system.  Dual recording is a must for solo operators like me.  Battery powered lights or a large battery pack like this one can save time and make for a more flexible system.  A small hip bag means I can carry an extra lens, my filters, and have a place to put my camera if I DIDN’T bring a tripod.  Even your choice of camera make a difference when it comes to working quickly in the field.

So those are a few of my favorites. If you have a tool or tip for speeding up your workflow in the field, leave a comment below.

No More B-Roll Please!

As cinematographers we’re fascinated by B-roll and what we can create with it.  It’s like this moment when we get to do our work without all the bothersome interruptions of dialogue, or characters, or costumes and makeup.  We get to focus on the beauty of the image. But over time we’ve lost touch what the term B-Roll actually means and how it evolved, and in doing so I think we’ve blurred its purpose, and frankly, we end up creating a lot of crap.  Too often, people use the term B-roll to refer to either filler (to help cover edits) or montage.  And these two terms miss the heart of what these silent clips were meant to achieve.

In the early days of cinema, B-roll was actually on a separate projection reel from A roll.  Most of the B-roll reel was black, and they’d start the two projectors at the same time. When it came time for the B-roll, they’d just switch which projector was being shown.  Believe it or not, in the beginning they did this live while the audience watched.  B-roll was mostly used to create continuity for interviews. As B-roll evolved, cinematographers realized that you could tell a story just with the images, and they began to edit sequences.  As the demand for “content” grew, modern day filmmakers spliced together visually striking clips of beaches and bridges and street corners and walking… oh, the walking—camera pointed down at the feet… and our videos became filled with forgettable beauty.
There’s one sure-fire way to make your b-roll better.  Stop shooting it.  Honestly, it’ll make your videos better.  Instead, shoot silent A-Roll.  The real difference between the two is that A-Roll is integral to your story.  Without those images, the film wouldn’t make sense. Here’s how to transform your B-roll into something powerful, and my challenge to you.

These days, people sometimes use B-roll to show a process, like how to cook something.  That’s usually a pretty good example of silent A-Roll.  You wouldn’t know what was happening, how to cook the dish, without the images.  The imagery tells us something vital to our understanding, and its progressive.  On the flipside, I also see a lot of filmmakers creating morning-to-night videos of a location... and no matter how beautiful the images or exciting the transitions, these are pretty forgettable.  And that’s because “Morning-to-Night” isn’t a meaningful concept, they’re just a montage of pretty images.  

Good B-roll tells a meaningful story.  That story can be narrative—with a sequence of events—or it can be an emotional journey. The stronger, the clearer the story, the better the B-roll.  The weaker the story, the worse the B-roll, and it doesn’t matter how beautiful the individual images are.  Tell me a morning to night story only if it will change me in some way.

There are a lot of elements that go into a good story, but essentially it takes the viewer from one point to another.  The person in the video changes and we journey with him, her, or them, or subject stays the same and the audience changes how they think or feel.  A story will always have a beginning, middle, and end.  How you shoot and edit it will depend on the story you’re telling, not a set of techniques and styles you like.  The greater the journey from A to Z, the more engaging the story... and therein lies the challenge for many creators.  If you work in the corporate videography world, many companies don't want to show the "opposite" of what they want to accomplish or who they are.  The journey is from W to Z, and as a result too many corporate videos have no stakes, no real threat of loss or promise of gain.  If you work in documentaries, an A to Z story can take an enormous amount of time, resources, and luck to film.  If you're a blogger (or vlogger), the challenges are similar.  But it's always worth it to make the journey from beginning to end as great as possible.

If you’ve been following this channel, you know I just bought a Z Cam E2.  To get familiar with the camera, I took it to the woods.  There was no purpose for the shoot other than to learn my camera, so it’s obviously going to be B-roll.  But I also wanted to put this idea of A-roll to work, so here’s what I shot.

It was my first day with the camera so I was just figuring things out; it’s mostly hand held, without a rig or handle. I was playing with different frame rates and file types and all kinds of crap. So there are a ton of technical problems with the footage.  But I wanted to show a story of some sort, in this case a procession from pristine woods (my beginning), to human disruption (my middle), to the loss of peace and harmony (my end).  Because it was about nature, I wanted it to feel organic, so I went handheld and I avoided flashy transitions.  I wanted the human disruption to appear callous, so I grabbed a pair of boots rather than my sneakers.  And the advent of disruption and loss it mirrored in the city-sounds that creep into the music.  In retrospect, I probably should have cut the opera, as it somewhat detracts for the sense of nature.

Is it a great story? No.  Within the context of something else—as true B-roll to some other A-roll—maybe it would be stronger. As is, it’s just an exercise in creating a story based on a location.

So here’s my challenge to you.  Pick a street corner, or a park, or any location, and tell a story about it.  Give it a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can decide your story ahead of time, or simply show up and take a moment to ask how the pieces of your location fit together to make a journey.  What ties together this peeled paint relates to that newly painted wall?  Use juxtaposition.  Limit yourself to 30 minutes.  In real life, we usually have to shoot quickly, so there’s a mental muscle that needs exercise when it comes to creating the best possible story quickly.

While the title of “No More B-Roll” might seem like irritating click-bait, I actually believe that the language we use changes our relationship to the process.  Many filmmakers don’t think twice about what they mean when they say “B-roll;” it’s natural and instinctual.  But for a lot of those filmmakers, the idea of B-roll doesn’t include the question, “how can I make a story out of this footage?”  And if you don’t believe that matters, then think about your favorite movie… filmed at a cost of $260,000 a day on set, and edited (at another astronomical figure) within an inch of its life.  Not a moment is wasted on an image that doesn’t move the story forward in a meaningful way, and at a significant pace.  For this reason, you rarely see characters walking (without talking), or packing up their gear, or starting their cars.

Video Hack: smallest tripod, smallest light stand

Sometimes we work in cramped places.  Back when I discovered this hack, practically no one was using suction cups in photography/video production.  In fact, the one you see here was designed for glass workers.  It can grip up to 70 pounds.  It cost roughly $50.  I most recently used it in Hurricane Images Biomonitoring CA video.  Beware of the cheapo units, check the weight rating, and look for one with an indicator that shows when it's losing suction.  Mine has a red line on the pump.

New Visions

This blog (in its on-again, off-again manner) has been many things.  Four years ago, it started as a chronicle of 100 days of photographic learning.  It morphed into a journal of my process of becoming a professional photographer/videographer with its "Going Pro" series.  (We've reached our 1 year anniversary as a company, in what is still a work in progress.)  With a more active Hurricane Images blog, which focuses on posts designed to help potential business clients, this humble highlight of blown images has become more difficult to focus on, and bring into focus.

Moving forward into year 2 of Hurricane Images and year 4 of this blog, my intention is to have this be a place for photographers and videographers: a home for tips, reviews (though I try to buy as little equipment as possible), and techniques and approaches for both hobbyists and professionals.  Let's see if we can move our craft forward.

So here's to the new year.

How to prepare for being on camera-- beyond the outfit

Sitting down with a client last week I was asked a question I hadn't heard in a while.... It surprised me because it seemed based on an antiquated notion of technology.  And at the same time it made me realize that it was one of the most common questions I get-- even if it was only every couple of months.

What should I wear?

Well, concerns about "fine patterns and checkers" have disappeared with the advent of HD and 4K, but our expectations about what makes for a strong interview, presentation, or pitch has increased immensely.  Seeing people on camera is so common place, that we instantly recognize shortcomings... white shirts, haggard eyes, rambling sentences.  How to prepare for being on camera has evolved beyond what to wear. I've compiled a list of my best advice over at Hurricane Images Inc Blog.  Head over and check it out....

Going Pro: It's a wrap

Ian Robin Walker

Okay, clearly it's been a long time since I posted to this series, and the reason is largely about success.  While I do hope/plan/aspire to continue with the odd post on videography/photography business, product reviews, and technique, for now I'm putting a peg in this topic.  You can also check my other (even slower moving) blog at Hurricane Images Inc.  This is a client facing blog-- rather than this peer facing blog-- and there's a lot you can borrow from that.

I wrote that the end of this series is due to the success of my own process of turning pro.  I mean this in an "in progress" kind of way.  Since jettisoning my regular employment four months ago, I've been working continuously.  I've not consistently earned what I need each month-- I don't expect that to happen for another eight months-- but earnings have exceeded expectations this first trimester... even as turn-around times have proved painfully longer than expected.  My projects have included small jobs for big companies like BitDefender, Silicon Valley Air Experts, and The California Department of Public Health, and large jobs for small outfits like Davis Properties and Rocket Interview.  Balancing 45 hour work weeks with raising an infant (and keeping my sanity) has pushed writing projects like this to the side.

I started this post with a picture of yours truly, though, which is pretty unlike me.  Why?  It's a reminder that ultimately you  are your brand.  If you look at some of the most successful media producers out there-- from Philip Bloom to Casey Neistat to (one of my personal favorites) Brandon Li-- you realize how distinctive their personal style is.  Not just their artwork, but their personalities and how they put themselves forward.  Everyone, regardless of where they are in their career, should reevaluate their online presence and branding every six months.  This includes cleaning up the website, checking that you're still appearing on other sites and searches, and retooling your communications.  So if you're bored right now, get to it.

Going Pro: Client Journeys - The Unexpected Call

One of the best-- though unnerving-- pieces of advice for new videographers/photographers is to make a pitch to your day job or a current associate, be that a hobby or a related businesses.  The bottom line is that every organization can benefit from a video, and people who know you will (hopefully) trust you.

I was lucky.  I didn't have to pitch my day job; they approached me to create a video and it was no small project.  They wanted a 4 part series on the statewide program, complete with a mini-narrative (or extended role play).  It took months to plan, weeks to shoot, and I'm still working on translations for them.  It didn't pay well by an independent contractor standard, but it did by a regular employment scale.

But that wasn't the Unexpected Call.  That call came from Hilton Worldwide.  They didn't want a commercial or even an in-house industrial; a senior Vice President was celebrating his 50th anniversary (and likely retirement due to illness), and they wanted a "thank-you" video from his colleagues and staff who were spread out across the U.S.  The video wasn't something they had planned on, either; it was a last minute addition, and it needed to be organized and edited in three weeks.  They wanted staff to film themselves-- using phones or cameras or whatever was available.  They also wanted it to be clever, humorous, and heartfelt.

I had no idea why an international company based outside of LA would cold-call me in the SF Bay.  He said he liked my website (really? the one with five videos?) and I didn't ask any questions.  He also said there wasn't a budget for this, but he wanted to see what it would cost to edit the staff contributions.  We talked about how many staff would contribute; I asked about general themes he thought we should cover; he told me a little about the Vice President, Greg.  I quoted him $1200.  It wasn't a living wage, really, but it wasn't embarrassingly cheap, either.

The next day I sent him filming guidelines for the staff, and based on our discussion, eight questions for them to answer, based on themes about Greg's personal style, computer style, driving technique, etc.  Everyone was to answer three of the eight questions, plus a statement about "one thing they appreciated about Greg."  I set up a Dropbox account for the incoming footage.  A week later, the files started to arrive.

As you can imagine, it was a hot mess.  Footage was shot on iPhones, in offices, in hotel lobbies, conference centers, vertical for Christ sake.  Airplanes roared in the background.  The President of Hilton Worldwide had his professionally done.  The 15 on-camera interviews ballooned to over 20.  Everyone had to be included.

Greg had started as a valet, and I found some archival footage of the Hilton where he worked; I organized the clips around the three major "questions."  And then I edited to the bone. Instead of fighting the bad and inconsistent quality of the footage, I went with it... allowing it to help shape the flow of the video.  

Rather than share the draft video with my client, I shared how I was structuring the piece.  After 10 days, I produced a draft for his review.  It was rough-hewn, a visual jumble tied together with playfulness, and audio earache to the refined.  He loved it.  I don't recall a single suggestion.  They played it at the 50th Anniversary, and the audience fell out; Greg and his family were deeply touched.

My client sent an email, introducing me to four new Hilton owners in the SF Bay (Hilton is a franchise), recommending me.  New businesses hasn't come from that-- at least not yet-- but I appreciated it as a sincere compliment.

Five months later I received an email from my client.  Greg has passed away from the illness that forced his retirement.  They played the video at his memorial.

Going Pro: Conversations about taking it to the next level

Photographer Ming Thein recently posted a discussion on his blog about the process of turning pro.  If you don't know him, his architectural photography is quietly phenomenal, with a subtle Miksang influence and flawless post production technique.  He writes a good blog, too.

www.HurricaneImagesInc.com

For a unique perspective he shares this post with Robin Wong, a photog who's mid-stream in his journey of turning pro, and together they reflect on both the pitfalls and the tricks to being successful.  On point that can't be emphasized enough is how to think about and manage cash flow. 

"The reality is that most material work tends to be planned anywhere from one to six months in advance, and some clients may not pay for a month or two after that – which means your cash flow cycle should really be six months to a year once everything is stable."

An even bigger take-away in the piece is using smaller short-term jobs with quicker turnaround with the larger "meat" of your work.  This can sometimes mean taking on jobs that don't typify your work.  Ming may take the job, but he doesn't add it to his portfolio.

"Everything I’ve done up to this point has that question at the heart of it: is it core to what I want to shoot and what I want to be as a photographer? If no, unless I really, really need the money, I don’t do the job – and even then, I don’t tell anybody about it. So the answer is – let’s call it ‘identity building’ – must happen directly or indirectly, all the time. In practical terms, this means 3-4 hours a day answering email, making content for the site, maintaining the other social media channels (FB, IG, Twitter) etc. And that’s of course on top of the actual shooting and admin and logistics."

It's a long read, but a good one for anyone thinking about the leap.

Do you really cut on the blink?

Celebrated film editor Walter Murch famously said that you should almost always cut on the actor’s blink; and less famously explained that you never cut on the actual blink, but sometimes before and only when it made sense for other reasons.  What I’ve never heard explained is why that technique so often works: it’s because unlike people in daily life, people on camera usually blink intentionally.
 

For actors, dialogue and physical movement are both considered actions. Script analysis reveals each character's objective, and the various actions they take to obtain their goal.  They speak in order to reach their goal, to convince another character do something.  Actors will identify the beats (or sub actions) that determined when an action is complete.  The action, for example, may be to intimidate the other person.  They'll accomplish this by probing their vulnerabilities, insinuating that harm might come to them, and escalating to a blunt threat.  Each sub-action (probe, insinuate, threaten) is a beat that makes up the action, and they'll only give up on a sub-action when it's clear their not reaching their objective.  They’ll push through each beat with 100% intensity until its done.  Then they’ll blink.  It's a divider, a rest, before they begin their next action.  The actor’s “beat,” therefore often coincide with cuts.  What this means is that you can often predict when an actor will blink just by analyzing the script for beats.  Though you'd never want to edit so blindly, you could almost edit without watching the actor at all.

Actors are trained to do analyze beats and actions (Stanislavsky is the most famous teacher of this technique), but non-actors also do a gentler version of action-blink when they know a camera is pointed their direction.  People tend to become more directed on camera.  No one wants to ramble or fumble or stare meaninglessly into space.  So they make sure there’s a reason for everything they say.  An action.

A blink is a “rest” on several levels: resting the eyes, arresting the action.  As editors, though, we often want to keep forward motion of the action, which is another reason why cutting just before the blink works.  It keeps the action moving at top pace.  What’s fascinating (and rarely seen in movies) is when an actor blinks as an action, rather than a rest.  Takeshi Kitano in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a wonderful example of that, in a film that's getting a second life of sorts.  Next time you watch a movie, look at when the actor blinks, what it means, and why the editor chose to cut or not cut.

Going Pro: Facebook or Twitter? Or Instagram? Or Tumblr?

The only social media tool I advocate for one hundred percent is blogging.  Which, of course, isn’t really a social media platform at all.  Which is probably why it's so useful.  It allows you to target your audience and craft a detailed message and a precise brand over time.  So even if you only post monthly, write a blog.

But what about the rest?  What follows is just my opinion and anyone who tells you they know the right answer is just a dingbat.  And take everything I write with a grain of salt because I’m not a social media type of person.  On a personal level I shy away from these services, engaging with them as little as possible even as I use them as a professional. 

For business purposes, I am not a fan of Facebook.  Yes, Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform;  according to the PEW Research Center, nearly 70% of Americans have a Facebook page with higher earners being more likely to participate.  Yes, Facebook is second only to Google in advertising buys.  But it’s really social, and that's a problem for businesses.  It’s for your friends, and it’s a clumsy tool for getting out a brand or message.  You may have "Liked" a business of Facebook, but do you really visit their page on a weekly or even monthly basis?  I visit my favorite blogs daily.  That's engagement.  Facebook will also filter out posts that are targeted to potential clients; unless you pay for a boosted post, they’ll never see them.  Because you don’t have a relationship with them.  To me, this is a bad communication model, dependent on paid advertising which is exactly the opposite of what people engage on Facebook to see.  Facebook is a good tool for events.  This is because you're reaching out to your friends and distant friends and really not a friend but somehow you got connected friends.  My theatre production company has a page and we use it for every production, posting rehearsal notes, images, and events.  Hurricane Images Inc. has a page and I completely ignore it. 

Instagram is the next most popular medium, trailing at roughly 30% of Americans.  I like Instagram for its quick engagement and because it is a visual medium.  It’s one of the tools I use, though I don’t dedicate much time to it.  That’s because you can’t really control who you’re talking to, and you can’t provide a whole lot of information about yourself or your service.  You can generate a feel about your company, but you can’t direct it to you customers or be specific about who you are.  If you use it, have fun, and curate your posts/images ruthlessly to make sure they are your finest.  As with many things, there are a rare number of individuals who have managed to parlay Instagram activity into business success, but unless you love using Instagram it's a poor investment.

 

Twitter.  Twitter's numbers are surprisingly low given its status as a social media tool.  Roughly 20% of Americans use it, with the highest engagement being among 18-29 year olds.  Which may or may not be your client.  Twitter should be a better tool than it is (and perhaps I'll figure out how to use it more effectively).  It allows you to post images, link to video, and deliver a pithy message.  The problem is that you can't control your geographic target, and most production companies end up tweeting about things that only interest other production companies... not their clients.  Twitter distills one of the essential problems of social media as a marketing tool:  you end up posting about your activities and your interests.  Your reader is "you."

 

LinkedIn is not one of the social media platforms people talk about when discussing social media marketing, but you absolutely should be engaged here.  Twenty-five percent of adults use LinkedIn, making it a rival of Instagram in terms of reach, and they use it specifically for businesses.  The challenge is figuring out how to be social on LinkedIn.  It takes more work.  You should participate in groups, be sparing (as in monthly) with your updates, praise and highlight your clients, and write carefully crafted articles and responses.  No one wants to hear about you every day, which is its own type of blessing.

 

My bottom line is this:  Blog and use LinkedIn.  Look for ways to link the two.  Use one other type of social media largely for fun.  Don't try to engage on all of the platforms, it's too time-consuming.  Pick 2-3 and do it well.

Going Pro: Client Journeys - Promotional Video

As a part of this series I’m describing a few of my early client journeys in time-condensed form. Clients arrive at your doorstep in different ways—and when you’re just starting out, that’s give you time to develop your approach, and hone your skills.

Going Pro: Client Journeys

Clients arrive at your doorstep in unexpected ways—when you’re just starting out, the variance is even greater.  The professionalism of your clients, the types of products, and the trajectory of the process varies wildly.  As a new company, that’s a good thing.  You need to develop your approach to working with clients, as well as define your strengths and weaknesses.  But the arrival-- and sometimes departure-- of clients can be mystifying and stressful.  We expect the process to unfold a certain way, and it often doesn't.

 

So as a part of this series I’ll present a few of my early client journeys in time-condensed form, from initial contact to conclusion. 

If you’ve been following these posts, you’ll notice that I’ve already included a couple client journeys: my first “client” was imaginary… a promotional video for Schools for Africa that still features prominently in my portfolio.  My second client was a pro bono piece for a non-profit.

Going Pro: Unapologetic Construction

Some time ago I read  that you should never apologize for inactivity on your blog.  You don't owe your readers a post; there's no invisible contract.  And I agree, though it's awfully hard to do sometimes.  Like not returning a phone call from a friend, you feel guilty.

So what's up with the last three weeks?  In a word: crazytown.  I've been creating a sound design for a theatre festival, shooting and editing a commercial for one client and a Kickstarter video for another, wrapping up that other pesky job, and building a small production studio in our yard.  The last was a job that was supposed to take 3-4 days but took two weeks.  Two weeks in which I couldn't efficiently set up my equipment; two weeks where everything outside my home was covered in dust.

The interior floors and paint still need to be don; plus whatever small photo/video studio elements need to be built it.

It's been 90 hour weeks.  With the studio unavailable to me I missed my Kickstarter video deadline by two days and the still images for the video commercial by five days.  It's the first time I've ever missed a deadline.  So when do you apologize for inactivity?  I sure apologized to them for missing the deadlines.  I provided an encouraging update on what had been accomplished thus far, explained my situation clearly without annoying details, set a new deadline for the final delivery.

Hopefully I'm back on track now.

Going Pro: Ceci N'est Pas Mon Blog

This is not my blog.  Not Hurricane Images’s blog.  The blog belongs to Hurricane Images, but it is not our blog, which you can find here in its nascent form.

Why isn’t this my blog?  Because you are not my client.  My number one rule for posting on Hurricane Images’s blog is that the content is for my clients and potential clients.  So many photographers and videographers post info for their peers—which is great, and often more enjoyable for the writer… and it can even help with raising your website’s SEO.  But it’s not an effective marketing approach.  If you want your blog to be a marketing tool, write for your clients.

Blogs aren’t simply a marketing tool, though.  They are the product that needs to be marketed.  There are tens of thousands of photographer-bloggers.  Maybe thirty of the top writers are easily discovered via search engines and the like.  The bottom thirty-thousand writers feel like they’re toiling in obscure darkness, read only by trolling bots.  If you’re going to go to the trouble of writing, promote your work.  Cross market your blog.  Announce it on your website, Facebook page, Twitter, or whatever other social media platforms you use.  Visit forums and (when appropriate) let people know you’ve talked about that issue on your blog.  List your blog on your email signature. 

Keep track of which posts get the most visits (almost all blogging platforms offer this).  Let the most popular items guide your blog, but not dictate its direction.  Gear review is often the most read posts on this blog, but I use them sparingly because that's not what I want to be known for.  From time to time, re-publish your top posts.

A few tips to keep in mind.

• Content is king; make good content
• Reference and link to your web pages often
• Link to other folks good works, too.  You can summarize if you credit and link.  
• Don't have your image right at the top of your page.  It looks great but search engines can't read them.  
• When you link, use the title of the page as the link (rather than writing “here”); it’s better SEO optimization
• Optimize your images; they should have titles and company name
• Post frequently – twice weekly or more in the beginning
• If you post infrequently (less than weekly) disable the auto date function. 
• Never apologize for not posting frequently; you don’t owe your reader anything beyond good content
• If someone engages/comments, engage back.  Immediately.

Going Pro: My Two Rules of Marketing

Levi Strauss Volunteer Day

Personal contact is immeasurably better than any form of virtual contact.  Personal is face-to-face, not over the phone—which is still enormously better than email, mailer, or social media.  Personal contact is hard, that’s why it’s effective.  Fewer people are doing it, which is one of the reasons its more productive.  More importantly, big ticket items like video—which start as intangibles—require a lot of trust.  You may be able to build that through your website, but only if they get there.  By email it’s virtually impossible.  

So how do you make personal contacts?  Visit your local chamber of commerce.  Participate in Meet-ups.  Go to conferences if your niche has them.  Cold visit rather than cold-call businesses.  If it sounds terrifying it’s because it is.  No pain no gain.  Keep track of who you contact and the outcome; spreadsheets are great for this.

My second rule of marketing applies to the virtual contacts: Do less well.  Don’t engage in all of the platforms unless you you've got a marketing team (in case, why are you reading this blog?).  Pick three.  This goes for blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Flickr… but also newsletters, forums, and your website.  Choose a medium that you actually enjoy and commit.  I’ll get in depth on what it means to “do well” in next couple of posts.

But by now it should go without saying that whatever platform you choose you should engage in it from your audience’s perspective.  In other words, don’t join a forum for cinematographers; join a forum for wedding planners, or new entrepreneurs, or colleges.

Going Pro: Two Cash Flow Tools to Rule Them All

I’ve managed to track my finances with just two simple budget planning forms: a Budget Sheet, and a Cash Flow sheet.  Both can be easily done in Excel.

The Budget Sheet is designed to show income, both real and potential.

Date is obvious.

Paid is money that has actually come in, now in the bank.

Promised is money that I have a contract for, so it’s real.  They’ve put 30% down.

Expenses is a summary of my monthly expenses. I transfer lump sums twice a month as if it was a paycheck.

Actual is what my bank account should show.

#Mos is how many months of working capital is in the bank

Notes is to explain the change. I also use “Comments” in each field as necessary

Possibilities are project under discussion but without a contract.  

The Cashflow is a more detailed, expressive way to track the #Mos column above.   

The first column has the starting balance for each month, HI (Hurricane Images) Confirmed Income, Potential Income, Expenses Payroll, Expenses Business, Total Expenses.  Your expenses should be the same each month, letting you predict the future.

 

The trick here is to update the chart monthly to show exactly how much would be in the bank if no new funds came in.  This makes it easier to predict when you’ll be in financial trouble, and when to breathe easy.  As you can see, this snapshot in time tells me I'll be broke in January if no new funds/projects are completed.

Going Pro: How Much to Charge?

Moroccan Olive Seller

There are a lot of “cost of doing business” calculators (here, for example) and even more advice on the subject.  In my experience, they tend to be over-complicated and cost-heavy by design, almost as if they want to discourage you from starting your business.  They ask for the total cost of items (like your phone, internet, car, and “home office”) that you might also use in your personal life, driving up the budget, and put unrealistic estimates into the purchase of new equipment, etc.  When you’re starting out, don’t buy new equipment.  If you don’t own it, rent it.  These calculations are guesswork until you have several months of real costs for comparison, making the term “calculator” a bit nonsensical. 

Turkish Market

If You Don't Own It, Rent It

 

But there’s also a faulty premise behind the calculator.  The idea is that you’ll divide these costs by the number of working days or projects.  So if you’re a wedding photographer who expects to shoot 24 weddings in a year, you’ll divide your costs ($40K) by the number of weddings: 24 weddings at $1650 each. The implication is that if you fall behind on the number of weddings, you increase the cost of each one.  So if you’ve only shot six weddings in six months, you’ll need to up your rate to $5,000.  Which is ridiculous.  Not because it's a lot of money, but because your cost of doing business has very little to do with the market rate or what you’re worth. 

Shark skin in Hong Kong Market

My approach has been simpler.  You simply need to know your average monthly expenditure.  If that’s $4k, than you need to earn a grand a week, or $250 a day.  On average.  Which means that you need to bill for the days, weeks—but hopefully not months—that you’re not working.  This is essentially a mark-up on your time.  A cup of coffee costs around 20 cents, but they’ll charge $1.50 to cover rent, employees, insurance, etc.  You’re doing the same. For the time being, my ideal mark-up is 250%.  So if the project takes a ($1k) week, I’ll need to charge $2500.  That’s my short-term goal.  But it’s not what I charged in the beginning.  When I first opened shop, if the job took a week, I charged roughly a grand.  This meant two things: First, that I was less expensive than my competition; and second, that I would eventually go broke because I wasn’t continuously employed.  That’s where my extra working capital comes in.  I intentionally planned to underachieve for the first six months.  During that time I would prioritize building a client base, portfolio, and skill set—and slowly… slowly build up towards my ideal rate.

Going Pro: Working Capital-- How Much?

Jorg Gray Luxury Watch

When you’re thinking about starting a production company, odds, are your most pressing question is “how much working capital do I need to start my company?”  The obvious answer is that there is no magic number.  But there is a framework for thinking about working capital that can help you find the right number for you. 

Let me define my terms: “working capital” is my total monthly expenditures—both in life and for the company.  This includes the life bits like rent, food, internet, and gas; and the business bits like insurance, advertising, and depreciation.  I don’t include equipment costs in this figure, or set-up costs for company (things like website design, etc.).  I started with my kit pretty much intact, and I wasn't planning on buying anything in the near future.  If this was a watch shop, I had all of my necessary inventory, right down to the “Open” sign on the front door.

But video production isn’t like selling watches.  You need to factor in the turn-around time, from contract signing to final product.  If you shoot weddings, you may sign the contract a year in advance of the big day.  You need to make sure you’re in still in business when the wedding cake is cut.  (A more technical term for turn-around is cash flow.)  Turn-around time is project variable—some of my video projects wrap in under a month, others can go six before the final payment is made.  Personally, I decided my average turn-around time was 3 months. This means I need to have at least 3 months of working capital above my safety level.  Or panic point.

Media production also differs from a sporting goods store because the cost a wrist band is fixed; if you paid a fifty dollars for it, you can’t sell it for $49.99.  In media production you can (and probably should) charge less than a living wage on your first projects in order to build your resume and make connections.  A good rule of thumb to remember is that there are no "1-time discounts."  If you charge a client $500 for a video, that client will always expect his videos to cost $500.  You can charge the next client a thousand, but this one is pretty much set.  And that’s the path I took: my fee was above my physical costs for a project but below a living wage. Then I over-delivered on each product, and increased my rate for the next client.  I made exceptions to the “charge more” rule when the project was something I really wanted because of what it would do for my resume.

There's no such thing as a one-time discount

Since I began my production company as a part-time endeavor, I had the advantage of not starting at “day one” in terms of getting the word out and making connections.  I still had plenty to do, though, so I considered myself to be one month old as a company. Starting part-time, also gave me a better sense of my turn-around time, and how much I might immediately charge/earn for projects.  I could predict how much my monthly income would be in the beginning, how long it would take to finish a project (and thus charge more for the next one), and better predict how quickly my income my increase.  Remember, if your turn-around time is three months, your first month of income arrives in the fourth month of your company.

Find Your Panic Point

Which brings me back to my panic point.  If it takes three months to successfully make your first dollar, then it takes about three months before you know you’re not going to make that dollar.  If you have three months of working capital and the first project pays out in three months and one week, your business failed before it got started.  If, say, you have six months of working capital in the bank, then you'll have three months left when the first project pays out.  That three month mark I call the panic point.  But only having three months would mean I would always be living at my panic point.  That might be technically possible to maintain, but it really sucks to be on the edge of the abyss all the time.  And there's no wiggle room in case of emergency.  What you need is extra working capital to take the pressure off and allow for some degree of “failure.”  I set my goal at nine months of working capital in the bank.  I successfully overshot my mark: I opened shop with eleven months.

Let’s compare these estimates with national statistics:  Half of new businesses close in the first 2 years; 90% close within ten.  Those frightening figures are somewhat leavened by the fact that not all businesses close due to failure. Some are bought out; others just move on or retire. Six months of working capital is the most common recommendation for new businesses, and 12 months tends to be the longer, or outside recommendations.  Most businesses start with 3-6 months of working capital… and of course the majority of these are likely to be  the ones that close within 2 years.  “Service” types of companies, those that work from home, and those without employees tend to have less working capital to start, but don’t have a better survival rates.  70% of businesses start with less than $25,000 in working capital. Try to be in the 30% that has more. After researching the statistics, I decided I would have at least 9 months of working capital (which for me was more than $25K).

Save don't borrow

Best practices for starting a new company:

1.       Create working capital through saving not borrowing

2.       Start small and build up

3.    If the work you do in your studio can't pay for at least the studio, work from home.

3.       Track your finances studiously

4.       Establish yourself as an LLC or corporation to protect your personal finances

5.       Be a woman. Seriously, studies show women spend less on their businesses and are more likely to succeed in turning a small biz into a larger one

Strange tidbit of the day:  having too much working capital is also listing as a contributor to business failure.

Going Pro: Getting Clients Pt. 1

Okay.  At this stage you've hopefully gotten a business license, an accounting system, a website, a phone number, and a business card.  What are we missing?  Clients!

The next five posts will delve into the process of getting clients, including how I landed my first few.  Finding new clients is one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of starting any business, and in truth what works when you're first starting doesn't necessarily work once you've got your sea legs.  Client acquisition evolves.  The dream is that eventually the clients come in on their own, but frankly I'm not convinced that's true for the vast majority of successful media companies.  For most of us, it's a chess game with an invisible and illusive partner.

My first move may be controversial to some.  But it's what I did, so I'm sharing.  Beacuse this blog can't be very useful if I withhold information.

Through my work (which has me creating two videos), I have a subscription to Videoblocks, a stock footage company.  There are pluses and minuses to the service and their collection, which can feel a bit limit... something I suspect is true of all stock companies.  I noticed they had an abundance of stock footage from Africa.  So I researched a non-profit, Schools for Africa, who's work I admired, and I created a promotional/fundraising video for them using the footage from my subscription. Why is this controversial?  Well, they didn't hire me to do this (and I don't explicitly state that), and I didn't shoot the footage myself.  The service I provided (and I do provide this service), was to develop the concept, write the script, edit the available footage, and add music.  In one sense, it's precisely the services I offer-- creating compelling video stories from footage they own; in another it doesn't distinguish between footage I shot and footage someone else shot.  And, of course, I would never distinguish this footage under any circumstance.  Nor would anyone else.  A TV show doesn't flash a disclaimer saying "this clip of the White House was supplied by Getty's."  That would destroy the story.  But because I wasn't actually hired to create this video, I feel the slight of hand more acutely.  Does the use of stock footage change the quality of story-telling and editing Hurricane Images provides?  No.  Does it change their perception of how accomplished Hurricane Images is?  Well, maybe yes.



Next Post:  Using a Pro Bono gig to get to the next level

Just discovered our blog?  Our Going Pro series documents the 40 weeks leading up to launching our media company, a journey from part-time photographer to full time video/still production.  You can find the beginning of the series here.

Going Pro: Contracts

Okay, the CAME-TV Boltzen 55W review was pretty sexy.  Now the boring stuff.

Contracts and budget proposals.  Obviously, you need them. My approach is to over-engineer them slightly-- I like them to be meaty but not so dense as to overwhelm the client.  Most people won't read a five page proposal or contract and you want them to understand and have appropriate expectations; at the same time you don't want a document so brief that it appears poorly thought-out.  I want my clients to feel like they basically understand it, but the technical aspects make them want to give over control to someone who knows what they're doing.  Three times in the past year I've had my contracts "sent over to legal" for review, and I've never been asked to modify it.  So I feel pretty confident that it passes muster.

My contracts always stay the same, but the budget proposal (which I sometime call the "Spec Sheet") is tailored to each job.  It can be longer depending on the client and the size of the contract.  It's supposed to lay out all of the details of the shoot so that we're all working from the same set of expectations.  We've talked through most of the details by the time I write up the contract and proposal, but never count on them remembering what was said.  Always write it into the contract.

A few bits, pieces, and golden rules:

• Never work without a contract
• Always require a retainer at signing
• Never call it a deposit (deposits should be returned if the job falls through)

Describing contracts and budget proposals isn't very helpful, so I'm including links to draft templates for each.  You can view my budget proposal template and the contract template by clicking on the links. 

Just found us?  You can start at the beginning of the Going Pro Series here.