REPORT ON QUOTING FOR CORPORATE VIDEO TRAINING COURSE
Quoting for Corporate Video
This course was provided by Phil Wilson of ‘Forest Edge Films’ – South Cave Yorkshire, a qualified member of the Institute of Videography. The I.O.V is a national organisation who aims to promote professionalism within video industry. As I am a newcomer to the corporate video world the course was intended to give me a broad range of knowledge. Phil is an independent video producer who has been involved in producing corporate, special interest and wedding videos for the past 20 years. Phil uses Sony DVCam broadcast quality cameras and also works for the B.B.C on a freelance basis.
The main topics that we covered were, video marketing opportunities; the corporate pitching process, outsourcing using freelancers, hands-on practice with the camera and lighting . Obviously there were many topics to be covered in a short space of time, so we had to move briskly.
We started off talking about the possibility of markets for the independent video producer as I am setting up as a sole trader of a video business. Areas discussed were the possibility of weddings, sports events, social events, and corporate video – in consideration, this is all dependent on the level at which you wish to market your business and this will go hand-in-hand with your ‘market research’ and ‘business plan’. After your research and planning it should become quite clear ‘who’ and ‘where’ you are aiming your services at/to. Advertising was another hot topic. The main emphasis was that your website has become the main ‘shop window’ for potential customers to look at and judge your service/s. Therefore, one’s website needs to be of an excellent standard – another area that I am personally working on at present! Obviously the main problem with most forms of advertising is that of cost; for example, glossy magazines are notoriously expensive, but there are clever ways of marketing your business without incurring large bills. For example, meeting people in the same market as yourself and getting them to recommend your business and vice-versa, swapping of business cards, mutual links on websites. Networking through organisations such at your local Chamber of Commerce, trade conventions, and business breakfast clubs whereby you might meet someone that is interested in your services. Needless to say that being a member of the ‘P.M.P’ is a great way to meet ‘like minded’ people in the creative industry! In the initial stages it is obviously the hardest if you’re just starting up ‘like myself’ and one needs demonstration material to show to other potential customers. Therefore, it could be a good idea if you try some ‘loss leader’ jobs in order for you to gain some material that you can actually use to promote your company – although, your ‘good will’ cannot be sustained for very long! The idea being that you would do the work on a ‘cost only’ basis, just enough to cover the costs for doing the job and in return the company gain a video and you get to use the material however you wish for your marketing purposes. Other suggestions included, telling friends (you don’t know who they know), flyers in shop windows. Again, these strategies are all dependent upon the market that you are tapping into and your target audience.
With regards to how to market to companies, Phil suggested that one should start with a letter to a ‘named person’ in a company explaining about what services you offer to see if they might be interested. At this point Phil noted that the art of this is to try and speak to a company when they are ‘ripe’ for actually wanting a corporate video and this is something you need to find out by way of market research (internet, newspapers, business literature and phone). The next step would be follow-up with a phone call to speak to this person and try to arrange a meeting to discuss matters further and see if they would like more information. Before you meet the person carry out research via the internet about their company or into a similar company so that you can get a feel for the product. The research should be able to help you in terms of initial ideas about how you would produce a video for them. You may find that they already have someone who carries out videoing for them, in this case you might be able to think of how you could do it better, or perhaps offer peripheral services such as standards conversion or duplication. Or, you might be able to offer a ‘video web streaming’ service? At this meeting you would present you ideas about how your product would benefit their company (promoting the company, advertising a product, or saving time and money – companies always like this!), effectively selling your product to them. An important point here is that you really need a ‘quality example’ in terms of the type of video you are going to produce. It would be no use showing them an unrelated piece (e.g: a film about snowboarding if the client is a manufacturing company) – a taken for granted point, but this can be easily overlooked. However, for the independent video producer it is not always easy to show a piece of the same ilk. The main emphasis of this meeting is for you to get the company interested enough so that would like you to go ahead and create a ‘proposal’ for the video (in this case you are going to need more information from the client, find out about the selling points of the product and what the main focus of video is (It’s not a good idea to try and have three videos in one, despite the fact that they may want you to produce it!). You might need the client to write a ‘loose script’ for you if the product/company is one of a very technical nature – you many even end up having to employ an expert to help write the script due to the technical nature of the product.
The next step is to arrange another date to meet with the client and write to them to confirm this. At that next meeting you would present the initial idea (concept) to the company about what the video would consist of. The aims and objectives of the video would be outlined here too and an ‘initial’ quote (with breakdown) for the work to be carried out within that particular budget. The company in question may accept your proposal there and then or may need more time to think about it. How you receive the payment for the work is entirely up to you on how you work. I have heard of many different methods of payment for corporate video work – but a ‘down payment’ to start the work is probably a very good idea! Payment in instalments for the work carried out? A timescale needs to be agreed and how long the project should take to complete and how and when if any changes can be made both creatively and financially (contract & your terms of conditions need to be signed) – It is imperative that all stages of production are signed off by your client so that there is evidence of agreement with the work that has been done.
Storyboard. (some people may present a script and storyboard at the 2nd meeting?)
Script.
Shooting storyboard.
Voice Over (male/female?)
Music.
Graphics.
This led Phil to then talk about how you might go about sourcing other people’s skills if you do not possess them or the equipment. Search for freelance people, obtain examples of their work and check with them to see if it is okay to show the client. The client could expect this standard of work on their video. Agreement on how you will pay your freelancer needs to be discussed with the. This is a good way to get help when you simply cannot offer ‘everything’, for example moving graphics? In all of this you need to think about how you will factor the cost in of the freelancer as you will inevitably incur extra time organising the work and getting and incorporating it into your piece – essentially you will have to be charging extra for extra time involved in the process.
Next we had a look at camera skills and spoke at some length about the use of the manual controls on video camera. It is incredibly important to use the manual controls and ‘take control’ of the camera – it is easy to fall into the safety of using the ‘auto-controls’, unfortunately the results tend to look amateurish when the camera ‘takes over’.
We also talked about sound and the different types of microphones that are available for different jobs. Tie clip wireless mic’s for interviews – shot gun mic’s on a non- moving subject. Essentially never rely on the on-board microphone as this hunts for any sound and can pick up ‘motor-noise’, but an auto setting can be used on camera, this is because you are not always able to react quick enough to the adjust the levels and then the sound is rendered unusable.
Lighting was a critical to a corporate production and Phil went about showing how to set up a studio setting for a typical 3 point lighting using 3x 300w lights and a blue screen back drop. The camera was placed in position and the subject (interviewee) on a chair. The camera was connected to a monitor so that we could see what the camera was seeing. Key light – bright light on subject, fill light softer light diffused using the barn doors or scrims, the outline of the person was then shown using the backlight, this gave a 3D effect. What I learnt here was that it was a case of practising different lighting set-ups in order to create the desired effect.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the course as it gave insight into the different markets for video work. I found the practical session very interesting as I learnt how to develop my video skills in order to bring them up to a professional standard.
