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Directing: What you need to start a videography business

After years in front of college classrooms telling war stories about film and video production, I've come to appreciate my own education. I was lucky to have had the kind of hands-on film and video production training where we got to do it all: write the story, direct it, shoot it and put it all together in editing.

We ended up with enough entry-level skills to step up to the plate and take an honest swing at whatever production task was required. Not that we hit everything out of the park. But whether asked to operate a Nagra on a commercial shoot, help light an interview on a corpora14238te video or log field tapes and transcripts for a documentary, we knew how to do it.

As an independent, self-equipped video producer, you don't have to rely only on contract and crew work. You can generate your own projects: research the community's communication needs, (training, marketing, education, government, industry, current affairs), and develop proposals (broadcast and non-broadcast), that communicate powerful messages on behalf of prospective clients and audiences. Smart equipment purchases will enable you to support your proposals with DVD samples that demonstrate your capacity to execute some of your production ideas.

Your bread-and-butter will come from non-fiction and non-broadcast informational /industrial production, but you should be developing projects for broadcasters as well. Actuality and fact-based programs are the most produced shows on television today. Audiences and broadcasters alike are looking for the next best idea in reality TV.

If you are serious about making a living as an independent solo video creator, here are some things to think about:

• Know the script-to-screen video production process
• Strive for professional results (video/audio/post production)
• Invest in pro audio gear
• Know your storytelling (proposal/script development)

One vital thing you need to know is how screen stories are organized. In order to manage, shoot and edit video presentations efficiently, you need to use appropriate production management tools, from shot lists and shooting scripts to field tape logs and paper edits. Open source software templates for these forms are available online. Also check out the many forms available on Videomaker's Book of Forms online. This book includes a CD and a huge variety of 91 forms from shotlists to model releases, and some of these forms can be purchased separately as downloads on the shopping site.