Sports Highlight Film & Editing

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience shooting sporting events and editing highlight films? This is my main area of interest within this industry and plan to do it for high schools in my area. I’m basically looking for suggestions on pricing and pricing structure. I know a lot of athletic programs are hard up for cash at this point, and with some experience in the past I think I can help with this by creating highlight films that can be sold to the team members/families, etc. I had success in college creating highlight films for my team, and then selling them through the program to make money. Of course I was a student then, and the program took 100% of the profits… but does this sound like something that I can extend professionally now? I can charge for time and effort, and the sell 10 dvd’s at a certain price, and the program can then sell them for more to the players and keep the difference. Any suggestions, comments?

[Rob]

School’s don’t have that much money. I would recommend this job as a primary form of income.

[Anonymous]

By saying school’s don’t have that much money.. do you mean that you don’t think schools or athletic programs would be willing to purchase say ten films at a time at my price and then distribute them?

[Rob]

I’m saying you won’t get paid the rates of a pro videographer or editor. I can’t tell you whether or not they will buy them when you’re done or how much they will buy them for since I don’t work at a school. That’s something you’ll have to discuss with them. But I feel like the money you make won’t be worth while.

I know at the high school I graduated from, we had a video teacher who took care of shooting sports and creating a 30 minute video (each sports team had one minute of “air time”) and then distributed them. That’s actually how I learned to shoot and edit. So you might even come across a school where they have the work you want to do taken care of already.

It’s a good way to get experience and create a demo reel so that maybe you can work for ESPN one day, but if you go on to do this, I wouldn’t count on making a lot of money.

[Grinner Hester]

I have both shot and edited for networks covering sporting events.

The freelance rate is market value. The packages I have made for networks at flat rates were pre-negotiated. These consisted of cutting down highlights much like what you desribed.

If it helps, I was a cameraman for Fox Sports at 500 a day and I edited for ESPN for 75/hr in their truck or 500 a day in my studio (unsupervised). Most keep their freelance help at about 50 bucks an hour. Thats generalizing, of course.

[Anonymous]

All of that information helps a great deal. I live in Chicago, and am hoping to hit up a few of the wealthier suburbs more and more. Also, as an ex-college athlete & grad assistant coach, I know that schools are looking more and more for films of players. So I’m thinking there might be a small amount of money to come from that as well. Luckily this is purely freelance and I won’t be dropping my day job.

Again thanks for the advice and help.

[D0n]

Here’s the business model I’m employing after several bad experiances doing photography for smaller schoolboards, and sports teams:

Shoot the events, give out lots of business cards.

have your url on the cards with purchase info.

Always have a display showing images from previous games playing while you work.

sell your photographic images through a service such as “Photoreflect”

Sell a complilation video at the end of season. Set your price up front. set a due date for all orders. set a minimun order number, with a clause offering to refund all deposits if minimum not reached (don’t kid yourself…I had one parent calling other parents from a hockey team, telling them not to order from me….told them she’d get a set of team photos from me and make copies for everybody else for less than my price. then she aske me if she could borrow some proofs to see if the quality was any good.) . Needles to say I made sure I got a minimum number of orders paid up front before releasing a single print, or disc.

have your grad/prom packages and wedding and family packages plastered all over the pages they have to wade through to order thier sports images/videos.

oh yeah, if you’re wondering how I found out, about the scammer, my best friends son was on the team!

[comatoad]

Another consideration is the individual atheltic video, to be used for recruiting. More than a few talented players need a highlight video of their playing career sent on to colleges in order to snag scholarships. That’s another angle to consider in shooting sports highlights.

[hidnwings]

Can anyone suggest a way to highlight a single player in a video? I filmed my nephew’s soccer games and now we have to submit to colleges, we need to somehow highlight him or have an arrow that will point to him through out the video. Any help is appreciated.

[birdcat]

I did several of these for my sons HS basketball teammates.

I just edited all the video I had (I was at every game) and made about a ten minute reel showing each of them, rather than the whole team. Make sure you show offense, defense and teamwork, not just him scoring.

[ophelia]

To “hidnwings”: Here is a better idea: Begin your video with either a still shot of the player (in uniform with the _team number_ showing clearly) or a _VERY_ short video segment of the player (in uniform / team number clearly shown) introducing themselves. Coaches are well-versed in reading the field/court if they know ahead of time what _number_ to focus on.

[faqvideo]

I have started with shooting weddings and ballroom dancing tournaments. Don’t laugh, it’s Olympic Sports nowadays. Pretty intensive sport. It eventually sidetracked into a local TV show. But overall it was just an extra income dependable on selling copies to the parents.

[Author]

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