As an update to this and an update to my recent “Pro for Hire” post, I need to give y’all a laugh… at my expense.
I finally got a client that I thought I did all the right things for, and a contract, AND payment, for a program that he hoped would be a monthly show. However, after spending a “huge” amount of money, (so he thought), making this half-hour program that would showcase his hobby, he decided he didn’t want to go along with a monthly show after all, as he only sold 3 DVDs.
Fast forward two months later, and I wanted to see if he had our show linked to his site yet, and found a plea to his loyal viewers: Would anyone like to take over doing our monthly show? We’re looking for a hobbyist, just like us, with a passion for this subject, who has a video camera and will make our video for free, for the “the love of the project”. If we ever make any money on it, you’re invited to share in the profits.
The problem with hiring pros is everyone can afford a video camera nowadays, and so think that since everyone has one, anyone can shoot. Au contraire. I’ve had the lucky (or unlucky) opportunity to be one of the judges for Videomaker’s annual short video contest, and narrowing down the field to the top 10 is really very easy sometimes, as there are LOTS of people that can’t shoot or edit their way out of the proverbial paper bag… and some of these are readers of our magazine.
Anyone CAN buy a camera, and anyone CAN push that red record button and wave the camera around and capture an image. But NOT anyone can compose an interesting shot, and certainly NOT ANYONE can create the editing finessing magic. That’s what we do, and we do it so well, the average layman doesn’t see it, so doesn’t appreciate the work involved.
