HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SPECIAL EVENT VIDEOS
Special event videos are much
simpler and a lot less worry than wedding videos. In many cases, you'll only
need one camera, one microphone, and little or no editing. You'll charge less,
of course, but your profit margin will be higher. You can market this service
to any professional person or group -- attorneys, salespeople, financial
advisors, professional speakers -- anyone who must give a talk, presentation or
lecture before a group of people. Workshops, meetings, conferences, reunions,
all are potential jobs for you.
As with weddings, meet beforehand with the person or persons you will be
taping, both to get their permission to DVD them, if necessary, and to get a
feel for what they specifically want on DVD. If all they want is a DVD of
their speech, then all you'll need is one camera (two if you want a spare in
case of problems), one microphone and a tripod. Set your equipment up well
ahead of time, to allow for testing. Be sure to have the subject of the DVD
do a test of part of their speech, so you can be sure the microphone is set
right. It's important to have clear sound for event taping.
For panel discussions, meetings and other group events, you'll want to have a
camera pointed at every person, or possibly at every two people, as well as one
at the whole group. Make sure every person can be picked up by your
microphones. When you edit the DVDs together, try to have the speaking person
on screen as they speak, unless that would mean too many rapid changes, which
can be disorienting to the viewer. If taping an interview, the subject of the
interview is more important than the interviewer. While it's good to cut in a
reaction shot of the interviewer from time to time, keep the focus of your DVD
on the person being interviewed.
Unless you need to use multiple cameras and heavy editing, you should charge
less for event taping than you would for wedding taping. There are a few
reasons for this. First, you will spend far less time on an event DVD.
Second, you have a higher potential for return business. If you do a good job,
you have a good chance of being called in again for the next meeting or
conference. Finally, there is always the possibility of selling copies of the
DVD to targeted customers. This can either be done for the subject of the
DVD, with you getting a cut, or the subject can pay you a license fee for each
that he or she sells.
An up-and-coming event to DVD is the high school or college class reunion.
Offer your services to DVD the reunion as a keepsake for those who attended,
or those who couldn't attend. If you price your service right, you may be able
to work a deal where each attendee would get a copy of the DVD as part of
their registration fee, with a cut going to you. You'll make less for each
DVD, but you'll be make up on quantity. You should be able to make $10 to $15
per DVD just for copying the master onto a blank. Set up your DVD players, start the
copying, and grab a good book. Sounds like easy money to me! If you DVD a
reunion, try to get a class list so you can send a personalized letter and
brochure to those who didn't attend. They are a good market for copies of the
DVD. You will need to work out details with the planning committee of the
reunion, as they will probably want a cut of the profits, which is fair. But,
you are entitled to the lion's share, since you did the work.
When taping a reunion, make sure to get a good group shot of the attendees,
possibly panning across the group for clear face shots. Be sure to DVD any and
all speeches, important class members like the valedictorian, class leaders,
sports figures, and any class member(s) who have become local or national
celebrities. Be sure to get plenty of candid material, too, which can be
edited in. You'll want to make sure your skills are good when holding the
camera for an event like this.
Other events you may want to consider would be family events, like birthdays,
bar/bat mitzvahs, holiday get-togethers, as well as business and school
parties, award ceremonies, etc. You'll get these jobs primarily from
referrals, which means your marketing expenses for these occasional events will
be little or none.
Scan your newspaper periodically for local publicity events like hot air
balloon races, boat races or shows, trade shows, scouting events, or other
events that appeal to a specialized crowd. Get permission to DVD these
events, then work out one of these deals:
- Sell the DVD to the sponsor of the event;
- Keep the rights to the DVD and give the sponsor a royalty fee for each
DVD sold.
Also, you could DVD a group of similar events and edit them together into a
compilation DVD that could be sold to targeted customers. There are many
potential profit areas in event taping, if you keep your eyes open!
