It can be a bit challenging when first starting out with a video production company because although you know you will be filming you’re not entirely sure who your target market is. When I first started I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I started doing promos and weddings but it wasn’t long before I realized I didn’t want to do weddings anymore. I hated dealing with the clients because they were so difficult to deal with and it’s a lot of pressure on the day of the wedding. If you miss an important shot then you are in a lot of trouble and for me I didn’t feel it was worth it.
Although I have worked on commercials and promos while I was in college I didn’t have much in my portfolio to show for it. So what I did was I eventually teamed up with some friends and we worked on some projects for free. This helped us build our portfolio to show prospects what we were capable of doing.
With the equipment we had we were able to pull off some amazing work and before you know it we had other businesses that were interested in video.
Over the years I began to realize that you should pick a niche and narrow it down. For example doing B2B work is great as a filmmaker but it might be best for you to focus on something more specific like doing corporate videos. You can become the authority in this arena and when others see that this is where you dominate especially if it brings results for them they will keep coming back. Marketing yourself as the go to company that successfully brings results for this niche will draw them to you.
Corporate businesses are more than likely to afford video services compared to a coffee shop for example. It’s hard to find a business in the food industry that has the budget for video because the profit margin isn’t very high. I know this because I use to work in the food industry and I tried to market myself to restaurants but it wasn’t always in their budget.
If you feel your business can thrive off of doing $500 videos then that’s great but the reality is your crew won’t be able to eat and it will get to the point that you will not want to make all these videos by yourself. Choose a market that can afford it and is already spending money on advertising. If you see a local business that is advertising on billboards then they are a good fit for your services. Billboards cost a lot, depending where its located you are looking at $1,500 for a small billboard. On highways the big ones can be around $20,000 a month so be sure to lookout for those.
Maybe you want to get into storytelling, my experience has been connecting with actors, writers and directors because these are the people that want to make their own films. In due time they will find the funds to work on their passion project and include you if they like you and your work. Yes I did say if they like you because nobody wants to work with somebody who is difficult. I have met people that said they want to hire me for their next project just based off of my personality and knowledge. They didn’t even see any of my work but either way they’re in good hands.
Don’t do what some have done which is try to get into everything such as music videos, commercials, films, weddings, live events etc. I have noticed that the look is consistent and although that may sound good it really isn’t. Their films are shot the same way as their weddings which isn’t an impressive look. Each niche has its own look and feel to it and it should be mastered over time. Plus it will look like a desperate production company just willing to take any project that comes along.
This is why there are certain companies that focus solely on visual effects, post production, color grading, film for national brands, music videos or feature films. Dig deep to see what is it that you like and give it some time with that niche. It’s okay if it doesn’t work out and you change it up in the future it happens to many of us.
