The Videographers Guide to Not Falling on Your New Media Face | Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Videographers Not To Do List continued.

Last week in Chapter 2 I thought I would share with you some of the mistakes I made when I first started video blogging. This week I complete the list with the top 5 things to avoid.  I’ve made many of these mistakes myself. Some because of my inexperience, others because of my ego and my stubbornness.  I was able to learn on the job mostly because the competition was thin.  Repeat these mistakes today and clients won’t be nearly as forgiving.  As I have mentioned ad nausea, during the years 2005 – 2009  I was pretty much the only video blogger most of my clients new.  Today most serious brands have their own list of go-to videographers.  If you want to make the good clients notice you then you need to avoid mis-steps.  This is the how to guide of what not to do.

5. It’s not about you

The New Pop brand was built on the personal element of video/photo blogging.  The stories we were telling were about the scene and our fascination with this unfamiliar world of highly ambitious, always cool, and mostly dysfunctional people.  They opened their arms to us simply because our cameras fed their narcissus’s to be recognized in the new social media landscape. We went from outsiders, to sitting at the cool kids table over the course of a summer.  Our aw-shucks sentiment easily found it’s way into our art.  It was infectious, it was addictive.  In the end our narcissism was as much in focus as our subjects’.

As a video blogger it is intoxicating to find an audience that is receptive to your story.  Video bloggers like MaestroKnows, or The13thWitness give first hand accounts of their experiences and attract a loyal fan base numbering in the thousands.  However the practical path to securing clients in today’s social media landscape won’t run through your personal story, It will run through telling the story of others.  Unless your a celebrity or have a really relatable story, no one outside of your inner circle of friends will care what you are doing.  When I first started shooting myself clients thought it was cute, it was the video equivalent of tweeting.  Once the novelty wore out and the traditional conventions of film-making took root, I took the camera off of myself, and restored it to it’s natural orientation, outward.

4. Experiment with caution

The quicker you realize there is little room for experimenting in the corporate world, the better off you will be. I have had more videos sent back for re-edits for this reason than for any other.  I would create these videos that I considered artistic statements,  but from a branding perspective they were boring and pointless.  I uploaded one of my early client videos to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. That video was created for one of my very first clients Mirrorball. Along with being way too mellow, it also was too much about me, me, me.  If your counting that makes 2 on my list of things not to do. Unfortunately as it pertains to Mirrorball it was a lesson I learned too late.  So take heed when I tell you to save these videos for your personal vimeo pages or for really cool indie clients.  If you focus on creating up beat pieces that enhance the brand then you won’t be embarrassed or replaced.

3. Copy not

A recurring debate I had with my old partners centered around imitation and whether it should be considered a sincere form of flattery, or a threat.  No one is truly original.   My favorite director is Quentin Tarantino is the copy master general as evidenced by this video.  It is impossible to not have your work or your art be some derivative of something that came before.  However if you want to work as a videographer there has to be some outstanding quality in your work that is specific to you.  And that does not necessarily mean art.  It can be your quality, your turnaround time, your lenses, anything that makes you different can be leveraged strategically. If all you offer is a copy, your clients will use your competition as leverage to bring your rates way down.

2. Lighten up

Memorable quote “The most important light is the light that you do not turn on.”  I try to shoot with existing or natural sunlight as much as possible and on more than one occasion it has come back to burn me.  It’s especially tempting with the high ISO camera’s on the market today to shoot in the dark.  I admit I still have allot to learn in terms of lighting but my rule of thumb is if I have to turn my ISO above 2000 I turn on the lights.

1. Sophie’s Choice.

This is by far the toughest challenge for me and the one that I have struggled with the longest.  That is keeping my pieces short. Conventional wisdom suggests that it is easier to cut a shorter piece.  Practical experience would prove the exact opposite.  For the 2 – 4 minute run-time that most clients request, you will find that there are going to be great sound-bytes, and moments that just won’t make the cut.  If you don’t have this problem there is a good chance your existing footage is weak.  When it comes to editing I go into it knowing that I will have to make Sophie’s choice.  Meaning I will have to choose between saving one of my children at the expense of losing them both.

Next Friday I will talk about setting your rates.

Thanks

Trevor “Trevz” Bayack is a Brooklyn-born filmmaker who approaches his web pieces as mini documentaries. Recognized as a member of the 2008 URB magazine Next 100 for pioneering the “video blog” Trevz continually makes his pieces shorter, sharper and ever more shareable”   Follow thenewpop twitter feed for more.