Hey everyone,
I've been thinking about getting into videography business. I'm a college student in a mid-size town and I'd like to do event videography as a side business. I was wondering if any of you had any experience in this field. Any pointer would be greatly appreciated.

I did a few weddings in High School. They get paid an ass-load for doing nothing. For a good wedding video all you need is "fluff" and a clear crisp video of the ceremony. Its easy as pie and some people will charge up to $2,000

Yeah, I did a bunch of wedding videos and in my senior year of high school, I had a established a good reputation and made the graduation video for the middle school I went to for $2500. Go with weddings - very profitable.

i dont know what you can do, but me and a couple of friends are hired every friday night to film our school football games. now, granted, it is part of our class but we do get paid $6.00 an hour for like 8 hours every friday night (we have to set up for a while since we do a 4 camera shoot). definately get into the wedding thing though, it sounds like theres some good money there.

So, how did you guys get hired for those weddings? Did you advertise or was it just people you know? And what kind of camera did you use? Right now, I have a Canon ZR65. I'm thinking about getting an XL1 so it would be more professional. Any suggestions?

Weddings where the money's at.

www.paynevideo.com

First, I did a wedding for one of my parent's friends, and after I finished their wedding, I told them to recommend me to other people, and by the time i got my 2nd wedding, I created a website and spent about $50 bucks to advertise it (and my services) in the town newspaper. Definitely helped A LOT

So, did you guys have to get a tax number and everything? I called the state comptroller's office they said i had to get a tax number even if i was going to do it part time. Also, do you work out of your homes or do you have an office? I checked out your website Payne and it looks like you're a professional yet you're so young. How did you get started? And did you have to get the tax numbers and everything?

tax numbers? heck no, I do my business under the table (drug dealing style, except I'm dealing videos). I try to keep the government out, but of course, it would probably be beneficial if you really wanted to start a serious videography company, because then you get government protection and stuff (I'm majoring in film, not business - can't really say much else)

quote:

Originally posted by Trespasser:
(drug dealing style, except I'm dealing videos)

I tried to do that with web design, and stock photography (the agent doesn't report!) but one of my web clients filed, so I had to. Turned out I didn't owe a cent, but I definitely will next year, so I'm giving deals to non-profit clients in exchange for right-offs

Strawberrymooon, as long as you do business under you own name (and that includes something like "Joe Shmoe Productions"), you can use your SSN as your tax number. People will then abbreviate to sound more professional, so they call their business "JSP". But, you kind of need to know what to do depending on how you're billing and getting paid. you should know the difference between 1099 form and W-9.

So, what kind of a camera do you guys use? And how many do you use at a wedding?

You guys have been very helpful but I got one more question. How do you do audio at a wedding? I mean, do you just use whatever the microphone on the camera picks up or do you have special microphones?