How long before your first BIG paying gig?

[Adam Rook]

We all strive every day to carve out a nice living for ourselves. At least one that can pay the mortgage and still afford a Dragon or a Movi or the latest/greatest drone and also lose sleep at night dreaming about Weapon.

But for all of us in the trenches, daily working toward gaining new clients or getting their business up and running I thought it might be inspirational to hear how long you guys went before you landed that one big customer. If you are so inclined (and if you can) maybe tell us who it was.
What was your first big gig that allowed you to join the Red family? Or just what was your first big gig and how long did it take to land it?

 

[Clayton Taylor]

Well, while trying to pick up freelance work, music videos, etc. I've branched into wedding films. I've landed my first paying gig in May - only $2,500, but it's a start. Luckily being an RN pays the bills and allows for more toys in the meantime.

 

[Eric Santiago]

Took a whole year before my first paying gig.

Mind you I bought the BT Scarlet as part of my personal education and really didnt push to make money on it.

But the last year has been awesome and to me the body of work Ive experienced is priceless.

Edit: I misunderstood the question. I thought in regards to owning a RED camera. Im old so my first BIG paying gig was almost two decades ago

 

[Scott Crawley]

I started out with weddings in 1999. The first gig wasn't a big payday. There was no single really big payday but the first one came within weeks of taking receipt of my first kit. Establishing myself and paying off that kit took 18-24 months.

I always aspired to do something more... professional, so weddings were like a red-headed step child so to speak. It is what you make it though, so I made professionalism my business, worked hard and learned a lot.

We made OK money too for a while, before everybody's uncle started giving away the house for hack jobs. There were hacks out there before we started, but not as many. Real pros were few and far between, so carving out a space was not too difficult then.

At that time everyone liked to brag about all the word of mouth they got and how that was their entire advertising scheme. With such a crowded space now advertising is more important than ever, and that costs a lot of money. That is where the squeeze really begins. That is when you have to develop a stable of solid, reliable shooters in order to continue to grow the bottom line and cover your nut. Keeping your nut small enough not to kill your profit is the real trick in a tech reliant industry especially for a gear hound, and that was me; a gear hound.

Educating customers was the primary job at the sit, after showing a very polished production of a reel. You couldn't bring in a decent $$ contract otherwise. I imagine that is as true now as it ever was. It would seem that potential clients are more educated now about wedding video in general, but you have to teach them what they can expect from you, and why that is better than the next guy.

Getting and paying for a kit and cutting my teeth was the first goal. Making indie film was the end game. It worked for me so I really shouldn't look down on it or bitch too much.

 

[Christopher-lee dos Santo]

I wrote and directed my first feature film in 2011. We only had $35000 to make the film. We shot it on two Canon 7D HDSLRs. It's a World War 2 film about a South African bomber pilot who flew for the Royal Air Force over Nazi Germany. He and his crew get shot down and have to try make it back through enemy lines whilst being hunted down. Did all the VFX of the planes etc myself and it took me 2 years of post production, which I did in my bedroom at home. We finally got the film to Berlin Film Festival in February 2013, where we signed a distribution deal for the United Kingdom as well as got ourselves a Sales Agent. By May 2013, we were at Cannes with our Sales Agent who then sold the film to another 15 territories. Since then, the film has been released in 25 major international territories, being available now on Bluray, DVD, iTunes, Netflix, etc and was a financial success for us. So much so, that I bought myself my own personal Dragon, and the company I make my films with bought another two for their productions.

We are now firmly planted in the RED Camp and have some more films lined up for this year. We start shooting my next feature film in May on three Dragon cameras.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Anton Shavlik]

I started a year and a half ago making kickstarter-type commercials with a group of 3 other people (Director, sound, sales/graphic design and myself camera/editor). We had a single 5D and a copy of FCPX, and we'd borrow some L series lenses for free from a photographer friend on shoot days. We were charging a minimum of $400 a video, which was too low for that many people even as a part time job.

Now I work freelance and try to make sure I've made $1,500 at the end of a shoot, and do two or three projects in a month. In Taiwan that goes pretty far.

 

[Luke K]

I freelance and it's going pretty good. Money isn't BIG, but it's sufficient.