In 2020, video can be seen almost everywhere on a daily basis. Our world is currently amidst a technological era and video display devices can be found in pockets, on walls in shops and soon we’ll have floors and ceilings covered in actual video display screens.
Every day that passes by the video industry propels itself higher with growth and in unison with an economical demand.
With such circumstances that exist, have you ever wondered what actually happens behind the scenes?
What does it actually take to create a music video, a television commercial and lastly a full length feature movie?
It all starts with education.
Being in the industry for 9 years now, if I were to start all over my first move would be to get myself a camera and find myself a credible school that I wholeheartedly believe in.
Credibility amongst your teachers and mentors is an important factor, as you rub shoulders with them you will become at least a fraction of who they are and if you’ve chosen the right educators, you will become a part of who they are by understanding the wisdom and knowledge of their own personal endeavors within the video production industry.
Find yourself educators who have compelling backgrounds that will get you closer to your dreams, your definition of success.
Let’s cut the fat and get to why you’re really here, you want to know how to make a living with filmmaking or video production.
First of all, the biggest shock that all creatives get whilst venturing into generating cash flow is the realisation that you actually have to become highly savvy with understanding what a business is and more importantly how to create one for yourself, become operationally functional, achieve a status of sustainability and most importantly reach a phase where you can leverage your business and scale.
In a nutshell, you must understand the fundamentals of marketing, sales, your product, operations and finance. In this exact order, is how your business will operate once it’s become a well oiled machine with all the bells and whistles needed to make it work.
Let’s run through the cycle of business to give you a gist of what to expect.
Let’s say that in this example that your product that you want to make and sell is ‘advertisement videos’.
The first phase is ‘Marketing’, you need to bring your product to market and showcase your business, what it offers and the people behind it.
Naturally, you will find yourself a potential customer who is in high demand for your service and will require a professional to see it through and develop video advertisements for them.
Now we move onto ‘Sales’. We’re at the stage where you’ve gotten a lead, the main goal is to convert them into a client and get all the paperwork signed and paid so that you can commence work.
Let’s say theoretically it was an easy sale and your sales department managed to bring them across the line and secured a deal. What’s next? Your product.
At this stage it is the time to shine, you’ve shed so much blood, sweat and tears to get to this very moment. To finally get paid for the creative work you love doing the most!
Communication is most prominent during this phase as you will have to get your client to brief you on what is to be expected for the product delivery. Sounds simpler than it seems but once this process is completely systemised and made as efficient as possible, you then are able to charge your rates and get paid what you deserve.
Now we can move forward to ‘Operations’, this department is like the test car driver when a concept car is coming close to getting released to the market. They need to get into vehicles and highlight all the good things whilst amending and adjusting all the bad things.
This is a very crucial role because the business wouldn’t be alive without this department, you will always need to put time aside to get these operational things done to better yourself and your business; especially if you’re a solo operator or have a small team.
For the last department we have ‘Finance’. For solo operators and small teams this department generally gets outsourced as there is a smaller upkeep in this department to keep things tidy and fresh, the other reason is that everyone in this industry wants nothing to do with finance.
Now i’ll wrap this up here only because there is one thing that you now need to know. How would you have attained all of this information without this article? Better yet, how would I have attained all of this information and have the capability of writing this article?
The answer once again is ‘education’.
You will learn all of these things in depth if you can find yourself a great school that offers you a foundational platform that allows you to grow wherever you need to grow like Learn to Film. Without going to a film school I wouldn’t have known all of these intricacies of business and how to sell video products to customers.
What a great film school can offer you is the confidence of knowing exactly what industry clients are currently expecting and how you can upskill yourself to become fit to take on the role of becoming a professional supplier to the industry to ultimately make a living from making videos.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to making a living with video. If you would like to know more about how you can make a living from a film school course come and find me teaching one of our courses at Learn to Film and explore all the courses that we have to offer.
Whether you’re a fresh face or have been in the industry for a few years and need some help, there is a course for you.
