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Possible videography gig, but I'm not a pro. Should I take it? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by chahk@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org

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I mostly make videos of my family vacations and such as a hobby.

A distant family member liked my edits, and now wants to hire me to shoot a video of a professional conference. I haven't accepted yet, and I'm reluctant to because I've never done anything on this level before. They're quite desperate because they can't find a "real" videographer for their budget ($500 USD for ~4 hour shoot). Money is not really a concern for me. I'd love to do this job, but I don't want to let them down if something goes wrong.

I only have one camera - Fuji X-T3, and one lens decent enough to possibly work in low-light indoor setting - Sigma 16mm f/1.4. I'm worried about data loss since even though the X-T3 has dual SD Card slots, it only writes video to one of them. I also don't own any lighting equipment aside from a GoDox flash (not even a remote trigger for it). I do have a gimbal for stabilization, but very little experience actually filming with it. And of course the fact that they're extended family complicates things even further.

Not sure what else I should be worried about. Should I bite the bullet and take the job? I'll be up-front with the client about both my (lack of) experience and limited equipment, of course.

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[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're looking to expand this into a business, you'll generally have to start doing things that are outside of your immediate level of comfort, enough to grow of course.

If this is something that you only like to do as a personal hobby, then I would hesitate, because the worst thing would be for you to agree to it, and then something goes wrong and/or they hate the product.

Then again, it's not like a prom or wedding, something that's really special and unique, it's just a business conference shoot. So screwing it up would be bad, but not ruining somebody's super special day.

Up to you, but if you don't feel like you have a pretty high chance of delivering a product they will be proud of, that's a good reason to not do it.

Also, there's likely a reason they can't find anybody to do it for less other than you. As a freelancer myself, when people come to you saying that they can't find anything in their price range for a service, it's usually because they are clueless about the actual value, or they are hardcore cheapskates. Both kinds of people typically are not good customers.

[–] chahk@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

if you don’t feel like you have a pretty high chance of delivering a product they will be proud of, that’s a good reason to not do it.

I think I'm up for delivering something they will not absolutely hate :) I just don't want technical issues to trip me up.

when people come to you saying that they can’t find anything in their price range for a service, it’s usually because they are clueless about the actual value, or they are hardcore cheapskates.

In this case they are well aware that their budget is too low for a professional. I'll try to manage their expectations.