Best Business Practices for Photographers [249]
During the course of the back and forth between the client/art director and myself, the possibility of BTS video is broached. I usually say, "I'd like to capture some behind-the-scenes video and maybe some point-of-view video of what we'll be doing. Do you have any objections to that?" Whatever the answer, you need to be okay with clients or art directors saying they would rather you not do it. Furthermore, when they say no, do not think you can be sneaky and hit the Record button on the camera without anyone seeing you do it. You'll get busted and likely lose that client forever. And worse, you could get sued.
Lastly, make sure your model releases for any subjects—as well as your crew—are signed for stills as well as motion pictures. And be sure that if your clients add on to their needs with the request that "we just need a little BTS video…," there should be an additional fee involved!
* * *
This book cannot by any means go into the depth necessary to teach you, the still photographer, even a small fraction of what you need to know in order to enter into the field of video services. Much of what you will need to learn first will come from learning the art of visual storytelling with moving pictures. Then you will learn how critically important quality audio is to a video piece. It has often been said that a video package with mediocre video can be saved by well-done audio, but even the best video package can be ruined by poor audio. Once you've learned about capturing video and audio, the tedious process begins. If you thought it took a lot of your time to do post-production on still photography after the fact, sitting in a video editing session makes you realize just how quick and easy still photography post-production is—relatively speaking.
For example, unless you are recording straight to a memory card, you will have to ingest the video footage in real time. This means if you captured two hours of footage, before you can do anything, you have to sit at your computer for at least two hours as that footage gets ingested, not to mention watching as it is ingested to log the activities on the tape. Then the editing begins. You can assume that for every minute of completed video, you will spend at least one to two hours editing, if not a great deal more.
One of the most significant differences between video and still photography is who owns the rights and how you license that content. The industry was established in large part based upon the Hollywood model, whereby many individuals contributed to the finished work. From camera operators to lighting, stylists, art directors, actors, special effects, and so on, that work becomes a collective work, and all those who contribute to the work expect that their work is a work-made-for-hire. Further, most end clients expect that whatever they pay you for the project includes their ownership of the video and that they can then do what they want with the footage. In many cases, a client will ask you to hand over the raw tapes, straight out of the camera. Although there are some rare instances where you might keep and be able to relicense video footage you shot for a client or generate additional royalty/relicensing revenue from that original client, don't count on it. Know going in that what the client is going to do with the footage has little to do with what your creative fees will be.
Also largely different from still photography is that video work sets out a fee to pay you as the camera operator, but you separately rent to the client the cameras, lighting, and other equipment needed for the shoot. Just as still photographers have 4×5, medium format, 35mm film and all manner of digital variations, so, too, do videographers have non-HD, HD 720i, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, 16:9 versus 4:3, Red One Camera, lights, grip equipment, audio gear and so on. Each of these equipment types contributes to the end result,