How to Make Money as a Filmmaker - Zero to a 100k
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- It took me nearly 7 years to break a 100k a year in filmmaking, after graduating from film school.
Along the way, I learned a lot of valuable lessons that I can share with you to speed up the process for you.
The very first part of this journey is actually getting better at our craft. It’s very important to be good enough at this craft to be able to charge a decent rate.
I went to film school because, at that time, TH-cam and online courses didn’t really exist. And I thought I had to go to film school to learn the craft.
These days, I think you can self-educate or take online courses.
The trick to this process is by practicing what you learn. A lot of what I learned in film school was theories and I didn’t actually improve until I put them into practice.
Now, this is a process that is never going to end. And we don’t have to be the best in the world. But you need to spend as much time as possible by doing free shoots, student films, weddings, spec commercials, TH-cam videos, and whatever you can get your hands on.
And don’t mistake improving your craft for needing better gear. You can get pretty good with the most basic camera and lighting.
Once you feel confident with your skills, the second step is getting some freelance or temporary gigs and actually getting paid.
At this point, it is still about getting paid to learn. So I wouldn’t focus a lot on rates.
I started freelancing as a production assistant, making around 150-200 a day.
I got those jobs by simply contacting production companies around me and pitching myself as a production assistant. Production companies always need a good PA.
While I was doing that, learning how production works and making connections, I was also doing shoots, usually for a low rate. Again, this was my hands-on education. I saw it as an extension to film school. The hands-on portion.
As a freelancer, I slowly leveled up. I would tell people I had a camera and knew how to shoot. Over time, I went from PA to media manager, to AC to camera op, and eventually to DP. This process took a few years. Even though I thought of myself as a DP right out of film school, I really wasn’t a professional DP until I started getting paid like one.
Now, the third stage that can get you to 100k to 250k a year is up to you and which path you want to pursue.
You can either stay on the path of freelancing and specialize or you can create your own company.
I made videos every week about why creating your own production company is my preferred path, but let’s talk about making six figures freelancing first.
As a DP for example, you can get to a point doing corporate and commercial shoots, where a very typical rate is $1000 per day. That doesn’t include any gear.
You can also invest in gear and rent the gear in addition to your day rate and you can get to $1500 or $2000 per day.
It takes several years to get to this point, but you can simply work 75-100 gigs a year to break six figures. If you don’t specialize or level up, it’s harder to do this, because you need a lot more days at lower rates to get to this point.
The other option is making the transition from freelancing to running your own production company. I made this transition in 2013 and it took me about 6 months to make it.
This requires a new set of skills like learning marketing and sales, operating a business, and things that may be new to you.
But they are very learnable, just like filmmaking was something we had to learn in time.
But once you make the transition, you can make far more money than freelancing can ever provide and you also build something that is not directly tied to your time. My personal experience with the transition was going from roughly 60k a year to 250k a year. And I know plenty of production companies that do far more in revenue.
When starting out, you can do videos in the 3-5k range, which will require 20-25 projects per year to break a 100k. You can either pursue volume or higher-end clients with your company.
I have a video coming up that will break down the difference between the freelancer path and the video production company owner path in full detail.
I will post that in a couple of days and I think it will clear up a lot of the reasons why I talk so much about the production company path. I’ll see you in the next video.
Learn the exact blueprint I used to go from a struggling videographer, to running a profitable video production business, in this one-hour free training.
www.filmmaking...
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Learn the exact blueprint I used to go from a struggling videographer, to running a profitable video production business, in this one-hour free training.
www.filmmakingmentor.com/Video_Production_Accelerator_Opt_In
All true. I am in the end phase of this exact path. And it took about 6 years After film school. Did PA for 6 months. Moved into Media management, then AC for 2 years, then operator for several years.....and finally DP, making over $1k per shoot from Amazon, CBS. Etc. My next step is upscale my production company! Looking forward to your next video. Thanks!!!!
Awesome. Very similar path to mine
Sounds like you built it on a solid foundation. Thanks for the information. I’m still giving corp. America too much of my time. One Day.
Thank you so much for these videos man ! Really appreciate it!
Greatly appreciate these videos, sir!!
I have to save money for starter equipment. It isn't cheap.
Hey man, question about mailing to production companies. I struggle to write a good email to send to production companies.
What do you exactly put in the e-mail? Like how do you get their attention to actually hire you?
Most emails I get like this that I ignore go two different ways. They are either too short, saying "are you guys hiring" or they are too long with a long resume, which I can hardly find the time to reach.
The ones that have worked on me is a few sentences long and a bit personalize.
Something like: Hi I just watched "mention a specific video from their website" and I really love your cinematic approach. I have two years of experience in video production and looking to connect with production companies in (your town). I'm happy to offer my services as a production assistant for a day on your upcoming shoot. I recorded a quick Loom video to introduce myself. Thanks for your time.
Instead of reading a long resume, I rather see a quick video and see that the person took their time and is professional. I would be more than willing to give them a chance on an upcoming shoot. Then it's up to you to impress them and show them what else you can do.
@@Filmmakingmentor Thank you so much for this tip! I finally get an answer from someone, that helps me solving my struggle 🙏🙏
Excellent advice here. As a primarily freelance photographer it took a decade to hit 6 figures, then doubled that the next year by moving more into the film production arena. I’m way overworked and hiring out talent that specialize in all the areas I suck in
Yea I hear that. That might be my least favorite part of the process as well
5 Days!!!!!! 🙌🏼
Can you talk about making a good offer? I live in a area with 60,000 people. How can I solve a problem with video. It is a hard sell. If a business is already working there is no point to marketing image in their eyes.
You have to expand your market. I live in the suburbs well over an hour from the city, but we do productions all over in the nearby 5 states. You can't limit your reach to just your small town. You can easily drive within two hours of where you live for a shoot. I would even recommend offering shoots outside of your area and charge for travel.
@@Filmmakingmentor can you put a video about making a clean offer funnel? I know video is important but these boomers are stuck in their ways. Ex. They won’t spend money on image… thanks for the vids
yea sure. It's really about making an offer that directly addresses the value. It's always going to be hard to sell a video, but it's far easier to sell results from a video. So I always start with marketing videos that can bring businesses more revenue. Much easier to get in the door with that than just offering a video. Most businesses don't want a video, because they don't get the value. But I'm working on some videos about this.
@@Filmmakingmentor I love that. Thanks
What a PA usually does? Like what kind of tasks you had as a PA? Thanks
They usually help set up food, snacks, get coffees, block traffic, make runs to stores, and on small jobs, sometimes slate or help set up stands (AC and grips do those on bigger jobs)
Please keeping making these videos, you're about to help me get started in my career. Thanks!
This was really helpful, thank you!
Great content from Sierra Leone West Africa 🇸🇱
You made me learned a lot, we never have pure film schools here in my country. Unless I have to learn from TH-cam, even though my family did not like film making path I have choosing, but I believed in it🥺👍. Thanks for sharing your experience with us mentor.👍
Thank you! Very happy to be helpful
Looking forward to your course.
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