breaking in to local commercials

breaking in to local commercials

by Jensen Yancey

on Mar 26, 2010 at 8:34:30 pm

right now I'm a student at Texas A&M hoping to get in to some kind of video production when I graduate, and one thing I've noticed since I've lived in College station is that the local commercials are TERRIBLE, I know for a fact that I can make a better product than what most of these businesses are putting on the air but I have no idea how I would actually start. I've got a portfolio of a few commercials that I've done for online contests, but does anyone have advice on how to get work, how to price commercials, and how to look more like a real business and not some college kid with a camera? thanks!

Re: breaking in to local commercials

by Tom Maloney

on Mar 26, 2010 at 8:59:18 pm

Hi , am sure you could do better, but can you compete with the cable companys that make these? You will find they go out and make some of these for $300 . Very hard to compete with that and make any money

Good Luck
Tom

Re: breaking in to local commercials

by Mark Suszko

on Mar 26, 2010 at 9:20:36 pm

$300? Try FREE. Free "production services" with the time buy. Very common. Nobody can beat free. Of course, it will look about how you'd expect, for the price paid, but usually the clients either don't care or can't tell the difference.

Re: breaking in to local commercials

by Noah Kadner

on Mar 28, 2010 at 10:27:40 pm

Exactly- you cannot compete for local commercial markets- don't waste your time. The cable and local broadcasters give free commercials for the airtime. And typically the crews shooting them are the news camerapeople when they're not covering a story. That's why they mostly look like they're shot with one on-camera light and a handheld mic. Commercials are great money but only at the regional and national level. For local businesses there's really nothing to compete for- especially the car dealers and restaurants you see a lot of the worth commercials for.

I would check into corporate communications instead. Sometimes you can find hotels and businesses in the the area looking to make a video with a bit more budget either for internal communications or commercials. Industrials and corporate videos typically don't get broadcast but the money and the work conditions are typically better.

Noah

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Re: breaking in to local commercials

by Scott Carnegie

on Mar 29, 2010 at 4:19:09 pm

I used to work at a small market TV station doing camera for this exact thing; the local commercials. Yep, sometimes the salesmen would write the scripts and we'd have 30 minutes to shoot and a half day to edit and they looked like crap, but occasionally we got to spend more time on making something look great.

If you can get in the door, try it out, it's a great way to hone camera skills and you'll make some good contacts that you can use later in the business.

http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Re: breaking in to local commercials

by Paul Hudson

on Mar 31, 2010 at 12:23:47 am

The local commercial business is only a memory. You have to look to corporations that will not settle (KRUD) and their Beta SP camera.

Paul Hudson
Lizardlandvideo.com
Phoenix Video Production