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Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Have a [video] service you'd like to promote - whether online or at your home/office? Do you need a video related professional? This is the place. Post your inquiries, website links and requests for services here. Of course, no spam please ! - has to be digital video/photography related.

Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby cluelessidiot » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:42 am

Thanks for all the advice. Now, what's your opinion. Is it better to stick to business in your area or to have clients all over the U.S. through the web?

Doreen, I won't be specializing in just slideshows so I may not get that program you suggested. I'll look at the Gallery, though. Oh, I thought you had to resize it to 750 by 1000 pixels to prevent problems?

Jack, thanks for link. I'll definitely check it out. I have the same opinion as you did, Jack and probably will undercut myself a little at least for a two to three months after my business is started.

Chuck, I will probably have to do the pam and zoom for free. Thanks fo answering my question about the transitions.

I've heard that sometimes this business can be slow. I just want to make sure, do you guys make pretty good money off of it. If so, what are your methods? I know sometimes you need to have a separate job in the beginning, but this will be my first real job. I plan on trying to make an average of $7.50 to $10.00 per hour, is that a reachable goal in the beginning? Basically, in the beginning, what was your median hourly rate? And how do does that compare to your median hourly rate now?
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby Doreen L. » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:52 am

When you resize a photo, you want to keep the aspect ratio. So, if you resize to 1000 in width, you keep it set to maintain aspect ratio. You don't resize the height automatically to 750. Different cameras have different ratios. For instance, the images from my digital SLR camera are wider than my digital camera.

BTW, you don't have to resize your photos when using ProShow. That's also a timesave.
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby cluelessidiot » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:05 pm

Any critiques of my Business Presentation Sample Intro? Ways I can make stuff like that better, etc.
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby Chuck Engels » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:01 pm

Sorry but I'm not a big fan of the counting leader/countdown, especially over 8 seconds worth.
And that one is pretty plain, Premiere Elements lets you change the colors why not make it more interesting?

I like the motion backgrounds here at muvipix for intros, a nice motion background and add some text, simple yet elegant.

I spend way too much time on my videos and slideshow, probably don't make more than $10/hr when it all is said and done.
At some point I hope to pick and choose what projects appeal to me and will charge accordingly. I think your goal of $10/hr
is very reasonable, but you will need to raise your prices slightly to achieve that.

Watch the tutorials, read the articles (here and at videoinasnap.com), get the PE In A SNap book (link on the Resources page) and learn everything you can here from fellow forum members. There are tons of videos in the gallery and at chuckengels.com that will give you lots of ideas :)
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby jackfalbey » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:10 pm

Business for me, at least, has been inconsistent... last month I had only one small job, but this month I'm trying to find the time to get it all done. My first paying job was in September for $300, In October I made $1000, November $120, and December $1400. So far this year, I've done $1500 and have another $5000 booked through March. So, it is possible to do well, but be prepared to struggle and starve for a while. So far, I have invested about $15,000 in equipment, mostly on credit, but I have to have the right gear to do the job. [-o<

Be prepared for unexpected business growth and direction. I expected to start out with the small stuff: slideshows, birthday parties, etc. A friend referred me to one of his clients, a local fashion company, which resulted in a recurring monthly job. They then referred me to a local political campaign, and another regular monthly gig. Then my Mom's church asked me to do a commemorative video for their new building, which has in turn led me to a local Gospel music group who has hired me to produce their first video. I've also picked up 3 weddings from my free listing on http://www.decidio.com. :-D

Point being, I still haven't been hired to do a slideshow or birthday party... :shock:
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby cluelessidiot » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:16 pm

Colors? Also, this was done at a Mediacom Studio Editing Room that had Premiere Pro 1.5. That was before I had my fast computer.

About just using motion backgrounds from muvipix for intros, I just feel like it should be more unique if I'm going to charge them $150.

So, does video keep you pretty busy in your spare time. Do you have enough projects for it to?

Oh, okay, Jack, I'll keep that in mind. Any reccomendations on where to advertise in? What's good and what isn't?
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby Chuck Engels » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:22 pm

Many of the motion backgrounds here sell for $50 each elsewhere on the web, they are not just simple backgrounds have you taken a good look at them?
I can't recommend enough to look at the stuff in the gallery and at chuckengels.com that is how you find out what people are doing.
I have more videos to do than I have time now, and I wasn't even looking to do them they found me. At this point I could probably be busy every spare minute of the day if I wanted to, but I do have a full time real job too.
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby jackfalbey » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:26 pm

Well, so far I haven't paid for any advertising so I can't say what works best, and almost all of my business to-date has been referrals from friends and family. I've had a few calls from people who found my website on a search engine. I posted free listings at several wedding referral websites (Party Pop, Gathering Guide, and Decidio) but so far only Decidio has led any clients to me. I also had 2000 full-color glossy business cards printed for about $80 and I hand those out whenever possible, but nothing has come from that either. It's mostly been extraordinarily good luck for me getting started, but as more people see my work they tell their friends and so on...
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby Chuck Engels » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:43 pm

You can get free business cards here
http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/default ... 41%3A56+PM
They are good for starting out, just be careful not to order stuff that isn't free ;)

In 2007 I did 10 full hour videos, mostly weddings, two of them were free. I highly recommend doing a couple free projects every year, just be sure you can use the footage for demos, promotion or whatever. Out of the 8 paid videos I made about $3000 which $1000 went to my daughter that helps me with the projects.
That was all in 4 months and I didn't work in November at all. This year looks like about 60 videos at a total of $24,000+ of which at least $12,000 will go to my daughter. I could do more but don't want to, my daughter may do more on her own though at this point she is getting pretty good :)
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby ed » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:48 pm

One thing you should do is fix your website. The site has deadlinks and errors in the navigation. For links to pages that don't exist yet a simple page with a "Coming Soon" message would be fine.
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby cluelessidiot » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:32 pm

To Jack, you said that you didn't get much or any business from tape transfers and slideshows.

I am thinking about investing some of my profits toward getting a DataVideo TBC-1000 to help with freezing on tape transfers. But I just wanted to ask if you think this may not be an good investment. And if instead I should save those profits for getting more expensive equipment like camcorders to tape weddings or events because you said that's where most of your profits are coming from.

Also, Chuck, you had mentioned earlier about how if I wanted to do events and weddings, that I would have to spend $1,000+ on a camcorder. But what about a camcorder like the Canon HV20, would that be good enough? You had also mentioned to charge $25 for unedited transferred video. Would you make a menu or would that be considered editing?
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Jan 13, 2008 10:22 pm

The problem with professional video is you have to also look professional. The HV20 doesn't look professional it looks like a small home camcorder, that is way Jack uses his as a B roll cam (secondary and usually stationary) and not A roll (primary) camera.

You can probably find a decent professional camera used on eBay for around $1000, but you should probably be prepared to spend two to three times that. People don't want to give their money to someone that doesn't look professional or doesn't have professional looking equipment. ;) Remember, these people know nothing about video and expect a huge professional camera to be used to tape their event.
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby cluelessidiot » Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:32 am

Yeah's that what I thought but was just checking.

What about my editing question. Are menus counted as editing?
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby Chuck Engels » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:30 am

If I was to just transfer VHS tapes to DVD I would add extra for a menu, even $5 or $10.
Then you can do screen shots of some basic menus in Premiere Elements and give then a choice.
All you will need is to add Text and only a main menu with a Play All button, nothing else.
Anything beyond that would be free with an editing job (or a slideshow), but not just a transfer.
The other option is that they get an auto play DVD.
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Re: Prices at PC Ultimate Videos.com

Postby cluelessidiot » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:39 pm

Okay, my website is up and running. So, take a look and critique. I was just wondering about the wording and how to describe to potential customers what a finished edited project will look like when finished and all the editing is done. Any ideas? Thanks.

Edit: Here's the link to the website http://www.pcultimatevideos.com and here is the link to the editing section http://www.pcultimatevideos.com/editing.html
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