- If you get in front of a client and your main selling points is price, image quality and experience, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go on Craigslist. I want you to list your camera for sale cause you're not gonna make it. Today we're gonna explain why. Stay tuned. (upbeat music) What's going on guys? It's your boy Ty Turner over at Flash Film Academy. The only place on the
web that's teaching you the business side of content creation. And not just how to take dope pictures. Because dope pictures don't pay bills. However, business knowledge does. Make sure you guy watch it til the end. I have some exciting new about a new free course that we'll be offering. Today we're gonna talk about something as simple as your approach to making money in this industry. Why you got it all wrong and how we can change that. Let's be real. Straight up cameramen are dying and there's a reason
why a high end cameramen get paid 50, 60 maybe 70,000 and a director is taking home millions. There is a little small
print in the differences between the two that
you should know about. Being able to properly expose a picture. Being able to go there and just light it. Being able to film it, is
no longer the commodity. It's no longer the important
part of what we do. It's something that an iPhone can do without even trying. I guarantee you if you cut on the photo mode on
your iPhone or photo app it will properly expose an image. So that skillset alone is
not going to bring you money. It's not going to set your
apart from your competition. It can also provide 4k60. It can provide very good quality. Specially in sunlight or
with the proper light. So if that is your big selling feature, you're camera, you're
not gonna to make it. Cause camera phones aren't getting worse. They're getting much better and a lot faster then DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. I mean look at how fast the image quality is improving over time. I mean you can go back just two iPhones and see a big difference. You can't go back two mirrorless cameras and see a huge difference in quality. Often a lot of you push
image quality as your value. When I look at your
portfolios and your demo reels you're just showing really good clips and music and that's a whole nother topic that we're gonna get into. But that isn't a selling feature anymore. Often you're mad because you have this great image quality and clients don't wanna pay for it. Because in your mind, you're providing great
quality for a price. In their mind it's not that much different from their camera phone. You need to get this cameramen mentally out of your vocabulary, out of your mind. Stop being just a cameraman and start offering solutions to problems that your clients have. Like hey, how do I educate my viewers on who I am and what I provide? Offering that solution
is way more valuable than just offering a guy to come set up a camera and light me talking. Times have changed where you're not only just a guy behind the camera. But you're the agency,
you're the film crew, and you're the marketing company and you need to go into creating content with that in mind. Don't offer your client
video production service. Offer them a video production solution. Offer them a photography solution. Let me give you some examples. I recently did a video
for a local college. It was for their business school. They wanted a video to
help increase enrollment. That's fine, we can do that for you. We didn't just offer the ability to film what they had in mind. We went in like the subject matter experts to help them determine
what works best for them and in doing so we developed two videos. Why? Why would we do two videos? One video was aimed at students. It was shot completely different. Edited completely different.
Music was different. It was completely different
then the second video that went after pairing. Stepping into a clients office and trying to get an understanding of their target audience and what works for their target audience, makes you seem a whole lot
smarter than a camera guy. It makes that five, 10,
15 thousands dollars you want for that shoot a
whole lot more worth it. Compared to a guy that's holding a camera that wants 2,000 dollars. Understanding that a younger
audience wants faster shots, more colorful shots. They wanna hear about young people who have experienced being educated here. Who like living on this campus. Who enjoy being far enough from parents but not too far from parents. They wanna know the young
experience of the students. That's a completely separate video. Where as the video for
adults wanna hear about how safe the campus is.
They wanna talk money. They wanna talk about what's put in place to ensure that their
investment is worth it. Those are two separate videos. You can't cover that on the same video. We didn't even edit the videos the same. The young kid video was
quick cuts moving fast. The older video for adults
was slower paced shots. Hold that shot longer. Wide shots. Establishing shots, medium
shots, then close ups. We didn't just shoot them the same. One was MTV. One was CNN. What got me the job was
that every other filmmaker or videographer or companies
that went into there only offered video production service. They only said "Yeah we can shoot it." "Yeah we can do it. Oh 4k we got it." They didn't offer a
solution to the problem that the client presented. And sometimes clients don't know they're presenting problems. However if you always go to a client with the idea of offering a solution and not just video or photography then you become a subject matter expert. And that is way more valuable
than just a cameraman. Clients don't want a video. They want a solution. Stop selling them videos. Videos are played out. Clients want solutions.
Sell them the solution. When it comes to branding videos ask them whose their ideal client. And know that hey, if your ideal client is men over 50 maybe we should get a female spokesperson. Maybe a female spokesperson can hold their attention
a little bit longer and help explain what they have to offer. You think that don't
work? You ever watch ESPN? ESPN didn't have competition 20 years ago so old guys at a desk worked. Now that there's a lot
of other sports channels you ever notice how
beautiful the sports anchors are getting all of a sudden? Because guys like beautiful women. And when there's a beautiful
women on the screen and she's talking about sports, you're like "Huh?" I'm not gonna turn the channel to Fox 'cause Fox got guys. But Fox got smart and they
started throwing females in and its working! Go into a meeting with the client looking for their paying point. There's a reason they're coming to you to create this video. Often they've went to their cousin or their friend or "Do you know somebody?" They always- they go that route. They create some trash video for 200 bucks and then they call us in to finally open their wallets for some quality. If you go in there expecting
the client to know everything, you're going to fail miserably. That's why it's hard
giving quotes to people because they don't know. But if you go in there with the idea of let me find out what works for you. Hey, you're target audience is younger. We may wanna stick to a 60 second video instead of a 4 minute video
that you have in mind. That not only works better for you. It increases your return on investment but you spend less because we won't need to be here all day. And those are things
that keep people calling you over and over again. When you can touch on that paying point and provide a solution
that's what they remember, that's what they love, and
that's what they are willing to open up their wallets for. I've often explained the
McDonald's theory to you. If you haven't seen the other videos Imma explain it to you again. Who makes a burger that's
worse than McDonald's? I'll wait. Nobody. Who sells more burgers than McDonald's? Nobody. Do you know why? Because McDonald's
uncovers every paying point you have when it comes
to purchasing a burger and the paying point that
you think is the elephant in the room of taste,
burger quality is not. You're paying point is pricing,
availability, consistency. Those things are more important than the taste of a burger. Believe it or not, but it's true. Even though people ask for
delicious tasting burgers those three paying points are way more important than the taste of the burger. So even though people are
asking you for a video, if you can uncover their paying point, you can sell them a
solution that is worth more than just a video. It will create a life long client and it will create a
massive amount of referrals. Go into your next shoot understanding what they're looking for. Do some research on why a
method, a style, a technique that you present will work with them. Get rid of the ideal of pricing packages based on camera bodies. They don't care about that. They care that you can help
them with their problem. And even though they said their problem is video I guarantee you it's not. Usually its based on
how to educate a client or a employee if it's training videos. How do we educate our employees where they grasp and hold this information? Do we do boring stuff like this? I've had clients try to take training directly out the book and
throw it on as the script and it was trash. So you have to go in with a solution that fits their problem. Often clients don't see it like this. So when you present it like this, guess who becomes the
subject matter expert. Guess who looks better
than the other three companies they got
quotes from who just said "Video. This price. Half
day rates. That price." You do and that is how you close clients. That is how you grow your business. That is how you set yourself
apart from your competition. Stop being a cameraman. Everyday there is a new
remote controlled camera that can pan and tilt. You won't be around for
much longer if all you offer is camera movement. You have to get out of that and become a content creator. Tell the story. Again
directors make millions. Cameramen make thousands. I don't care if you're a study cam drone super operator. It doesn't matter. Go
into your client's office with the idea to offer a compete solution. Sit down and say, "Hey who's your target audience? What product are you trying to push? Why are you trying to push this product? Why are you trying to push this product? How does it help your target audience? Where do you want this video displayed?" You know if it's on
Instagram you got 60 seconds and maybe a portrait style of shooting. Compared to YouTube where you
can do it as long as you want. You have to know those things and if you know those things
and you offer that solution, the sky's the limit. That's how you get out of only
making 500 dollars a video. That's how you get out of only making 500 dollars a photo shoot. You think this is important for photos? Go do headshots for a high end company. Or go do headshots for
a company that's selling a luxury based product. I guarantee you if you
say "Hey let's pull people away from these gray back drops. And give you more of a cinematic shallow depth of field headshot." They'd be all for it because
that headshot says money. And not boring gray background. This method and technique can be used in any form or fashion
for any type of content. You just have to go into it
with a different mindset. Hey guys, if you've learned
anything in this video let's talk in those comments. Hit me with the thumbs up. I really appreciate you
guys who were sharing the last video or two. For some reason I get all
the likes in the world but nobody ever shares. So I appreciate your support. Make sure you sign up
on Flashfilmacademy.com. We're getting ready to
launch a new course, "Five Free Ways to Find New clients." You don't wanna miss this one. All right guys, I will see you in the next video.
Thanks for the link - great video for me.
Wise words.