UK Portfolio query

[Stratospheric]

Hi guys

So we produced this video for free for a local sailing club. At present this is the only video we have made even though We have got another couple of freebie jobs in the pipe line but We are having a disagreement when it comes to when is it a good time to start charging?

I want people's opinions because I want to concentrate on creating a portfolio first with the freebie videos while my partner and wife want to start calling people to try and get paid work coming in. I realise this is a bit obvious to some on here but I would like to show this thread to my partner.

When you were setting up your drone business how many videos did you have in your portfolio before you started charging people for your services?

Your opinion will be welcomed

 

[giumick]

When we first started we had quite a few videos i would now look back at and burn like a witch. This i suspect will be one for you in the future.

The video potential and some nice shots but could do with refining. I dont know if you are flying in GPS mode as oppose to atti but it shows in your climbs and descents and the constant re positioning makes the drone wander.

Anyone with a drone can fly along at 200 feet and pan...a chimp could. The real art comes with learning to fly in atti and letting the drone drift where you want to create a smoother flowing shot.

Good luck and keep practicing. In our first year we had many a niggle with the x5 camera and reshoots. Its all part of the learning curve.

 

[Stratospheric]

I am the editor so don't do the flying but I think my partner was in atti mode.

Would you say based upon that video we are not ready to start charging for our work?

 

[giumick]

I am the editor so don't do the flying but I think my partner was in atti mode.

Would you say based upon that video we are not ready to start charging for our work?

Id just say be critical of your own work and keep learning. Im currently editing now and despise the footage i have to work with due to calibration issues. I am still learning now myself as i go but wont let anything off the PC for a client unless its perfect.

I would still start charging though if you can. I have seen some god awful footage from people who are making money from it and ive been amazed they pull it off so go for it pal. Alot of people only want low quality stuff for facebook etc so it covers a multitude of sins and will only ever be watched on a small screen.

My partner is my camera operator and i have her on the sim ever day now so she gets better and better on the sticks haha. Plus shes nearly ready now to get signed off to fly herself.

 

[Stratospheric]

Okay that is great! I am critical of my partners rush to start charging as I want to get more experience and work more on our portfolio pieces. I am just aware that in our county there are at least 15 other drone companies and I don't want to seem amateurish against them!

 

[giumick]

Okay that is great! I am critical of my partners rush to start charging as I want to get more experience and work more on our portfolio pieces. I am just aware that in our county there are at least 15 other drone companies and I don't want to seem amateurish against them!

There is alot of crap out there pal, just stick at it and aim for lower end clients. Most of the high end lads will have 30k plus in the air anyway so you cant compete. The most important thing is to focus on getting the total best out of your camera. The x5 is a lovely bit of kit once you get its full potential.

 

[The Editor]

Hi guys

So we produced this video for free for a local sailing club. At present this is the only video we have made even though We have got another couple of freebie jobs in the pipe line but We are having a disagreement when it comes to when is it a good time to start charging?

I want people's opinions because I want to concentrate on creating a portfolio first with the freebie videos while my partner and wife want to start calling people to try and get paid work coming in. I realise this is a bit obvious to some on here but I would like to show this thread to my partner.

When you were setting up your drone business how many videos did you have in your portfolio before you started charging people for your services?

Your opinion will be welcomed

Depends if you hold PfCo (Can't tell from your website/holding page). If not, you can't charge anything or even do freebies commercially
Once I first got my PFAW as it used to be I did about 3 free jobs to get my name out there. Recommendation followed and I asked each 'freebie' whether I could use them as a reference. I also insisted that any stills/video they used referenced my company on their website as well as watermarking the footage/images.

I have moved this to the certified pilot area as it fits better there than the Inspire 2 section.

 

[The Editor]

I am the editor......

I thought I was The Editor?!

 

[bluelight.support]

I want people's opinions because I want to concentrate on creating a portfolio first with the freebie videos while my partner and wife want to start calling people to try and get paid work coming in. I realise this is a bit obvious to some on here but I would like to show this thread to my partner.

The fades between the voice-overs and the incidental music could do with a little more refinement, adding a little EQ, compressor and limiter to raise the volume, and integrate with music a little better

 

[Stratospheric]

The fades between the voice-overs and the incidental music could do with a little more refinement, adding a little EQ, compressor and limiter to raise the volume, and integrate with music a little better

Do you could elaborate on this as I want to learn.

Regarding the fate between voice-overs what you mean? What is an EQ compressor and limiter?

I thought I had integrated the music reasonably well with the changing of the imagery on a beat

 

[skybandit]

I don't fault anyone for doing freebies in the beginning because we all have to start somewhere but keep in mind regardless of your experience you have an investment in equipment, you have skill as a pilot (even if it's novice you've spent time learning to fly), and you're taking on some degree of risk by putting a drone in the air so start charging as soon as possible. (1) You deserve to be compensated for the above mentioned reasons and (2) it's important to establish to clients that you're providing a service, not a charity, and like any other service it comes at a price. As your experience and quality of work improves, your rates need to go up. This is good for you and good for the commercial drone community at large. There are a lot of undercutters out there and the problem will never go away but do your best to keep rates up - it's best for everyone.

 

[Stratospheric]

The people we are doing freebie work for are our friends and organisations we belong to so they are not just anyone. I have been surprised by the advice given as I thought people would say a portfolio is necessary before charging for your work

We have been advised by our NQE not to lower our prices to compete with the undercutters.

 

[NickU]

Basically, your voiceover is too quiet and the music is too loud, and in fading between them you can hear the difference in levels.

EQ allows you to boost or retard particular sound frequencies - so you can drop/lower less important frequencies (such as electrical hum, background noise, cars etc), and boost other frequencies such as speech

Like it's name suggests, a Limiter limits the volume of your audio, but sometimes they can lead to clipping and distortion of the audio if not used carefully. Better to use an Audio Compressor...

An audio compressor helps limit the dynamic range of the audio track by making LOUD bits quieter and quiet bits LOUDER - the aim isn't to have everything at the same volume level, but just to bring things together better. For instance, music can have loud drum hits or tense excited sections, then other sections with really quiet piano... without a compressor, you'd be reaching for the volume control several times to turn it up and down in soft and loud bits. The compressor stops you reaching for the volume so much, or being suddenly deafened when there's a sudden scary bit (like the alien comes to get you... )

Generally, with things like you've done, you'd want the voice-over and music to have a similar overall level throughout (so once the viewer has the volume set, they don't need keep changing it!), and you'd then duck the background music under the voice-over - by that I mean you'd fade the music down (but not fully out, so it can still be heard at a low level in the background) while bringing in the voice-over. Then you'd reverse the process when the voice-over section finishes by fading it out and ramping up the background music - that way the music links everything and there's a feeling of continuity throughout, but the narration can still be heard clearly. You've managed to do some of that, but the music level ducks too much and the voice level is a touch too low throughout too. For youtube/web stuff, I'd generally look at setting Peak Levels around -6dB and the overall general levels somewhere between -12dB and -6dB.

If you're using Final Cut, then check out Ripple training and Mac Break Studio as they have some training and (free) youtube videos which will help you understand the audio sweetening and mix a bit better. This is one from a while back ->

have a dig around in their videos as there's stuff that should help you, even if you don't use FCP X. Ripple Training

 

[Stratospheric]

I use premiere pro so is there another way to do this audio staff in that?


I have listened to my audio on three or four devices and I didn't think my voice-over is a little quiet. I use it earphones and a TV to preview my work and on both the audio was perfectly legible

 

[NickU]

Watch the vids anyway as they'll give you a general idea of audio finishing and sweetening.

As i don't use Premiere (object to Adobe's software rental paradigm), i can't give you any specifics for that, but suggest you have a dig around on youtube for premiere, audio, compressor, parametric eq and so on.

 

[bluelight.support]

I won't bother elaborating on this now as NickU has nailed it spot on. It wasn't your composition, timing, or music, that was all fine, just tweaking the actual voice over and background music to merge together.

 

[NickU]

Your voice over isn't quiet as such, but when taken in conjunction with the overall level of the music (especially after the "continue to thrive" bit), it is quieter than the music, it's a relative thing - the music after that point is quite "bright" with more treble to it while the narrator is more "bass". You may need to use some EQ to brighten/lift the narrators speech a touch too.

If you can get a sound waveform visible in Premiere then you should be able to get an impression of the overall level and the peaking of each of your tracks. You should be able to get some VU meters showing too which should show you the overall levels of the output mix- watch them for both the peak level and where the levels are generally lying to get an idea of the overall sound mix.

One other thing to look out for which I noticed when looking back at your video is you've a few shots where the horizons are obviously tilted! Always try and make sure your horizon is levelled out, especially when there's water visible - you can get away with a few degrees out over land as the horizon level can rise and fall with the landscape, but it's really obvious if it's not level when there's water involved. Water flows dowhill, but you never see a body of water which is higher at one side than at the other (if you do... you'd better run fast as it means the dam's burst !!!)

 

[Dave Stanton]

First, some very good shots in the video. Overall, I liked it. When we first got our Inspire 1, I went out and shot and shot, all over our community, refining my flying skills as I went. Sometimes I got a really good shot or two and I kept them but erased the rest. Eventually, I started shooting many shots that I planned out very carefully and most of them turned out well. Finally, the boss wanted to start charging and we did. Most of what we shoot for pay thought is pretty boring shots of buildings but hey, that's what the clients want. Eventually, we got some good shots we were actually paid to do. So, then we combined the stuff we did well that we were paid to do with stuff we did just for fun or for free, to create our demo video. We will update this demo every few months as we get better aerial shots.

As to when we started chagring...for me it was when my boss said he wanted to try and pay for the drone and all the accessories. When to charge is totally up to you, when you feel comfortable charging for "professional" work. I agree with the others, I have seen a lot of mediocre to bad video that I know guys charged a lot to shoot and it makes we want to scream! I can say we didn't charge for any flying for at least six months after we got our first drone, the original 2-axis gimbal Phantom and I flew several times each week every week (weather permitting) to get my skills to a level I was comfortable with. Good luck guys.

Our demo:

 

[lolsfuav]

Hi there I'm the partner in crime with Keith and the one with the hands on sticks.
If it helps i try to fly ATTI as much as pos and don't like to use any of the programable options as i don't like to relinquish control!! Controls freak i know!! Plus thats the only way I'm going to improve!! I am however trying to just the power curves to assist in the controls and am finding this to be helpful!!! Practice Practice Practice and always learning!!!

 

[NickU]

Log in to your DJI account and leave your iPads logged in. Even without a net connection, the login should persist and get rid of the restriction.