How to Waste a potentially profitable weekend

[revenuee]

As an aspiring filmmaker/videographer

i've been spending my late high school days and now my early college days as a freelance wedding videographer.

I have two large projects to finish in what I'm hoping will be this week.

I started off the weekend with the best intentions to get one project completely finished and off to the very impatient client.

Instead i managed to waste the entire weekend with little more then capturing my footage onto my disk drive.

So here is my list of how to waste an entire weekend.

Friday

1. Tell yourself your going to bed early tonight and wake up early the next morning to work.

Saturday

9 am - so far so good, it's a good time in the morning, get exited about all the work your gonna do
- take a shower
- eat breakfast

10 am - a little TV won't hurt

1 pm - realize you need to run some errands (this won't take long )

5 pm - get home and get down to work
5. 30 have all the decks and tapes set up, the drives clear and ready for capture. Begin ... well this doesn't really need me to be here while it's capturing, i'll watch some TV and have a beer

7 pm, oh **** lost track of time, the tape has been done for the last 35 minutes. Next tape - have another beer

9 pm, oh damn forget the tape was done for over an hour again. alright lets get some work done. move a few scenes around, check email - oh macrumors gotta post, gotta post

10 pm, alright gotta work, move a few scene - have another beer

11 pm - get a call do the bar - go

3 am - get home, i'm to tired to work, i'll just get up in the morning

Sunday

12.30 pm - wake up with a headache, go watch TV

1.30 pm - go take shower, and then eat breakfast

3 pm , decide to move tv into where your working so you can "listen" to some shows while you work. - have another beer

3.15 pm everything is set up, you can start working

3.30 - cigars, gotta have one

4 pm - demolition man is on

5 pm alright really gotta work - have another beer

7 pm - move some scenes around, watch tv

8 pm have a cigar

8.30 pm that was a good cigar, but my mouth is dry - have a beer

10 pm, oh sienfeld, i'll watch this for a bit, while smoking a cigar and have a beer.

11 pm. oh man i need to lie down

12 am, alright gotta work till morning - have one more beer

2 am i'm to tired to work, i'll just wake up in the morning and work.

Monda

8 am , shower, have breakfast, post on the internet how well you waste time:

So what have we learned about taking essential steps to wasting a weekend

1. do "essential" things outside the house
2. drink
3. go out with friends
4. sleep late
5. move a tv into the room your working in
6.drink
7. check email
8. smoke cigars
9. go to bed when your to drunk and tired to sit and "work"
10. wake up early and post what you have learned on the internet


I Hope my list has been inspiring, good luck to all with their projects.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by revenuee
So what have we learned about taking essential steps to wasting a weekend

1. do "essential" things outside the house
2. drink
3. go out with friends
4. sleep late
5. move a tv into the room your working in
6.drink
7. check email
8. smoke cigars
9. go to bed when your to drunk and tired to sit and "work"
10. wake up early and post what you have learned on the internet


I Hope my list has been inspiring, good luck to all with their projects.

U should set this up as an inspirational poster & sell it.

[revenuee]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
U should set this up as an inspirational poster & sell it.

Not a bad idea ... LOL

perhaps my post will inspire others to share their days/nights when they just couldn't seem to get down to work

[eyelikeart]

I'm hoping mine doesn't turn into a wasted one, but I'll post my Monday later.

[revenuee]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
I'm hoping mine doesn't turn into a wasted one, but I'll post my Monday later.

Me too, i'm getting down to last minute on this deadline, so i guess i can't waste anymore more time

[Sun Baked]

>eyelikeart

That look's more like something you'd find on T-Shirt at a mall, as long as he remembers to include a picture of his hungover ass for comic relief.

[ibookin']

We should make it into the official MacRumors T-Shirt.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by Sun Baked
>eyelikeart

That look's more like something you'd find on T-Shirt at a mall, as long as he remembers to include a picture of his hungover ass for comic relief.

actually...I was thinking of pasting it over something like this...

[Mr. Anderson]

I'm thinking we'll have to merge this thread with the drunk thread

I hate deadlines - and the worst feeling is knowing you have one and the sinking realization that there is no way you can meet it.

D

[ExoticFish]

man, that sounds more active than some of my weekends.

hahaha, this past weekend went this way:

Friday night stayed out late eating pizza and drinking beer.

Saturday:

2 pm - wake up
3 pm - get out of bed, check e-mail, browse macrumors and slashdot.
5 pm - go out to eat with my girlfriend
7 pm - watch whatever on tv that my girlfriend is watching, not really paying attention to anything and staring at the wall.
11 pm - carry her to bed and then get ready and fall asleep myself.

Sunday:
11:30 am - wake up
1 pm - go over to my dads house to decorate the christmas tree, bake some christmas cookies.
3:30 - 6 - nap time
6 - dinner
8:30 - bowling league
11:30 - wonder around Walmart with some friends
12:30 - go home only to be wide awake cause i got too much sleep and then proceed to go nuts about how messy my office is and how i got nothing done with entire weekend just like every other weekend and curse myself and swear that i will never do this again! then proceed to clean my office, mess around with a couple programing projects i ignored over the weekend.

Monday:
6 am - to tired to move, office is looking pretty good though... time for bed.
9 am - slide my @$$ out of bed some how and drag myself into work. do a few things like downing caffine like it's nobody's business.
12:11 pm - post to macrumors how dumb you are.

[Mblazened]

that was actually pretty funny

[revenuee]

LOL guys .... nice to see i'm not alone - procrastination is the male condition i suppose.

i told the client today an in the response email he said let me know when i can pick it up tonight or tomorrow night


Tomorrow night it is ... LOL

[3rdpath]

i fail to see the problem...sounds like a perfectly acceptible weekend to me.

i was supposed to do some sound design/mixing this weekend also.

the key word being SUPPOSED...but while cleaning my studio i found my old PS game of " driver 2 ". in all fairness i did damn well in the game..i'm already in brazil.

who says that's unproductive?

[iJon]

wow, my weekend was like that too. i worked a little on a ton of homework at 4 in the morning saturday (well sunday actually) and then finished everything until 1 in the monring sunday night (well monday technically).

iJon

[revenuee]

Originally posted by 3rdpath
i fail to see the problem...sounds like a perfectly acceptible weekend to me.


who says that's unproductive?

LOL ... oh man i'm avoiding all calls gonna make it a long night tonight and get through it by tomorrow ... sigh

the reality is i've been sitting on these for 6 months, i filmed them, went away for a month, then i went away again, but the i got back the semester started and i got engulfed in term work .... readings and papers ... now that finals are done i wanna get it done ... especially since this is one in the pain in the ass client ... the other couple is fine, they just got out of teachers college so they know what it's like to be in school particularly first year ... but not this other couple ...

[tazo]

I have done similar things, such as on the weekends when I tell myself I am getting up early to work on a project, and then "somehow" I am struggling to get it all done by monday morning ; Procrastination and laziness, boredness suck

[revenuee]

Originally posted by tazo
I have done similar things, such as on the weekends when I tell myself I am getting up early to work on a project, and then "somehow" I am struggling to get it all done by monday morning ; Procrastination and laziness, boredness suck

Thats just it, i'm never bored, i always find something to do, except work .. .LOL

the reality is i just hate doing these weddings ... they are not at all rewarding for me.

i preferred doing my non paying jobs to be honest with you, i loved seeing my vision come to life ... with weddings the first one was okay, just because it was new, but now it's always the same thing over and over again,

it's the same thing with all events work i do ... there are so many factors you can't control, and if you screw up you have to try and fix it later in editing (if you can),

i like the projects that i have full control over, where i stand, where they stand, what the story is, if i or someone screws up i can do it again ... so more short films/promo's ...

[eyelikeart]

I've managed to be productive, to a degree today.

8:00 am - up for breakfast
8:30 am - posting about uselessness on MR
9:00 am - some photo editing
11:00 am - got a workout
12:30 pm- lunch
1:00 pm - shower
2:00 pm - photo shoot at Juan's Flying Burrito
4:00 pm - downloaded & started editing photos from said shoot
5:00 pm - felt the urge lie out on the sofa
5:30 pm - work up
5:45 pm - opened a bottle of Yellow Tail Cab/Shiraz & waiting for curry rice to finish cooking

[agreenster]

Here has been my life for well, quite some time.

11:30AM - get up
11:31AM - feel like a piece of fried crap and sit on the couch.
12:30PM - Go to the doctor (again)
1:30PM - Have the doctor wonder why you have been sick for so long and perform more tests.
2:00PM - couch duty again
3:00PM - Take care of wife cuz now she's sick.
4:00PM - Mmmmm. soft couch.
10:00PM - go to bed.
(take temperature intermittently, eat occasionally, watch the needle on the scale drop)

Repeat for three weeks.
(yes, Monday of the week of Thanksgiving, this all started, and hasnt quit yet.)

I dont understand it. I was getting better, but now I have the flu. This is getting old.

[revenuee]

Originally posted by agreenster
Here has been my life for well, quite some time.

11:30AM - get up
11:31AM - feel like a piece of fried crap and sit on the couch.
12:30PM - Go to the doctor (again)
1:30PM - Have the doctor wonder why you have been sick for so long and perform more tests.
2:00PM - couch duty again
3:00PM - Take care of wife cuz now she's sick.
4:00PM - Mmmmm. soft couch.
10:00PM - go to bed.
(take temperature intermittently, eat occasionally, watch the needle on the scale drop)

Repeat for three weeks.
(yes, Monday of the week of Thanksgiving, this all started, and hasnt quit yet.)

I dont understand it. I was getting better, but now I have the flu. This is getting old.

thats awful man ... i'm sorry to hear that, food poisoning perhaps? but the doctor should find that .... did you try a different doctor?

I myself have been pretty productive today, got a good portion done, i think i'll hit my deadline

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by revenuee

perhaps my post will inspire others to share their days/nights when they just couldn't seem to get down to work

I don't think anyone would appreciate daily posts from me on this topic.

[revenuee]

Originally posted by themadchemist
I don't think anyone would appreciate daily posts from me on this topic.

sure we would

[3rdpath]

well having almost blown off another day running errands, having lunch with the mrs., solving IRS/CPA/payroll problems, doing some furniture shopping and watching some HBO...oh, and taking the kiddo to gymboree...i actually got into the studio around 7:30 tonight and just finished my project.

dang, no time for PS and " driver 2"

[Waluigi]

Originally posted by revenuee
the reality is i just hate doing these weddings ... they are not at all rewarding for me.

i preferred doing my non paying jobs to be honest with you, i loved seeing my vision come to life ... with weddings the first one was okay, just because it was new, but now it's always the same thing over and over again,

it's the same thing with all events work i do ... there are so many factors you can't control, and if you screw up you have to try and fix it later in editing (if you can),

i like the projects that i have full control over, where i stand, where they stand, what the story is, if i or someone screws up i can do it again ... so more short films/promo's ...

I'm actually seriously considering starting up my own photography/videography business, and do events and weddings just like you. It would be easy to make the web site (I'm a professional web designer), easy to take the pictures, video and edit it all (have taken many photography classes, and know photoshop and FCP like the back of my hand), and I have the money to buy the equiptment (web design has made me a very rich man). My questions to you: what is it like doing that as a living? what does it pay? is it really worth it? what are the ups and downs in the day to day life? can one person do it alone, or do you need more people?

--Waluigi

[revenuee]

Originally posted by Waluigi
I'm actually seriously considering starting up my own photography/videography business, and do events and weddings just like you. It would be easy to make the web site (I'm a professional web designer), easy to take the pictures, video and edit it all (have taken many photography classes, and know photoshop and FCP like the back of my hand), and I have the money to buy the equiptment (web design has made me a very rich man). My questions to you: what is it like doing that as a living? what does it pay? is it really worth it? what are the ups and downs in the day to day life? can one person do it alone, or do you need more people?

--Waluigi

Actually, i'm a freelancer, since i'm in school.

Umm as far as doing it... here are a few things to consider:

most weddings are on weekends, generally saturday. I usually show up at the first shoot location around 11 am, ( pending time ceremony, and if i go to the prides house) sometimes earlier, some times later ... your there till 1 am, if your doing a full project, some are shorter because some people just want the ceremony and don't care for the reception, but generally speaking your at the shoot for over 12 hours, usually about 14.

It's a long day, with few breaks, because you have to be constantly attentive so that you don't miss anything.

You can get away with shooting with one person, that what i do, but your going to get a much better result with two guys, different angles, different shots.

you can usually just hire this guy to go with you on the shoot ... cause for the editing your going to be working alone anyway ... note - you spend about 40 hours editing.

It's not a bad idea to get a photographer to work with, then you can offer package deals and people are generally attracted to that.

It's seasonal work, weddings season starts in april and usually goes till September, that not to say that your not going to get work october to march, but it's rear. So stick to the web-work for your off season.

Money wise ... well as a student i don't charge a lot, but the guys that do it for a living charge 1000 USD for a basic package, and i know they can reach upwards of 3 or 4 thousand USD per project

I know guys that make a living off this ... one of the firms here locally shoots 400 weddings a year ... he can never get enough guys working for him to fill the requests ...

Umm your best bet is to either try and get in contact with a firm that sends guys out, or try and get someone to hook you up with people that need a wedding videographer ... once you have a gig, rent the equipment, and go do a shoot .. and get a feel for it ...

cause it is an expensive initial investment

i'm going to list the equipment you need, you can obviously check off things you already have.

First for the shoot you need

a Camera - your gonna need something with 3CCD's, and a good lens - Panasonic has an excellent one for 2300$ or canon GL1 for 4000$ .. don't bother with the XL1 ... it's a little over kill

tripod (can't work without one beleive me) 100 - 300$

Mic system - Cordless combo system with lapel, and handheld probably around 200 - 500$ - can't rely on the build in mic for everything

lighting system, believe me you need something like this ... gonna be around 300$

and off-course tapes, and extension cords, and extra batteries for everything, extra bullbs, .... this could run you around 600$ alone initally , and then probablly around 100 - 150$ subsequently ... tapes cost 40$ a pop for the broadcast quality mini DV's (you'll notice the difference) and i usually shoot 3 - 5 hours of raw footage.

now you gotta edit

Lots of diskspace DV is 5 minutes a gig ... so you need around 15 gigs per hour, so about 45 gigs for 3 hours ... plus all your other music files and renders and --- you can easily hit the 100 gig per project.

Good monitor, for editing, in and then a NTCS monitor so you can preview it. You can just use the camera as a deck, but it's recommended that you get a dedicated deck to save your camera


Software ( these are the essentials in my opinion
Photoshop 640$
FCP or FCE so 999$ or 299$

so your potentially spending around 6 - 10 grand for the initial investment.. maybe more depending on what kind of equipment you purchase ...

i assume you have a computer already, i work on a 400 MHZ G4 with FPC 4 right now, and it's fine, not RT but it's okay
Make sure to buy as much ram as you can afford, max it out if possible, i have 834 and i wanna get another 512

you can get away with using any TV for monitoring but a dedicated NTSC monitor is ideal.
I hope that helps