Videography as a profession?

[Brad23tech]

I just started diving about 6 months ago and I love it. I've been going to school to work in a TV studio for almost two years now, I'll be getting my accosiates degree in TV production in about 9 weeks. I was wondering if there would be any future in pursuing additional training and certification to do underwater videography as a profession. If so any advice would be helpful. I also know I wouldn't be able to just pickup a camera and instantly become a professonal, but I'm pretty young and have plenty of time to put into this.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[CAPT HOOK]

Don't they teach spelling in TV school?

 

[drbill]

Well, not that many UW videographers make a good living based on my experience. Certainly worth pursuing if you have no mortgage or family obligations. In the words of mythologist Joseph Campbell, "follow your bliss."

Some get good, or lucky, enough to make a decent living at it. I'll let you know when I get to the level I can actually pay my mortgage with (for now HD camera equipment is taking priority!).

 

[Empty V]

Don't they teach spelling in TV school?

:lol: :lol:

 

[Mike Veitch]

you might try your hand at working on a liveaboard or dive resort and doing video there for a year or two. That will get you the experience you need to be able to hold the camera steady and learning about lights and white balance etc while earning a bit of money at the same time.

Then, you will have experience and a showpiece to show potential employers at the production level.

Doing it now while you are young is best...

 

[Goose75]

I would start by spending alot of time working on bouyancy control. It's essential to holding the camera still. A good rig is expensive but maybe you can find a low end ebay housing and camera to practice holding the camera still and how you frame and pan.

I don't think there are many who make a good living at it.

 

[HiDefPics]

I can tell you that I make my living with video production, but only a small percentage of that is specifically underwater. It's takes an enourmous amount of time, talent, and a bit of good fortune to make a reasonable living in such a small niche. It is a great deal of fun along the way, though!

 

[Goose75]

I can tell you that I make my living with video production, but only a small percentage of that is specifically underwater. It's takes an enourmous amount of time, talent, and a bit of good fortune to make a reasonable living in such a small niche. It is a great deal of fun along the way, though!

I took a friends video of us and sat with someone who edits all the time. We took 6hours of video down to 15minutes of presentable material. That took us several days of playing with it. I enjoyed the whole process but I was not the one doing the hard work either!

 

[Empty V]

I'm in the process of editing a thesis film I directed. We shot about 2 hours of 35mm footage and will be editing for another 3 months. We shot in October. It's a long but ultra creative process and that doesn't include the 2 months of special FX that we're going to implement after we finally get a picture lock. It's definitely not for everyone.

Billy

 

[stillhope]

Brad,
my advice is to get as clear as you can about what you want to accomplish. If you're mainly in it for the money, underwater video isn't an obvious choice. There's probably more money to be made in prostitution, arms trading, running a gambling establishment, and selling alcohol.

If you really want to do underwater video and have some good video production education and experience, you can probably make something work. I'd say a big key to success is building partnerships with other people and organizations.

A one-man-band approach to making videos can yield some nice stuff, but truly amazing things can be done by movie-making teams, just like most rich music is made by teams of many people -- the musicians, the producer(s), the engineer(s), etc. I imagine your classes touch on this, but I'd say that team-building is just as important as videography skills.