During my time at university i have been working on a numerous projects and i have found myself developing more and more experience, on technical equipment and learning different styles of filming. Also during my time at university i have been looking about what i plan to do after my time at university. i had recently been looking at production jobs ranging from runners to production assistant. However i found that jobs are very limited and are most of the time only temporary. So taking time to look into it properly and realising exactly what i wanted to do i met up with two other student Sotirios Albanis and Andrew Reeve we decided that after working on numerous projects together working with different companies producing corporate work at a high standard we decided that freelance might be the route to go. So deciding on this we talked about setting up a freelance company. We had little knowledge of setting up our own company and also how to go about doing freelance work. throughout the year i have been working with Andrew and Sid on projects and we already have a list of clients which we have worked for or still working with which include:
3M Abrasives
Rolls Royce
Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey
Play the Game
QCDA
Mercia
So this will give us a good starting ground for us to start-up our own freelance company as we have established a network with various companies in which they have offered paid work. We recently looked into some tips on starting up our own freelance company on www.freelanceuk.com which gives advice for first time freelancers wishing to start their own business. Within this website it lists out some key points in which to go through in order to be successful in this field of work.
The first tip was to know who are competitors were, as we know that the media industry is restricted in jobs so a lot of cameramen and producers often set up their own company. So it was important to us to make sure that we knew exactly who our main competitors were. We looked into were we wanted to target our work and we came to the conclusion that basing the work around the Warwickshire region would be suitable as we all live close to the area and know it well. so from this we looked at range of freelance companies working in this region to give us an idea of competition and ideas of what services we might want to offer. after doing a search we found that there was minimal competition within the region and we also found that our main competitor was a company which started up through the university which we have worked with on some projects during our time at university, who are PRO – MO MEDIA www.pro-mo.tv. Pro-mo Media is a company which are specialising in freelance work offering filming and crew work. they offer work which include, corporate work, exhibition work, training videos and promotional videos. so they cover a lot for the market, and seem to be succeeding within the industry.
This is the line we wanted to go down as we all have our own expertise when we work in a group. We all have a high technical understanding of audio and video equipment and together we work creatively to produce high quality work for our clients. Offering crew was a good idea to go down as it will allow us to improve our skills as well as gaining work for our own company, however this would be something to look at more on the side as it wont be a reliable income as we wont be offered this kind of work every day.
Are next step after looking at our competitors was to look at our target market. As we have been working with a lot of corporate work, our main market will be business, small or large, as we have a lot of experience within the market working with clients such as 3M, QCDA and Rolls Royce, but we shouldn’t be restricted to this as we have worked with Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey so we have experience with Sports Broadcasting as well in which we could then offer.
If we looked at local business in Warwickshire and West Midlands, we would be looking at a potential of at least 200 companies and potential clients. So this is helpful for us as it allows us to realise that as long we keep trying and creating a network, there is no reason for this company not to work.
Like i mentioned before we also can offer sports broadcasting, and in the area Coventry, we have a potential market for this which include:
Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey
Coventry City Football Club
Coventry Rugby Club
we could also utilise the university sports within the time of varsity days which include sports such as:
Badminton
Football
American Football
Hockey
Ice Hockey
Rugby
Swimming
Tennis
Cricket
So we can have a wide range of work available to us and which is possible to get. and we need to start looking at securing the contracts in order to start the business on top with fixed clients, to allow us to start working on projects, to get the business started up.
so a main issue for this at this moment in time is what we charge to companies. Again we need to look at our competitors and understand what must be included in price. for example we must charge to filming, editing, travel, hiring of equipment whilst keeping at a reasonable price. Looking at Pro-mo Media’s website we saw that the package they charge for a corporate video package from £700. Within this package they are offering:
Company intro video
Full promotional video
Client testimonials
all the above can be presented onto different media formats including the internet and on your phone.
so the price they are offering does seem reasonable for what they are offering, but prices range for all different companies so in order to understand we have to look at other businesses which offer similar packages and to look at ourselves to work out what would be suitable for us.
Looking at other companies
Video- Images ( http://video-images.co.uk/services.asp )
Looking at the company video images i found that the services they provide rely mainly on wedding videos. Although we havent really talked about wedding videos we still would be able to provide this service so this gives us another idea of price to work on.
the price they offer to clients start from £950
what we get from this is:
Coverage of the day from start to finish, including bride, groom, video messages from guests and a selection of childhood photographs. they however restrict their filming to 16:9 which could be annoying to the consumer as people have their own preferences.
Another part of the package is the presentation side of the video. they offer the piece to be presented on 3x DVDs of up to 1 – 2 hours long and presented in a luxourious padded case , so they paid attention to detail within their product but to me this feels to be a bit expenisive for not a lot. But within their market people are willing to pay more for something that means a lot to them. On the website it doesn’t include anything mentioning travel cost but from my assumption the price seems to include this anyway.
an example of their work.
JUMP LTD
Another Company we came across was JUMP who are a media production company based in Warwickshire. After looking at their website we saw that they mainly cover corporate and charity work. This was useful to us as although we would like to do corporate, charity work which would link us to Coventry Council would be another route to go down as it will allow us to broaden our target market and creativity.
What we also noticed was the experience Jump had, claiming that they have over 20 years of experience, so this could be a set back to us is people were to view our website, they will know that we are a new company however i still feel strong about our company as we produce high quality work, which who we have worked for have all said good remarks about us.
JUMPS PRICE LIST
Production: £60-£65 per hour / £445-£495 per day.
Includes HD camera, sound and lighting kit and a 1 man crew.
Editing: £55-£60 per hour / £395-£445 per day.
Includes HD non-linear edit suite and editor.
We have to take this into account as when we set up our company we don’t want to go to cheap but still be in range of our competitors. They are alot cheaper to Video-Images and they seem to offer a lot more, so this proves what i said before about how people are willing to pay more for wedding videos as they are more special to the client.
Some examples of work tat JUMP have produced.
ICE-PRODUCTIONS
Ice Productions are a media company based in the west midlands. They seem to be a more high classed based media company as they specialise in HD video which most places are heading down at this moment in time. they have over 25 years of experience and have worked with alot of clients from:
TBS NEWS
BUSINESS PRODUCTS DIRECT
ISLE OF MAN TT
JOHN D MCHUGHES – WAR PHOTOGRAPHER
BMW- MINI
JUSTINE HUGHES – RED ARROWS
and more..
So this will be one of our main competitors as, we know at the start we wont be able to provide as much as Ice Productions do but there is nothing saying we can’t build up our company to match the quality which they provide. They also provide Web movies allowing shorts to be made with their credit, which is a good sale point to have as their will be producers out there looking for crew, so again offering the Crew based work to clients will be a certain route to go down.
STORMNET MEDIA
Stormnet Media Provide a wide range of services including:
Video
Internet
Graphics
Design
Duplication
Again the company has a wide market because of the services they offer, collaborating a large number of skills into one company, being able to meet every need. They work with customers from around the world, so they are a high end company who are well established.
There are no prices listed on the website as i think they work to clients needs who will arrange prices through meetings, this allowing them to work more flexible into what they offer.
All work can be seen on their website www.stormnetmedia.com
IGNITE CREATIVE
Ignite creative are a dvd and video production company who seem to do a lot of charity work, around the West Midlands. They also do alot more covering events, music videos and promotional. this is the first company i have came across which seems to offer music video work, again this is something we could look into as we want to offer the most to our customers. There is little information about the company on the website so the website is basic and not at its best visually.
More of their work can be seen at ignites portfolio
After looking at all of the websites we have noticed a few things from each. Most of the websites do not display a price, which is their decision but i can’t think that if a client wanted work they would want to know a base price to work from. so After discussing this with Andrew and Sotirios we talked about having a price on the website for the client to see. However. Doing this could constrict us to what we charge as the client will most likely want a lot more, and wont move from the price we quoted on the website. So we can understand that it is proberly a safer option to not list the price on the website unless we know that what we charge will be a set price for what we offer.
Another thing we noticed was the range of services each company provided, as this told us to offer as much as we can to meet valuable client needs. this will allow us to broaden our market and expand our coverage around the Warwickshire area.
So what is our Company?
Our company in which we are planning to set up is 3LanceMedia
Behind the name:
After brainstorming our idea for a name of the company we made a list of what we offered as a business. we went through many different names until we came to understanding that what we want to create was a freelance business. seeing as their are three of us in the group a play on words aloud us to create the ‘Freelance’ using ’3 – Lance ‘ therefore 3lance media. we found the name to be short and catchy which is important in the industry as you want something thats stands out to your client. the colors used are traditional Coventry Colors as we all went to Coventry University so this is how we grew together as team. With the finished product we are happy with the way the logo turned out.
What we do:
3LanceMedia will be a freelance audio and video company in which we plan to offer our services to a wide market. Ranging from:
Small Companies / Large Companies
Local Councils and Charities
We have decided on this as we feel that this will give us the opportunity to work at a wide range and hopefully build up a large network in which to keep a solid client base.
The services we will be offering will include:
Corporate Filming
Live events
Training Videos
Sports Coverage
Educational Videos
Promotional Videos
Editing
Providing Work
Although it seems a lot, this will allow us to work on any project offered as we have the skills to produce all that we offer from pre-production to post-production. Again from what we have produced before we know what to expect from companies in terms of service and all the time we have met the requirements to a deadline, so we should have no problem working on a variety of work.
We made a draft of the equipment list we are planning to get in order to succeed in providing the highest quality possible for the client.
Video:
2 x Sony HVR -Z5 Cameras – £6,000 approx
2 x Camera Cases – £320
Audio
1 x Marantz – £404
2 x XLR cables – £30
2 x Rifle Mics – £180
2 x Radio Mics – £1224
3 x Headphones – £60
Editing
1 x Edit Suite ( 1x imac, 1 x final cut studio, full spec ) – £2300
1 x 1TB harddrive – £150
TOTAL COST – £10668
this would be the total cost we would need in order to buy the equipment we want in order to provide the service. However as we are just starting up this figure is a distance away to what we have. So after meeting with a couple of business mentors they advised that we can rent equipment for the start end of the business until we make the money to buy the equipment. We found this a good idea as then we are able to charge an amount included in the price which includes the cost of rental. However the problem with rental is it is not always guarenteed, but for the start, it is something to work with and we will still be able to use high quality equipment.
Another big part of the business is advertising. As we are only just starting no one within the area will of heard of us, apart from past clients we have worked with. So wit advertising we will have to think of paper adverts ( Business cards etc ) as well as internet advertising. we are currently in talks with someone to create ourselves the website shortly after we have bought the domain name. here is an example of what the website will look like.
on our website we didn’t want anything too complicated so we stuck with the simple theme but still managed to input all of the information we needed for the client to see. On the website you will what the company is about as well as a running show reel in which will be played on the home page. the website will list our services and our portfolio of work however for some services prices will be listed but others will have to be priced up through arrangement as we feel this will be the best way to allow us to not get ripped off or under price our work we provide.
Before we can do any of this we will need to firstly buy the domain name.
we have decided to buy www.3lancemedia.co.uk and www.3lancemedia.com
Before we could do this we first had to register our company name. We managed to do this today on 26/5/10 and we our now the proud owners of 3LANCEMEDIA LTD. So this brings exciting things for us and we are now ready to go out in the real world as a real company and to follow our chosen career path from our university degree.
Our next step was to create a Company showreel which we have been building throughout the last term, gathering the projects we have worked with. This will be attached to the hand in On friday.
