I Took One Up The DVD

I keep screwing myself. It’s out of fear and not enough knowledge of what things should cost, as well as a lack of esteem for my skills.

See, I’m doing this wedding video for a friend of a friend and I quoted an incredibly low price. I did this for two reasons.

1.) I’ve never done a project like this before and was not given very specific orders on what they wanted. So they are going to get whatever I gave them.

2.) He kept asking how much it would cost, so I finally just blurted out something that was low. This is because I had never done this before and didn’t know what they wanted. So they were going to get whatever I gave them.

Well the footage, which I didn’t shoot, wasn’t exactly great. It was barely good. No audible sound, bad lighting, no tripod so the whole thing looks like it takes place during an earthquake. But I became fixated with making something at least watchable out of it. And I think I did. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I was able to work with the material and create something that had tempo and flowed and told a story of the days events and the people in them. Plus it’s all mushy and lovey-dovey.

Once of my teachers once told me it’s not the equipment, but the person using the equipment that is the greatest tool. So I guess that makes me a worthwhile tool.

Anyway, I get the project done. I’m really trying to do a nice job, so I get cases and print out fancy labels for the disks and get the whole package looking really good.

So, I’m excited about being done and I call him up about delivery. I ask how many copies he wants and he asks how much it will cost per copy. I pause and blurt out three dollars. Now I know I’m an idiot. I buy a lot of DVD’s and even though this thing runs maybe an hour tops, it’s worth more than three bucks a copy.

Now it’s not a big deal, because I figure they’ll only want a couple of copies. So he says he’ll call me back. Well he hasn’t called and I had a nightmare last night of the couple making a list, checking it twice, and adding more people to it.

Anything over ten copies and I’ll lose money on this deal guaranteed.

But I have something decent for my reel, I’ve gotten to practice my editing skills, and I now have knowledge that I must do the research on rates before taking something like this on again. So there are quite a few positive things that came out of this.

If you know anyone who needs some editing done, you’ll find me living under a bridge. But I’ll have a head full of wisdom.