Video Production: Is it an Art, or Business?

I get that question a lot, “Are you a company or an artist?” The problem is, the only one asking is me.

Video Production is by all means a legitimate industry where someone can make a decent living. You have clients, you pay taxes, you have expenses, you have more expenses… This is a business! But can anyone just throw some money at it and have a successful Video Production company? Well, it depends on who’s throwing that money.

To produce a Film, Wedding Video, or even a Corporate Promotional Video, the thing that will set us companies apart is our creative vision, passion, and motivation. Those all sound like ‘artist’ things to me, don’t you think? It’s a big reason why I don’t consider a lot of my peers in the industry to be competitors. We all have different styles, vision, and drive, and a true artist won’t sit there trying to compare and copy their closest rival, they’ll take a hard right and carve out their own path.

When we’re in our sales process with a potential client, we dwell very little on the numbers and formalities. They are there so we don’t come across as a scam, but we take the time to get inside their heads, and then do our best to spill out everything that’s inside ours to see what lines up. It’s a very artistic approach to a very ‘business’ transaction, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. It helps us create a successful execution of their video needs, and it shows them very early on that we are serious, and our gears are always moving.

Another example is this blog. We write out all these fun articles that other production companies most definitely read (if they are doing their marketing correctly 😛 ). “Aren’t you afraid you’re giving away information that will help your competitors?” We revisit my point about our competitors having their own styles and paths. There’s no secret to running a business, but it’s the personalities behind it that will sell your art, and no matter how hard anyone tries, nobody will ever be a better ‘me’ than me.

Wedding Films are another great example. There is a certain level of uniformity in each one we do, but that doesn’t go much farther than the order in which we edit the clips. We pick the music after we decide what the ‘vibe’ of that segment is, we can only guess a range of how long the final product is going to be, and we leave the rest to what mood we are in when we edit, what clips are inspiring us more than others, and what story we are trying to tell. Again, a VERY artistic answer to a part of our business that makes money, requires marketing, and has overhead.

So, to answer your (my) question, Our process over here at SkipperFilms is a very intricate hybrid of both business AND art. Other’s might be more business, others might be more art, but to truly make a living doing Video production, at least in the Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland area, you have to straddle that line very carefully, but it can be very worth it in the end!

If you, your business or wedding are ever looking for your own work of art in Video-form, please don’t hesitate to Contact us. We’re humans, we’re friendly, but all in all, we’re business-savvy artists!

Have a wonderful week!