CAN ONE PERSON SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY AT AN EVENT?

YOU NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER , AND YOU ALSO WANT A CORPORATE VIDEOGRAPHER, BUT YOUR BUDGET PAYS FOR ONLY ONE OF THEM - WHAT DO YOU DO?

The short answer is of course some people can do both. The challenge is finding someone who is genuinely good at both, which is not as easy as it sounds. There are plenty of great photographers out there who can’t really shoot video. There are some good videographers out there, though they are no nearly so easy to find, and some of them are competent photographers too.

There are a small amount of us who are able to do both really well. But still there remains the question of whether we can do both AT THE SAME TIME. The answer is of course we can. But not well. Not simultaneously. You can pull photos from video, but the quality will not be great. You can stitch long bursts of photos together to produce something like video and... well... good luck with that.

But it is perfectly possible to jump between the two. I have found myself at a conference, where the video cameras are locked off, there isnt much movement on stage, and I can use a third or fourth camera to catch some good candid shots. I’ve done plenty of promos and events where I am jumping between the two. One minute I’m grabbing b-roll, and then someone taps me on the shoulder - or indeed I tap them on the shoulder - and we set up a nice group shot, or a quick portrait.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW FROM MODULR’S SUMMER PARTY TO SEE A FINE ART OF THIS HYBRID SHOOTING IN ACTION

I honed this hybrid-shooter skill of jumping between event photography and videography while doing my side hustle hobby business of weddings, where anyone with a camera is considered a photographer. And it is really fun. For the client, of course, it is also great value for m,oney.

ANOTHER GREAT EXAMPLE OF JUMPING BETWEEN THE TWO DISCIPLINES BELOW. CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE CRC’S CHRISTMAS PARTY

The truth is really that if you want the very best, you have to pay the very best, and that means hiring a dedicated photographer AND a dedicated videographer. But if your budget is just too prohibitive, and yet you know a phone camera just isnt going to cut it for your presentation, your online presence, your big-sell promotion, still there is the possibility of cutting back a bit on expenses and hiring that multi-skilled beast we call the hybrid shooter, the one man band of photo-videographer.

And if you do, be sure to hire a good one.

There are not many of us

adam rowleyMarch 16, 2023Comment

Mar 21, 2023

HOW MUCH DOES A CORPORATE VIDEO COST?

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY AND HOW YOU WANT TO SAY IT, BUT WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?

How much will my film cost? Is inevitably our first question. The unhelpful answer is of course, how long is a piece of string? You may want a simple one-day, one-man shoot with a quick one-day edit, and you can probably get that for under a grand if you’re not too fussy and it really is just a one-day edit. Or you might want an ambitious creative concept, with lots of pre-production followed by a complex week-long shoot, filming on a RED camera, and lots of complicated compositing and animated graphics. And that could be £20 - £30 000. Or more.

Mar 20, 2023

WHY YOU HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

So here’s the cruel irony. Even though I know I possess the kind of staggering youthful good looks that make people catch their breath and drop their falafel when they meet me in real life, on camera I look like a laboratory experiment where the mad scientist has injected the DNA of Brendan Gleason and Charles Manson into a old potato

And being self-conscious - oh my crooked smile, oh my seventy-eight chins - means I forget that my delicious eyes are like limpid emerald pools you could drown in, and I project discomfort - In short, I don’t pose well. Maybe you do. Millions of others dont. And some of them work for you.

Mar 16, 2023

TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS, WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

WHY THE BEST WAY TO SELL YOUR PEOPLE IS TO USE YOUR PEOPLE

Back in the mists of time, every corporate video had an ambitious narrative, like a storyboarded long-form commercial, a piece of expensive, styled, authored creative in its own right. These films do still get made and they are great. I make them myself, though more usually I work in short form. Is this always how you want to disseminate your information, your brand, your company? Sometimes yes. Just as sometimes you want to Ronseal it, to say it like it is. But do you want to be that blunt? Again probably not.

WHY SPEND MONEY ON A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER?

WHAT VALUE DOES A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER ACTUALLY BRING TO THE PARTY?

Sure so this is where you get sold all the corporate and advertising cliches about brand identity and adding value to your message and blah blah blah. And you may not be thinking in those terms, but rather about just demonstrating something seemingly quite simple.

Mar 5, 2023

WHY EITHER EVERYONE OR NO ONE NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT AI

With the announcement that China-based NetDragon Websoft says it is the first company in the world to appoint an AI as its CEO only to see stocks soar, naturally it isn’t just struggling bloggers and graphic designers who are worried about the implication of AI

This is where I’d like to reassure you that climate change ravaging the planet and making the lives of those few who survive the catastrophic flooding, wild fires and raging hurricanes that are predicted absolute hell.

CAN ONE PERSON SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY AT AN EVENT?

SHOWREEL

NEWS, TIPS, HACKS, ADVICE