Recently I have filmed a podcast with the guys at Incite Video talking about all things videography and camera equipment. If you'd like to watch the full video here it is;
Why does it matter that you have the best the latest gear what does gear say to a videographer? That is a bit of a controversial one here because depends who you are and who's watching this, i would either say gear is not important at all or gear is very important, i know me especially as a younger videographer when i was first starting out everyone's dreaming about the big cameras the lenses and everything like that, and when you're definitely starting out I would say that's not the case. You know you don't need to be worrying about the biggest cameras, if you're shooting in 4k and things like, that i wouldn't worry about that. On the flip side, when you're getting a bit more experience and you're in the real world and you know you're up against competition, you know competition when you're bidding for a job. For example people want to know what gear you've got yeah, because obviously as a client you know they want the best, so it's a bit of a controversial one. I'll definitely say it's not important to start out you just need to shoot, you need to learn and you just need to have fun with it yeah because ultimately, I know but we both got into this because we love this yeah we love making videos we love making visual content and that's it.
So it is important towards the later stage when you're made it and it's a full-time job, but if you're watching this and you're starting out and you're worried about gear oh my god this costs so much. Yeah you know i need all these extra bits and bobs. Forget about it relax i know it's hard for me to say that and for somebody to be like 'yeah sure yeah no kit over here' yeah yeah yeah, but that's the case honestly. You know don't be put down if you've not got the best kit, yeah it's a crazy start with you just need the basics. For me i can't stop buying, you know now you've made it you're an adult but you know you're getting income from it you can invest, and you can get the nice lenses and everything.
Do you have a rule do you kind of like say to yourself right i'm going to earn this amount and then i'm going to buy myself loans is it as a as it comes through basis? So like you get a job where you need a specific lens you like i'm gonna I'm gonna jump on it. That does happen for sure you know say for example a job comes in and it's earning me x amount as long as that lens doesn't cost me more than that it's fine, because it's an investment and things like that, so although I'm not getting much money from that specific job you know earning that piece of equipment.
I definitely do that and you know I can persuade myself quite easily yeah if i had that lens it would make this job a bit easier, so i definitely do do that yeah. You must be a nightmare at the photography show. Yeah you know what I love going to the photography show i mean last year was a little bit disappointing and it's just a brilliant place to be there and you know obviously covid ruined that a little bit. But I just love it you know, all the supplies there all the stands getting hands-on with bits of kit that you've not seen before yeah and you know getting a lot of free advice and you know just chatting away I love it i absolutely love it.
Some of us do both yeah and i know you've quite handy photos as well. Yeah you know that's one thing I always say to people say you know do stills as well and i love doing stills yeah i always advertise myself as a videographer and you know moving things but yeah i find that when I get behind a stills camera and I'm taking a few stills it complements my video skills. Just as well you know it's nice to kind of take a break and take a break from video and get a bit creative with stills. I definitely think it goes hand in hand you know you learn new things from your stills and if you're a photographer i would say dabbled in video because it gives you a new appreciation. Absolutely I know a few guys that have done it the other way around started as photography moving into video. I know a couple of nature photographers and you know they just sit out in the woods all day for one photo and you know what the photos are brilliant and it's worth it but i personally just like you yeah I couldn't see all day.
I love the variety of work yeah, i mean we've got so many questions prepared because there's so many ways that this this episode could go yeah but I'm an avid follower of you on social media and you are doing a different job every day and yeah is that not the dream job. It is, it is the dream, you know what i do pinch myself you know sometimes you're on a job and it's absolutely hectic, but then some jobs you just think hang on a minute this is exactly what i've done this for.
I you know that i get to travel all over, film loads of different people, it is the dream yeah and that's great and i think there's a certain skill involved in that to be able to kind of almost like a chameleon you know you take you're taking on these different types of jobs there's a lot of videographers out there that just focus on one thing like i brought up in a previous episode there's a guy that just does dentist videos and he's he's known as the videographer for dentists it's in america so you know you know what it's like over there they love their teeth they're not like us brits, but seriously you've got a very broad spectrum so how do you market when you're kind of a master of everything. You know how do i market i think i'm just me i know I i tell people that i'm not a production company which obviously you know incite video is, i kind of sit in the middle between a a client and a production company you know i think there's a lot of brilliant production companies out there and I like to work as a freelance videographer for a few reasons.
Being a freelance videographer does mean that I can work on so many different things you know like you just said there are videographers that do certain things and production companies that focus on certain things you know certain industries. But as a freelance videographer i just get to experience everything and you know what some people say that's not a good idea you should always focus on a niche and have like a target audience but for me I just love being in the middle being very creative, you know i don't work in a big team i am myself but i do love the opportunity to then work into a team there's just so many benefits you know i'm my own person, i could do what i want when I want.
So how did you get into video? You know what beautiful story it started back in school GCSEs I took media studies and I went overboard. We made this little project you know people made some pretty decent little things I went overboard, I needed police in my um story i needed an ambulance my story, so i literally contacted the police I contacted ambulance, i had meetings left right and centre and i made it how i wanted to make it. How old were you here like fourteen fifteen, yes maybe yeah fourteen fifteen something like that and i think i just really got the bug of like being on set, you know being behind the camera calling the shots i loved it and it was it was a beautiful story from then. Back onto a-levels, same thing went absolutely overboard. Before uni I was at Bosworth academy and then I worked actually as a media technician, so I wasn't like teaching kids how to edit and things like that literally the year after i do my a levels.
In my first year actually i started the brand Dom Whiting Media and it was simply just a name to work under you know you almost have a portfolio underneath that and it's stuck ever since and that was back in 2014. Wow so you're almost at your 10 years and
you've only just scratched the service, although yes I started the brand on my media then I wasn't full-time freelance until quite a bit afterwards. When i was at uni I was trying to build a clientele and things like that and i was doing the odd job here and there and it really worked hand in hand with my degree.
Everyone on my course did the course but not everyone did all the extra bits and you know some of them don't actually do anything in this industry now so yeah i am so thankful that I have learned. I do think it's a lot of luck because academically I'm not very on it you know, not very clever academically on pen and paper probably not
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