Breaking into LOCAL TV comercial biz

W

wheatgrinder

Hi.
Iv made some spots for poptent, even sold one.
I have my first SHORT film..

How do I break into making LOCAL TV spots? Where to start? Who to schmoozz..

LLC first I suppose, but after that..

Is this something you think I can do part time \ after hours \ weekends?

I don't want a FULL time job doing it, just enough to finance my other stuff. Maybe one a month...


BIZ plan ideas?

Thanks
 
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Obviously I haven't got any experience here, but it sounds like you want to start a business. Tell me, what business, any business, can you honestly start part time/afterhours/weekends?

While making the spots might not take you very long, hustling for work is going to be a full-time job just to get that one a month. Phone calls, meetings, research, networking, cold calling in person and on the phone, more meetings if you get hired, brainstorming, production, post production, more meetings, reshoots, paperwork, revisions, customer service.

Like I said, no experience here, but I don't think you could do all that on evenings and weekends and remain a sane man, even if you had no life outside work (which you do.)


Still though, I'd like to hear peoples' responses on how they would go about starting up a commercial production company from scratch. Should make for an interesting topic. :)
 
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I have been doing some spots here in Houston. I met w/ a sales rep for Comcast. They are always looking for someone to do cheap spots. $500....If you can sell them on yourself, you can always upsell and give it more profit margin. "OK if I add an actor $$$ more" and include additional $$ for you. "If I add animation $$$ more...etc..etc..etc"

i am also going door to door and pimping my talents doing video production and internet promotion. just finished a $2000 job where I setup a website and did 2 quickie youtube vids.

I have a deal w/ the Comcast person that they will sell me spots for 15% off and i can also earn $$ on selling commercials. Not getting rich, but making some $$ anyhoo.

Im going to see what I can do to meet up w/ some additional Comcast reps in the area and get more connections. Im not sold on just doing commercials, but you never know, training videos, and Internet promotion can be lucrative. I get many people's attention when I tell them that Youtube is the #2 search engine. Good Luck Wheat.
 
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Dreadylocks said:
While making the spots might not take you very long, hustling for work is going to be a full-time job just to get that one a month. Phone calls, meetings, research, networking, cold calling in person and on the phone, more meetings if you get hired, brainstorming, production, post production, more meetings, reshoots, paperwork, revisions, customer service.
Click to expand...

Exactly what happened to me when i started doing photography yrs ago to make some money on the side.
Photographers with less talent/quality and higher rates were getting more jobs than i was.

You have to make yourself an option in clients/companies heads. If they dont even think of you when looking for someone...
 
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Thanks IndieBudget, Id hoped youd chime in..

So how did you approach the comcast ad rep (and where did you locate one) is this a typical model, or are you going out of normal channels?

Thanks again..
 
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I shot my first one last month. It's actually airing now, caught it last night for the first time. Pretty cool experience seeing a spot you shot airing on TV.

I went to a local business owner I had know for years and pitched him on "For less than Comcast would charge you for a POS I'll make you a very nice looking commercial". He bought it.

NOW comes the hard part. I have a resume piece now, but as Dready pointed out the real work is the leg work to get more clients. Especially since that $500 I charged him is about 1/3 to 1/4 what I'd charge anybody else for the same spot.
 
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I interviewed for a position at a local TV company. They wanted somebody to fill a temporary spot. The main goal was to make sure that when local auto-dealerships sent in their latest promos, it had to be turned around into a commercial by the time the news was on in the evening.

I didn't get the position, but it got me thinking. The TV channel was charging the auto-dealerships around 3k for each ad and then charging them for air time. So I thought maybe I should contact the auto dealerships directly and see if I could do the turnarounds for them for much less and then they could just submit the finished pieces for airtime.

So I called a bunch of local dealerships this christmas but they all told me to call back after the holiday season. So maybe I'll do it again and get back to you.

So I think that the best way to break into it is to go directly to the advertisers and not the tv company, as the tv channels have in-house graphics artists.

Just my very cheap two cents for the moment. Hopefully I'll have more interesting news by next month.
Aveek
 
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It seems that the risk for ME in contacting advertisers directly is that I don't feel confident that I KNOW how to get a SPOT on TV. I know how to MAKE a spot, but not how to get it aired. Working with the ad agency or agent of the tv companies seems to be a way around this for me.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
It seems that the risk for ME in contacting advertisers directly is that I don't feel confident that I KNOW how to get a SPOT on TV. I know how to MAKE a spot, but not how to get it aired. Working with the ad agency or agent of the tv companies seems to be a way around this for me.
Click to expand...

If you convince someone to make and run an ad, call the sales people at the cable company, give the business owners name and number, and they'll have a rep knocking on his door to sell him air time for the spot before you can hang the phone up.
 
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ah.. I get it. Good idea Gonzo! I may have just the victim.. mwhahahah.. whops, how unprofessional of me, I should say:

I will work with a local business to maximize potential in the target market and leverage synergy to affect a win win outcome for all stake holders. ;)


EDIT: The weakside here is I cant go in and even estimate air time cost.. sure, I can make your chesseball comercial for $500. But you will have to spend $3.7 Mil on air time.. doh!

I suppose I can call and get a quote .. for a rough estimate..
 
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wheatgrinder said:
ah.. I get it. Good idea Gonzo! I may have just the victim.. mwhahahah.. whops, how unprofessional of me, I should say:

I will work with a local business to maximize potential in the target market and leverage synergy to affect a win win outcome for all stake holders. ;)


EDIT: The weakside here is I cant go in and even estimate air time cost.. sure, I can make your chesseball comercial for $500. But you will have to spend $3.7 Mil on air time.. doh!

I suppose I can call and get a quote .. for a rough estimate..
Click to expand...

They will try and sell the client a crazy expensive package, Client just needs to go in with a budget in mind.

Comcast (not sure the provider in your area) splits it into counties. I live in one of the counties adjoining Nashville. My whole county is maybe, 250K people. The bottom of the barrel package (we'll show your 30 second spot three times a day for 90 days on ESPN, but you don't get to pick what time or program) is I think in the $1500 to $2000 range. It's all up sell from there to specific times, programs, heavier rotation, more channels, etc...
 
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Contact the cable operator or individual local broadcasters for "advertising rate sheet".
Just tell them you're interested in advertising with them yourself.

Typically business licensed advertising agencies receive around a 15% discount.
This discount is what they pocket for acting as a broker.

Business A goes to TV station and pays them $2000 for X time slots and X number of times.
Business B goes to WGProdCo and pays you $2000, and you turn around and pay the TV station $1400, pocket the $300 difference, for X time slots and X number of times.

The gravy train is when you've shot their piece and they keep working through you for their advertising needs and you're still keeping that 15% even though you're... not really doing anything.
TV station would've received the same benefit, so it might as well be you. Ha!
 
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I know for me, I am a T.V. cameraman at a local production company who is contracted by a local news station to tape the High School football games. It is actually pretty fancy for a local production company. We have a completely portable T.V. studio in a U-Haul like trailer that we take out each game. I work the end zone camera so I go up in a big lift over the field goal.

Basically what I am saying is that its a good job. I work once a week on Friday nights for about 4 hours and get $250. I'm sure the pay might be better in your area. It is good pay and pretty dang fun.

I would suggest going down to your local T.V. station and maybe asking around as to where and who shoots those type of sporting events. Sometimes, my boss even asks me to do the local college sports which pays even more. Production companies like the one I work for are always looking for better and more experienced cameramen/graphics operators like yourself!

I think that the pay is really good but that might just be because I am 16 and don't have a house to pay for. But I mean $1000 a month for 4 days of work is pretty solid to me. Good luck man!
 
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wheatgrinder said:
I know how to MAKE a spot, but not how to get it aired.
Click to expand...
Simply contact the Cable company or the Station. They have their submission guidelines. I do it easily w/ my editing in Linux using Cinelerra. Just make sure you meet the tech specs. Im doing 1280x720 60fps .MOV. I make sure the colors are broadcast safe and the sound is within limits, they like the dialog to be around -20db. Im able to upload to Comcast's server. HERE are the tech specs for Comcast


Good Luck !

EDIT

The Comcast Rep allows me a discount on airtime. I can charge whatever I want and pay the rep directly, so as long as your spot meets all TOS you are in !
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Hi.
Iv made some spots for poptent, even sold one.
I have my first SHORT film..

How do I break into making LOCAL TV spots? Where to start? Who to schmoozz..

LLC first I suppose, but after that..

Is this something you think I can do part time \ after hours \ weekends?

I don't want a FULL time job doing it, just enough to finance my other stuff. Maybe one a month...


BIZ plan ideas?

Thanks
Click to expand...

How much money you're hoping to make "on the side "?
Once a month means what exactly? One ad a month or one day of work a month?
What is the"other stuff" that you wanna do?

My friend does web ads and commercials for small biz (chiropractor, thrift shop, etc...).
Ultimately he wants to be a great movie director, so this is his dayjob.
Problem that he constantly encounters is that as technology advances, so do appetites of his clients, along with their shrunk budgets.

He says that 5 years ago he could charge 600$ for an commercial in a highly competitive market like NYC, and even outsource some of the work that he doesn't know how to do (after effects).
Now he is paid 250$ for the same work and because he can't afford outsourcing he had to become "amateur fx guy" and learn basic AE.
Sometimes we joke that he would make more money and have more spare time for work on his scripts if he was gonna bartend 5 nights a month in a semisuccesfull dive bar. Not to mention that the only investment as a bartender would be a black shirt as opposed to external HDs, biz cards, new filters, replacment of worn out hardwere etc...as a n investments of a semi-pro video guy!

Doing web commercials made him polish his video and movie making skills he claims, but he notices that its a completely different set of skills working on a feature film script or doing web commercial in a day!
He says that now he is struglling to slow the pace when working on FF script...he got to think fast and efficinet in a "not good at all but good enough to be delivered" manner when doing web commercials...
 
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