Prepare for your inquiry with as much info as you can, because many video production companies don’t tolerate spam in their mailbox. It’s not that we don’t want to do new video projects and get paid for it. In long years of working in this industry, you experience many things – good and bad. The bad ones are mostly that you get recognized as some hobbyist who has a camera and will be always available to shoot some vidz. Yo! With time you learn to use “bullshit-detector” and just ignore or reject any suspicious deals. You might be saying to yourself that there is a saying “customer first”. Well, not in this industry. At least if you are long enough working to learn the language. We do enjoy making new projects, but we like to work with serious people. Unless you have millions of dollars to spend around, then it doesn’t matter.
We’ve seen many good and bad inquiries for video production services. But, we can conclude that five of them are the most offensive ones and probably many companies won’t even reply to. A customer with such attitude is surely not serious about the project;
Adding absolutely no details about the project
Not mentioning a single word about the theme of shooting, what you want to promote or at least adding your contact information to call you about the inquiry is a clear sign we are dealing with an unserious person. It is even possible that some young person is searching for information how much do video shooting costs so that they can charge to their customer. If you are an amateur, getting some basic information from professionals is the fastest way if the person on the other side doesn’t do some Google search.
Requiring to make something simple for free
Stock Footage of Person Blown Backwards After Mad Typing On Computer 4K
Well, an explanation is not needed.
Mentioning you already have a camera
In a way, this could also be treated as sarcasm, because of the video production charge as part of expenses their own equipment. We too, because it wasn’t cheap and we know how to work with it. Charging the use of own equipment is a fact. Otherwise, we couldn’t have able to buy it. Mentioning this in inquiry give us a feeling that they underestimate our professionalism. On the other hand, if this was some kinda inquiry for cooperation on a project, where they already have all the equipment it is a whole new story.
Saying that the footage is already shot by someone intern
No offense, but why doesn’t the same guy put together such video and test out how long it will survive online. There could be some post-production treatment to fix bad video footage, but no one can fix bad story, bad lighting, and bad shots. Working with footage from others is always very risky.
You have many friends to refer their production services
The last and even slightly not funny are the big shots who promises many clients if they get their own video for the pennies or even free of charge. This kinda situation rarely happens on inquiry, but later when getting some information over the phone or at the meeting. Our experience shows that these guys are all the talk just to get what they want. So, no, we never got any clients afterward. Ignoring them.
With many years of experience, you learn to say “no” to many projects just because they will eat you more nerves than paying your bills. More things will go wrong or broke if you work on something for some pennies. If there is a project we personally want to work for the lower price it is our goodwill and shouldn’t be mixed with customers needs. The first thing after the customers starts to complicate, we price it as it should be.
