Cut the Middle Man - Looking for an Editor to team up with!

[Liszon]

Don't worry, I don't want to take over the local drug market.. I have been on this forum for some time, but probably I haven't introduced myself.

I am an amateur videographer and notorious camera geek, with a background in photography, who's now looking to find a similar minded amateur creative in London, with a main interest in video editing and post production. Basically we could freelance together, learn and progress to develop our style, which might lead to a long term collaboration and hopefully having our own production company at some point.

The thread title refers to one of those self claimed mega-dynamite media entrepreneurs who "never looks back" - you know someone who has a really sophisticated way to make you believe they give you an awesome opportunity to "break into the industry" - but in fact it's just a con trick to bag the profit on someone else's talent and hard labour. They might even have a contract from a big shot company, and throwing around with the brand makes you feel it's legit to steal your time in return for some peanuts and big promises. These are the people I want to avoid. These cheap wannabe producers, production managers or agents, whatever they call themselves.

So what we are looking for is to find our clients, work with them directly, ramp up the work ourselves. Even if we have to work for nothing we can do that on our own terms, under our own creative control, simply because we see something great in the project and like the people involved in it. Surely the big goal is to became absolute professionals financially as well, but right now what really attracts me is to experiment and get involved in creative adventures. The rest will come in good time probably.

So mainly I am a camera guy, interested in cinematography and let's say directing, and ideally you fancy editing and looking to put your hands on the post production side. Of course these parts are pretty flexible, if you have an interest in any sorts of field work it can only add to the mix. Surely some amateur experience in these things is handy, but obviously you don't have to be a fully fledged VFX super guru. I don't have the talents of Wes Anderson either, far from it..

What I have is a fairly decent filming equipment, and I keep investing my hard earned cash in lovely gear all the time. Hopefully you have something to work on too that handles ProRes or Cineform. If not, no probs, you will work with proxies and we could do the final renders on my system until you get something better, hell knows, we will figure it out.

I would like to venture into music videos, documentaries or even do corporate profiles and advertising for small companies and start ups. Anything that could give us a chance to create something less conventional but more engaging and creative, but still keep a marketable profile. Again, this is all flexible as well, if we happen to come up with a good concept for a short movie then so be it.

So after all this bullshit you still think this could be your thing, just hit me with an email, send me some of your works if you have and/or even other people's stuff too, just to give me an idea about your taste and what things do you like, what standard you are aiming to. I will do the same thing, and we'll see if we could work together.

Thanks everyone for reading this. Hopefully this enterprise will be a bit more successful than my OkC profile.. errmm..

You can send me a PM here, or simply use my email address.

Thanks again,

Artur

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

If you come to live to Rome, here I am!!! ;-DD

[Liszon]

Hohho, the weather is nice there, and Italy is beautiful. I went to Chioggia and Padova once, doing hitchhiking! Great places.

Well of course I will stay in London, but you know, nothing is impossible. I was thinking about working with someone remotely as well. Like setting up an FTP server, get a 100/100 broadband and share the project files like that, and do Skype meet ups. Who knows. It wouldn't be the ideal solution at the moment, but I might get into this once.

 

Thanks for the heads up

[IronFilm]

Good luck! Sounds similar to my plan I've got here in Auckland (NZ) to team up with a friend 

[Liszon]

Thanks, and good luck for you too!

[IronFilm]

What is your marketing plan, how do you intend to reach your target market?

[Liszon]

Good question, one of the many reasons why I want to get another person involved is to do a brainstorming about marketing as well.

Probably after taking a quick look at our social networks we could come up with the first group of "clients" straight away. I do have an idea already who would I approach, and hopefully my editor would have his own list.

Also the location is a big advantage. London is full of artists and unrecognised talent, people from many countries come here to get a shot, including me actually. When I scroll through Mandy, Gumtree or even Facebook groups, sometimes I see interesting projects I could imagine being part of. Those are dangerous places actually, like a swamp, haha! But you might still find some genuinely good things there.

I think these are the first steps, and a growing portfolio will accelerate this process greatly.

 

[IronFilm]

I reckon competition vs other low (or even no!) budget video guys is rife in such areas (Facebook groups / Craigslist).

My plan is a mix of old fashioned door knocking plus modern online advertising (YT/FB/Google/etc).

[Liszon]

Yes, advertising online is definitely useful, and we would look into that too. After getting a few decent projects under our belts that should be the next stage.