Videography guide: How to become a videographer?

Videography Guide

Whether you are passionate about videography or want to produce video content for your business, you will need a solid videography guide.

Everyone who has a camera and captures video with it is called a videographer. 

So, if you want to learn how to become a videographer, this videography guide will teach you the step-by-step process.

Videography is a thing that almost everyone wants to dominate on! Especially in 2021, video content is being absorbed more than any other content type on the earth.


Whether you are interested in videography for your career or just want to learn videography for your business, we suppose you in the same place.


In our videography guide, you will learn about different videography types, such as cinematography, wedding videography, real estate videography, travel videography, drone videography, and more.


You will also learn the step-by-step videography process, such as what course you should take, what gears you should have, how to shoot, lighting, how to get a job, how to run a videography business, how to produce video content for youtube, and a lot more.


Videography and photography are almost the same industry; if you want to learn how to get into photography, check this photography guide.


Who should read the videography guide


Though, the videography guide is for everyone who wants to learn videography. But, I especially categorized in a few categories that you can see below.


1) Professionals: 

If you have decided to pursue your career in videography, you should read this videography guide. 


Also, it doesn't matter at what level you are of videography; you can leverage this videography guide. 


2) YouTubers: 

All YouTubers at the beginning make and edit their videos themselves. Later, when they start making handsome money, they hire professionals. 


If you are at the beginning, you should know about videography as you don't have money to pay the professionals.


So, this videography guide can help you out a lot more.


3) Travelers: 

The person who travels a lot should read this videography guide in order to make outstanding Vlogs. 


After reading this videography guide, the travelers can capture their best moments and edit them accordingly with a great outcome.


Different types of videography


If you want to know how to become a videographer, you should know first the videography types. 


It will help you to go in the right direction of your videography journey. 


There are many videography types on the earth, but we will discuss the most popular videography types.


1) Cinematography:

The art of camera movement and storytelling through motion pictures is known as cinematography.


In 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumière had invented the big-screen cinema. Since then, cinematography/filmmaking has been growing. 


Film making or cinematography is one of the most popular kinds of videography industry. The film industry was listed as a $136B industry worldwide in 2018.


You can make a big-budget film with a long story or produce a short film with a low budget with cinematography skills.


2) Wedding videography:

The second kind of the most popular videography is wedding videography. When we document a wedding event on a video is known as wedding videography.


It takes less expensive gear to get into the industry so that videographers can easily afford them for their business.


Majorities marry once in their life, so they want to make their marriage ceremony memorable.


So, wedding videography is a demanding industry! If you only can purchase a camera with a tripod and a set of lights, you can become a videographer for weddings. 


You can simply offer different wedding videography packages based on your skillset and your experiences.


The average wedding videographer charges between $800 to $3000. Either set pricing yourself for the wedding videography or see your competitors!


3) Real estate videography:

Real estate properties are not a moveable product. So, to sell it to the clients requires a virtual presentation of the properties.


Real estate videographers shoot a virtual tour for the property that needs to be sold.


Real estate videography is the most demandable niche in the videography industry.


On average, one property gives an agent $5k to $20k even more sometimes, so they would like to pay a videographer $500 to $5k without any hesitation.


If you are thinking of getting into real estate videography, go on!


4) Travel videography:

Shooting videos of different tourist places and feature them on Vlogging platforms is known as travel videography.


If you are a tourist and love to travel a lot, then travel videography can be the best option to make real money for yourself. 


You need to have simple gears like a camera with a noise-reductive microphone and a few lenses.


Wildlife videography is a kind of travel videography, so if nature attracts you, you can go for it!


5) Drone videography:

When we take an aerial video shot of anything is known as drone videography. It has a great demand in every niche of videography. 


A part-time drone videographer can make around $500 to $1k per week, and a full-time drone videographer can make 6 figures amount per year even more!


No matter in what niche you are going to enter, you can have a drone to take your aerial shots.


You can purchase a drone from amazon that may cost you around $1k+ and can start your drone videography career.


Initially, you can create a youtube channel for your content and monetize your channel to make money, and then, later on, you can sell your service as you will get experienced.


How to become a videographer


To become a videographer, you need to have a camera or a smartphone and some skills to operate the camera and edit your footage.


In this section, we are going to discuss how to become a videographer step by step.


1) Learn videography:

The first step of your videography journey is to educate yourself on videography. 


There are plenty of ways you can educate yourself! You can get a college degree in videography or simply learn online.


a) Get a degree in Videography:

Almost every country in the world offers a college degree in videography. You can participate and acquire a degree so that it can help to boost your professional career.


Simply search for a videography course near you and take a 1-4 years course.


b) Join videography forums: 

If videography is only your hobby, then you can join different online platforms such as Facebook, Quora, and Reddit to participate in various activities.


You can watch videography tutorials on youtube and educate yourself.


There is also a paid option available on the internet! You can take paid videography courses from Udemy and Coursera.


2) Attend different internships:

After solidifying your base in your videography journey, it's time to take a free or paid internship in videography.


An internship is a great way to boost your practical skills as well as your professional knowledge in that particular industry.


During your internship, you will interact with the professionals so that you will learn how to get videography clients, how to manage clients, how to shoot professionally, how to edit your footage, and finally, how to deliver the outcome so that your clients can be satisfied.


3) Start your own projects:

Well, you did what it takes to be called a professional videographer. Now, it's time to polish your skillset by starting your own projects.


Create a website and set it up as your portfolio. Shoot different videos based on your niche, edit them and then finally upload them to your portfolio site.


Initially, you should charge very little or even free sometimes for your videography services to establish your videography career.


Later, you can offer different packages based on your skills and experiences.


4) Create your YouTube channel:

YouTube is a platform that can enhance your ability beyond your expectations. It has excellent potential for a videographer.


Besides your learning, you can also create your youtube channel to share your work on youtube.


After creating a youtube channel, you can either share educational content on your channel or make short films for your channel.


Once you meet the partner requirements on youtube, you can start making money by AdSense.


You can also make money by youtube affiliate marketing when you build enough subscribers base. 


5) Pursue your videography career:

In this part of the videography guide, we will discuss how you can make money professionally in your videography career.


a) Freelancing: 

One of the most prominent and easy fields for a videographer is freelancing. Getting your client from the internet is still pretty easy. 


You can offer plenty of things as a freelance videographer, such as be a spoke person of any company.


Approach different companies and create video ads for their products or services.


Offer virtual tour presentations of any local businesses or properties near your location.


b) Production house job: 

If you want to grow and expand your knowledge in this field, you can join a production house.


A production house is a place where you can learn how to produce video content, direct a story, handle expensive cameras professionally, and a lot more.


There are plenty of job hunting sites like Linkedin, indeed, and a few more that offer job opportunities. You can apply for a videography job from there according to your experience and ability.


c) Starting your own videography business:

The last but not least option for a videographer is to start a videography business.


Though freelancing is also a business type, starting an agency or production house has more growth than freelancing. 


In freelancing, there have limitations, insecurity, and less growth potential. 


So, if you start a video production agency, then you can grow as you want. 


How to shoot a video as a videographer

 

This is the main section of the videography guide on how to become a videographer. You have all the materials in you what it takes to become a videographer.


Now all you need to focus on your video shoot so that you can complete your project successfully.


You can follow the seven steps below for a successful videography shoot.


1) Plan your shoot: 

Every videographer makes a script before making any video. The script would be on paper or in your mind, but it has to be created for a better video.


An outline can help you define a clear path to follow for successful video content.


Defining the place of shooting, character(s) in the video, words to be spoken, and lightning for indoor as well as outdoor shooting should be planned.


2) Prepare your gears: 

Videography takes some gears to shoot beautiful scenes. 


For beginners, a camera with some basic gears, including a tripod stand, lenses, batteries, hard drive, camera cleaning kit, etc., would be on the top.


Take a backpack and put all of your gears except tripod into it. Make sure you are taking the right gears for the specific scene.


3) Compose the scene: 

After preparing your script as well as all of your gears, it's time to start composing the scene.


Make sure you set all the required gears in the right position. One of the most important things in video composing is the lighting.


Use proper lenses for the specific distance of the objects.


You should also keep in mind that the camera you are using is not shaking while shooting the scene. 


4) Save your footages: 

One of the most important pieces of gear is the storage device. All day's work may go to hell if you can't store the footage properly in a proper device.


The internal flash memory may not be enough for your all days work.


You can buy an external hard drive to be on the safe side and access all of your work on the go. 


The cheap storage drive may crash your content, but I don't recommend going for an expensive one for beginners.


5) Editing your footage: 

Now, your videography's final step is to edit and manipulate your video footage. 


To edit your video scene, you can use different video editing software like Filmora. 


Filmora is one of the industry-standard tools. Though this is not free but has excellent ready-made effects and editing features. 


If you don't have a budget for editing software, you can use free and open-source video editing software called OpenShot.



Conclusion

If you are looking for a complete guide on becoming a videographer, this complete videography guide is absolutely for you!


This videography guide includes all the steps of becoming a videographer.


At the beginning of this videography guide, you can understand whether the videography industry is for you or not.


Later on, the different types of videography are explained clearly with examples.


Then every actionable step in this videography guide starts explaining step by step. 


The last section of this videography guide is about how you can shoot a video as a videographer.