Video, slide transfer business?
I知 brand new to the forum but happy to be here. I have been a videographer, video editor, and filmmaker for some years now. But I am looking to create a digital transfer company in my local area. I have now seen how much it costs for this professional equipment that is needed. I just wanted to get some advice from other people on the forum about starting a business. Can you actually make good money doing a digital transfer business? Is it worth it? Or is it a flooded market? Thank you for any input that you may have.
|
When you have a business, you must understand that you'll get a wide array of videos, with all sorts of signal and physical conditions. So what you may know from your own personal experiences does not translate too well. The way to prepare for it is through quality equipment. Not budget gear, not low-end consumer gear (DVD recorders), but pro and hobby/prosumer gear. Noting that pro gear can get "too pro", as you are dealing with consumer formats here. The must be a balance.
Follow advice. Not random advice, not Youtube advice. But the advice of people who have done this for many years, decades. People who are respected, vetted. (Yes, I'd consider myself on such a list, but there are others. I have colleagues, peers, and do respect some of them very much. Some participate in the forum, some not. We have some friendly disagreements at times, on how to arrive at an outcome. But we generally agree on aspects such as actual TBCs, pre-Win10 systems, etc.) Realize that PAL and NTSC experiences vary more than NTSC to NTSC, PAL to PAL. Some stark differences in some methods, mostly do to hardware. Can you make "good" money at this? Define good. Better than flipping burgers, yes. Rival a hedge fund manager, probably not. If you're actually a videographer, then you should know how rates go already. Don't think wedding videographer, think documentarian indy filmmaker. You're going to need some passion for this, not think of it as something to fatten the piggy bank. It's not a flooded market. The 2008-09 recession took out a lot of those clods, and 2020 knocked out some more. But the main reason is due to it being a shrinking field, no longer needed. This a 2000s into 2010s task, and it's now the 2020s. There will be more consolidation as time passes, as work dries up. If you do this, you'll need to understand you're on a clock. Don't expect to convert videos into retirement, unless you're already close to it. As we approach the 2030s, I may even need to find a new line of work. But for now, for some years, sure. However, even large slop shops like LegacyBox are obviously getting desperate for business, as they run TV and radio ads (especially on CNBC) ad nauseam. (Then again, their reputation sucks, so that probably has something to do with it. Lesson = don't suck, don't cheap out on gear, don't lose and damage customer videos.) Don't buy gear on eBay. That rarely ends well. Some years ago, it became a video dumping ground (broken junk more than not, even the "tested" and "working" nonsense), not a good marketplace for these items we need.. Slides are not video. If you don't have a way to automate that, you'll make peanuts. Flipping burgers at $15/hour will seem appealing. |
Thank you
Thank you for the good advice. I had a feeling it may be a market that is fading due to time passing and technology and all that stuff. what I meant by slides is slide transfer photo scanning things of that nature as well.
I used to work for TV stations back in the 1990s. I remember working on three-quarter inch tapes editing and splicing reel to reel for radio stations. So I definitely have a passion for this. I知 just not sure if I知 in a market to be able to run a successful business. I知 about two hours north of Seattle. I never buy on eBay anyway. Actually I was looking at some of the equipment that you have for sale. If I decide to move forward I will definitely contact you. Thanks again for the advice much appreciated. |
For slides, I know what you meant. Realize the average person puts their big fat greasy fingers on the slide. They did this all the time. You have to clean it. Not just because it looks better, but because it will keep your scanner clean. Slide scanning is really the domain of large players like Scan Cafe. You'd be competing with that, drum scanners, at cents per scan. Unlike video, it's much harder to screw up slide/photo scanning, even if you have only moderate photography knowledge.
DC or state? If state, Seattle MSA? Either way, probably a market to mine local. If you were around in the 90s, and have some video passion, then ride it out with the rest of us. (It's the young'un crowd "me wants to make easy money" [as I have a Google and Youtube degree!] that needs some reality check on the status quo. If you're that young, find another career path in video, that has a longer time horizon. Concentrate on tomorrow's formats, not yesterday's. Noting you do need to know yesterday's, just maybe not try to make a living at it. Do your videos, your family's, maybe even friends. But then call it a day. Keep the gear, or resell the gear. But do get good gear, and understand video history from the consumer analog era.) |
Seattle
I知 about two hours north of Seattle. Kind of out in the boonies. Close enough to Bellingham. Well I知 48 years old, with a really bad back. I used to do some wedding DJ and wedding videography but I知 completely out of the game due to recent back surgeries. So I thought this type of business may fit me well. No heavy lifting for the most part. And I love the idea of saving memories for people. In fact I have two large bins of VHS tapes myself that I still need to convert. I was a kid that always had a VHS camera on my shoulder.
|
I speak for the area I live in and some facts may apply nationwide. It really takes a lot to gain people's business nowadays mainly because of the mass listings on social media, local online ads and online shopping websites for converting old media to digital, If you haven't started a decade ago the quickest way is to do radio advertising targeting middle aged and elderly folks and that could cost some serious thousands of dollars. Relying on local ads, social media and customer to customer referral could take years.
The sad part about all this, the quality of the transfer doesn't really matter, Yes quality will make customers happy but does not necessarily bring a lot of them and it costs you a lot of time and money to do a quality transfer. It's all about how you word it not how you make it, If in doubt learn about Legacy Box. Having said all that, you can still try it if it's your passion and want to do a quality service, you don't have to worry about money, it will eventually come later as you grow over the years. Start with ads on the cheap, eBay, Facebook, whatever local online ads in your area, put a sign on your car with an easy to read website, design an official logo, people remember a business easily from a logo, I could go on but these business tips are available everywhere online. Good luck. |
At the company I used to work at, before covid and other things caused downsizing and eventual closing down, we used one of these for doing slides. These things are quite automated, so you can simply put in a full magazine and it will move through it and scan everything. (They do not work with old glass slides though.) That is of course more the budget option, the ultimate thing are drum-type scanners like this, which are of course quite costly.
For optimal results, cleaning also has a notable impact as others have noted. I don't know a good way to automate that though. I can't speak for the US, but her in northern Europe at least it seems work for transfer businesses seem to be on a downward trend, ultimately there is a limited number of tapes and film out there. There seems to also be a fair bit of easy-to-use devices sold now for people to digitize stuff, both for videotape and film. Even though the quality of those are not always the best, it might be "good enough" for a lot of people rather than paying a transfer company. If starting something, it might be most feasible to focus on the local marked, provided there isn't an existing company in the area already. From my experience here at least, many people often felt more safe to personally deliver their stuff to a local business than mailing it off it even if it happens to cost a tad more, and advertising in local papers and such seemed to have a better effect than google/internet ads. As for where I worked though, we hardly really made any profit, and it was in part a side thing for the guy I worked for that he did to have something extra to do and hardly made any profit so yeah. Another avenue I've pondered about is renting out digitizing equipment like VCRs for people do digitize themselves. I've seen some people advertise that here. |
Quote:
This is 'done' for us as discussed elsewhere, we'll be out of this before the end of the summer. |
Quote:
Yep, no real lifting (aside from getting VCR in place), some sitting time. If you take the view of getting the gear to do your own videos, then dip your toe into a business aspect using your existing contacts and network (past customers, business peers, friends, family, etc), I think you'll be fine. Perhaps this is what you need to get you through a recovery time. I know back issues can take years, weeks/months is total BS. So video may be an ideal situation for you, given your video background. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
Colin did a nice video about this subject:
https://youtu.be/lb5MqLtze7o |
Quote:
I left this comment: Quote:
|
Quote:
I'm not going into our particular responses but reading opinions has been interesting. |
Quote:
For example, I think the geopolitics affecting UK, on multiple fronts, has been overblown to an extent, in regards to how it affects the industry. Reason being that USA and Canada are largely following the same trend, and things like Brexit are not a concern, and Ukraine has mostly only affected oil prices here. So Brexit/etc is a McGuffing, a scapegoat, and probably nothing more. Blaming Brexit actually took me by surprise. It still gets blamed for all that ails you? I think most of us are in agreement on trajectories. But there is opportunity, just not as easy or sloppy as some novices think. Though somewhat understated, it was an underlying theme of the video. As an analogy, it would be like starting a new combustion engine (ICE) car company, right now. If the product is good, you can make a short-term go of it. But it has an expiration date, probably within 10 years. To bring it back to our OP here, it may be a perfect opportunity for him. For him, Not everybody. It's a very case-by-case entry at this point. He already has experience, health limitations, local non-saturated market. Those factors can be difficult to replicate. |
Quote:
I'm a staunch Brexiteer in full disclosure. I don't know how it was reported internationally, but it certainly caused a great deal of division here, so much so that there are still daily arguments about it up and down the country. It's a useful scapegoat for many an ill, really the impacts in day-to-day living for most (in GB at least) aren't especially tangible either way, in my experience. For Northern Ireland things are a lot more complicated I fully concede, that is a horror show how that's been handled in my opinion. I'm very reasonable when it comes to politics though, that is the glory of democracy, many have perfectly legitimate reasons for wishing to stay - that's why we were fortunate enough to have a vote on the matter. We had a democratic vote on the matter, more people wanted to leave, that's it really. But daily, it's still rumbling on. When your previous president tore up NAFTA and did some rather bigly negotiations that was a masterclass in what probably would have kept the question at bay and satisfied to a reasonable extent all sides. We were not blessed with 'The Donald' though, we had David 'call me Dave' Cameron. Unfortunately, an especially weak Prime Minister decided to come back to the British people with such a derisory offer it in principal triggered the vote. "Pretty thin gruel" as one of our more charismatic MPs remarked when his own leader returned with the initial negotiated offer. Without wandering in to a discussion on British politics, that was the same MP who used the word floccinaucinihilipilification during a routine House of Commons address. He's a bit of a character, love him or loathe him, there's plenty on both sides of that one too. But yes, Brexit is useful scapegoat. I keep a keen eye on US (and to an extent Canadian) politics, but nothing does bizarre ceremony, government chaos or quite such a unique bunch of characters as the British House of Commons. If the US adopted PMQs it would be more interesting, watching Joe Biden take hostile questions once a week in front of the House of Representatives would be amusing.... |
NOTE: off-topic post...
I don't want to turn the thread political, so proceeding carefully... Quote:
- Brits were having their own populist movement, anti-EU, anti-immigrant. - Most curiously, Steve Bannon, Trump's (then) right hand man, a U.S. citizen, was involved in whipping up support for Brexit, in ties with CA (see below). - Same for Cambridge Analytica, which stole data from Facebook to that end (and influencing US elections, too). CA had deep links to other countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Russia. The main goal of CA seems to have been to sow chaos and distrust in UK and U.S. politics, and they succeeded. - Post-Brexit, post-CA, even post-Trump/Bannon, it's largely believed that Brexit was a solution looking for a problem, and isn't actually something most Brits want. But because it's been politicized, polarized (like in the US, aka the goal of the foreigners all along), it still exists. That's Brexit in a nutshell, as I understand it, as most here understand it. Brexit doesn't get the right-wing fake/Fox treatment there, so it's either understood as what I wrote, or not understood/discussed/known at all. We in North America (Canada, USA, Mexico) look at you as if you're insane for Brexit, the same way you view us for Trump. But ironically, both were deeply connected, in a larger macro of foreign political interference. It's ugly stuff. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
This past week, a British reporter was all over Cruz in Uvalde. Bravo. Cruz walked away, and used his henchmen as a blockade to keep the British reporter away from him. What a weak man, can't even answer some tough questions. We need more journalists like that, hold all politicians accountable, no more (R) and (D) bubbles allowed. Watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCQ8ggRVYEs |
I'm a longtime lurker here, and have learned a lot from this board. Hopefully this is on-topic enough, and new enough that I don't get dinged for clicking that Reply Limitations checkbox on my very first post. :)
I'm a member of a vibrant group called The Photo Managers, whose primary focus is professional photo organizing. Some are all-digital and/or focus on specific products like custom photo books, but many of the nearly 1,000 members have a lot of experience converting slides and prints to digital formats. TPM has tons of networking opportunities, including regional virtual meetings, that allows you to more easily connect and establish direct relationships with other people doing similar work in your area. All my interactions have been super positive with most willing to share generously of their time, even the folks in the group who also sell their expertise through training courses. Typically it leads to people generating referrals to other area businesses who may be good at handling materials that they cannot help their clients with. Even if you don't want to invest in membership, there could be some a la carte training materials that you could benefit from purchasing. There are courses covering specific topics, and you can also buy access to various sessions from the 2019-2022 Annual Conferences, covering a large number of topics. https://thephotomanagers.com/ From the business/pricing side of things, I recommend the Nov 2020 Profitability Live series. Again, mostly focused on the photo side of the business, or the "slide" portion that OP mentioned in the first post. But their are some mentions of the video services that people offer. Like analog video conversions, there are many gradations of equipment setups to handle photos/slides and other 2-D physical media, but most members doing a lot of volume have adopted camera scanning techniques, due to their speed, quality, and flexibility. With the right equipment setup you can achieve very high quality digital reproductions of prints, slides, and negatives with the same workstation. For a full-service workstation, that's typically an investment of $1500-$4500 for camera copy stand, CRI 95+ lights & light stands, CRI 95+ lightbox for slides/negatives, 30-50MP camera with a HQ sensor, 70-105mm professional grade macro lens, polarization filter and light covers if you're going to do antique B&W photos with silvering, anti-reflective studio/museum glass, plus misc gear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxmFjvFLPu4 https://chaos-to-memories.teachable....amera_scanning Much of the benefit I get from the group is the resources focused on how to run this type of business. How to deal with pricing, marketing, copyright issues, business incorporation, insurance, etc. I also try to take advantage of some vendor discounts we receive for archival storage materials, customized thumb drives, electronic photo frames, photo books, advanced photo restoration, etc. One of the big gaps in The Photo Managers' resources is video conversion, which might not be that surprising, given the name and original focus of the group (which until circa 2019 was the Association of Professional Photo Organizers). I know that a lot of TPM members offer video digitization services to their customers that would make folks in this forum cringe. It seems there are a few who strive to do it really well, but many get by with just an ElGato USB device and the best VCR they can get their hands on. Most are dealing with camera recorded media, so at least the recordings don't generally start off as a poor analog TV signal. Often it's a supplemental offering where the client has both photo and video needs. Though investing in an equipment stack for both video and photo/slide digitization may or may not be feasible, having the ability to do both does widen the market of people you can offer services to, so if you were between video jobs, you could have revenue from the photo work. Many TPM members will subcontract things they don't have expertise in to other members, so you could potentially specialize in the slide/photo scanning and find someone else in the PNW to do your analog video capture, who has already invested in that equipment. Hundreds of thousands of people in the US alone have a huge volume of photos/slides that need to be organized and scanned, or scanned and organized, so the market is HUGE and far from saturated with quality vendors, which is why the Legacy Box-types still get business, even from people who have the money to invest in a far superior product. Similar to video, the equipment and software tools for photos can be confusing at best, so there is a need for someone who can help them implement a good system to manage all their existing materials and be setup to ingest/organize/backup future materials. Increasingly those materials include lots of video as we are all carrying camcorders around in our pockets. Then when a relative passes away, or when the 40th Anniversary rolls around, they can find all they need in a couple of minutes with a few keyword searches, instead of spending hours searching through a closet full of photo books, or boxes of loose photos, and giving up halfway through. Now people have 10-15 years worth of digital photos that they have haphazardly left floating around since they've had multiple computer transitions and new photos where they didn't know how to ensure everything got to the new device or the collection is properly backed up. I digress, so I'll wind this down. I've no financial stake in The Photo Managers, so I hope it doesn't come off that way. I know that I have benefited a lot from the training and resources I have purchased, and the great community of passionate small business owners I have met, as I work toward making this a full-time business venture over the next few years. Thanks to all the active contributors here for providing a wealth of info and occasionally entertaining posts. |
What's common pricing these days for transfers? I see Colin's site listing basically $10 per hour of footage. I get enough people asking that i'm considering tossing out some crazy high numbers to pick up those folks who want certain tapes done right.
|
Quote:
|
Don't make the mistake of doing a GBP>USD conversion right now, as we have a strong USD. In normal times, he charges more like $13/hour. And as stated, he mostly does DV work for a PAL Europe audience. Video in North America is vastly different, expectations, client base, etc.
Notice that Legacy Box is running ads on CNBC multiple times per hour, 24/7, starting about 6 months ago. They're hurting for business, and laid off half the workers several months back. Look at their Indeed/Glassdoor/etc ratings and reviews. And that's a low-end service that pays $15/hour (ie, minimum wage) to non-video people (students, etc). |
What people don't realize is that all that mass advertising of millions of dollars is coming from the customers' pockets or from the quality itself by just setting up easycaps outputting mp4 to cut costs.
|
Site design, images and content © 2002-2024 The Digital FAQ, www.digitalFAQ.com
Forum Software by vBulletin · Copyright © 2024 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.