Can I Stay Working in Video Production?

Can I stay in the video production business?

This was the question posed to me recently by a good friend who works in video production.  No question, doubt and uncertainty have ruled the day since most of the nation went on quarantine and various forms of lockdown.  All segments of advertising and marketing slammed on the breaks and reduced to a trickle if not a complete stand still.  Projects in the production pipeline seemed to vanish 

What does this mean for our video production and photography businesses now that we are farther down the road and can see light peeking through a slightly opened door?  Can we hang on and stay in this business?  I am fully convinced the production business will return and press full steam ahead.  Our busiest days may be ahead of us.  

There are several reasons for this.  First, remember those projects that seemingly vanished from the production pipeline?  Well, many are actually just delayed.  They took a little nap, but are soon to awaken.  If the budget was approved and the shoot was scheduled, there will be a new urgency to fully complete the project.  If it was a valuable message then, it is a valuable message now.  

Also, some production didn’t really ever stop.  The message just changed.  Right now, we are still seeing a plethora of messages saying, “We’re in this together.”  As we move out of quarantine and businesses open back up, we will be seeing a lot of two main kinds of content. First,  “We’re open and here to serve you.”  The second message will contain all the stories of dedication and heroism from companies and their employees, or “This is how we were here for you.”  Video production companies and freelancers will be in a great position to answer the production needs this content will require. 

In addition, I believe there will be a desire to produce content with high production value.  It is hard to imagine how businesses could have continued their effective internal communications without the video conferencing resources available to them now.  But there certainly is a large amount of fatigue from low res audio and video in popular computer conferencing platforms.  I don’t think we’ll miss our coworkers silhouette against the living room window.  

This comfort with low-res video may increase our workload in another way.  Companies may want better production value, but may not be quite ready to spend what it takes to get it from a large-scale production.  This will open the door to smaller productions utilizing smaller crews.  They will want to bring it up a level but may bypass their usual ad agency and go directly to the production company or DP to get great quality but cut costs for a while.

Furthermore, never in the history of our planet has so much content been consumed as in the previous three months.  Streaming platforms are seeing a surge in viewership during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a May 5 CNBC article, Netflix reported 15.77 million global paid net subscriber additions in April.  Disney’s streaming service Disney+, claims to now have surpassed 54 million subscribers.  The company had forecast to reach between 60 and 90 million by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.  With so much content being viewed, the cookie jar is running low and new content will need to be created quickly to satisfy hungry consumers.

And finally, many companies are gearing up for production.  Phone calls placed to two of the largest equipment retailers in New York City report robust sales in video production equipment.  There is no slow down there.  In fact, one salesperson claims that sales are so good, they are running out of inventory.  Naturally, a great deal of the sales have come from home studio and live stream production equipment, but sales appear to be solid for all kinds of production gear.  

All of this to say that the train will soon pull into the station.  Even now, production is starting to trickle back in.  Businesses are starting to proclaim, “We are open and safely doing business.”  The projects that were put on hold will rise to life again.  Will you be ready for the coming wave of production work?  If you can hold on a little longer, you may see your busiest days soon ahead.