Design + Video-Making Career?

p_anotherguy

My friend would like to pursue her career in video-making. She has two years' experience, but she still feels unsure about it. Do you think this sector still has a future, or could it be heavily impacted by AI?

She would also like to learn some additional skills that could be useful alongside video-making. Do you have any suggestions? She doesn’t like writing, so she was thinking about design.

MyRealNameToo

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

What is her "2 years experience"? 

"Video making" can be a one man band doing everything, think wedding videographer, but more commonly its split across different people as those operating the camera is a different person to the one using Premier Pro to edit the footage or the one using After Effects for the special effects 

I know a couple of successful freelancers but also know three who graduate from uni with 2.1 or 1st degrees in this sort of space and all of them plus many of their class mates are still working in pubs or call centres etc. 

p_anotherguy

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

What is her "2 years experience"? 

"Video making" can be a one man band doing everything, think wedding videographer, but more commonly its split across different people as those operating the camera is a different person to the one using Premier Pro to edit the footage or the one using After Effects for the special effects 

I know a couple of successful freelancers but also know three who graduate from uni with 2.1 or 1st degrees in this sort of space and all of them plus many of their class mates are still working in pubs or call centres etc. 

She worked for a big company that sells audio equipment and music instruments. She mostly recorded videos to show their products, so it was pretty much product-based. The videos were uploaded on social media channels like YouTube or Instagram. She also took care of writing the posts. However, she told me she didn't enjoy the writing part.

She has never done freelancing.

p_anotherguy

She also cut the video, so I guess she was doing a bit of everything. For this reason, she feels like she doesn't have much experience. However, I don't think she should start from an internship position, as she already has some experience

Marcon

p_anotherguy said:

She also cut the video, so I guess she was doing a bit of everything. For this reason, she feels like she doesn't have much experience. However, I don't think she should start from an internship position, as she already has some experience

Any reason she can't post here herself? Makes it a lot easier to ask questions when the individual concerned can answer for themself.

Two years experience isn't much to build a career on, especially in a massively competitive field which will indeed be - and is already - impacted by A1. Trying to deter her from an apprenticeship probably isn't helpful unless she has a better option immediately available.

lincroft1710

What sort of videos does she want to make?


YouTube is full of amateur video makers. It is hardly an original career option and either her approach or subject matter has to be unique for her to stand out in an enormously crowded field.

MyRealNameToo

p_anotherguy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

What is her "2 years experience"? 

"Video making" can be a one man band doing everything, think wedding videographer, but more commonly its split across different people as those operating the camera is a different person to the one using Premier Pro to edit the footage or the one using After Effects for the special effects 

I know a couple of successful freelancers but also know three who graduate from uni with 2.1 or 1st degrees in this sort of space and all of them plus many of their class mates are still working in pubs or call centres etc. 

She worked for a big company that sells audio equipment and music instruments. She mostly recorded videos to show their products, so it was pretty much product-based. The videos were uploaded on social media channels like YouTube or Instagram. She also took care of writing the posts. However, she told me she didn't enjoy the writing part.

She has never done freelancing.

So was that their sole responsibility or just a small part of the job? What is her title? 

It's better than you saying she posts stuff on TikTok, which I have to admit assumed you were going to say, but it will be a big difference if she's a sales assistant who occasionally did some product videos than if she was a "video content creator" and all she was doing every day was making the videos 

p_anotherguy

MyRealNameToo said:

p_anotherguy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

What is her "2 years experience"? 

"Video making" can be a one man band doing everything, think wedding videographer, but more commonly its split across different people as those operating the camera is a different person to the one using Premier Pro to edit the footage or the one using After Effects for the special effects 

I know a couple of successful freelancers but also know three who graduate from uni with 2.1 or 1st degrees in this sort of space and all of them plus many of their class mates are still working in pubs or call centres etc. 

She worked for a big company that sells audio equipment and music instruments. She mostly recorded videos to show their products, so it was pretty much product-based. The videos were uploaded on social media channels like YouTube or Instagram. She also took care of writing the posts. However, she told me she didn't enjoy the writing part.

She has never done freelancing.

So was that their sole responsibility or just a small part of the job? What is her title? 

It's better than you saying she posts stuff on TikTok, which I have to admit assumed you were going to say, but it will be a big difference if she's a sales assistant who occasionally did some product videos than if she was a "video content creator" and all she was doing every day was making the videos 

She started as a Video Content Producer and then became a Customer Branding Lifestyle leader, so she was also responsible of a product category and managed a small team...

Since she was a team leader, if I were her I wouldn't start as an intern somewhere, but maybe I'm mistaken

MattMattMattUK

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

This a hundred times. I work with the film and HETV sectors (with, not in) and it is a hugely competitive sector, lots of hugely talented young people entering the industry, highly skilled, exceptional work ethic, amazing drive and even then a lot of them do not make the cut. 

p_anotherguy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

p_anotherguy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

What is her "2 years experience"? 

"Video making" can be a one man band doing everything, think wedding videographer, but more commonly its split across different people as those operating the camera is a different person to the one using Premier Pro to edit the footage or the one using After Effects for the special effects 

I know a couple of successful freelancers but also know three who graduate from uni with 2.1 or 1st degrees in this sort of space and all of them plus many of their class mates are still working in pubs or call centres etc. 

She worked for a big company that sells audio equipment and music instruments. She mostly recorded videos to show their products, so it was pretty much product-based. The videos were uploaded on social media channels like YouTube or Instagram. She also took care of writing the posts. However, she told me she didn't enjoy the writing part.

She has never done freelancing.

So was that their sole responsibility or just a small part of the job? What is her title? 

It's better than you saying she posts stuff on TikTok, which I have to admit assumed you were going to say, but it will be a big difference if she's a sales assistant who occasionally did some product videos than if she was a "video content creator" and all she was doing every day was making the videos 

She started as a Video Content Producer and then became a Customer Branding Lifestyle leader, so she was also responsible of a product category and managed a small team...

So she specialised in a specific type of videos for a specific sector, that is her niche and where her skill set will be seen as valuable, but there is a huge difference between doing that for one company and going freelance. 

p_anotherguy said:

Since she was a team leader, if I were her I wouldn't start as an intern somewhere, but maybe I'm mistaken

That depends, if she wants to go into film or HETV then she will go in at the bottom because it is unlikely that any of the skills she has are directly transferable. Apart from special skill sets pretty much everyone starts at the bottom in film, they have to prove themselves, promotion, or even future work, is very much based on merit. 

If she wants to go into that sector then great, I would just recommend that she does her research first. 

p_anotherguy

MattMattMattUK said:

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

This a hundred times. I work with the film and HETV sectors (with, not in) and it is a hugely competitive sector, lots of hugely talented young people entering the industry, highly skilled, exceptional work ethic, amazing drive and even then a lot of them do not make the cut. 

p_anotherguy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

p_anotherguy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

All creative industries are exceptionally competitive and vastly more wannabes than successfully people. 

What is her "2 years experience"? 

"Video making" can be a one man band doing everything, think wedding videographer, but more commonly its split across different people as those operating the camera is a different person to the one using Premier Pro to edit the footage or the one using After Effects for the special effects 

I know a couple of successful freelancers but also know three who graduate from uni with 2.1 or 1st degrees in this sort of space and all of them plus many of their class mates are still working in pubs or call centres etc. 

She worked for a big company that sells audio equipment and music instruments. She mostly recorded videos to show their products, so it was pretty much product-based. The videos were uploaded on social media channels like YouTube or Instagram. She also took care of writing the posts. However, she told me she didn't enjoy the writing part.

She has never done freelancing.

So was that their sole responsibility or just a small part of the job? What is her title? 

It's better than you saying she posts stuff on TikTok, which I have to admit assumed you were going to say, but it will be a big difference if she's a sales assistant who occasionally did some product videos than if she was a "video content creator" and all she was doing every day was making the videos 

She started as a Video Content Producer and then became a Customer Branding Lifestyle leader, so she was also responsible of a product category and managed a small team...

So she specialised in a specific type of videos for a specific sector, that is her niche and where her skill set will be seen as valuable, but there is a huge difference between doing that for one company and going freelance. 

p_anotherguy said:

Since she was a team leader, if I were her I wouldn't start as an intern somewhere, but maybe I'm mistaken

That depends, if she wants to go into film or HETV then she will go in at the bottom because it is unlikely that any of the skills she has are directly transferable. Apart from special skill sets pretty much everyone starts at the bottom in film, they have to prove themselves, promotion, or even future work, is very much based on merit. 

If she wants to go into that sector then great, I would just recommend that she does her research first. 

Alright, so you suggest that she keeps sending applications in her niche? I'd say videomaking + the branding part would be an interesting field.

Otherwise, she thought about specialising in something else as well, like graphic design. Maybe combining video and graphics (for social media, websites, etc.)