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I quickly searched for a salesperson and found one. I had to find out for myself just what was wrong with the camera of my dreams. The salesperson assured me that there was nothing wrong with the Super 8 film camera, adding that the reason the price was so low was that the store was phasing out all of their Super 8 film cameras to make room for the new camcorders expected to be on the store shelves before that Christmas. I ended up with the camera of my dreams just in time for video cameras to replace them all.
Not long after that, I ended up with my own video camcorder and after a while, I set up my own VPC. One of the first lessons I learned was that movie deals were very few, and very far between. Luckily for me, there were friends I had met in school video production classes who had gone into other branches of the video production business. By working with them during the long breaks in between people showing up with television or movie scripts I was able to learn about corporate video production.
Some VPCs do corporate video production, some do commercial video production, and some specialize in training and safety video production. It was educational, challenging, and in a lot of cases fun learning about the other forms of video production and their different audience concerns. The VPC I worked for created video content for other companies like employee training videos, and product showcases. This worked for me because it kept some paychecks coming in when television and film production jobs were low.
I was able to get a job at a place in the South Bay called BAI (Bay Area Interconnect) a professional VPC that produced a sports show, video/television commercials, and online ads. My experience working in corporate video production added greatly to my resume, and I like to think, was one of the reasons I was hired. To start a VPC, or to work for one it's a good idea to keep your video production chops sharp, meaning stay on top of the latest video and video editing production technologies. And while it might be helpful to know everything there is to know about video production it is more important to be willing and able to learn what technology is necessary for you to contribute productively to a VPC.
Keep in mind that video technology can change almost overnight. I went from 8mm to Super 8mm to VHS, SVHS, and Bata, and the video production hits just kept coming DVDs all within the span of what seemed like a few years and before I had made the move to television quality resolution video production equipment. Good VPCs develop a custom video strategy that uses ROI (Return on investment) as their metric. Which, in a lot of cases means getting called back to do other projects because of their creative ability to drive engagement, build brand awareness, and most importantly generate sales.
