Producing How-To-Videos

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A Florida video-grapher produced a How -To wedding planner tape and sold
over $250,000 worth of videos in just 12 months. Think about it: If you sell
your video for $25, all you need to do is sell around 80 videos a week, or
325 videos a month to gross $100,000 a year.

A typical "small" production can sell as much as 1,500 videos a month, or
18,000 units a year, at $25 each.

It's the Topic: If there is one single factor that makes or breaks a How to
video, its the choice of topic. Another factor to consider is the length of
the material. To remain interesting the average how to video must be fast
paced and relatively short not exceeding 45 minutes. More successful videos
are no more than 30 minutes long as this is a tolerable length by which a
video can effectively cover a topic and remain interesting.

Duplication cost The length of your video also affects your duplication cost.
Following is a rate structure for duplication charges based on set quantities
for a factory-load VHS tape:

Length 1000 2500
10 min $1.50 $1.15
20 min 2.10 1.80
30 min 2.50 2.00

The shoot. Who's going to do the shooting? If you decide to do it yourself, where will you get the camera? What format are you
going to shoot it in?
The average cost of renting a 3/4 inch U-Matic camera, with wireless mics,
and standard lighting equipment is around $495 a day. A camera person with
an assistant will cost an extra $250.


The Editing. Once you've shot all the footage you need, you edit the work,
assembling the footage in an orderly and coherent fashion that will
effectively deliver the thought. Depending on how you shot your footage,
editing can take 20 to 50 times the estimated finished length of your video.
this means a 10 minute video may take 4 to 5 hours to edit, and so on.

Studio time ranges from $40 to as much as $100 an hour, depending on the
special effects you want to have available for your editing project.

Packaging Full color printed sleeves start at around 40 cents a piece if you
order 1,000 or more. You also need face labels on your tapes, as well as
shrink wrapping for protection.