Earlier this year I was at the home of a good friend who had just purchased a Hi-Def camcorder to film his vacation to Nova Scotia. Him being a huge "techy", I can depend on him to give me a close look at a lot of the new technology as he is a classic "early adopter". This was the first time I had ever seen what a Hi-Def camera could do and on a Hi-Def 50' Plasma TV no less. In a word, I was simply "amazed". The quality was so good it looked 3-D. The colors, the sharpness, everything was perfect as far as I was concerned.
No less than 30 seconds later my mind was racing with idea after idea for how I could use this in my real estate business. Virtual tours, community highlights, video testimonials, educational videos, video resumes... In my mind, I had just revolutionized the way my real estate business would be done from that day on. So, I did what any obsessive compulsive, penny-pinching perfectionist would do; I spent the next month on the Internet reading every review, spec comparison, tech sheet... anything and everything on cameras, lens, lighting, editing software, you name it. I was on a mission to educate myself so that I could get a video rig up and running asap.
Once I was comfortable with the gear I needed, it was time to price everything out. As I recall, this was about the time that reality started to set in. This stuff is expensive! My "Entry-level" rig was totaling up to right around $5000. "Do I really want to spend that much money on something I have no experience using...?", I asked myself. Well, my brain obviously screamed, "No!", but my heart said yes. One week later my savings account was $5000 lighter...
Being that I purchased the majority of the equipment on-line, the following week or two was like Christmas (err, maybe Hanukkah). Every day I came home I had a package to open up. "Ah, another tool for the master's toolbox", I thought to myself. Little did I know what was in store...
After having received all my new toys, it was time to crank up the engine and take this new rig for a test drive. I had a listing that was going to expire in a couple of months. It was a great house, nothing really wrong with it other than the fact it was close to a major road. As calm and collective as my Sellers were, I know they were getting anxious and even though I had sold a home for these folks in the past, our activity on this property was such I was worried they would not re-list. Thinking what a better way to show them I was still working for them than to produce a new virtual tour, but this time using my new found "Inner-Spielberg".
About 5 minutes into the shoot, my excitement and giddiness turned to frustration and confusion. I wasn't used to walking around holding a camera trying to frame shots while simultaneously trying not to trip and hold the camera dead steady. I could see in the LCD viewfinder the picture didn't look that great indoors. The white-balance was off, the lighting was erratic causing a weird blooming effect in the focus and color. Shots that contained windows were overly dark while it looked as if a nuclear bomb had just gone off outside... It wasn't coming to together anything like I had thought. I proceeded to finish up and headed back home to see if anything I had done was salvageable.
Now I do recall at this point, sitting down to capture the video to my shiny new computer, reality not only setting in but actually exposing itself in ways that only a dream crumbling before you eyes can. Nothing was working the way I thought it should. The computer didn't recognize the camera, the editing software was impossible to understand, I didn't know which cable I should be using... Three days and still no video. I jumped back on the Internet and read every forum and tutorial I could and eventually I made some progress. With the video now on the computer (and my brain on the verge of technical overload) I was finally ready to create my virtual tour.
As I sat playing with buttons in the software I had only a vague idea how to use, something became very clear to me. Either I had to devote some serious time, money and effort to this, delaying the instant gratification I had experienced with my first tryst with Hi-Def, or throw in the towel now. Despite hours upon hours of button pushing, forum browsing, screen cursing and hair pulling, I decided I was too far in to turn back now. Yes, I did manage to make it through and a few weeks later, 4 days before the listing I had original set out to film expired, I finished the video. The next day, we received a contract to lease the property. All my blood, sweat and tears, and the video I had labored over for the past 2 months would serve only as a memento for my relieved Sellers.
Fast-forward a few months and I can honestly say that tenacity can certainly pay-off. I have managed to get much better at these videos and recently even turned one around in 24 hours, a feat at the beginning of this I truly thought was an impossibility. I can only relate the experience to that of learning a new language. At first, nothing made sense. However, by constantly practicing and applying what I learned, literally on a daily basis, I got to the point where I was finally able to communicate my ideas. I am still a long way from where I would like to be, but today I look at every new listing as an opportunity to get that much closer to my masterpiece.
Here is a link to my last video, if anyone is curious:
Thanks everyone for reading what turned out to be a very long post. I hope any other aspiring videographers out there take from this some encouragement that it can be done if you are prepared to invest the time and money it takes to do it right. If not, I sincerely advise you to consider hiring a pro. Especially if you care about the quality of the marketing you are putting your name on. Best of luck!
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