From a Hobby to a Career: Steve Verdooner
Steve Verdooner is a freelance video editor currently working on the West Coast. His customers keep him close to the entertainment industry where his skills have helped him create a constant inflow of work. Most of his projects taking place right now are dealing with the online edits of promotional materials as well as marketing campaigns. Eventually, he is hoping to create a brand that will be characterized by advanced technology, superior knowledge of the video-editing software, and high-rate of client retention.
Getting Started
As one might expect, video editing is not a typical class that people see in early education. In fact, it is the type of work that most freelancers accidentally discover. In case of Steve Verdooner, everything started when he was a sophomore in high school. Being forced to sit out during one of his sporting events due to injury caused him to watch the game from the sidelines. Whilst there, he noticed that the game was being recorded on a large camera held firmly by an enormous tripod. Once he approached it, he was blown away by the quality of the video that was being generated and the high resolution that provided a beautiful shot of his fellow teammates. A few days later, he signed up to record the rest of the games for the season.
Learning the Art of Editing
Although watching the world through a high-pixel camera can be entertaining, Steve soon learned that it does not involve much work other than pressing the “on” button. After a while, he decided to explore the possibilities that come with videos that have already been recorded. After doing some online research, he discovered a whole new world of video editing. Consequently, he enrolled in a quick seminar that explained how to approach the video-making industry, what computer programs are the easiest to use, how to select projects, and more. What took place next was a two-year stage of trial and error where he edited hundreds of hours of recordings until he felt comfortable enough to publish some of his work.
Initial Reactions and Feedback
With a decent amount of experience and his confidence running at an all-time high, Steve decided to share some of his projects publicly. Given that social media has taken over at that point, he was able to do so effortlessly. The first few projects that he presented to the world were very simple videos of nature, his school, family, and local events. Although there was absolutely nothing special about the recordings, his editing turned all of them into mini-drama movies. Shots as basic as those of two people talking were overlapped with suspenseful background music and delay effects while the videos themselves carried many lighting effects. After a while, Steve noticed an overwhelming support for his work and people were already making inquiries for him to record their children’s events or office parties.
A Passion Evolved Into a Business
Since video editing can be time-consuming, Steve realized that he will have to charge for his work early on. Not to mention that the costs of obtaining high-quality cameras and subscribing to editing programs can run high. Thus, he originally worked on a per-hour basis and accepted part-time gigs. After a while, however, working for a few hours a day was not enough if he wanted to satisfy the growing number of clients. Consequently, he got into freelancing and turned his video-editing passion into a profitable business. Now, he mostly does visual storytelling where his work will showcase his client’s story in a suspenseful and interesting manner. Additionally, he was forced to restructure his fees that are now mostly based on project sizes instead of the number of hours spent editing.
The Future Has Yet To Be Recorded
Although his freelancing business has been doing well, Steve Verdooner is a firm believer in spontaneity. He remains focused on delivering well-edited recordings to his clients but is not sure that his entire career will evolve around video recording. To that end, he recently started taking more projects that require him to cut promotional materials. Doing these types of engagements enable him to work remotely without having to travel to his clients and record videos himself. On the contrary, he gets all of the materials sent over and only does the necessary editing. One of the main reasons why he started moving away from the actual recording is that he now has more time to dedicate to his true love to edit. Nevertheless, he still enjoys capturing special moments on his camera. If one was to estimate the likelihood of his sole proprietorship withstanding the test of time, it would be realistic to say that he has a far better chance of doing so than most!