I mostly make videos of my family vacations and such as a hobby.

A distant family member liked my edits, and now wants to hire me to shoot a video of a professional conference. I haven’t accepted yet, and I’m reluctant to because I’ve never done anything on this level before. They’re quite desperate because they can’t find a “real” videographer for their budget ($500 USD for ~4 hour shoot). Money is not really a concern for me. I’d love to do this job, but I don’t want to let them down if something goes wrong.

I only have one camera - Fuji X-T3, and one lens decent enough to possibly work in low-light indoor setting - Sigma 16mm f/1.4. I’m worried about data loss since even though the X-T3 has dual SD Card slots, it only writes video to one of them. I also don’t own any lighting equipment aside from a GoDox flash (not even a remote trigger for it). I do have a gimbal for stabilization, but very little experience actually filming with it. And of course the fact that they’re extended family complicates things even further.

Not sure what else I should be worried about. Should I bite the bullet and take the job? I’ll be up-front with the client about both my (lack of) experience and limited equipment, of course.

  •  Chahk   ( @chahk@beehaw.org ) OPEnglish
    3•9 months ago

    if you don’t feel like you have a pretty high chance of delivering a product they will be proud of, that’s a good reason to not do it.

    I think I’m up for delivering something they will not absolutely hate :) I just don’t want technical issues to trip me up.

    when people come to you saying that they can’t find anything in their price range for a service, it’s usually because they are clueless about the actual value, or they are hardcore cheapskates.

    In this case they are well aware that their budget is too low for a professional. I’ll try to manage their expectations.