Recently, I have had a few bad experiences with television media companies, as well as print media companies concerning the ability to sell a product – either video or prints. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong; perhaps I was out pricing myself (even though I consider my prices to be extremely decent). I’ve been doing this for years, but it is a quickly changing market. I’ve seen it cut itself in half more than once within a single “season” of chasing. However, I have talked with a few other storm chasers about such problems (as we all have, I’m sure) and read forum postings online for even more storm chasers who are experiencing this “epidemic”. And, I think it’s just about time that we (storm chasers) at least try to do something about it collectively.

My last bad experience happened like this – I received an email from a company who wanted a particular video of a tornado that I shot. However, they didn’t want to commit to a full purchase and asked me to send them what is known as a “screener”, this is normal. This is basically a copy of the video that I always embed the time code on along with a copyright mark (so it’s unattractive to use for a broadcast production) to allow them to view the video, cut it for time and find out if it “fits” their production.

The process of putting together a screener isn’t easy. The production company stated (as most all due) that the deadline is “yesterday” and they need it as soon as possible. To me this means I have to stop what I’m doing – if I had plans that day to work on a project that brings in income it would have to be put aside. I then have to dig out the video, or find a digital copy on the video server. If I don’t have a digital copy ready, I’ll have to load up the tape and capture it to disk and do some editing – the whole process can take 4 to 6 hours – maybe more.

Once that is done, then I have to package it up and ship it off. There isn’t a readily available shipping location in my neck of the woods and the shipping trucks don’t regularly drive down my (dirt) road – I live in the middle of nowhere, so that means I’m going to have to drive several miles to take the video to a UPS Store (usually).

Once I had the video ready-to-go, the production company called again and asked me for a status update and/or a tracking number. I have a few simple rules in how I work –

1. The production company must provide their shipping account number. Most don’t like the idea, but I am not shipping a video to them and paying for the shipping!
2. I charge a standard $75 rate for packaging a screener. Once the final sale is made, this $75 is always subtracted from the final price of the video.

To my amazement this video production company agent literally threw a fit on the phone about the $75 research and packaging rate for the screener. I’ve had this happen with other production companies that for the most part are “nameless” in the video production industry and that’s fine – they can take their pout and shove off. But this wasn’t a “no name” company; it’s one of the biggest media companies out there that just happens to be producing a well-known television series on a major television network about Storm Chasers (hint). I expected far more in the way of professionalism that what I received.

Let me be extremely clear about something – I don’t give away video and I don’t give away my time! But, it’s obvious with so many of these media companies expecting it to be done that someone out there is giving away either their video, or their time. They’ve gotten a taste of the “freebie” and they want more. After all, “those are just dumb storm chasers who want to see their name in lights, so we shouldn’t have any problem getting the video we need so that we can make hundreds of thousands of dollars from it – they have no idea what our industry entails.” Perhaps that’s not the average mentality of the average major television producer – but it does seem like it is more and more!

With this happening to so many good storm chasers these days, I think the time might be approaching that storm chasers who intend to sell either video or photography have a guild, or alliance of some form.

There has long been a debate about creating some kind of “association” and I am on the side of the fence that such a thing would be completely worthless. However, a guild is different – a guild would be able to set a standard rate for various types of media that storm chasers offer. Further, a guild can settle video and photography sale disputes between its members and media companies. A guild can also go a step further and have contracts with The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Yes, they have an “alliance” – it’s a group of people working to better the productivity and livelihood of Motion Picture and Television Producers! Screen actors, voice actors and nearly any other talent (including professional photographers) all have some sort of alliance, guild or union that does exactly what I am proposing to the storm chase community.

We need some sort of organization that is willing to say this – “The person who you are trying to buy tornado video from is a member of the _______ Alliance/Guild and has agreed that under membership that there is a $_______ fee for research and packaging of the screener clip you are requesting. Further, if you follow up with this member storm chaser you will be expected to pay $this-minimum-amount.00 for the final product per second.”

The media company will then have the opportunity either agree to these terms (because of the majority of the guild members is where they get their video from) or they can search and hunt for the few storm chasers who aren’t members and who would rather give away their video. I would however hope that the majority of “quality” storm chasers out there would support such an “alliance”. It’s nothing more than that – no crazy “club” or “association” it’s only existence would be for the sole purpose of setting a rate standard for your hard work to help your product sales as a member.

Your sale is your sale, such an “alliance” should not profit from the sale of your work directly (i.e.: no “middle man” cut). But as all such guild and/or alliances do, there should be an annual membership due. This would of course support the necessary infrastructure and expenditures of the alliance/guild itself so that it can work for you as a storm chaser. And of course you would be bound as a member to not undercut the standard rate – it sets the minimum floor standard, you can always negotiate with the buyer for a higher rate of course, but at least you’ll be able to “expect” to receive the fair minimum.

There will always of course be those who are new to the scene, or just don’t care and wish to give away their product for free or little to no cost for no other purpose than to get their name in the credits. And, that’s fine. Such people are poison to any industry of course and after such persons continue to spend thousands of dollars buying equipment and tens of thousands of dollars storm chasing – they will be at a huge loss and nobody can maintain that forever – again, such people are only robbing themselves.

Every storm chaser, photographer and videographer should stand for fair and equal competition in the product sales market. But no storm chaser, photographer or videographer should give away their product! And no commercial or for-profit media company should expect to receive free product!

We’ve seen the video prices in recent years drop to near nothing – not even enough to really support a single day of storm chasing. And now, the “big” media companies are expecting free product. I say “Screw them!” I’d rather burn my video collection than allow it to be broadcast internationally and resold for decades to come for free.

It’s a growing problem – it’s a contagious problem. And the only people that can fix this problem are “us”.

I want to be very careful with this subject – I see this as a very serious and growing problem in our storm chasing “society” and there are a lot of dog-eat-dog people out there – so if anything were to come out of this, it must be approached with caution and extreme care so that everyone involved is supportive and trusting of the alliance/guild and it’s core values. If it’s done correctly, it could greatly help all of us.

I encourage you to comment on this and show either your support, or your non-support for such an alliance or guild. If you just want to lash out at this as “another dumb idea, it’s been said before”, then please don’t bother. If you’re against the idea – then at least offer up a solution. Believe it or not the “every guy for himself” idea of the past isn’t the solution. If you think so, then you’ve obviously not tried to sell tornado video lately! It hasn’t worked in any other industry (and yes, when we’re selling product it’s an “industry) and it’s not going to work in this one either.

Past that – I don’t even know where to start.

Tags: photography, storm chasing, video