How I Broke into Car Commercial Videography

Have you ever dreamed of shooting car commercials? Well, I have great news for you: I’ll explain to you how I entered into the car videographic world.

How everything started

Everything started a long time ago, when I grabbed my first SLR, the Canon T-60 in the far, far away year of 1996. That’s when everything started. But let’s do a fast forward to 2017 when I decided I wanted to get my first mirrorless: the Sony A7.

That 1080p video was the second tool for professional video that my hands had the pleasure of working with (my first professional video camera was my DJI Mavic Air, with its gorgeous 4K 30).

And in that moment, everything changed. Having worked for more than 21 years in still photography and going on to shoot 24, 30 or 60 photographs per second, and having to control each one of them was too much. But too much fun, too much enthusiasm, too much energy, dopamine and open doors to new levels of expression.

In the beginning, I recorded everything: food, restaurants, social events, travels, animals, interviews, everything. But I see people doing movies, shorts, commercials (big, great commercial work) and I said to myself: I want to be there. I want to see what they do. And that little seed stayed in my head, growing, and trying to find a way to enter into that world.

During my career as a videographer, I have learned a lot things but I think that these two are REALLY important:

• First, never TRUST in anyone asking you to do a really cheap job because “later” they will give you more work.

• And second, do as many free jobs as you feel are necessary for you to show your abilities because in video work, nobody is going to ask you for your grades or credentials, but to see your reel and previous works.

So, remembering this, I had that idea in mind: if I wanted to do car commercials, I need to record cars, make great car videos and show them. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Well, the problem here is that not everyone has the disposition to give you a new/expensive/shiny car for you to use for your material! Right?

You would not know until you ask for it.

You have to ask for it.

Because if you think that nobody will give you a car to record, you are already in the mentality of closing doors. And let me tell you, that’s doesn’t work. If you think that way, you are getting ready for the negativity, and trust me, there’s already too much negativity in this world already.

You have to be ready for people that say “no” to your question, but keep in mind that every person that gives you a no, statistically gets you closer to that desired “yes, please, use my car in your video” (because people love to show the things they love, and they probably want to have a really well made video of their baby).

In my case I had to knock on a lot of doors, a lot of messages and a lot of energy until I found someone that let me shoot their car. I think it took me about two or three months until one car dealer said the magic words. Want to know how the process went and want to replicate it? Let me tell you.

The process: dear LinkedIn

I have to confess it, I am a LinkedIn fan, click here to connect with me. I called it “the Facebook for busy people”. And these busy people are the kind of people that are looking for new ways to grow, to make money. So this is the perfect person to offer what you do.

I used LinkedIn to connect to as many people I know in real life, and then, connect to marketing managers of businesses that were connected to my connections, as a second degree relation.

If you ask to connect with someone that you have another person in common with, it is more probable that they will accept that connection request. This way, when I grow up my network, I started sending messages to them thanking them for the connection and telling them that I was always looking to connect with influential people like them. And that we are looking to produce videos for their brand, this first one with a 100% discount…

Once I connected with enough people and the messages were sent, I waited! In my case, I sent messages to my first 1000 contacts… and I got 30 responses. 3% of response rate… and do you think that that makes me feel bad? Not at all! Of those 30, I kept the conversation and the first one actually asked me for a full day of production, giving him all the material

I was delighted. But he didn’t pay for me to edit the footage… I didn’t care! I made a really nice spot and gave him as a gift!

Then, rinse and repeat.

And you know who else answered me?

This was my first fully-paid job for them…

And after that, another and another…

It’s not impossible. It will be improbable if you don’t try to connect to the decision makers around that specific niche that you want to be in. We are the ones that choose to try or not.

Who you choose to be today?