I had a marketing professor in University who said she predicted in the 80s people would pay for bottled water. Seemed silly at the time, now people are paying for what they get out of the tap for free. Her next prediction is that people will make their own pop (soda if you’re American) with those fancy CO2 machines. So my prediction: 80% of photographers will become videographers. This means they will do corporate, wedding, and creative videos as a large part of their services.
There a couple of reasons for my prediction.
1. Most new DSLRs have a video function built. With the high quality lenses a photographer already has they automatically are stacked with incredible equipment to enter this field.
2. They have the creative mind suited for video/film production. A photographer has trained themselves to create a compelling image in one frame. They can tell a story with just one shot. That skill alone gives them a stepping stone to creating video.
3. The financial reasons. Photography itself is becoming a harder sell as a commodity or service. People are reluctant to pay for the service because so many people can do it for so cheap. People are tackling photography projects themselves because there are few barriers to entry for a simple photo project. For video there is opportunity to create quality productions for people at a reasonable cost, and for a reasonable profit.
4. Content is evolving. The growth of video online has created an entire new market for artistic productions. Online streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have revolutionized film distribution. An individual artist is able to compete on a large scale with minimal resources.
5. A continuation of the last point, content demand is shifting as well. There is an opportunity for artists to create content the general population wants to see. If it is clever, artistic, well executed, funny, it can be shared endlessly. People want short entertaining videos. They are sacrificing production value for quality content. You could create a 5 minute film that has as large of an audience as Transformers 4.
6. It’s a new challenge. Photographers always like to push themselves with new techniques, new types of creations. Video production is the natural evolution of that artistic journey. They don’t have to switch gears entirely; however dabbling in video could satisfy a creative thirst.