film bussiness

[jettrainfan]

Its somthing my dad brought up last week. He said somthing about filming trains and putting them on DVDs to sell. I'm planning on getting a tripod later so that's no problem, I know the line well too, so that will come in handy (things like the conrail caboose on switch jobs). The question is, is it a profitable bussiness? According to my mom, Mcdonalds hires at 15 and I really don't want a job their (if only model trains paid for themselves). Thanks for any info!

[scottychaos]

you can maybe make a few bucks off of it, but I wouldnt plan to make a living off of it!

My advice..enjoy it as a hobby, maybe try to sell some of your videos..
you might be able to make some "hobby money" that way..buy some model trains with the proceeds..

but also start planning to go to college!

Scot

[jettrainfan]

Thanks! I was planning on just using the great\rare clips. Just add $5 to the price of a dvd or round it to $10. Atleast either way I still keep a copy of the clips 

[ABC]

Don't expect people to pay more than a couple dollars for a DVD, unfortunately for you that only lets you make about fifty or twenty-five cents on each DVD if you even make a profit, and whatever your time is worth to you.

[jettrainfan]

Somthing is better than nothing 

[ABC]

If you buy a spindle of 100 DVDs you can get that for about $25, so they are about 25 cents each, but you may not be able to sell 100, so a 20 pack has a unit price of about 60 cents each, then labels would add about $1-$2 to the cost depending on your labels if you use color, and the case would add about 40 cents, etc... so the cost of making your DVD is about $3. The trouble is that while you may have good camera work and good videos, without the backing of a big name, you'll have a tough time even breaking even when you sell the DVDs. Good luck with your film career.

[jettrainfan]

Thanks, i was planning on just calling it jettrainfan films or something along the lines of that and just do a pre-order deal. Hopefully everything will work out. $5 + shipping is around $10. so not a bad deal considering its not professional. it probably wont go into action till late February.

[Terry Toenges]

I admire your entrepreneuriel(sp?) spirit. It will be a great learning experience for you and you can list it on your resume.

[Terry Toenges]

You might want to check about any permissions you might need from the railroads. Remember U.P. and their charges for everything under the sun?

[ABC]

You might want to check about any permissions you might need from the railroads. Remember U.P. and their charges for everything under the sun?

Good point Terry, well so much for your idea jet, unless you want to be sued by the railroads. You have to receive their explicit permission since you are going to be trying to sell your films for a profit. Usually in order to receive permission you have to either pay a flat rate for the use of their likeness or a percent of your profit (which is not significant enough), so unless you have deep pockets, its looks as if you are out of business before you even got started. Thinking back I know of one young fellow who was filming UP and then listed the videos for sale on the net...guess who found them...UP...supposedly they reached a settlement-the kid had to relinquish all of his profits and video tapes to UP, I think he was no longer allowed to take pictures or tape UP except from public property, in exchange UP would not file any charges against him. It was a small little article in a railroad magazine that I found several years ago, I don't know when this was from though. At any rate I wouldn't risk it these railroads don't like things like this for some reason.

[jward]

that is just another case of a corporation with deep pockets throwing their weight around.

there was another case UP brought against a man who put out railroad calenders. the result of the trial was that any photos, including those of corporate logos, taken from public property can be used without permission. i believe UP even had to pay the man's legal costs in this case and possibly damages as well.

[jettrainfan]

I don't think norfolk southern would be as extreme but knowing the rta, they'll pull off some stunt. Atleast I could still share them on youtube. Thanks for the info.

[ABC]

the result of the trial was that any photos, including those of corporate logos, taken from public property can be used without permission.

So the moral of the story Jet is...stay on public property when you film or take photos and you should be okay, but on their property you'll be in trouble.

[jward]

yes, pretty much.

also, don't use the artwork of their logo, make sure that if you use their logo it is obvious that it is from a photo of their equipment.

jet is lucky, union pacific is the only railroad who is that strict. csx does license their logos, but they aren't trying to make money off licensing like UP. i think if you wanted you could pay them a token fee for permission. UP wants a portion of any revenue derived from the sale of merchandise with their logos, and the right to deny the use of their logos for any purpose they don't approve of.

since jet lives near cleveland, he only has to deal with csx and norfolk southern. so far, NS doesn't seem to care about trademarks.

[NarrowMinded]

You might also want to try some of the Online sites that host "stock" footage, when production companies need a short clip of a train or anything else, they some times use stock footage rather then send out a crew.

NM