Today question from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship is:
If you weren’t doing what you are doing, what business would you launch tomorrow?
Surprisingly, this is an incredibly difficult question for me. Not because I’m not full of ideas for potential businesses and adventures, but because it requires that I stop, and take a step back from my day-to-day concerns and wonder aloud at other possibilities. One idea, though, that’s been rattling around in my mind for awhile, is to start a chain of do-it-yourself audio and video production centers.
As long as there have been motion picture cameras, people have enjoyed taking and sharing their movies; but, until recently, consumer video cameras produced relatively low quality video. Now, it is becoming possible to easily produce television-grade video with relatively inexpensive cameras. With this advancement, more and more people will begin wanting to make more creative videos than just filming Birthday parties and births.
Tools like iMovie on the Mac or Windows Movie Maker make it exceptionally easy to edit together digital video and output straight to the the web or as a high quality DVD. What the pros have that’s missing from the consumer package is a studio setup.
My DIY Audio and Video Production Center would be a storefront in the mall or other location with lots of walk up traffic that would offer sound booths, bluescreen facilities, teleprompter machines, professional lighting, high-end, but easy to use, consumer level cameras, and trained staff members to help run everything. Imagine something like Picture People, but with video and audio recording services offered instead of photography.
I see a wide range of potential markets this could cater to, including people wanting:
- Video Resumes - Job seekers would really stand out by if they included a 60 second Apple Switch-style video introduction with their resume.
- Video Greeting Cards - Many people include studio portraits and annual “Dear Family” letters with their holiday cards. A DVD or web hosted video could combine these two functions, and the available teleprompter would make everything seem so perfect and coiffure.
- Podcast Recording - The sound booths would be the perfect place to record professional quality audio for the discerning podcaster.
- Letters to Grandma - Bring the kids in, and let them record a video message for the grandparents. The large sets would allow everyone show off their dancing, school projects or new pets.
The business would claim no copyright to any of the media generated, and would provide everything created at the facility in a digital format, either on a DVD (or other storage media) at the end of the session, or hosted online.
I think that this could be a real success.
What about you? How’s my idea?
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Richard Hayward Smith on October 22nd, 2005 at 4:18 pm
Has loads of potential, but you need to follow the money. I’d suggest rather than trying to create your own market,grow a market that is already there. The beauty of the business is to capture moments as well as action. What about offering the service to people who have been sent flowers by 1-800 flowers or interflora, and capture the reaction of somebody receiving flowers etc. Video greetings when somebody has made a major purchase of jewelery, cars etc as presents. If they can splash out on a major present they can afford a video greeting :-)
Richard Hayward Smith on October 22nd, 2005 at 4:20 pm
How about setting the booths up in schools ? As a dad I have to work and I spend 12 hours away from my kid, and nohting would cheer me up more than getting a 10 sec video from my kid at school…
Marc Nathan on October 24th, 2005 at 11:20 am
There was a recent post on Metafilter (http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/25543#407933) that talked about something similar - well, I actually threw some of the ideas out under the name marc1919. I think that a DIY production studio is a great stand alone idea - remember the Karaoke music kiosks at malls a few years ago? With Podcasting and Video Blogs, as well as home movies gaining in popularity and production values, it just makes sense. I really like this as a “store-within-a-store” concept for an existing big box retailer - whether it’s Best Buy or Guitar Center makes no difference.
Dane on October 24th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Marc: I hadn’t thought about the possibility of a “store-within-a-store”. That makes good sense!
apakuni.com » DIY Audio and Video Production Center :: Politics, pop culture and other ephemera on October 26th, 2005 at 12:29 am
[...] DIY Audio and Video Production Center Filed under Cool Ideas, Film by apakuni on Wednesday October 26, 2005 My DIY Audio and Video Production Center would be a storefront in the mall or other location with lots of walk up traffic that would offer sound booths, bluescreen facilities, teleprompter machines, professional lighting, high-end, but easy to use, consumer level cameras, and trained staff members to help run everything. Imagine something like Picture People, but with video and audio recording services offered instead of photography. Business Opportunities Weblog | My DIY Audio and Video Production Center [...]
mikeb on October 28th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
I love the idea.
You should check out SoundLab in NYC — it’s a subscription-based audio production facility offering access to professional audio equipment for musicians. Very cool concept, and only recently launched within the last few months. More info:
http://www.garagespin.com/archives/2005/06/sound_lab_inter_1.html
-M
Small Business Trends » Adventures in Entrepreneurship: Tomorrow’s Business on February 12th, 2006 at 8:21 am
[...] Read what the other two participating bloggers, Dane Carlson at Business Opportunities Weblog, and Rob May at BusinessPundit, have to say about this question. * * * * * Follow the conversation at Technorati: OPEN Adventures * * * * * The opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of American Express. If you post on the blogs, be aware that any personal information you post will be viewable by anybody reading the blogs. [...]
Mike Walker on June 3rd, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Kinda did something like that with HEAVYDUTYVIDEO.