Bonus: Recurring Revenue From Websites, the $2,500 Studio Behind a $30k-a-Week Commercial, and Why He Shoots 1080p Log on the Cheaper Body

The first recurring revenue came from noticing that video clients had nowhere to put the video. The offer is small and easy to say yes to - a website build around $500, plus a modest monthly management fee - and the monthly part is the point, because it survives the months when nobody books a shoot. One client stayed on for over seven years and kept paying through COVID, when project work disappeared. The first sites come from low-hanging fruit: existing clients, friends and family, who also let you practise. And the pitch has to diagnose rather than decorate - traffic, leads and conversion, not 'a pretty website'.

Level one, while you are building a portfolio: $0-500 setup, $0-200 a month. Level two, once established: $500-1,500 setup, $200-500 a month. Level three, with a full marketing stack: $2,000 or more setup, $800 a month base, plus add-ons - email management around $500 a month, social management $300-800, paid ads from $500 up to $5,000-10,000 depending on spend. The monthly figure should track how much change-work the site actually needs, which is a question to ask up front rather than discover later. The scale claim attached: roughly fourteen systematised retainer clients at a combined $24,000 a month is what freed the time to build the company.

The key is a Westcott Solix Apollo Orb through a softbox, at about 25 degrees to the left and 35 degrees up, which puts soft shadow on the face rather than flattening it. The rim is a Yongnuo YN300 left deliberately undiffused - hard light is what separates an edge - at about 45 degrees behind and to the side. Then two practical desk lamps at roughly $15 each add warm colour against a cooler wall, which produces orange and teal in camera instead of in a LUT. The teaching device is what makes the lesson worth keeping: each light is switched off on camera in turn, and the image visibly flattens. Total kit for the whole setup, camera and audio included, about $2,500 - behind a commercial he says produces roughly $30,000 a week.

Three reasons for a choice that looks backwards. The Canon EOS R's 4K mode crops heavily, which makes framing at desk distance impractical in a small room. Storage across a high volume of videos is a genuine recurring cost, not a hypothetical one. And the quality comparison does not follow the price - the cheaper body's 1080p looks better than the more expensive body's 1080p. The trade that comes with C-Log is the important caveat: the flat profile keeps dynamic range for grading, but it needs real light, because pushing ISO on 8-bit log footage introduces noise that falls apart the moment you start correcting it.