We have received word that seven different New York-based e-commerce sites selling camcorders have settled with the New York State Attorney General’s office for engaging in fraudulent business practices. (Two of these companies are going out of business completely. Of the remaining five, two are leaving New York State, but all have agreed to be bound by New York law and be monitored by the New York Attorney General’s office.)

According to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, “These companies engaged in the worst kinds of consumer fraud, from classic bait-and-switch schemes to blatant lies and bullying sales tactics.” These tactics included advertising at extremely low prices and then trying to upsell accessories, but if the person ordering turned down the accessories, the product that they were trying to order was claimed to be backordered, or the company would simply cancel the order.

We have received reports from readers who have been burned by unscrupulous mail order companies in the past, so we hope that this settlement agreement ultimately makes it easier for customers to find good deals from legitimate merchants.

If you have dealt with one of the listed companies, you may be able to get restitution; claims will be administered by the New York Better Business Bureau. The window for claims will be open from July 1 to December 31.

Everyone needs to make a little extra cash now and then. Similarly to how the web revolutionized the viewing of video, the web is also starting to revolutionize the way videographers find work as well.

The idea of most of these sites is similar, a national clearing house for people who want videos made about their businesses, combined with a nationwide network of competent videographers. If there’s a business in your area that wants a video, the company contacts you and gives you a commission. You shoot and edit the piece and once the client approves, you get paid from the company.

The work isn’t exactly highly paid (most gigs going for $200-$500), but one of the biggest hassles when you’re freelancing is drumming up work. The big benefit to this system is that you have people drumming up work in your area 24×7 for you.

Turn Here & Studio Now both aggregate video production projects from major companies, to local advertisers, and are always on the lookout for new filmmakers to join their networks.

There is of course, a vetting process, you will need to have access to some decent production gear, and provide samples of your work. However regular Videomaker readers should have no problems passing the tests. So take a look at the sites, and start letting the internet find work for you.

You may have read about Metacafe in the annals of our magazine and website; it was a great resource for videographers to make money with online content. In fact, recently,  (like just last week,) we did a Making Money vidcast focused on several revenue sharing sites, including Metacafe.

An alert reader posted a message to us that Metacafe is no longer offering it’s Producer’s Rewards program. We work on our vidcasts a few weeks in advance of their posting, and did some extensive research on this story, but as the crossed-in-the-mail moments happen, Metacafe’s announcement of pulling came about the same time as our vidcast completed.

While the Producer’s Rewards program will be ending June 30th, Metacafe says it will still be posting videos. The working model just isn’t generating enough revenue to pay the producers.

Making money in the video-creation business is actually fairly new, considering the fact that camcorders have been around for 3 decades now. Other than weddings and a few small-business opportunities, small-to-mid sized video production gigs were hard to come by. The internet has changed that, but video sharing in the internet is still in its infancy and therefore is still a moving target. We’re sorry to see this wonderful revenue-sharing outlet for video producer go away, and will keep you alerted to other programs when we hear about them.

Videomaker has partnered with Says Me TV, which is a great program for videographers looking into earning money locally. For instance, the program helps small businesses find a video producer for local TV ads, without the need to go to larger more-expensive production houses. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

A couple years ago,  I received a phone call from a woman in tears. She’s a good client of a friend of mine and the caller was going through some deep personal drama. Her mother had just days to live, and she was looking for someone to make a memorial video for the funeral. Knowing I offer this service, my friend, Cathy, suggested she give me a call. I offered my condolences, gently tried to explain to her that time was of essence, and she’d need to get photos to me as soon as possible and I’d make a nice piece for her. “Thank you,” she said, “my mother was a wonderful woman and deserves the best”. I then quoted her a price of $300 and she hesitated… and said she’d get back to me.

A week later, another associate told me she had contacted him, stating I was asking too much money, and she offered him $100 to do it and he turned her down. She then went to the person who manages her website, and he agreed to do it for $150.
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According to a recent report from the good folks over at Nielsen, the number of households with an HD television has doubled over the previous year, to 23.3%. They predict with now almost one quarter of TV’s in the USA as HD, the demand for HD content will continue to expand dramatically.

What does this mean for independent video producers? Well, if you’re still shooting in SD, you may want to be looking at upgrading your equipment, not just as a future proofing idea, but in a 25% of my viewers will want to watch this in HD today idea. Even if you’re already shooting in HD, the picture is not so rosy when it comes to distribution. Blu-ray disc penetration is still at a paltry 8-9% and a large majority of those are Playstation 3’s. Standard definition DVD’s still are found in 91% of all US households, so you end up with the awkward situation of having an beautiful HDTV connected to a plain old DVD player in many homes.

Perhaps the future of HD distribution is not to be found on shiny plastic discs, but delivered at home directly via the internet? Openfilm, Vimeo, and now even YouTube have gotten into the HD distribution  game, it will be interesting to see how the direct line into the home plays out.

One thing is for sure: twice as many people as last year are bringing HDTV’s into their homes, and they’re going to want to watch something pretty on it.

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new weekly online show that focuses on the world of video production and post-production called That Media Show.

The show comes in fairly fragmented news bites, focusing on film, television shows, software and hardware.  But it’s a handy way to get your video news for the week as a roll through of press releases, presented in an easy to consume info-tainment format. I know that doesn’t sound exactly flattering, but trust me, it works.

Check out That Media Show for yourself. Available on Blip.tv or on iTunes.