Hamish Campbell, an independent journalist, shared his experience selling footage to corporations in an interview. He explained that corporations often contact them to buy footage, but they won’t generally take the edited programs as a whole because they are too conservative. They ask for the price, the corporation often did not want to pay, Campbell’s team tells them to “f*** off.” However, if they want the story, they’ll pay for it. It’s a game that has to be played, pretending to be independent and not part of the campaign, and always saying the video was shot using professional equipment, no matter what camera was used. Please remember to send the invoices after the negotiation, we tended to, forgets this bit.
Interviewer: Can you tell us about your experience selling footage to corporations and how you handle those negotiations?
Hamish Campbell: We used to sell some footage here and there, but it was mostly just enough to pay for broken cameras and equipment repairs. Corporations often contact us asking to buy our footage, but they won’t generally take the edited programs as a whole because they are too conservative. We tell them the price, which is usually around 400 pounds a minute, and if they don’t want to pay it, we say “f*** off”. If they want the story, they’ll pay for it, and if they don’t want it, they’re not going to broadcast it anyway. It used to happen all the time, and we always say “f*** off” to corporate media repeatedly till they agreed to pay.
Interviewer: How do you navigate the process of selling footage to corporations?
Hamish Campbell: It’s a game you have to play. You have to speak a certain language and pretend to be a certain person, and everyone knows it’s pretending. You’re an independent journalist, you’re professional, it doesn’t matter if the footage was shot on a tiny camera or a professional one. You have to present yourself as independent and not part of the campaign. After a bit of back and forth, we usually end up telling them to “f*** off” three times, and then they’ll pay us some money. But I always forget to send the invoice.