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A frank response to the posts ” I QUIT…. Working for nothing” and “” Worth It Anymore”??”
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[Ned Miller] “Dear Chen,
Where can we see these programs you have produced so we all know what we are talking about here? I see no evidence on the internet of your existence. Please advise.”
No thank you, i take my privacy very seriously,
If Creative Cow would like verify my existence, the email i address i used to sign in with contains my business website URL. My business website contains my phone number. If Tim Wilson would like to verify and post “Yes, he does exist”, Tim, feel free to do so.
Sorry Ned, privacy is sacred, people put WAY too much information on the internet.
Besides, i’m almost 50, have two kids. You think i have time to twitter away?
Cheers
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Well….this is suppose to be a community. You say you’re doing:
Right now i’m in current production of:
– a 13ep x 22min business round-table show, à la “dinner for five”, or filmfellas
– a 13ep x 22min Eco/green home show à la HGTV
– a one off x 52min about architecture in my city
– a one off x 52min about the awesome scale of statistics in my city (“90 million taxi rides a month, WTF”)à la discovery channel megastructures etc
We here on this forum are trying to understand the quality level you achieve with the type of crew you hire and their (low) rate structure. Yet we can’t view it? We have no idea if you’re real.No offense. I’d like to see them to understand you’re point of view.
Best regards,
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
[Chen Wu Xin] “No thank you, i take my privacy very seriously,”
He’s not asking for your personal information, he’s just asking where can we see examples of your work?
Like our work can be seen on the Food Network (seasons 9 – 12 of Good Eats), PBS (The American Land, thisamericanland.org, Foul Water Fiery Serpent, foulwaterfieryserpent.org) Global Health Frontline News which has appeared on CNN, ABC, BBC and China broadcast, (ghfn.org) and others. And there are additional samples of our work on biscardicreative.com in the gallery.
So Ned is just asking where can we see examples of your programming? What website should we be going to so we can view programming you’ve produced? Nothing secret about that.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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first,
the work i do is nothing special, its not great but pretty good. there is nothing i do that you haven’t seen before in good quality mid end corporates. Although I try my best, MY work is not the issue in the original spirit of my initial post!to inspire a fellow creative, a fellow artist, to feel that there is a spiritually rewarding future in what we do when they felt otherwise.
THAT WAS MY INTENT!Showing you my work without supporting documents such as invoices and contracts is useless with respect to the reasons about WHY you want to view my work. Especially if you choose to believe cost and quality must go hand in hand. (i use foamcore instead of reflectors. would you like proof of their quality as well??)
The minor and inconsequential claims I made about choosing lower costs freelancers were so innocent, inert and innocuous I’m wondering as to why everyone is making such an uproar about it. to imply that they are spurious and to go so far as to suggest i am cheapscate, or that i do not exist!! this is insane. (Ned Miller wrote to me, ”I see no evidence on the internet of your existence. Please advise”. Who the flipping hell do you think you are!!!!)
do you people always dispute the trivial claims of posters who declared they received a quality product or service while not paying the highest price without proving it somehow.
second and much more importantly
HOW DARE YOU!!how dare you press someone for information which they explicitly communicated they deem private!!
And you professionals?? Maybe. But at this moment you are acting like school yard children!
I am a sole proprietor, and work with one other individual full time.
my video work is hosted on my business website. because I’m a sole proprietor my business website contains MY home address where my children live!!!!! the phone contact number on my website is MY home number MY cell number and fax number!!
In my initial post I did not even mention the city in which I’m currently working on a show specifically ABOUT the city I live! ie ” – a one off x52min about the awesome scale of statistics in my city” because I chose to limit my personal life info.
In addition, there is no signature with my URL under my posts! NO! Because I HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO!
IF I CHOOSE NOT TO EXPOSE THAT INFORMATION HERE THAT IS MY CHOICE.
My choice!!!! Not yours!!Maybe I do not want my customers / freelancers / on screen interviewees / on screen talent/show guests i use to search my name only to find that am openly discussing a deficiency of mine or discussing their business with me, including possibly sensitive financial information such as the rates they charge!
this was thread marked first time i posted on the cow. I was hoping to continue in the future to get help or offer useful, helpful, nurturing inspiring posts. If I were to write in a future post, ”… I have shoot tomorrow, I would like advice on such and such…”, then the world knows Wu Xin is not home today, let’s break into her home”.
I’d like to post without worrying about whether or not I am leaving my personal life open.
last time i checked, creative cow provided some measure of anonymity for its users.
If you cannot understand, then I’m sorry you!! Feel free to party like its 1984
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Xin, I’m responding to something else here now. It may be a better business practice to create a separate postal address, phone number with voicemail and such, to keep your business identity separate from your private life, as you referenced. The internet makes this relatively easy to do, not all that expensive, compared to the peace of mind you seek, and I think many sole proprietors do something like that.
If I wanted to run several lines of business, say, a wedding/event biz, a corporate biz, and a sports documentary biz, I can build separate online sites for each, but still answer all the calls and emails from one central point. This is useful because those three kinds of customers don’t normally work with video producers that work with another one of those three. The corporate clients don’t think much of wedding guys, etc. Now you an differentiate and pitch specifics to specific separate markets. But still centrally manage them, as if they are all subsidiaries of Xin Productions. This also adds a layer of privacy to your home address/phone information. which you voiced concerns about.
Just a suggestion, FWIW.
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Have you ever heard the Texas expression, “All Hat, No Cattle”
If you are not familiar with this expression you can find the definition here:
https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/all+hat,+no+cattle.html
Please do not take any personal offense. You may find http://www.dvxuser.com more to your liking, they don’t care about anonymity. Here, we like to know who we are communicating with and learning from. How can we value someone’s advice if they may be “blowing smoke”? See:
https://www.thehindu.com/education/know-your-english/article3248063.ece
I’d love to be able to produce by hiring crew at one third the rate of pros like you do, please teach us how. Since this is the Business forum we’d all like to know how to increase profits by hiring recent grads without them screwing up. But let us see what it looks like. If you have no proof then how can we continue this thread of yours? Send us a link. We don’t want your phone number or home address. But an end credit saying Produced by Chen Wu Xin would give you credibility and not threaten your personal anonymity at all.
So, show us your cattle…
Many thanks,
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com -
[Ned Miller] “I’d love to be able to produce by hiring crew at one third the rate of pros like you do, please teach us how. Since this is the Business forum we’d all like to know how to increase profits by hiring recent grads without them screwing up.”
Ok Ned, i gotcha,
(and i’m born bred and raised, third Gen Canadian, we use the same idioms as you. You don’t have to explain, hehe)
I’m uploading to the Demo section on Creative Cow now
https://reels.creativecow.net/film/ndi-2-directors-cut-30sec-spot-avcmvc1280x72024pmp4What would you like to know? cost/working with crew member stuff?
ummm, ok, I’m just gonna write what comes to me, excuse my grammar and spelling.
So ok, it’s Shanghai, china, but it’s not that cheap! Top/mid people here make just as much as their American counterparts.
I’m putting ALL costs in Chinese currency (RMB), all costs are give or take 100 or 200RMB. And It’s about 1$USD=6RMB,
– Second TV spot I’ve done for this client, it’s a large training company (4000+ employees, 150 000 customers)
(Day=8hours)
one day shoot(very quick shoot, about 6 hours filming), 6 days preproduction with their marketing people, 3 days edit w/client, 1 day music, half day for VO, 1 day for final assembly. My rates are about 3000RMB/8 hour, more or less plus costs upfront. Overages, within reason come out of my pocket – keeps me aware of everything!!!!!– My deliverables for this spot are one 15 sec and one 30 sec cut; uncompressed .avi on USB stick. The client takes care of print to tape, the dupe house knows what format goes to which network/station, about 500/ hour plus stock.(not my problem…yet)
— no colour correction yet on this spot. The client will decide later if they want it done by me or by a real colourists, cuz they’re not cheap.– The PA/assistant director, whatever you want to call her, is an event coordinator for Seagrams (Bacardi etc), not a PA!!!
– About 1700RMB a day, she was billed for 4 days spread over one month (she came to 3ish meetings for free about 6 total hour’s maybe)
– she scheduled everything : transpo, lunches, crew pick up, got the gov and building management permits /permission for the outside shots and communicated with the client regarding extras, location access, release forms etc. liaisoned with everybody including my client!
– Roughly about 4000RMBish for the, transpo, lunches, all the little extras
– there is pan up of the actress as she enters the buildings, the women on the poster is a well known Shanghai celeb and former spokesperson for the client, the PA contacted her agency and got approval to use the image (my client must have paid something??)– All the Chinese extras are students of that company; I believe they received free contract extensions for their studies as compensation, and a milk tea. They brought their own wardrobe (it’s sweltering July, but the spot will air in October in Northern China where a few dozen new centers are opening) if you look closely in the background everyone is in shorts!
– The foreigners are employees of that company as well, teacher/trainers I guess? Maybe admin (the owner of the company is Canadian women)
– Everyone made it to the locations by themselves, but transport was paid for.– The first location was the court of a mall; other locations were owned, operated by the client (and were all across the street from each other)
– the office location is the office of the client’s VC
– the elevator shot was unplanned – the marketing guys thought we needed it – it was stolen location from a hotel across the street during lunch.-The videographer,whom my friend recommended , had filmed their wedding but is actually a studio wedding photographer by trade (huge industry here! A dozen or more massive “photo studios malls” in Shanghai alone)
– He was paid 2100 or 2200RMB and brought two assistants, paid by him
– He used 2 Canon 7D w/50mm 1.4, would swap them when the heat warning came on
– Available light only ‘cept a small LED,
– the assistants used a large 150x200cm and small 80ish cm reflector on stand, and a large configurable flag. He used my CF cards. He brought his benro or velbon photo tripod. The head, i have no idea.
– all shot in sequence– make-up/hair stylist, hired by the photographer, paid by me, was 900 a day. I gave her more because she used much more make than she thought she needed. She earned it, it was absolutely sweltering and the actress was sweating constantly!!
– The music was written/performed by me.
– i edited the spot. i used AVID 5.5MC in case we go to a colourist in the future, or else i would have used Vegas 9– Voice over is done by a professional hostess, she came to my mixing room/VO booth to record, 100RMB/hour, 4 hours total. (the marketing guys were killing us try to perfect it! A hundred takes that all sound great to me, and in the end we ended up time stretching it argghhh!!! You can distinctly hear the artifacts when the VO track is muted)
– Marketing did their own proposal, shot list and the shots they wanted, they gave me tons of referral pics and videos of style, emotion and the pacing they wanted. then i did a stick figure storyboard.
– the actress is a receptionist for the client, the company emailed “all the young pretty girls in shanghai offices”.
– she was paid her normal salary for the day.
– they did their own auditions, which i told them to film and we discussed it later– client paid just over 50000RMB, about 8000dollars approx (plus whatever cost they had on their end, ie man hours, extras compensation etc)
Whats else? I think that’s enough info?
You want to know how to save money, honestly, I don’t know – think outside the box a little.
KISS – keep it simple stupid.
I find if you get the client to contribute as much possible, that helps a lot!! Plus it really gets them to communicate with you, you get their take on why they chose such and such location or why they want the actress they do, and they feel like they have more control that way. You end up spending a lot of time with them. They get so pumped up when they feel like they are making a movie. And it helps because you have to go through every process with them and in doing so you go through every process again and again.
Think outside the box when hiring people, not everybody needs to be film job oriented.
i.e event coordinator as a PA!!
this is great, her real job is making sure people are supposed to be doing what they need to do, regardless of if it’s a fashion show, gala, expo – or a film shoot!! She knows how to talk and who to talk to! Its her job. She had never a done film shoot before, so during the meetings i made sure she understood a few things. Most importantly that she is my voice to everyone and everything except the camera and the actors. When we were filming, right away i got her behind the camera, looking the replays, after 30 mins i could just point to a problem on the monitor and she’s barking orders at the extras, “when he yells action, laugh more don’t just stand there” or telling shoppers to stop walking when we’re abou to shoot. She would instinctively arrive on location and talk to the people who matter, again her normal job.How about the studio wedding photog as videographer!!
I saw my friend’s wedding vid, looked beautiful, i went to his photo studio, saw his dozen Philip bloom style vids he had made, looked through his photo portfolio. I showed him the pics of the location we’d be at and he said, “No lights”. I thought it was a question, but nope, he meant he was going to use available light only. I wasn’t impressed, but after an hour of going through his portfolio, I was definitely impressed. He wowed me so I hired him.Look, every gig is different. You don’t need me preaching to you, or teaching you.
Just approach everything with a slanted view, indie style, where resources are limited and you gotta do what gotta to get the job done!
So, there it is, you asked for it
Don’t make assumption, ask questions first!
Cheers
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Hi Mark
Interesting!!!
I just checked, and my city, being a major financial hub has tons of these companies/services!!
With respect to virtual addresses –
Unfortunately an area of our apartment has a few rooms allocated as a small studio, editing suite and a small mixing room that doubles as VO booth so, basically I need clients to be able to look up my address on my website in the taxi ride over, or to show their driver, so a virtual address wouldn’t work well.However telephone communications …hmmm??
We have a home phone land line that we use solely for the business. I know I’ve lost quite a few possible interviewees for the TV stuff, after they’ve asked for my URL …then I never hear from them again. Not that our website is bad, but it’s totally, completely head to toe corporate, and small business oriented.Just checked a few places; around 100 USD a month for virtual phone number/communications with a real receptionist answering.
I wonder how they handle multiple business calls to the same number. No info in their websites relating to how they might route multiple identities to one land line and two mobile numbers.
Do you have any experience in this Mark?
Thanks again
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“That’s classified, need-to-know”. (In Michael Westen voice)
I don’t know about Hong Kong, but here you can rent access to a dummy office with a nice meeting room, a front desk receptionist, all the appearances… for a month by month rental. So you have the good-looking place to take meetings, and you shoot mostly on location, so no studio rental to keep up.
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[Mark Suszko] I don’t know about Hong Kong, but here you can rent access to a dummy office with a nice meeting room, a front desk receptionist, all the appearances… for a month by month rental. So you have the good-looking place to take meetings, and you shoot mostly on location, so no studio rental to keep up.”
Unfortunately in Shanghai real estate is quite expensive, especially commercial property, besides i like working from home.
however, studio space in Shanghai is quite cheap, top photo studios run about 200USD dollars a day, and include a basic flash kit w/soft boxes and one assistant.
in June, we shot in a 57’x57’studio w/25x25m high ceiling cyc wall in one one corner for 180USD a day .
https://dev.rimagine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/about-studio1-thumb.jpg
https://www.rimagine.com/about-us/photo-studio-shanghai/
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