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Client Dilemma…please read on.
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There are far too many post houses that would love new clients. I had that attitude with a few clients and they went elsewhere. Did I really need or want that business?
I don’t know but the point is – The video post industry is a service business.
You don’t serve and the clients will EASILY find a new post house that will serve their needs, no matter how picky. -
H[Bob Cole] “I’d really like to be able to pop in a drive or a tape, back up everything associated with a project (everything: scripts, graphics, After Effects projects, media, EDL’s, alternate edits, etc.), AND be able to reload it to the proper computers, drives, and directories automatically. If anybody has this mastered, I’d love to hear about it.”
Bob,
With FCP its a breeze to move everything in a job to a single directory on a hard drive. In fact, its the very best function of Apple’s so called “Media Mangler.” Yet another fine reason for you to start cooking regularly with FCP.
DRW
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…But I’m glad you posted this issue; it is a problem many of us face, and the hot-warm-cold idea is cool.
I’d settle for hot and cold storage. What do the experts here think about good options (and more important, good strategies) for “cold” storage? I use three computers for every project… but while the drives are cheap, the housings add expense….
For me, the concept of hot-warm-cold come from a former employer, back when we were doing multimedia production on network server storage. Here’s how I’m applying it now.
My main workstation has an internal drive for system & programs.
On top of it sit three identical housings with three 300GB drives inside. Rendering is typically done from drive to drive, otherwise, all project assets stay on one drive. These are “hot”.A drive fills up. I find 20 minutes to trash what can be trashed, and move project renders to that drive. I make some notes as to what projects are on the drive and add them to a spreadsheet that’s on my workstation and my laptop. I pull the drive out, put it on the shelf – this one is now “warm”.
A drive fills up. I start trashing files and realize that project A will never come back for various reasons. I trash captures only, preserving such project assets as DVD images, final renders, and graphics on the drive. I go to the shelf and make sure camera tapes have a rubber band around them and they’re actually labeled. This project is now “cold”.
I put new and bigger drives in the cases, I probably put a raw drive on the shelf every 3-4 months. My cost per GB is between $.25 and .40 USD, as I can buy IDE drives on sale at local retailers – I just watch the ads and always have a new raw drive on the shelf. The cost per GB keeps on going down… It is VERY economical compared to any other archive strategy.
Working with “hot” projects – you know about this, it’s what you’re doing now.
Need to edit/revise/source some footage from last year’s project? Pull a drive off the shelf and stick it in an enclosure – takes 10 minutes, what was “warm” is now “hot”.
Need to revise or source from a project you never thought you’d have to touch again? Maybe you can do it from final renders, maybe you have to go back to source tapes.
If you’re working on three computers you could do the same thing with a gigabyte or fiber network file server. A buddy is doing it with removeable drives. I sure didn’t invent this, lots of people are doing it because it’s the most economical way. You could also walk an external project drive from one computer to the next.
As I make the transition to more HDV work there’s probably a raid in my future – haven’t figured this one out, but I’ll probably start by keeping the drives in the raid and dumping off to my same externals for “warm” storage.
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That’s the ante if you want in on the game. As I read this post, I’m actually astounded that you would even propose that they invest in your hardware when it would appear that you are not willing to do so on your own. As a service oriented business, you sell the service of production and nothing more. If you’re an internal communications employee for that “client”, it’s entirely different
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As an additional note to the post I left earlier, if they truly expect you to make modifications to things that are of their choice, offer them a “maintenance fee” and explain why it is necessary for their particular project. If there’s one thing a client, good or bad hates, it’s being pigeonholed by an external vendor.
Michael Munkittrick
Managing Creative Director
Evolve Media SolutionsForum COWmunity leader for:
Sony DV
Magic Bullet -
Michael: Did you not see my post that I decided to buy the drive? I’ve been told I’m honest to a fault, maybe even naive…that should be my worst trait. I thought $2,000 for 5 edits and some new narration was a pretty good profit, except when you add in the $1,200 for the drive. I quoted them $150 per hour, plus restore time, I thought it was fair for them and fair for me. Money is not the issue, I could buy 10 drives if I wanted to…I just wasn’t sure that this client was worth the investment and worth the headaches that come with them. There are times when you need to say no and turn the work down. They gave me a deadline of 2/28, so I really can’t play with the time constraint.
I’m a one man shop and do all the shooting, editing, graphics, DVD’s, CD’s, etc… I happen to be working on two huge projects at 10X what they are paying me and didn’t want to have to remove that footage, restore theirs and restore back, without knowing how long they expect me to keep the footage. It’s actually for Yamaha, but I’m working for an agency geared towards Nursing Homes which are notoriously cheap. Perhaps I showed poor judgement at first, we all do at one time or another…but I read the posts and decided to go ahead and pay for the drive and hopefully they will give me enough work to warrant it.
Bob: I’m actually ordering a solution next week, a tape backup drive VS 160 from quantum and I’ll use NovaBack software. I was burned twice by this set up a few years ago when the drive corrupted the data and I had to recreate everything…another reason I wanted to buy a new drive for the client(which I would still backup). Some software has something called “collect project” or “condense project” as mine is called.
PS: I came here for advice and I received it and appreciate your time and knowledge.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
[Jeffrey Gould] “Did you not see my post that I decided to buy the drive?”
Unfortunately not I guess. My bad.
[Jeffrey Gould] “I thought $2,000 for 5 edits and some new narration was a pretty good profit”
It sounds pretty reasonable to me with respect for the amount of work and time. Maybe it’s an accounting problem versus a profit margin problem. I’m not insinuating that you don’t know your own worth, but all things considered, the simplest solution is typically the right one. I was just trying to make a point on client relations. I didn’t mean to push any buttons.
[Jeffrey Gould] “I’m a one man shop and do all the shooting, editing, graphics, DVD’s, CD’s”
Very cool indeed, but being that you’re a one-man-band, you should in firm control of your direction and what jobs you do and don’t do. Again, I mean no disrespect, but the idea of asking any client…love, hate or indifferent to, they should never be asked to buy hardware tools unless it’s ethically or legally necessary.
[Jeffrey Gould] “I happen to be working on two huge projects at 10X what they are paying me and didn’t want to have to remove that footage,”
Been there before myself, but it still seems out of sorts for a professional to “invest” in your company. First, it lowers you to their level, which makes the work less enjoyable and it also less profitable as they would consider that purchase as a means to skip the proverbial lunch line. They’d be mistaken of course, but that point would come.
Please understand, I don’t speak from experience, but it’s a pretty good bet that if you asked a lawn service to mow your yard and they simply don’t have enough equipment to do the job correctly, but instead of saying that they offer to cut it if you buy them another mower. That’s all I was saying. I’m sorry that it came across abrasive. No ill will intended.
Michael Munkittrick
Managing Creative Director
Evolve Media SolutionsForum COWmunity leader for:
Sony DV
Magic Bullet -
[Bob Cole] “I’d really like to be able to pop in a drive or a tape, back up everything associated with a project (everything: scripts, graphics, After Effects projects, media, EDL’s, alternate edits, etc.), AND be able to reload it to the proper computers, drives, and directories automatically. If anybody has this mastered, I’d love to hear about it.”
Done this way too many times. If you are using Windows, then here are my steps:
1. Purchase a hot-swap case, like this one: https://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GN210&cpc=SCH&srm=0 I have about 6 or 7 of these. You can just put in a drive and slide in another drive when needed.
2. Use a syncronization software. I use a software called SyncBack SE that syncs between two directories every couple of minutes. The first sync takes some time time, but after that it takes a couple of minutes.
3. When you are done for the day and both the drives are synced, take out the enclosure and pop in another one for another proect.
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Thank you Michael for reiterating your points in a much less abrasive/scolding tone…I agree with you 100%. I guess I looked at splitting the drive with them as a win win solution, not knowing that there was an unspoken rule against this. Your analogy of the lawn service really put it in perspective for me. You’re a well respected member of the Cow and I appreciate your input. I’m glad I opened up this conversation as it seemed to help other members. Thanks again.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions
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