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Eeeesh…Another gizmo to learn.
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Like you say; this isn’t personal. We’re looking at the issue from different perspectives. I have nothing but respect for the work you’ve done and do, and your work ethic is beyond reproach. You have every right to be proud of what you’ve accomplished, more or less, on your own terms.
I would point out, however, that the majority of your anecdotes revolve around having an unfair market advantage in terms of knowledge and information, or in terms of infrastructure and resources or access, vis-a-vis, the customers. It’s easier to score a run when you start on second or third base.
As in the Mole-Richardson lights. Moles are workhorses and will last a Lonnnng time. So an investment in them meant you were buying them for pennies, if you divide dollars spent into hours of productive and revenue-generating use. And when there’s only a few sources for the used stuff, you can ask pretty much what you want in terms of a price. You had an unfair advantage over the consumer in that regard. Comes along online auctions, and you lose your unique status as a supplier as well as being able to set prices. Now you’re in a level playing field market, and demand tells you what you can charge. In terms of a business model, You were basically GM, before the Japanese import wave and gas crisis/ emissions restrictions. Or the Mainframe division of IBM, before PC’s.
Now LED and Flo lights are displacing tungsten, those Moles are worth more as converted home decor objects than as working lights, in many cases. This year we finally surplussed our on-camera Frezzi lights to replace them with LED panels. I still prefer the tungsten Frezzi in a few situations where the extreme photonic firepower is needed… but the LED panels are “better” in 90-95 percent of our typical shooting situations now. They have dimmers, they can run off camera taps or AA packs for hours, they run cool, they weigh less, they cost much less….what’s not to love?
For about a decade, simply owning an expensive digibeta deck was a license to print money, even if all you ever did was sub-rent it to editors needing to ingest or output to digibeta for a broadcast station. The decks cost more than the complete editing workstations. I remember someone created a money-making business, just as a “dating service” to connect digibeta deck owners to editors needing deck rentals by the day or even just by the hour. And then, one day, it was like a switch flipped: hard drive-based recording and card-based recording and FTP eliminated the need for tape dubs. I always hated tape dub runs, whatever the format: they had to happen in real time, which took forever. I was happier to do DVD dub runs at 20x realtime, using mass duplicator/labelers. Even nicer now, to just upload one file and point everybody to the server. I never had access to a digibeta deck, myself. And I resented that. The tech that liberated us from Digibeta opened a door for many more new people to start making video, just as DV technology broke the hold of the small techno-priesthood of the online suites. For the people wanting to make television, but lacking access and big budgets, this was a great time of new opportunities.
It seems to me you like how you had things, and you don’t like that times change. It’s a big club 🙂
But because new gear is also much cheaper than what it obsoletes, you can more or less tread water and maintain your prices, only, you’re now offering more and wider services for the same price in some cases. Buy the Mevo and the ipad to run it, and charge the same as you did for a 2-camera digibeta camcorder gig, and pocket the savings, only now, your product is actually superior in an objective way, while your profit margin is higher.
As to the digital signage, if you know how to edit, there’s nothing stopping you from getting into that market and being competitive, versus some kid using factory-supplied templates. Really, you’re as competitive as you choose to be.
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OK Mark, it’s 11:30AM and I’m STILL in my PJs, so this is the last one of the day.
I am a very creative type, the last thing I want to do is learn how to control a Mevo via an iPad, or any such geeky situation. I’ill shoot a panel discussion so I can put food on the table but for me to make less money doing so does not appeal to me, and if you think I can get the same amount of rate you are mistaken. Can you show me a tech innovation in our biz where the rates did NOT go down? That’s one of the principle definitions of a tech innovation: Cheaper.
I’m a shooter, specifically I love the rush of a documentary situation. I am actually trying to reduce my screen time. If you think about how much we used to be creating, now we’re doing geek chores on a computer, even if it’s editing. So any endeavor to reinvent myself which requires screen time is anathema to me. I am very active on DVXuser.com and I will say that in the last few years the tech geeks have moved into the shooting realm, after all, video cameras aren’t really cameras anymore. Cameras are now little computers with a lens stuck on the front. On those camera forums you’d think you stumbled onto a developers’ site.
Wrapping up, there’s two things you wrote that paint the differences between our perspectives (Staff vs Freelance vis-a-vis DIY tech changes) then I got to go. It’s nice out and the dogs are looking at me.
• You welcomed the demise of VHS because it makes your life easier, yet your paycheck did not change downhill as your company transitioned to digital delivery. My level of income drastically did. Are we in the same boat? No. You see it as a positive because your family income is not negatively affected.
• I’m 100% sure if I asked you if the plethora of offerings of all these choices of today’s video cameras is a good thing, you’d say YES! You wrote that at your company you rent the camera models you need and do not own. Yet when you rent your paycheck stays the same. I work for different TV shows and they actually dictate which model camera I should use plus the settings. Yet when I rent my income goes DOWN. I have to absorb some of the rental cost because they may go to a competitor who owns it, I need time to pick up and drop off, I have to study tutorials and set it up, etc. To summarize, tech innovations cause us both to need to rent yet your income remains level, mine goes down. Now do you see?
Just those two examples illustrate the difference between staff and freelance, which colors our view of tech innovations. You seem to have a rosy view of reinventing oneself and being able to charge the same. It doesn’t work like that. For example, because the bulk of my work is corporate, (or the ugly LA term industrials) I am in Midwest factories a lot. I mean a real LOT. Many factories I go into are now using robots and have become very lite on workers. Do you think they all reinvented themselves? There aren’t enough rental car shuttle busses at the airport to employ them all.
I think it’s easier to consider adapting to industry changing innovations, such as this Mevo, as a positive thing if one does not need to worry about one’s income. If one is getting the same paycheck every two weeks innovative tech disruptions may be seen as a positive thing, but not to those who lose income to them.
Well, got to run. We are of different universes, I must hunt and kill for my next meal. I worked only one day this week so I need 2.5 days next week somehow.
Later, still friends but of different worlds.
Ned
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com -
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The decline in real wages is prevalent in more than just this industry. Perhaps this is the end of this process-form of capitalism.
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Here we go:
https://onpoint.wbur.org/2016/04/18/digital-white-collar-jobs
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com -
Sorry it took so long to listen.
That’s a good podcast.
Turning to machines is an old issue. Marx raises it in Chapter 15, section 8 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm#S8
But that’s too hard to read. This is a bit more accessible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lpijzd2fBw
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The Mevo is quiet comfortable to work with and doesn’t take long to get hang of it. I have reviewed it on my blog here : Mevo Review
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