Getting approvals without fedex

[Tim Wilson]

[eric] “When is the cow going to get a edit button!?”

We’ve found that people tend to post more prudently when they know they can’t take their words back. 🙂

Although as you’ll see throughout The COW, emphasis is on the word “tend.”

Sorry about the typo thing, though. I can only suggest the preview button….which I have to confess I don’t use as often as I should…

[John Baumchen]

Using Premiere Pro, I export the video from the timeline to ClipNotes, which creates a PDF with the video imbedded.

The client reviews the video in Adobe Acrobat and can place comments inside Acrobat while watching the video. When the client is done reviewing and commenting, XML data is sent back to me via e-mail. When I receive the data in the XML file, importing it back into Premiere will create markers on my timeline. Clicking on the marker will display the client’s comments.

[Tim Kolb]

Well…keep in mind that uploads will never be as fast as downloads on any given connection. The way the internet is configured you’re sort of “swimming upstream” as it were…

I’ve used YouSendIt.com (after a suggestion from a software company I was working with when we were exchanging some rather large test files) for several years. It’s been extremely dependable. My vendors use it as well. I regularly receive voiceovers and that sort of thing via YouSendIt from vendors too small to have a 24/7 server online.

I think the idea is to use it in the appropriate places…get a first and second draft out via QT H.264 from QT Pro and upload that…if more is necessary for final approval(though I think that high bitrate H.264 actually is better image quality than an SD DVD to my eye)…you do one Fed Ex at the end.

Best of both worlds…you don’t spend a fortune on Fed Ex every day for two weeks, and the client still has something tangible in their hands if that’s important to them.

…keep in mind that part of the benefit scenario is that alterations can be proofed as quickly as you can make the changes and get the data up, which is a quicker turn than even Fed Ex. (a way to sell it to the client) I’ve had up to five turns in a day using YouSendIt (and several computers, a cable internet connection and a 4GB thumb drive)

TimK,
Director,
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Steve Kownacki]

Why don’t you want to use FedEx? Not fast enough? Too expensive? I just wanted to throw a thought in there to new business people that nearly all shipping/server/internet, etc. is a cost not only of doing business, but something paid for by the clients, not you. This is a factor worked into your hourly rates. You pay for shipping when you order from LL Bean, same applies to the client. I have a line item on my budgeting worksheets to remind me to add in $$ for shipping. How does your client work? High strung, need it yesterday? Budget in for that – First AM delivery is over $50, I don’t care, he’s paying for it (that’s also in your sales pitch of the great service you offer and service has a price). Most of our shipping is now US Mail and the stamps.com account is fairly inexpensive and has great tracking tools. A 2 ounce DVD in cardboard sleeve gets to most of the country for me in 2 days for 80 cents. I guess you weigh in “their oversights (delays) are not always my emergency”.

Back to the topic, as Walter said, FTP is cheap. Our service gives us a simple control panel so I can setup password protected folders for each client and they can grab their movies. Works both ways so client can drop logos and other things we need from them too. We’ve got 384K upload, a few hundred megs will take a while, but it gets there the same day.

Steve

[Rob Webster]

Has anyone tried Serv-U? It’s software that sets up your own PC as an FTP server. You can tag only certain folders to be available to the outside world, and you can password them. If it works as promised, then you wouldn’t have to worry about having to go through a provider to set up FTP for you. I used a trial version of it a couple of years ago to get some files to my brother, and it worked like a charm, but I’m not sure how it stacks up to other options when business depends on it.

-Rob

[Marco Solorio]

I just found this thread by accident. Okay, so maybe I’m a little late for the party, but here’s some relevant info.

If you’re looking to share your media assets to clients for review and approvals, whether it’s video, audio, images or documents, you might want to look into Media Batch. It works on your website and turns it into a powerful production tool. Your clients can log into a project/client list you create, can view the files inline in their web browser, download files, upload files and much more. All user actions are tracked as well. You can add notes to each files as well as a complete approval system for each file.

One of the cool features is the Media Batch FLV Viewer. It’s timecode based and allows you to add marker points on the timeline in real-time. You can then add notes to each of those marker points as well as DRAW directly on the video image for each marker point; great for diagrams and such.

Media Batch can completely replace the whole FTP nightmare. Unlimited users and lists with no monthly fees.

http://www.mediabatch.com

Thanks,

Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media