Keeping a Studio Small…The Curse of Big Studios..

[Arnie Schlissel]

Small studios can always take on bigger jobs by partnering with other shops. This keeps everyone’s costs lower, and it allows you to keep to your area of expertise, and it allows for specialists from outside your company to do what you can’t do.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Mike Cohen]

Size matters not. Judge me by my size do you?

Your company is as lean as you make it. Whether you are 1 person or 100, you need to analyze your business operations so that you maximize your use of resources and stay in the black.

1 person can possibly charge less, but don’t undersell your services, and always think of the big picture. Sure, a larger crew needs more money overall, but you need to know how much to charge to account for the big picture.

Part of maximizing resource usage is being diverse enough so that your crew has enough to do even when new work is sparse. Also, you need to have operating procedures and business practices so that you can stay afloat between new jobs.

There is no standard answer for a question like this.

Mike Cohen

[Bob Cole]

The Curse of Big Studios is no cause for celebration. (I assume we have a similar definition of “Big Studios.” In my neck of the woods, a big studio may employ 20-50 people.)

What is really happening is that these “big” video studios are getting squeezed from both ends: large businesses who are trimming costs, and freelancers who are happily undercutting them for work. (BTW – in today’s NY Times, David Brooks (of all people) writes about the ill effects of mega-corporations on small business.)

There are other factors in the demise of the “big” local studio: individual freelancers (and small partnerships) are being empowered by ever-more powerful hardware and software; and technical support no longer requires a tech staff — just a connection to the Internet (thank you COW and Google). One or two freelancers can produce stuff that required many more people, and huge budgets, only 10-15 years ago. But while this added efficiency is great for people like me, I am sorry to see the larger local studios disappear. It is helping us small fry a little bit, but it is helping big business a lot more. One large organization in my neck of the woods has decided to outsource 100% of its work to an agency, which is essentially marshalling the freelance community for actual labor. I’m very concerned that good jobs with health insurance and other benefits are being replaced by freelance positions with none. A lot of my younger acquaintances don’t carry insurance at all, and as for 401(k)’s, forget about it; they’re just trying to get by.

(This reminds me of a friend who was trying to find out a business to go into where overhead would be minimal and the labor was essentially free. He realized that was a good description of a real estate brokerage, and opened up his own agency. Even though he had about 20 people working for him, he only had to pay the receptionist and the cleaning service; the rest were independent agents who only got paid when they sold something.)

I admit to having a brief feeling of schadenfreude when a couple of rather arrogant studios closed, even while I soldiered on. But on “mature reflection,” the disappearance of those “big” local studios has me worried.

Bob C

[Walter Biscardi]

It’s all about managing overhead and staying within your means.

I started my company in a bedroom of my house. Did that for 2 years, got too much work and needed a bigger space.

We’ve been in a 1,000 square foot space 6 years now. Started by using just one room and now have four edit suites running daily.

We’re going to break ground on a new 6,000 (maybe 8,000) square foot facility very shortly. The overhead will be manageable by just running one edit suite full time.

I also know my rates are lower than many of the competitors, even those who work in one man band operations in their homes. At the very least they are the same rates in most cases. But when you come here you’re getting some really good people to work with and pretty much any format in, any format out, everything from start to finish in Post Production.

I made a decision when I opened the company that I would charge an honest rate and would become profitable by volume over time. Even though I keep reinvesting into the company as needed, I hold my rates because those investments keep bringing more and more projects in. I would rather lose money on one or two projects to invest in equipment that will earn money for the next 500 projects.

That’s one thing I really see lacking these days. People just buying the bare minimum at all times so every time they do a new job and a client asks for a particular whatever, they have to go out and find a free widget or tool. Just look on the various forums, “Can someone recommend such and such, preferably free.” Just pay for the best tool the first time and you have it.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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[Bob Cole]

[walter biscardi] “That’s one thing I really see lacking these days. People just buying the bare minimum at all times”

You see that a lot with people who are still in business. You don’t see the people who’ve overinvested, because a lot of them are out of business now.

I’m sincerely happy for people like Walter, who have charged competitive rates, invested heavily, have a lot of talent (and perhaps, perhaps some luck) and have prospered. More power to you!!!!

But for most people, the bigger problems are: charging too little, and investing too much.

Bob C

[Walter Biscardi]

[Bob Cole] “But for most people, the bigger problems are: charging too little, and investing too much.”

I’ve seen two problems with over-investing.

1 – buying stuff because you “think you need to have it to attract clients.” I’ve seen people drop thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars on very high end gear, really impressive facilities, etc… and then expect to get the high dollar accounts because now they have the “stuff they need.”

Just buying the stuff doesn’t get people to walk into the door. You build a clientele with as little as you can, and then as a project dictates the need, you invest.

2 – Purchasing a building or leasing a space because it’s “cool and what will attract clients” regardless of the fact that it comes with a pretty high overhead. That puts you behind the 8 ball right off the bat.

Any space can be very cool and inviting to a client with some nice paint, a few toys and comfy chairs. You don’t need that ultra chic Soho loft with the $1,000 chairs and all the fancy furniture trappings that come with it.

You need to find a space within your means, home for many people, and purchase equipment as a job requires it or if you see a very strong need arising in your company. “Build it and they will come” might be nice for a baseball movie, but in real life, it’s better to have them coming and THEN build.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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[Grinner Hester]

The key to success has always been to bring in more than your expenses… enough to turn profit. That has less to do with what ya spend and more to do with what ya bring in. I stay small not because I don’t wanna make more money, but because I don’t wanna work more. We can kid ourselves inbto thinking we can deligate as we grow. We can to an extent but I’m hear to tell ya, the bigger the studio gets, the more work the owner will do, regardless of what that work is on any given day. Make it big enough to feel like a real job and, imo, it’s easier to just get a real job and finance that pimp that calls himself my uncle.

[Richard Herd]

How do you manage the time between needing a gadget and the 6 weeks for shipping? That is, a client and project give you the green light for a new gadget, but the factory will take 6 weeks to ship it. Meaning, you can’t serve the client for at least 6 weeks.

Thanks!

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Richard Herd] “How do you manage the time between needing a gadget and the 6 weeks for shipping? That is, a client and project give you the green light for a new gadget, but the factory will take 6 weeks to ship it. Meaning, you can’t serve the client for at least 6 weeks. “

Depending on the gadget, a rental house may already have one. If so, rent it for the job. Or another shop may have one, if so, farm it out. If not, well, that’s when we need to be upfront with clients.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Walter Biscardi]

[Richard Herd] “How do you manage the time between needing a gadget and the 6 weeks for shipping? That is, a client and project give you the green light for a new gadget, but the factory will take 6 weeks to ship it. Meaning, you can’t serve the client for at least 6 weeks.”

You build a relationship with a really good VAR who gets you a demo product within a matter of days. We’ve done that on multiple occasions when we needed something quickly. They will demand a demo unit or used unit just so we can do the work and then the one we actually ordered gets here when it does.

I’ve used the same VAR for 95% of my purchases for the past 6 years or so now. They do whatever it takes to ensure we have the products we need when we need them.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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