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Looking for bridge high enough to jump off of…
Go to:
and scrub to 1:12
Forget B&H, hello Best Buy. And I was considering buying into the DSLR craze? Will they make a 3D Flip soon?
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29 Replies
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I missed the reason for a bridge.
I did get a kick out of the funny lookin’ kid dressed as a business dude though.These are simply the times we live in, man. While large crews and budgets use to be required for all things video, technology has made it so a video can be uploaded for dang near nuthin’. Not all video has to be, or should be, top notch quality… just the video people pay us to make. Low end productions do not take from our dinner tables… they add to them.
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Grinner,
They don’t consider it “low quality” like we do. They consider it “just fine”, which is what used to be our mid-level. So it is taking food off my table (I’m experiencing it) in terms of these were once jobs they used to call us pros for, when they couldn’t find a cheap kid they could trust.
Later,
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
I find it ironic that this ragan site’s videos touting these new “media approaches” are themselves rather badly and stiffly shot, poorly lit, with weak sound, and without much thought to camera shot placement or editing as part of the communications vernacular. Certainly they are not leveraging all that the combination of visuals and sound can deliver. When you can’t do something professionally, I guess instead you mock it or marginalize it.
And some of them, like the Monsanto guy on that page, talking about social media and speechwriting, have a ridiculous and unnecessary “second camera shooting off-axis in B&W for no flipping reason” effect, which is something that was “cool” when MTV started doing it like fifteen years ago. It is not cool now. Not for a long time. You had a second camera and you wasted it shooting THAT, when you could have shot double-coverage with two angles from the good side, with a purpose. Brilliant.
I could make better video than this, without spending much at all.
These guys are still in “dancing bear” mode with these flipper fratcams, i.e.: “it is not that the bear dances well, because he doesn’t – the attraction is that he can dance at all.” They are right that it’s not always about expensive tools. They are wrong about not needing actual skill in employing the tools. Sloppy and careless work doesn’t evoke “authenticity” or “immediacy”, so much as simple incompetence and indifference. And if you don’t care enough to craft a good message, why should I care enough to watch it? -
Just once I want to grab the guy that uses those stupid unmotivated off-the-eyeline cut-aways, and interrogate him:
“Just what is this shot supposed to be telling us? Do you even know why you are using it?”https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/17/869748
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Oh sorry, my point was that Mayo Clinic, THEE Mayo CLinic, is doing this. There’s a lot of shooters in MN that they use…
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
That’s just it. More companies are utilizing video today, first because it was easily done. Once they see the impact, savvy companies have no problem spending a little bit… and a little bit goes a long way today. What was a crew of 5 and a week of post at 500 an hour a decade ago is now a dude with a camera and a laptop for a flat grand today. Who is that good for? Everyone involved. The key is to get involved. Old schoolers sticking to their guns on rates and packages will do it all alone as billing goes elsewhere. It’s as easy as competing and the way we do that will always evolve.
Gone are the days of the overpaid specialist… unless your specialty becomes doing it all.
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I’ll use my partner’s “piano” analogy.
Go around and visit people… friends, family, whomever… and you’ll notice that in quite a lot of homes there is a piano. There it is, right in the living room.
Finding a concert pianist is a lot harder.
Some of those people can play that piano a bit, some might even be pretty good. But it’s rare to find someone who is really great.
Those flip cams and the like, with their dirt cheapness and all, have put the piano in everyone living room. But they haven’t created any better piano players.
If one’s business was mid-to-low end corporate work, yep… I’m betting that biz takes a hit. But, as least for what I’m seeing, for higher-level corp work and for broadcast work… there seems to fortunately still be an appreciation for pros who know what they are doing. Fortunately almost all of what we do is broadcast and those clients still, for the most part, realize doing it right takes a pro. Hopefully that won’t change soon…. but it might.
Technology of course is getting better and better, and is now taken for granted. I remember years ago when a cable installer at my home marveled at my plasma set… he’d never actually seen one. And visitors to our studios would say “Wow!” when they saw the big plasmas hanging in the edit suites. Today, no one gives them a second look… or as much regard for what’s playing on screens everywhere, sadly. It’s almost amusing that as technology keeps getting better and better, the content quality acceptance level has gone right into the crapper.
I think the best we can do is concentrate our efforts on clients who know, see, and appreciate the difference in “good” and “eh… good enough.”
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Ned,
I’ve seen other posts of yours on the Cow talking about being “defeated” by the Flip Video Camera.
If this small gadget is costing you clients, then maybe you need to readdress your business model. It seems in your market, the way you were acquiring clients, and making a profit is not working as well anymore. That means its time to change.
Who were your main source of clients? If it was ENG kind of stuff, we have to face the facts, that market has changed. Its all about quick, cheap, video for these folks. Get something usable that can spread the message.
Heck, I’ve even seen on CNN them using SKYPE for interviews! How are you going to compete with FREE?? You’re not, the news networks and local channels have changed their game.
Might be time to move on to bigger fish, man.
Freelancer Designer Virginia – StephenHockman.com
Find out more about me, see my portfolio, and read my blogGraphic Design Info, Web Page Tips, Video Production Guide BLOG
My blog updated weekly with industry tips, tricks, and news -
I have to confess too that I don’t see the danger in the Flip and its brothers either. This can only be a business opportunity where my firm can offer to edit Flip video for clients and go back and re-film for those who wants it to look even better.
At any given stage some technology and the poor sod operating it has been killed off by something cheaper and easier to use – AV technician (Slide creator) by Power Point, Paint-Box operator by Photo-shop, Camera Crew by Flip and so forth. All new things has one thing in common, which is that our corporate clients can not in a cost effective way operate any of those gadgets to a decent level professionalism whilst also holding onto doing their day-job. And managing the intern to do it, is just too much hassle in comparison to hiring us. Unless it is a small so & so video, which they would never have spend money on the first place.
There will always be a strategic inflection point for getting in & out of an idea – the BIG question is when and where to hit the curve at the right point 🙂
All the Best
Mads
London, UKLatest video to watch here:
Mac Million Ltd. – HD Production & Editing
Blog: https://macmillionltd.blogspot.com -
This is the problem with internet communication, I am not properly communicating my point. My point is:
THIS IS NOT “LOW END” VIDEO. I have shot many dozens of hospital videos, some for external, some internal comm. They always paid full day rate. Some had in-house (very sophisticated) post facilities, some went out-of-house for post. There was a trend towards attempting to do-it-yourself, or hiring cheap kids, but they tended to call in the pros when all the switches and such flummoxed them, or the CEO had to look great. But now with this damn Flip, they are taking what used to be high and mid range quality, which paid shooters and editors rates, and poof! It’s now gone.
And the reason I post this today is that this example is THEE Mayo Clinic, meaning they have money, and it’s happening around the Chicago area with Fortune 100s as well and it’s coming to a client of yours soon. I promise. And they aren’t looking for a generalist rather than a specialist, they are looking to keep it all in-house, some for a speedy turnaround, some to save money, others to be the popular in-house “video guy”, etc. And we can say they’ve now made what used to be upper or mid-range video barely acceptable (low end), but as long as they are “happy” then it is upper end to them, and it’s work they used to farm out that is now, permanently, in-house.
I have never seen something accepted so rapidly that has had such a negative effect on professional video production in terms of hiring professionals. Every house now has a piano and unfortunately they are happy to hear the kids playing “chopsticks”.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com
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