Meals on video shoot

[Peter Rummel]

Years and years ago, I was on a big remote shoot for an evening performance in the south part of town. The PBS station we worked for had a solid no-paying-for-food policy. We had everything set up and ready to go when we set out to get dinner.
We stopped at the first restaurant we came across, a small Japanese place a couple of miles up the road. A dozen of us trooped in and ordered. It must have been a shock to the kitchen, because when our dinner hour was up no food had been served. When we were finally served, ate, paid, and returned to the set we were almost 45 minutes late. It’s hard to believe this now, but this was in the days before cell phones. We returned to a frantic producer who had no idea why his entire crew had abandoned him.
So the station had a change of heart regarding food. The deal is they cover the meal, and the crew doesn’t leave the set. It only takes one person to be late returning from lunch to ruin the schedule. Provided meals is an industry standard for very good reasons – it’s efficient and eliminates unexpected delays in production.
I know some organizations take a dim view of buying meals for people. I think you need to explain that it’s not only a courtesy, and industry standard, but it’s important in making sure a tight schedule runs smoothly,.

[Todd Terry]

I think our most drastic budget change was for a television commercial for a local company.

This was actually brought to us from a commercial producer at a local TV station… the client was a long-time advertiser with them, but he felt they needed something much better than a television station could produce in house.

I said sure, we love to hear that, that’s what we do.

Then this guy (who works in the creative dept of the station, mind you) starts laying out his “must haves.” He had quite a list of things that were needed, including shooting at seven different locations in five different cities, various talent, plus insisting “And we definitely want it on 35mm film.”

To his credit, at least this guy did throw out a number before I wasted my time budgeting, when he said “And I think we could spend maybe even as much as $4,000.”

I put my pencil down.

Ah… so I explained we could gladly and easily concept a $4K production for him (we’ve even done plenty of $4K spots on 35mm), but it wouldn’t be that production.

And we did. We shot on HD, one location for about two hours, the spot was one carefully-choreographed continuous shot with VO and two non-speaking extras. It was actually a decent spot, and came in under $4K.

I never added it up, but that was probably a nine-tenths budget cut from their original idea.

Oh… and it still took us three months to get paid. I guess it was a good thing after all that the job was $4,000 and not $40,000.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Nick Griffin]

There’s really not a lot more to say here than to reiterate that this may not be a desirable, long-term client. Attempts to micro-manage the budget are almost always a danger sign and the main reason we routinely “black box” quotes by listing the items by groups (pre-production, production/shoot, post, duplication/distribution) with a sub-total for each.

We’re also fortunate enough to have one client in particular who calls us before a shoot to determine what we would like brought in for the lunches on shoot days. Perhaps this is mostly because they routinely do this when they bring their own customers in, but even so it shows a level of courtesy and respect that it most appreciated.

Also for out of town travel our per diem, which I believe is fairly standard is $50 for meals: $10 for breakfast, $15 for lunch and $25 for dinner.

[Mark Suszko]

A very important part of these negotiations is the “dance” of saying “no, but…” balanced against the desire to give the customer what he wants. Giving them what they actually NEED is more important, and to get to that stage, often requires very gently teaching the customer to really understand, what he or she is really asking for.

I think you can’t be afraid to say that something is unrealistic or more impractical than is advisable to pursue. But to survive that initial “no”, and turn things around, you need to have some ideas in your pocket to whip out as alternatives.

[Mark Suszko]

The most drastic cut I made was the time I told the client:

“I see my role as being your consultant, your advocate, to tell you what’s in the best interest of your goals and objectives – what would do the best job for YOU… Don’t make a video of this at all: what you need is a hypertext document – basically, make this text into a PDF file with links and photos – and it will do much more for you, more effectively, and much more cheaply. Your distribution will be wider, and you’ll save enough money that you can regularly update the thing and keep it fresh, whereas the video would be expensive to update, and will rapidly go stale.”

They thanked me for my candor, and for telling them what they needed, versus what would be most profitable for my office.

A more typical budget cut was to skip a day shooting in a very bad neighborhood, and just fake a kitchen scene in the studio using chromakey and some kitchen chairs from home.

[Richard Herd]

If you haven’t read this yet, you should.

https://library.creativecow.net/lindeboom_ron/clients_or_grinders/1