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Waiver for technology shortcomings?
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[Sebastian Alvarez] “I do understand very well that even if in theory the technical malfunction is not your fault, the customer will always see it as your fault.”
Grrrr… and that customer is right. It IS is your fault. Well, maybe not your actual fault, but certainly your responsibility.
Going back a loooong way to your very original question, “is it customary for small event videographers to give the customer some kind of waiver for certain technology shortcomings…?”
Short answer, “No.”
Slightly longer answer, “No, absolutely not”
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[walter biscardi] “In the world of professional videography and production, $1,400 is VERY inexpensive. At $8,000, the Sony EX-1 and EX-3 cameras are VERY inexpensive.”
To me, $1400 is very expensive, $8000 is out of the question. So we’re talking about different types of companies here. You’re comparing an events’ videographer to production companies with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, or should I say millions?. Perhaps this forum was intended for that type of company and I’m just wasting my time here because I just want to start my own very small business. Perhaps I should find a forum for people who are in a similar situation to mine and come back to this forum when hopefully several years from now I will have a production company and then the latest Sony holographic professional camera at $250,000 will seem like a cheap bargain to me.
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[Ron Lindeboom] “Me, I’d call the bride and tell her that I had a great idea for the video that I would like to stage to get a close-in shot of the kiss and would she mind putting on her dress one more time to get the kiss.”
Could work for a wedding, not so much for, let’s say, a school play. If it’s a school play, you can pray that it’s not the last performance and you can go back to re-tape. If it’s a corporate conference on something important, chances are you’re screwed.
[Ron Lindeboom] “These are the tricks that a pro uses and they cost you time to cover your tracks when you were too cheap to do what you should have done in the first place.
Give ’em what they want or don’t charge them. I can’t say it any clearer.”
Yeah, I’m seeing that definitely it was a mistake posting in this forum. Goodbye.
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[Sebastian Alvarez] “To me, $1400 is very expensive, $8000 is out of the question. So we’re talking about different types of companies here. You’re comparing an events’ videographer to production companies with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, or should I say millions?.”
Nope, I’m comparing you who wants to start a new production company and myself who started a production company in 2001. When I started this company I owed $50,000 to a partner for a partnership gone bad and I needed another $30,000 to purchase a broadcast quality system so I could freelance on my own.
I could have spent a lot less for a much simpler Final Cut Pro system, but it had to be broadcast quality, and I was starting with absolutely zero equipment. So I needed the FCP system, the BetaSP recorder, the broadcast tv monitor, good quality audio monitors, a desk, client chair, etc…. So I started $80,000 in the hole in 2001 and now have a company that is essentially debt free because we make all our deadlines and I have spent money wisely to grow our company’s capabilities to meet our ever growing client needs.
So no, we’re not talking millions of dollars in the least. We’re talking about building a company from the ground up from absolute zero.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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[Sebastian Alvarez] “Perhaps I should find a forum for people who are in a similar situation to mine and come back to this forum when hopefully several years from now I will have a production company and then the latest Sony holographic professional camera at $250,000 will seem like a cheap bargain to me.”
Sebastian,
i think you keep dwelling on the ‘scale’ as a somehow mitigating factor…
Somebody pays you to do something. Your equipment fails.
If you know that the shoot went bad, it’s probably best to inquire with the client to see if they want you to edit it, instead of editing it for free, but not telling them there is a problem until you’re done editing is a good way to waste some time potentially.
If your technology can’t be counted on, it isn’t good enough to hire out.
Trucking companies don’t get paid if the freight gets there late, it doesn’t matter if a load of roofing nails spilled onto the highway through no fault of the driver and the truck got all flat tires…
You get a pat on the back for effort…people only write checks for results.
Bottom line.
Ten, a hundred, a million dollars…it’s all the same deal.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
Sebastian,
If a technical issue, such as your example of the tape glitch happens, you simply do the best you can. If you did everything you would reasonably do to avoid the glitch, it’s simply a sunk cost.Be honest with the client and without making excuses, offer a few alternate solutions. Ron gave a great example of how he might salvage missing the wedding kiss with some creating thinking and wisdom in post.
As a client, I’d certainly reject a contract that gave the videographer an out for “reasonable” technical issues, simply because any other professional videographer would take responsibility. That’s what the money is for – accepting responsibility to get the job done… and then getting it done.
If (or when) get into a situation where a technical issue will affect your product, just put yourself in your client’s shoes and figure out what makes it right for them. Sometimes, it’s a combination of a partial refund and some post production magic. Sometimes it’s a full refund along with the best product you can make with what you have. Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do to really “make it right”.
Putting language in a contract that absolves what most of us here agree is “normal” risk and responsibility probably wouldn’t help even if you could get people to sign it. The only time a videographer would need to reference that clause would be if something bad happened, and they couldn’t “eat the cost” of making things right for the client. In that situation, rather than fighting about something beyond their control, they should be focusing on mitigating further damage to their reputation – and that kind of clause doesn’t do that.
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A friend of mine has a client contract that he never wavers from. In there, it states that he is in no way responsible if ANYTHING technical goes wrong. In almost 30 years, he has exercised that exclusion 4 times, twice for bad tapes, once for a horrible sound recording on a bride’s wireless mic and once for a camcorder simply crapping out. Because these were low budget shoots, there was no second unit for safety.
Last year, I shot something for an out of town client with our Sony F-900 camera (F-900s cost over $100k). When the client got back to Pittsburgh, the recording on the tape was useless, or so he said. He sent it back. It was jumpy everywhere. Sony looked at it and could not determine the cause except they said that the camera might have caused it. They also said that it could have been the tape deck that they put it in. Every time we had a break, I reviewed the previous footage and it played just fine. I did not process the $2000 invoice. Ouch!
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD . -
This thread’s development is all too familiar. Someone posts a question. Then when the responses do not fit the expected answer of the original questioner, the conversation diverges. It is similar to asking, “What is better, Premiere or FCP?” Such a vague question will get a storm of answers but it is a question that cannot be answered. As Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, it depends upon a “certain point of view.”
In other words, Sebastian, the consensus of this thread seems to be that the answer to your original question is “No.” Perhaps you were looking for someone to say “yeah, have them sign a waiver, then you are covered” but that is not too common in my experience. Equipment malfunctions, even if properly maintained, which is why I said in my earlier post – if shooting something that cannot be redone, like a wedding, heart transplant or whatever, have a backup camera. If you are charging typical wedding rates, you should be able to rent a 2nd camera for $200 from your local rental house for the weekend without losing your house.
Good luck, and thanks for seeking the advice of the very seasoned people on this board. We all have the best of intentions.
Mike Cohen
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Sebastian,
It sounds like what you’re looking for is similar in nature to the disclaimers offered by satellite and cable companies for failure to deliver their product (programming). They bear no liability for things like equipment failure, acts of God, etc., meaning if you don’t get your WWE Raw then you can’t sue them. This might help explain why Dish, DirecTV, AT&T U-verse, et.al. have such shoddy customer service.
What you’re bound to do as a professional is provide someone a promised product for an agreed-upon fee. No ifs, ands, or buts. I have worked in TV and corporate video for nearly 30 years, and I can tell you that, no matter how much money you spend on equipment, something’s gonna break. And it doesn’t matter if it’s the best equipment in the world or something you picked up at First Saturday on the sidewalk. If the customer doesn’t get what you promised them, it’s your fault. You can put as many disclaimers in your contract as you want, absolving you from fault should something break, but if I was the customer I’d go find someone who was more confident in their equipment. And confidence in equipment translates into confidence in abilities – and that’s what customers are paying for as much as the final product. If you’re not comfortable with the gear you’re using, then your client will see that, and they won’t be comfortable with you.
If it means taking out a small business loan to buy some more reliable (read: expensive) equipment, then do that. But don’t highlight your potential shortcomings with a “technology waiver.” (On the flip side, if you buy more expensive gear, you can charge more to amortize the cost. But your skills still have to say you’re worth it.)
Sorry to be so blunt, but you don’t stick around long in this business by being anything less than forthright – with your customer, and with yourself.
“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” — Robert Heinlein
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