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Why Can’t My Thread … Got me wondering about this: Flipcams
Ok, back again for sort of a continuation of the Why Can’t MY Video Look This Good?
Question specific:
Customers seeing the “if it’s free it’s for me” rhetoric fitting their shooting needs simply because someone was there with a Flip Cam or some such, are starting to send in more footage acquired via very low grade flipcams (shaky of course) and asking if we can accommodate their “vision” of something.
Now, that said, we normally don’t go down that post path with folks, but it’s becoming more of an issue with less sitting in peoples budgets to do things. Corporate, and business, America seem to be wanting to use the army of paid shooters with cell phones and Flip cams rather than producing the high quality professional projects on a regular basis.
I’d like to get some input as to:
is it happening to you ?
How frequently is it happening?
and,
do you have an answer to circumventing this, or
what are you doing to try to accommodate these folks?Maybe this is not in the right column on the board, but it’s production and we’re Vegas based, and we’re all looking to keep our quality up as far as we can with what our markets will bear. (at least I’ve always been that way)
Regards, and I hope to hear some opinions and options.
JLIf it moves . . . Shoot it!
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3 Replies
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From my personal experience and ethics, i simply dont take
cheap work and inferior footage projects from customers anymore,
no matter what the condition is or how much that income would be
handy at the moment,etc…it always comes back to bite you…lolSteve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Maker
Filmex Creative Media.
1-876-832-4956
https://filmex-creative-media.blogspot.com/ -
I do tolerate user submitted footage, but only if it contributes to the end result. For example, I would include snippets from a phone or a hand held inferior camera for a high-school graduation DVD for ‘off the wall footage’, but would only do so if enhanced the end product in some way.
I also do back stage work for some theatre productions, and sometimes the crew get up to shenanigans when my camera is not around, so out comes my camera phone. Most people do not react to camera phones the same way they do for a ‘real camera’, and are likely to act naturally. I guess it is a case of making a judgement call as to whether including such footage adds value to the overall production. If it does not, leave it out.
I find it difficult to associate the delivery of high quality professional projects with cell phones and flipcams. Those words do not belong in the same sentence together 🙂
Whilst these devices can shoot in HD, such as the iPhone4, they are typically handheld (and wobbly), have lousy sound, contain massive amounts of picture noise in poor light, and pretty much run on auto for everything. Yuck!
They are a gadget gimmick IMHO.
My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6
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I agree with the “gadgets” comment.
That said though, I’m starting to see more and more of those kinds of files dropped on my lap (ok, desktop) and being heralded as the footage that we want you to make something out of.
Obviously there’s not much there, yet the clients are leaning more and more towards that. (At least around this low pv, production value area)
It is also getting harder to say no, while someone’s high school kid runs with the footage and hacks something together. I don’t know, times are getting harder and harder.
Thanks for the notes/replies.
If it moves . . . Shoot it!
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