[Bob Bonniol]

ABSOLUTELY know what your targets do, who the principals are, and what your service is going to bring. I get 5 to 10 cold calls a month from folks who want to work for us. I’ll bet if 10 call, then 9 DO NOT know what my business does, which is an IMMEDIATE disqualifier.

SO hunt for targets, but then educate yourself, take your presentation to the next level with preparation…

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Yeah good luck with any of that… NO label, I repeat NO label will EVER grant you any cut of any music video revenue. Or bonus materials. Or DVD production (anymore). Forget it. Monthly, I sit across the desks of every label commissioner, presidents, chairman, whatever, all the time… They shrug their shoulders, grimace, and tell me how much they love my work, but there’s just no money…

They will move on to the next candidate. They will in fact make YOU sign stacks of paperwork giving everything to them, and releasing them from all responsibility. I’m working my way through a Warner contract now… The usual thing.

The bottom has totally dropped out of the music video market. Same on the bonus materials/EPK/Doc side of things. SUPER Expensive music videos are getting budgets of $30k to $50k… Wicked rare, and fought over by people like Nigel Dick and Wayne Isham (super heavy weights). Most music videos are getting done for under $15k… Sometimes more like $5k.

Hell, even live multi-cam budgets are dropping in the dumper. We’ve done three big multicam gigs this year. One happened for around $250k (big name band, still a total ‘scrape by’). The next happened for $50k (8 HD cameras… couldn’t afford a truck there… used a decent fly pack… Think we ‘banked’ MAYBE $5k on that gig… it was a favor…) The third one happened for $30k. AFTER we bagged on trying to produce the multi cam part and just accomplished the Production Design. That was a MAJOR PBS piece !!

Here’s some advice: Don’t even try the music biz these days. Not unless you are ready to operate at super guerrilla levels, scrape by, and certainly with NO expectation of ongoing revenue. It IS a time of opportunity if you are smart about figuring out where the clients are (and I might add that aint the labels so much anymore)…

Good Luck…

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Well… Like I do from time to time… Some devil’s advocacy here:

Why was it the graphic designer’s responsibility to keep the active files ? We’re talking MONTHS gone by here right ?

Sometimes hard drive failure happens. A business operating on thin margins may be doing the right (and costly thing) of off site redundant backup… Or maybe they aren’t.

I don’t unless you pay me. Now I make that easy for clients by not giving them an option to refuse. I build in the charge for the redundant external drives, one of which goes in the closet, the other of which goes to the storage space. Projects that are deemed likely to continue (or clients that actually engage us to maintain their media) also get the courtesy of scheduled drive spin ups, and media migration.

But I have plenty of sub contractors who do work for me, and I DO NOT COUNT ON THEM to harbor my media. I take on that responsibility. Some of my best people are like savants… They can whip up fly shiz all day long, but can’t organize their way out of a paper bag… Here’s my harsh judgement: Where’s YOUR backup ? Did you REALLY buy graphics work from somebody and NOT get some form of mastering format ?

If you were coming back with creative notes within the month, maybe even within 60 days, I’d say you might have some reasonable expectation of them keeping it on hand… Beyond that and holding a person responsible is dicey.

Besides it sounds like this guy maybe suffered some “force majeur”…

All of that aside, If I was the dude, I’d try to cut you SOME kind of rate, if only to keep the relationship intact.

Best,

Bob

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Uh… How do you do that ?

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

I guess I can’t argue really effectively against a richr user experience. There are definitely going to be people that use it. And of course it’s all right to not to (for people who are already crazy busy around here… like most of the forum leaders).

My concern is more about the egalitarian sharing of info that is the result of no back channel. When people are just tackling questions in private friend threads, the wider base doesn’t derive the potential benefit of that knowledge share.

Of course there are plenty of other reasons that these features could be good. The wonderful, amazing vibrancy of this community, it’s growth, and the general success have all derived, I think, from this core value of open knowledge share and reduction of boundaries between experts and novices… Or even between experts and experts. If there is the potential for friend features to result in the formation of informational cliques then that might be counter productive.

I hope the collective ‘we’ who are the developers and leaders on the site will watch and modulate the implementation of the feature to safeguard this phenomenal informational balance…

Bob

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Tyler,

It seems from your recent post that you are in the learning phase… I see now that your ultimate END goal is to edit features or television, but you are at the beginning of that curve.

First, know that knowledge is everywhere. But it’s especially here, all over the place, so search and utilize tools like the cow.

You must know that your development needs to be multi-fold. You will need to continue to acquire knowledge of the tools; how to use them; what’s the right technique; where is development taking that stuff; and how does it all work together. At the same time you need to develop knowledge of process. This can be glimpsed in abstract studies (i.e. reading about it), but nothing replaces doing it. I suggest you go find yourself an internship in a local Production company, or post production facility. Perhaps the most valuable thing you might gain from that experience might not be in spending your internship watching the editor, but instead trailing and helping the people around who are producing the gigs, or managing projects. You need to understand what the map of production looks like, how and WHY things happen when they do, who is who… It leads directly to another subject you need to learn and develop: Political aptitude. In this business, even at the lowest possible denominator so much is defined by how we work the system. The system being the people, circumstances, and situations in which we find ourselves having to create. There’s as much political manuevering and tactics at play in the world of production as there is at a congressional party caucaus. You have to know that you HAVE TO KNOW who the players are locally, within the company, that are working around you, that are working where you want to go, and then you have to know their circumstances. Oh god, it’s all just scratching the surface… In any case: Become a student of the human condition. And use what you discover to become wiser in the application of your own actions.

Then: Art. To be a true jedi at all of this you have to be a ceaseless student of it. You have to be an enthusiast of the form you work, and ideally of as many other forms as you can pack in. You need to inform your own technique with context. Context is built from observing form and function all around you, but also in searching it out everywhere… In museums, in film, in the streets, in architecture, in literature, in history. You have to become a story teller. You have to read the Hero With a Thousand Faces…

You MIGHT think about attending more schooling. Many choose to hone their craft and to make the kind of exposures I’m talking about happen by going to grad school. Being in academia brings you into contact with many interesting memes that you will never otherwise run into. It can shape you as an artist. It can also make you part of an inherent network of people who attended, are attending, or will attend that program. The old boy network goes a long way in getting gigs, particularly if you have done your schooling somewhere like USC, UCLA, CalArts, NYU, etc…

FOr some school is not it, and that is OK. But in that case you have to fashion your own life long process for constantly being knowledgeable, clever, witty, wise, compelling, and commanding. This is demanded of all creatives. Then you must apply yourself also to your craft.

So for you: Think about that stuff I said… But make your way up locally first. See if you can successfully infiltrate the food chain in the comfort of familiar territory. View it as a training exercise. If you can carve a niche for yourself in your area, then maybe you can do it for yourself in the big game. Along the way make sure to learn as much as you can about everybody who has intersected your path in a project. Get out there and know what a camera can do. Understand the fundamntals of good lighting. Study audio and it’s unbelievable power to make something that looks good, feel great. Study actors, performers, subjects. Become an expert in the patterns of speech, of the drama of conevrsation.

And for god’s sake if you can’t dance, then figure it out, because you have GOT to have rhythm.

Good luck,

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Any semi major market is going to have some gig flow… Seattle’s really tight right now. There are the big guns in town: Digital Kitchen, Flying Spot… a few others… Lots of dudes hanging desperately on to jobs. Used to be TONS of corporate up here, but it’s really dried up.

If you don’t mind mid size cities, Nashville’s got a ton of music industry work… Both Carolinas have a fairly active production scene… Vegas of course. Depends on what kind of work you want to do

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Hey Bob… Whoa. Touchy about this ?

I’ll just toss this highly incendiary log onto the fire: The world of mass market and mass marketing media is changing. Totally. So suddenly there’s a TON of people out there who were in diapers when you (and I) were already masters of our universes; and they are defining new methods of production and distribution that are demolishing the old edifices.

Read story after story about clever folks who make something compelling and viral, put it on YouTube, and BAM they are landing clients and making money.

Suddenly successful marketing of media savvy might have a whole lot more to do with creating clever little 8-bit looking light brite signs, hanging em’ all over Boston, and precipitating a police incident, then it does with knowing what who or how about editing systems or camera crap (confused ? Check out the marketing effort’s for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim). Think big media isn’t changing ? Go talk to somebody at a major record label or network who isn’t trying to figure out WTF is going on and how they can stay viable in the market… Go talk to Michael Eisner about how creating web based media for next to nothing is trumping what Disney did… Check out Mark Cuban’s bank balance as he pays people who are shooting in consumer HDV to churn content for his HD enterprises… Check out how MAJOR consumer entities are actually creating ad campaigns based on user submitted stuff on their websites.

I’m not disagreeing with you about the entitlement thing… I know plenty of Noobs who think they should graduate college, do an FCP tutorial, and then commence work with Spielberg… Har. BUT, the price of entry into the majors, both in actual specie and in experience, isn’t at all what it was when we started. These days, somebody with talent, motivation, and a PC, can actually create clever things, get them in front of powerful people, and leap many stairs on the way up.

I wrestle with this in a philosophical sense constantly. But reality seems to be showing that everything we all knew about distribution, creation, and sale of media is changing radically. The only thing I seem to know for certain anymore is that nothing is certain.

Peace out man…

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Well… If the epsidodes are High Definition, I’d be stunned if you couldn’t sell them to Mark Cuban’s HD network. They buy just about any HD content they can find. They don’t really pay very well, but…

Your production values are pretty great (I went and looked)… Espisode format is click and well done… You might also check TLC and Discovery Networks… They can be hard to market to though. The more viable route can be to market to the production companies that feed these networks. Tiger Aspect sells Extreme Trains to Discovery, and they syndicate documentary style shows globally. Original Productions is the king daddy in this sector: they do Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, Monster Garage… Then there’s Original Media (don’t confuse them)… They do LA Ink, Miami Ink, some others… Here’s the thing to do: Research the kind of shows that are similiar to yours. Find out what networks broadcast them absolutely… But maybe better is to find out what Production Companies actually produce them… Then go pitch those production companies.

Good Luck.

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Bob Bonniol]

Ummm… What Grinner means is that $65 an hour to edit a broadcast TV thing or feature film is CHUMP CHANGE. The only people you’d ‘know’ who would pay you $65 an hour in LA are the one’s looking for an extreme deal… And if you don’t know what you’re doing in that market, than you never got the gig to begin with. People who get jobs because they ‘know’ people get gigs that include Production Assistant, or “Assistant To (fill in name of somebody important here who warrants a glam squad)”, or the ubiquitous (and meaningless) Associate Producer credit.

$65 an hour outside LA or NYC for middle of the road editing is not a terrible rate. BUT, (and please go check out the forum on Business for more good guidance), if you were to total up the $$ you spent on your gear, your software, your portable media, your insurance, your space rental, power, phone, ISP, etc… Amortize that out over a year… Add in what you think you’re worth: I bet you’d be surprised to see it comes out to more than $65 an hour. Maybe even way more. The killer editors I know in LA, working on features or broadcast, rarely make less than $125 an hour. Some of them make A LOT more than that. I really don’t know any that make less. Let me be clear: That’s working on feature film and broadcast. There’s plenty of editorial work (corporate, non-broadcast branding, music video, EPK stuff, etc) that pays less than that in LA or NY. Those gigs are also more easy to find. For many features, you can forget editing unless you are a member of the ACE (American Cinema Editors… The Editors Union). Getting into the ACE demands a lot of focus, dedication, getting the coffee, and late, late nights of logging and notating.

One of the doors that’s really open in LA and NY right now is working in the music industry for labels and artist management. Budgets are totally demolished right now for media produced by the music industry, so a bunch of that work has migrated in house, or is being tossed to the lowest bid possible. It is NOT a way to make money, or even to survive for long, BUT it does get you into the scene, adds legit cred to your reel, and exposes you to the pool of people who are trying to climb the directorial ladder. Latching on to a director who’s upwardly mobile is always good.

So much to say on this topic, and so much that’s already been said… You should search for other posts on this, there’s been a bunch. One final bottom line: You CANNOT get a gig in NYC or LA without being there… You can send reels and make cold calls until you are blue in the face. First question from anybody will be “Are you here in town ?” If the answer is no, then the next thing you’ll hear is either “call me when you move here” or dial tone. To play the game you have to be IN the game (I said this on another thread recently).

So save your money, as much as you can, pack your stuff, and GO. You’ll never know if you can do it unless you go and try.

Good luck,

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader