Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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Animation codec is a “finishing” codec, i.e. it’s uncompressed, archival quality. What you need is a distribution codec that looks just as good but has a much lower datarate.
Try opening the Animation codec videos in Quicktime Pro, which is a mere $30 if you don’t already have it (comes free with FCP). Export the Animation codec videos from QT Pro (Export>Quicktime Movie), and click the options box. Set the video to h.264 codec, maximum quality, automatic keyframes and “current” frame size.
This will result in very high quality video that should play smoothly on your system. HD video compressed to h.264 can be indistinguishable from the original so it’s probably your best Quicktime-based option. If it still bogs your system down, try lowering the quality slider in very small increments until you get something that works.
Many people don’t realize it, but Quicktime Pro offers excellent compression quality/speed. it rivals most of the pricey third party compression tools I have tried, and for the price simply can’t be beat.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
First of all, AE is a horrible tool for outputting compressed files. It should only be used for outputting final master-quality files. As such, you shouldn’t export your SWF from there, but rather output an uncompressed video and use a different tool for the compression. More on that later.
Secondly, you shouldn’t be outputting a video to SWF unless you really mean to. If it’s video as in video footage and/or motion graphics, you should be outputting to FLV, Flash Video Format. The SWF format was solely designed to hold raster graphics, such as those created in Illustrator or Flash (think cartoons – everything is large, solid flat chunks of color). It does NOT support motion blur, video footage etc. and has a very specific use. If you need a SWF because it’s going on the web, FLVs are embedded into a web page in a very similar way and appear to the user as a SWF file, it’s just the “proper” format for flash-based video. Just about every video you see on the web (such as YouTube etc.) is an FLV, not a SWF.
There are a lot of free video converters out there that do FLV. Almost all of them allow you to crop the video prior to output, and this is the route I would suggest you go (unless you really HAVE to have a SWF file). You would open the oversized video you output from Premiere, set the cropping in the conversion program to what you need, and render out an FLV file. The best free converter I’ve used is the Riva FLV Encoder (ignore the reviews, most of those people don’t know what they’re doing and/or had totally false expectations). It’s a great program, spyware free and I’ve used it to convert many dozens of videos.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I’ve been seriously considering building a new Yelp-like web site where businesses can rate the experiences they have with their clients. If sites like Yelp are legal in terms of defamation law, I see no legal reason one couldn’t start a site where vendors can (perhaps anonymously) report clients who pay late, play games or otherwise aren’t worth dealing with. One check of the site and you’d know if that new client was a known grinder. It would save a lot of people some real losses, and it would probably keep some of these companies more honest if they knew their BS was public knowledge and will make it harder for them to find new vendors.
I have a few clients that are huge, well known and extremely wealthy corporations, yet they try to pay late (or not at all) and violate our contracts almost every time we work with them. Some of their employees, in a rare moment of honesty, have told us that management expects them to play games with vendors “just because.” If the vendor world knew what they were up to, some of these companies would never produce another video again until they changed their attitude.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I think it can be looked at another way, and there IS an upside to all of this.
First of all, we saw this coming – it’s a logical consequence and benefit of the low-cost video revolution which has taken place over the past 10 years. It’s how we handle the paradigm shift that matters. One thing that should be clear – none of us can or will survive simply because we offer video/multimedia production. It’s no longer a black art, and that’s just the way it is. Survival will require more than offering “quality” services, as well. As the budget revolution rolls on, full HD production quality will be a given within a few years, and will serve as the great equalizer among shops and freelancers alike. Adding to this, we’re seeing a lot of high quality, extremely creative and insightful work coming from younger and less experienced folks every day. Some of the smartest creative I’ve seen in years is coming from people with just a few years of experience. We’re lying to ourselves if we think our experience gives us some inherent advantage in creativity or quality. In fact, our experience really only benefits us when those hard lessons and insights are directly applied to our business model and approach. This, in my opinion, is the arena in which the survivors will be decided.
I think the only way to stay on top of this game is to specialize, offer something unique and think beyond the traditional offerings we’ve all leaned on for so long. It requires a fundamental rewrite of the standard production company model, and it requires that we all start being better, more tactical, more engaged businesspeople.
The company in that article has found a very unique way to capitalize on the reality of where video production currently stands, rather than where we wish it was. While it may offend us to see what they’re paying people and their sausage factory approach, bear in mind that they aren’t hiring people like us, and their product doesn’t rely on quality to be effective. They are hiring people who are fresh out of school or otherwise cannot find work, which is a GOOD THING. While it sounds pompous, you could liken them to McDonald’s, while traditional quality-focused studios are Ruth’s Chris. Does the latter fret over the practices of the former, or vice versa? Not one bit – they are different models, serving totally different customers and their employees represent two ends of the spectrum. There are so many new artists coming into the industry every day that we can’t hope to absorb them all, especially since many of them will require years of additional training before they can perform at the quality level you or I expect. Working for a company like the one in the article could serve as an excellent boot camp for those people, get them some experience and, most important of all, provide them with some much-needed perspective. More and more “green” artists are popping onto the scene with a horrific entitlement attitude, and having to start their career in video-mills may very well provide that much needed perspective that will make them more deserving, appreciative and effective artists.
Of much more significance, their business model perfectly captures a previously unaddressed market need (topically broad, video-based training that is free to the viewer) using a unique and clever model while perfectly harnessing the low-cost revolution. They are embracing the realities of modern video production and they are going to make a lot of money as a result.While we don’t have to race to the bottom, or even embrace low-cost video at all, we DO have to accept that new models are required to stay profitable and that the “video production company” is DEAD. Survival will almost certainly require adopting more complex, targeted and clever business models.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
To summarize the situation:
– Render out your project to Animation codec (full quality, millions of colors) or similar. Yes, the file will be huge, if it were tiny the quality would suffer tremendously. Big file = higher quality (usually).
– If the goal is to create a DVD that can be played back in DVD players, pull your huge file into your DVD authoring application and author a disc. Upon output, the DVD authoring program will automatically compress the video to fit on your DVD. The result is almost always very good, unless you tweak the authoring program’s output settings incorrectly and screw it up.
– If you need the actual Quicktime file on a disc, rather than an authored DVD, then you will instead need to open your huge Animation codec file with a program that compresses video – Quicktime Pro is a high quality and cheap option. Output a Quicktime movie with h.264 compression set to highest quality with automatic keyframes. The resulting file will fit on a standard DVD with tons of room to spare.
– As Dave mentioned, don’t use After Effects to output compressed video, ever. It’s just not made for that. Get used to outputting uncompressed/Animation codec videos that are huge and need further treatment for delivery to your audience. That’s the standard workflow, so best to get used to it now.
Good Luck!
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
No offense, but all you’re doing is sending a loud and clear message that this is acceptable behavior. In the end, when you run your business that way, MY ability to collect is harmed as well because you’ve set a low benchmark for what is acceptable. Over time clients learn that our industry allows such chicanery and even come to expect it. Why, then, would they EVER pay on time if they knew it was okay not to?
If industry standard practice was payment on delivery, then no client would have the impression it was ok to delay billing 90 days. You could argue that you would have to pass on work if your policies were so strict, but you’d be wrong. Again, if it were standard practice, they would have no alternative, and no reason to even think such delays were allowed. We have created this billing reality by allowing it to happen.
This industry suffers heavily from a lack of uniform standards and practices. Such is the case with any industry run by people who are technicians first, businesspeople second.
For the record, I am not aiming this post at any one person. This is an issue that comes up almost every week here on the Cow, and it’s clear that people are spending too much time being artists and not enough time being businesspeople. Until this dynamic changes a little, we will always be viewed as easy prey.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
This is an easy one to answer. Your contract should state that the entire unpaid balance is due before delivery of the final product. And yes, this works in conjunction with taking a 50% deposit. This way, they have money on the table they will not want to walk away from, and hence their willingness to pay at the end is much stronger. If for some reason the arrangement won’t allow for this setup, you can provide a heavily watermarked version until they pay, but we NEVER give the goods without pay.
As soon as the client gets what they want, their interest in paying will always “taper off” to put it nicely.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I’m no lawyer, but my understanding is that you would be within your right to withhold source tapes and project files until they pay, even if the contract says otherwise. The law clearly states that you cannot “sign away” legal rights through a contract, and any “illegal” provisions in a contract are unenforceable. You were performing services on a work-for-hire basis. Legally (even on a handshake agreement), without pay they haven’t held up their end of the contract and therefore do not “own” anything you did as a work-for-hire contractor. I am pretty sure any judge would side with you on this, ESPECIALLY since they have been deadbeat clients for months, which shows bad faith on their part.
As a side note, I simply must chastise you on several points. First, it sounds like you haven’t been very diligent in collecting on the account. If you had, they probably wouldn’t be making such bold demands. Point two, why in god’s name did you delete the project files, especially if their contract said the client owns “all property” at the end of the job? It’s not like they take up drive space. At some point, depending on the language of the contract, you are probably going to have to recreate all of those lost project files or face getting royally sued. And finally, you should not be doing business if you aren’t fully reading contracts and requesting modifications crucial to protecting your rights. For example, if you HAD read the contract you would know if it said they own everything regardless of whether or not they pay. Don’t ever work without a contract, and don’t take contracts lightly. They are, after all, legally binding.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I’m not sure that’s even possible. AE can use OpenGL for preview and final rendering, but I’ve never heard of it providing meaningful speed bumps simply because you can’t use “render multiple frames” at the same time as OpenGL final rendering. Therefore, it’s almost always a wash or a major speed decrease to do final renders with OpenGL.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
To my knowledge, the main difference between S and C corps is the so-called “double taxation” problem.
In an S-Corp, the business pays no taxes itself and all profits are reported on your personal tax return just like a sole prop. This means you pay full taxes + self-employment taxes on all profit whether you took it all home or left 3/4 of it in the business for growth, cash flow etc.. In other words, you are paying 28-33% tax rate plus 15% or so for SE tax on every dime in profit your company makes.
With a C-Corp, profits are taxed at the corporate level, which starts at 15% so it’s much lower than the personal tax rate. This means that you personally report and pay taxes only on your paycheck as an employee of the company, while all remaining profit is taxed at a lower level. The exception is if/when you take a disbursement as a company shareholder/owner – you would have to pay taxes on that as well, and they call it double-taxation even though that’s a little miseleading. It can be worked around by never taking disbursements and having a very high salary instead. You end up paying more in taxes in some ways, but that can be offset by the much lower taxes you pay on money left in the business.
In short, if you have profit sitting in your business bank account on December 31st, you will end up paying as much as 30% LESS tax as a C-Corp on that money than you would as an S-Corp.
State taxes are usually lower for S-Corps.
As for the meetings, you only have to meet once a year and keep good business records to avoid the “piercing of the corporate veil.” Both C/S corps are required to do it and it’s really not something to worry about.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com