Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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You are right to be nervous about color grading without any sort of monitor. Short answer? I wouldn’t do it. It would cost about $1,500 to get a Blackmagic Decklink card and a cheap-but-accurate (meaning, has blue gun etc. so you can calibrate it properly) broadcast monitor from B&H, and it would be worth every penny.
If this was shot on HDCAM and you are working with transfer houses, then clearly there is some money tied up in this project. It’s probably worth spending a little more dough to get it right, rather than risk it all in the 9th inning.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Aaron,
It’s true, a lot of people in this forum are managers or business owners (it IS the “business” forum) so maybe their view is a little slanted by that. BUT, all of these people started at the bottom and worked their way up. I have spent enough time in this forum to know that every single person replying to your post is an honest, hard working, kind employer who knows their sh*t and has walked the fire. I think that earns them a little room to call it as they see it.
That said, there is truth in some of these responses. As long as your employer is paying you for your time, and the work is within the job description agreed to when you were hired (i.e. editor/videographer) then there is no moral issue in asking you to work on whatever project they deem fit. This is especially true if there is no profit sharing situation, as this means there is no financial reason for you to be upset. Outside of that, it seems you are upset because you only want to work on higher-profile gigs. It is not an employer’s responsibility to provide fun, career-boosting projects for the personal pleasure and advancement of their team. It is only their duty to keep everyone gainfully employed, and since you have stated several times the shop is up to its eyeballs in paid work, your bosses seem to be doing their job.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
My brother and I started our production company about 5 years ago with $5,000 cash, a Panasonic dvx100a and that’s about it. We’ve never borrowed a dime from any outside source, have been in the black since closing out our first year, and have doubled our revenue every year since opening our doors five years ago. We’re lean and frugal and have learned to make more with less, and I’m supremely thankful for that now when I see our profit margins.
You don’t need $110,000 worth of gear to start a production company, especially if it’s a smaller, non-broadcast niche. You just don’t. For post, get two mac pros with FCP/Adobe products, and you’re looking at $15,000. Rather than buy, rent your video gear on a shoot-by-shoot basis. Think this sounds silly? So does going bankrupt while sitting on a pile of pretty gear that, like all technology products, is worth half what you paid for it.
You also don’t need $50,000 worth of advertising, building space, pencils, phones etc. You can, contrary to the egoncentric’s guide to start-up mythology, start smaller and grow once your revenue proves you’ve earned the right.
In fact, the more you borrow and spend now, the less likely you will survive beyond year two as a company, because you completely lose the ability to weather slow months. And trust me, you WILL be weathering some slow months – not just because of the sagging (crashing) economy, but because it takes a few years for any production company to get really established and keep the phones ringing. Even after a few years, slow times are part of the production game.
No doom and gloom here, but seriously – you do not want to find yourself choosing whether to pay your rent/employees OR pay the many thousands of dollars to service your various loans. The fancy workstations you lease will always be a financial noose in slow times – drawing no income, large monthly debt payments, total inability to sell them in a real pinch. It’s almost like having an adjustable rate mortgage loan in today’s real estate market.What you DO need, as Ron pointed out, is a willingness to do anything it takes to make it happen, and it would be wise to at least consider working with the money and resources you already have, aka bootstrap it. For the record, 90% of Fortune 500 companies were started with little or no outside funding.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Use the Pan-Behind tool (looks like a crosshairs target) to move the center-point of the layer. If you have an existing animation on the layer, changing the center-point can adversely affect this.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
If you have many layers that make up one element of your project, try rendering them out as a group to an Animation code Quicktime and replacing their usage in your comps with the movie file. This can help substantially, and is especially true of any layers/animation with 3d layers, lights etc. which tend to bog AE down in large comps.
Other than that, most tactics for improving perfomance are best done before you begin, because trying to retool your project once it’s underway can be more time than it’s worth.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Mark,
I totally agree with your comments about stealing mindshare while all your competitors are hiding out. I feel the exact same way. Most companies seem to think they are keeping their powder dry when they reel in the marketing, but when you are short on customers why would you EVER stop trying to attract new ones? It’s nonsense, but it seems to be the conventional wisdom in terms of recessionary posture.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Unfortunately, there are way too many variables for anyone to honestly and accurately tell you how to “get the sale.” Here’s some examples:
1. Prospect’s Attitude
– Prospect is skeptical of the value your service will bring (in terms of ROI)
– Prospect is skeptical of you
– Prospect is on board, but has an army of mid-high level mgrs. to convince
– None of the above, Prospect just needs some prodding2. Prospect’s Budget
– Economy has caused budget to wither
– Budget is there, but a question of how much
– Huge budget, but client will only work with top-tier provider3. Perception
– Prospect loves you, but other issues are in the way
– Prospect is skeptical that you can get the job done
– Prospect doesn’t feel your value proposition is strong enoughObviously this list could go on and on. YOUR job is to discover what is holding the client back from saying yes, and address those concerns. If you have any sort of dialogue with the prospect, you should be able to ask, straight up, what their objections are and then address them, one by one, until there is no valid reason left for the prospect to say no.
In fact, a successful salesperson will need to think through the myriad objections a prospect might have, in advance, and develop prefabricated responses to those objections so she isn’t caught without an answer in a client meeting. In order to do this, you need to do some solid SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) and compare yourself against the competition. This requires a high level of honesty on your part or you might miss the reality of your standing amongst your competitors. Once you’ve done this, view the results through a prospect’s eyes and see where you stand, and what needs to be addressed.
You also need to do a more general analysis of what your prospects are going through, what are THEIR SWOTs, and address those head on. For example, in this economy many, many businesses are concerned about their survival. Marketing budgets are almost always the first to go when a company pulls in the tentacles and hibernates through an economic winter, so that is a major issue you will need to overcome. Showing raw, undeniable value and return on investment is key to getting these companies to play ball in these times. Every prospect will face their own unique challenges based on their industry, client-base, the overall economy, technological advances etc. Know your prospect’s business, and address their unique needs directly. They will see you as “in tune” with their particular situation and it will put you head and shoulders above the competition.
Even if you do an excellent job as a sales person, bear in mind that the sales cycle on high-dollar, B2B sales is long. No getting around that, it’s just much harder to separate a company from many thousands of dollars than it is to convince a consumer to buy an iPod. My experience is that most jobs can take up to 2 months to close.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I love it when software companies bundle useful third party effects/applications as value-added freebies. When Apple added Color to Final Cut Studio for free, that saved a lot of people $25,000. While Mocha is only $150 or so, that’s still a nice little addition, just like Keylight was.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
What size are you working in (SD, PAL, HD etc.)?
Are any/many of the layers set to 3d layers? if so, are you using After Effects lights and cameras?
What dimensions are the layers you are working with? As in, are many of your layers larger than 1,000×1,000 pixels?
What types of layers? Are there more than a few video layers?
All these questions lead to one thing – 95 layers is quite a few, especially on a machine with 2GB RAM and an older version of AE, and I am assuming your source materials are on your single internal hard drive or a single external drive, which is also going to choke on that much material at one time. If many of these layers are video, are very large stills (bigger than 1,500×1,500) or are in 3d space, you are going to bog down very quickly and might need to make some adjustments to your workflow. Your render times are going to get quite hideous as well.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Maybe I’m missing something in your workflow that would prevent this, but the easiest way is to just duplicate the footage layer, remove keylight (since it won’t be used inside your masks anyway) and create the inside masks needed.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com