Chris Blair
Forum Replies Created
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We’ve actually experienced a similar situation…and gotten screwed. In our scenario, an ad agency came to us to create a graphics package for a television campaign for one of their clients. The client previously had low-end “yell and sell” spots. The promise was that if we did the job for X amount of money, we’d get all the future production, which was substantial…typically at least every two weeks.
We agreed. We shot video for a couple of days, did a couple days of graphic layouts and a couple more of compositing and design, then edited the first series of spots.
The campaign was well-received. The client loved the higher-end look and everyone was seemingly happy. The ad agency assured us more business since everybody was happy.
Months go by and no more calls….but we DO notice NEW spots on the air for the client. LOTS of them. These had NEW graphics and animations that look exactly like our design. This ad agency also had an agreement when you shot video that they owned the tapes and footage. No big deal…lots of people do that. But we also see our nicely lit and shot footage used in these new spots. Much of it footage previously not used in the initial campaign but shot for future use.
The ad agency came to us to get the nice design promising future work…then once they got the templates designed and the video nicely shot, they took it all to the local cable company and asked them to “copy” the look and continue the campaign at, you guessed it, probably half what we charge. They even submitted the campaign in the local Addy awards and listed the cable company as the production company! You guessed it. It won in it’s category.
So my advice is beware. Ad agencies are not high on my list of reputable companies. Many of them will do literally anything to put 100 more dollars into their pockets on a project. If it means abandoning a production company, so be it. They’ll do it. So charge full rates and then some. If there are rush gigs, charge time and a half. Require them to give you a certain amount of notice for booking or a certain amount of time to complete a new template. Don’t assume just because you’ve done the work in the past, they’ll come to you for it in the future.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Funny, but we’ve done this several times for a very large health care company in our area as well. We did it to land the account in 2005, and have done it 2 or 3 other times for larger budget spots in campaigns.
But I agree with others that storyboarding can be both a huge benefit, or a curse. We’ve done storyboards for pitches that deteriorated into long discussions about things like:
“we don’t want the guy in our spot to have mustache like the guy in the boards…he CANNOT have facial hair…”
or
“Are you going to use those still photographs or will you shoot new photos of our people?”
or
“The logo doesn’t look right.”
I could go on for days about how showing some clients storyboards actually caused the idea to devolve! Not to mention creating nice storyboards can be very time-consuming and clients HATE paying for it!
I typically draw stick-figure or rough-sketch (I draw well enough) storyboards for my own use prior to complex shoots.
VERY nice spot by the way. Love the use of foreground elements and depth of field. Exactly what I try to do on larger budget shoots.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I haven’t tried it, but according to Blackberry’s site, most of their phone models should play H264 content. We have a crapload of H264 iPhone videos on our website, so I’ll test them on a co-worker’s blackberry and report back.
Here’s the link to what a Blackberry can allegedly play sorted by phone model:
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
We do a lot of compression and we’ve tried all sorts of pricing for it. What we’ve settled on is the following:
$50 setup fee for up to 10 videos.
$35 encoding fee for each codec/format of EACH video up to 10 minutes long.. Additional pixel sizes or data rates for the SAME video CODEC are $5 per.
Videos longer than 10 minutes get a $2 per minute additional charge above 10. So a 60 minute video would be a $50 setup fee and $135 to encode. This is basically what we would charge for editing for an hour so if it ties a suite up for an hour or hour and a half, then we’ve made a decent amount of money. But that said, we usually encode overnight or on non-edit suite systems.
So if someone has 15 videos to encode to H264 and FLV, there would be two $50 setup fees, and 30 charges of $35 because they’re encoding to 2 different codecs/formats.
If they wanted 15 videos encoded to H264 but at two data rates/pixel sizes, then it would be the same setup fees, but 15 x $35 for the initial compression, and 15 x $5 for the additional size/data rate versions.
Why the reduced charge you might ask? Because the software encodes faster to the same codec/format on multiple encodes than it does to different codecs. It can usually do both versions in one pass, whereas it would have to do one pass for an H264, and then another for FLV. Not to mention the differences in encoding time when you’re doing single pass versus multi-pass encoding.
Craig brings up all the same points I was going to bring up about the time it takes to get compression done correctly. While we have presets, you cannot rely on them for every type of video, especially depending on the quality and source of the original. We usually spend about 30-60 minutes prepping, running short tests and watching encodes before actually running a job. We also often test them on a website to check for streaming performance.
We also use software that allows us to do encodes in batches and add filters and such right during the encode. So if we need to encode a 10 minute video to H264/MP4, WMV and FLV, we can do it in one encoding pass. If you have to do it in several passes, then you might want to charge more.
Compressing video well is time-consuming and involves one part science, one part art, and one part voodoo to deal with all the quirks in formats and codecs. You need to charge accordingly.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’ve traveled several times recently and carried on a full-size Panasonic camera body with the lens & viewfinder taken off. I put the camera body and lens in a medium size backpack with padding that stays with me, the viewfinder is with some other gear in a hard plastic pelican case that’s checked.
On some of the puddle jumpers they’ve tried to check it at the gate, but I just tell them it’s a broadcast camera and I need to keep it with me. A couple gate agents and stewardesses on these smaller planes have gotten a little curt with me, but once they see it fits under the seat in front of me, they’re fine with it.
I’ve also put the strap that comes with the camera on just the body and carried it on that way, with the lens in a smaller bag that easily fits under the seat. Again…no problems.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’m not sure if this would work in a Mac environment (it should), but all of our backups are done to a LaCie 4TB ethernet appliance like this:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539234-REG/LaCie_301300U_4TB_Ethernet_Hard_Disk.html
It has an embedded operating system and is essentially a server/ethernet storage device all in one. LaCie has 6 and 8TB models as well. It’s hard to beat the prices on them too. Ours has been rock solid as a backup device since we bought it in Feb 2008. It’s run 24/7 since then with not a single hiccup or read/write problem.
It’s simply plugged into our ethernet switch and is simple to set up (I set it up myself). It just shows up to a windows network as another computer on the network.
Once it’s setup (it took about 30 minutes), there’s virtually nothing to configure, nothing to fuss with. The only problem we’ve had is that when the power goes out, it turns off sharing with the network. It takes about a minute to go into the GUI (via an IP address) and turn it back on.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
You’re welcome. But I’ll warn you that setting it up and coding it isn’t for the meek or a novice.
Using this method is however well worth it if your videos are long-format and if video is a big part of your website…especially if you can’t affort true streaming.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
There is also some coding that can be done using server side scripting (e.g. PHP, ASP, etc.), coupled with using specific types of HTTP servers that can allow HTTP streaming to emulate RTSP/RTMP streaming.
It’s not instantaneous when you seek, but it will only buffer what’s needed to being playing from the position you place the playhead. Meaning it does not have to download everything up to the point you place the playhead. So it’s a good compromise.
You need a Flash Player that supports this as well. Here’s some info about it:
https://www.longtailvideo.com/support/tutorials/HTTP-Video-Streaming
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Tim Wilson: ESPN will have to have 2 crews on hand for all of these events – one 2D, one 3D….My point is that, at exactly the point there’s widespread acceptance that this is for real, is exactly the point that people will stop paying extra for anything but the TV set.
I think 3D is pretty cool when done well. But from a strictly business point of view, how will they every make money off this?
The question for me is, “they’d need two full crews for how long in the foreseeable future?” I can’t imagine how long it would take to create cameras and switchers and all the hundreds of pieces of equipment it takes to produce live TV that can generate images that can be both 2D and 3D using one set of equipment.
With HD there will come a point where they only need 1 crew (if they’re not already there) for most if not all events. I love new technology and new ideas, but I can’t imagine this would achieve widespread adoption.
We’ve tried some 3D movies and video games at home with lukewarm results. Similar hookup to Ron’s (and I agree upconverted DVDs look virtually identical to blu-ray). Coraline was the exception. It’s amazing. Most of the other stuff was…well “yawn.”
Heck…I can’t stand the sound effects Fox uses when they do football highlights on Sunday NFL…not to mention how Howie and Terry and Jimmy butcher highlight descriptions. I don’t think 3D will make me watch those bozos.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Philip Imbrenda: I was of the understanding that these blogs were to help educate one another, not criticize.
I don’t think anything I wrote was critical of anyone, especially the excerpt from your blog. Many people on these forums agree with what you wrote and subscribe to the “cut the grinder loose” philosophy. I’m just not one of them.
I’m pretty sure no one can claim that this philosophy is the de facto way to run a business of any size. It probably works for some people, and not others.
What good would these forums be if everyone agreed with everyone? How would that expand our understanding of our industy and promote different points of view?
I simply disagreed with the notion that cutting loose the big offenders is simply smart business. That’s not an indictment of you, your opinions or the way you run your business. It’s simply another point of view for people to consider who are interested in thread.
We’re all adults here and disagreeing with someone should not be mistaken for criticism. I’ve been disagreed with MANY times on these and other forums. I’ve even been criticized on them. I rarely if ever call the other people out for that. Most of the time I simply argue my side and in the end, agree that we disagree and believe everyone is smarter for seeing different points of view.
The larger point is that burnout is complicated. High achievers can experience it. Factors outside of work can exacerbate it, especially emotional and psychological problems. So while much of the stuff people have written is true in general, most of it is just that… generalizations. That’s the larger point I’m trying to make…that avoiding or overcoming job burnout is just not as simple as folks have made it out to be in this thread.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com