Chris Blair
Forum Replies Created
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Just out of curosity, what is it about rendering that causes it to bog down the SAN?
Interesting that we don’t see slowdowns on Gig-E. Of course we rarely do renders that take longer than an hour or two, but they don’t seem to cause any problems on the setup we have.
Of course we’re primarily running SD stuff through it, but I just did a complicated HD project in After Effects and was able to render, play-out after render etc. in real-time as long as I used either the Avid DNX (or whatever it’s called) or the CanopusHQ HD codecs.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
We use an Apace vStor over Gig-E and we render constantly to the shared storage via After Effects, Digital Fusion, ProCoder, and our editing system (VelocityQ) with no problems whatsoever.
We load media into AE and Fusion directly from the shared storage. Again, no problems. Rendering on compositing and encoding apps is no different than editing or rendering from the non-linear edit system. We can typically get about 10-12 real-time channels of DVCPro50 SD video in real-time across our system across 4 edit stations. Occasionally (like once a week), a video clip might stutter, or a clip might freeze if 3 or 4 edit systems are going at the same time and using multiple clips. But this is rare and it’s never caused any issues goint back to tape or exporting to digital files.
We’ve never had a render fail or cause any issues using this setup. I would think a SAN, with it’s faster drive throughput, would easily be able to handle rendering across mutliple stations.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’ll chime in on this. First, your estimates, based on your listed specs, sound about right for a small to mid-market sized corporate video. We’ve done 4-5 minute videos for anywhere from $5000 to $20,000 over the years, so it all depends on expectations, design, scripting and visuals required.
I’ll second Nick’s advice that shooting and producing video is FAR different than shooting stills. We’ve used shooters in the past who shot both stills and video and my major complaint about them when they shoot video is they don’t comprehend coverage and sequencing. Meaning they just don’t understand that you need the context that Nick referred do. So we would get all these great close-ups but no wide or medium shots to show the viewer where the people were in the scene. Same with industrial equipment. We’d get very cool shots of gears and pulleys and assembly lines moving but no wide or medium shots to visually explain to the viewer what they’re looking at.
On the editing side, there’s a real art and science to good editing. What I mean is good editing is rythmic, almost musical. Not to mention the technical & aesthetic aspects of knowing when to cut, when to dissolve, when to do something different than those two when transitioning (which in my opinion is rare). Story is also important, even if it’s a “how-to” video there are ways of injecting story elements into it.
When I see videos produced by companies that primarily do design or still photography, these are the areas where I see they fall short compared to experienced video production companies. They tend to be more art than substance. You can have both…. and effective videos usually do have them both. So just be conscious of these sort of things.
Over the last few years we’ve gone from being primarily a video production company to being a full-service advertising and marketing company. Like you, we hire out if we don’t know something very well, but we are always looking for ways to move the work back in-house, simply because it’s hard to make money paying freelancers to do everything.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Could you provide some additional specs on the units? I might be interested.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’ve always believed the more skills you learn, the better you’re going to get and eventually be at video/film production.
Like Walter said, the more you understand about the various roles involved in production, the better equipped you are to build projects. Whether you’re doing rough cuts, writing rough scripts or finishing everything yourself, I believe you can never have too many skills. You might be underpaid now, but what you’re learning will eventually pay off.
I’ll preface this by saying I am NOT trying to toot my own horn but am making a point. Over the last 25 years I’ve worked professionally as a writer/producer, shooter/editor, Creative Cirector (where I taught myself Photoshop and 3D animation), Graphic Artist (where I taught myself After Effects and Digital Fusion), Promotions Director, and Director.
Just this month I had to design and edit a spot for a bank completely in After Effects. I hadn’t worked in AE for literally months. But I dove in again and got it done. Here’s the spot, which matched the clients overall campaign in terms of the graphic design.
https://www.videomi.com/clients/Integra%20Bank/Reward_Me/RewardMe_HD_Final_H264_640x360.mp4
I also edit a LOT of narration, dialogue and music and have become a pretty good sound editor, primarily because I felt like it was an area where our company needed improvement. All I did was subscibe to Sound Editing forums, read “how to” articles online (Jay Rose has a ton of great ones https://www.dplay.com/tutorial/column.html ), ask a lot of questions, and most importantly, experiment in sound editing programs and in our NLE.
I’ve even taught myself web design and recently gotten into building Flash Video players and controlling them with javascript programming. Again…I’m NOT trying to toot my own horn or say how great I am (cause I’m not), just pointing out that learning all this stuff is invaluable when I meet with clients or potential clients. I understand some of their problems much better because I’ve actually done so many different things. It gives me tremendous perspective and allows me to make better decisions and do better overall work. Now am I great at any of these things? Nope. But I’m pretty good at a lot of them and beleive me, clients appreciate it.
So learn all you can, become good at all the things you can. It will help you somewhere, somehow in your professional career.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Milton,
People really aren’t bashing you or the book. They’re just pointing out that a huge part of sales and getting clients is treating those potential clients just like you’d want to be treated.
Which means, don’t be too pushy; keep you name and face in front of them often enough that they remember you, but not so often it truly annoys them. And most certainly follow-up when it’s called for.
Walter’s points about how he built his business is very similar to how we’ve built ours. We do some marketing, like a quarterly E-Newsletter, a few ads in business journals etc. But the majority of our clients have come by word of mouth from the work we’ve done for other clients. Naturally, we make phone calls and send brief emails to a long list of potential clients a couple times a year. Occasionally we’ll get a job from this work, but nothing sells better than a satisfied client. A client that feels like we have THEIR interests in mind and not our own. And like Walter says, a client that doesn’t feel like our only goal is to milk them out of every nickel we can.
Marketing yourself or you company is certainly an ongoing process and I don’t think anyone was trying to say “don’t read this book.” I myself pointed out I’ve read dozens of these types of books over the years (and still occasionally do). We’re just trying to provide perspective and balance to what sounded like a sales pitch for the book. For me that’s what forums like this are all about. Getting many perspectives about an issue or problem.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’ve read dozens of books like this over the years. Before starting my company (with a partner) 14 years ago, I must’ve read 15 business start-up books, a couple small-business accounting books and a handful of small business marketing and PR books.
My conclusion? If you’re half-way smart, your instincts are often better than the majority of stuff in these “how-to” books. I’m not saying I didn’t learn a few things from a few of them. But I found many of them to be almost insulting. The idea of following-up with clients to me is a pretty basic tenet. Probably half our current clients took literally years of “courting” just to get them to try us. After that first project, it would sometimes be another year before we’d get another nugget. Eventually, most of them brought more and more business our way until they became regular clients. We also have several clients who would use us for a few years, leave to try a “new kid on the block,” for a year or so, then they’d come back to us after realizing the work we deliver, the prices we charge and the service we provide are hard to beat in our area. So even when clients leave, we stay in touch and continue to “follow-up” with them.
Maybe I’m old and cynical, (I prefer to call it experienced and wise), but I’ve found few business, marketing or sales books that claim to possess new secrets to be all that ground-breaking. I do see the author of this book wrote the original guerilla marketing series of books and I will say those have some good ideas in them for promoting your company without spending money.
Certainly reading books like this can’t hurt and can generate some new ideas and methods. But you can find a lot of this same stuff by spending a couple hours googling and reading various blogs and informational websites. Like anything, you have to use common sense when it comes to all the “sales” advice out there. Most people hate to be “sold” to and they can smell a “pitch” from a mile away. I’d rather approach potential clients with ideas on how to save them time or money and solve their problems. Of course, you have to know what their problems are first to do that, and that takes time and effort to figure out before ever approaching them.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
If the kids and parents signed a photo release like the one I mentioned I signed every year I played sports from 3rd grade until I graduated high school, and the school signs off on him selling the footage, then he would indeed have everything he needs to sell it.
It would be no different than the standard photo releases almost every production company uses when they shoot interviews or even when using paid talent. It releases the school and anyone affiliated from liability in regard to the photos or video.
But again, who would spend the money it would take to get attorneys involved regarding something like this? The foogate certainly can’t be worth enough to fuss over.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’ve read up a lot on copyright law over the years and have never come across the terms “character concept” or “tangible expression.” I’m not saying they don’t exist and aren’t valid but there are tons of resources online as well as a handful of media law books written specifically about copyright law and it’s not addressed in any of them I’ve read so I’m not sure what they mean.
Most media copyright laws (which intellectual property falls under) are tilted in favor of the author of the media. So in the absence of a contract, he’s got a pretty good case for owning everything related to the piece, including the characters and the concept. So he should definitely be compensated in some way for their continued use of characters he created. Of course, it’s a delicate situation to address since the client likely believes they’re the rightful owners, but he’s well within his legal and ethical bounds to ask for some sort of compensation for them since they want to use his creation to further promote their company.
The original creators of the Taco Bell chihuahua were awarded a huge settlement from the ad agency and YUM Brands about a year ago because the agency took their creation, (which amounted to basically an idea they pitched to YUM and the agency), and built that entire ad campaign around it. The agency and YUM brands also made money from merchandising of the character. It took the two guys that sued almost a decade, but they won.
As for people not using contracts. We have dozens of clients where it would literally be impossible to conduct business and insist on contracts on every project. One large client will often call us on a Monday and need a completed marketing video by Thursday or Friday. And I’m not talking a low-budget, thrown together video. I’m talking a nicely produced, edited piece with slick graphics. Just getting them an estimate, coordinating all the particulars (scripting, layout & design, source footage to use or to acquire) is enough to keep half our staff busy for the entire week. By the time we drafted the contract, sent it to their marketing director, got it signed and sent back, the video would be completed and out the door, billed and within a week paid for. That said, we get contracts on most projects we do.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
You may have already done this, but one thing we did when evalutating systems was ask every single company we called to give us contact info for a few of their clients so we could email or call them and ask about their experiences with the company’s equipment or service.
Incredibly, only two of the dozen or so companies I asked provided me with this info. Of the two that did, one had absolutely glowing recommendations from their clients, the other, not so much.
I find that getting real-world feedback is infinitely more reliable than listening to a comapny rep or going thru spec sheets etc. I also found it incredible that so many companies didn’t provide me with reference clients to talk to. It immediately made me suspicious of them and I crossed them off my list. I suspect most had plenty of satisfied clients, their sales people just failed to follow up and actually provide me with the info. But for me, if they can’t spend 5 minutes sending me 3 or 4 emails of former clients, then I doubt they’ll have the time I need when I run into a problem with their system down the road.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com