Christopher Wright
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“The real question we should ask clients is do they want “a cheap looking video,” or do they really want “a video with a lower price”
Until is is obvious that they don’t even care. I was surprised myself to see this turnaround by Las Vegas ad money, people who should know better, right?
“When pros that can create “$200,000 productions” will work for free, that opens a whole new can of worms.”
Exactly. And hasn’t this actually been the case for several years now, especially when dealing with ad agencies?? More and more “creatives” are expected to put all the time and effort in conceptualizing, producing and editing a trial “campaign,” and then the ad agency decides which creative they want to “bless” with their business, then it takes 6 months to a year to actually get your money out of them.
“The trouble is, by having $20 hookers in the joint, pretty soon everyone was a $20 hooker.”
Not only was this a good story, but it segues perfectly into the story that started this thread. “The once proud videographer who was once proudly shooting scenes in a rainforest, and who is now grasping for a “$20.00 per clip” fee for his services. And I doubt that keeping the Media 100 high price tag would have saved it from an early death, just as I think that almost no one will pay 15K plus a 2k yearly “maintenance” fee for Smoke on the Mac, when they can pretty much do the same work on AE/FCP/Color if they take the time and make the effort. Hopefully the “$20.00 hooker” doesn’t become prophetic, become as popular as the “grinder” euphemism, and quickly become next year’s “elephant in the room.” I really do believe we are indeed going to see a “New Level of Grinders” in the coming year.
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I’m sure in some circles it still is! ;>)
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Clearly, quality isn’t going to be something we can hang our hats on much longer.
Yes I can certainly attest to that statement.
A client of mine shot two 15 second spots “on Spec” (read free)for a Casino,
using the Canon 5d, and the “management” loved them and ran them.
He then shot a more ambitious 30 second commercial, again receiving only 50 percent of his costs because he wanted to have a spot for his reel. The management also swooped in on this relatively free spot and ran it for awhile. They talked about doing a whole series of ads and my client then invested in his own 7D, and really went out on a limb with a full production crew and proceeded to shoot a Lexus promotion in conjunction with the Casino. It was a very classy, slick ad that looked like it was shot with a $200k budget. Although he was paid a little more for this spot, he still ended up eating 10K. (A great spot for his promo reel however!) Now “management” has gone back to the free local cable production ads which look like bad used car commercials for the Xmas run. They and their clientele really don’t care about “production value.” It does have something to do with ROI, but more importantly getting cheap or free commercials for most clients now.
It is also the downside to the internet age in many respects. Many people only listen to mp3s now, instead of hearing quality music through quality sound systems. HD acquisition is now at critical consumer mass and is now as ubiquitous as DV was before the HD “revolution.” Pinnacle Ultimate Studio has just about all the tools FCP does now, and even comes with Magic Bullet Looks, etc. I always chuckle at the posts of people who are all worried about camera “chip size” and “ability to be able to read the blacks” etc. when their material is going to be viewed via iPhone or You Tube, (and in this case, Demand Media). I have even been amazed at the low quality film production I have seen in our “digital age.” There are several exterior shots in “Jules and Julia” that look like they were shot on 16mm film and transferred to VHS before the final print was sent to the theaters. But if you are watching it on for free streaming on Netflix, who notices or cares? Blame the bean counters.none of us can or will survive simply because we offer video/multimedia production.
We’re lying to ourselves if we think our experience gives us some inherent advantage in creativity or quality
just do the video work as a home hobby where it’s something I do for self-actualization instead of a checkThere does come a time whether you call yourself an artist or you become a “cog in the corporate machine,” which definitely values cheaper and cheaper labor for its bottom line. Do you really want to keep getting paid less and less to do work you no longer enjoy? In the “Demand Media” story the most telling element was the once proud videographer who cringed at the footage he was shooting and editing, and who “normally would have taken out the baby crying, the wind noise, taken more time for critical focus, etc.” but didn’t because there was “no time for that.” He had to make his $20.00 for his clip via paypal!
The answer seems indeed in finding a small niche in the market, or do like Tim Wilson has done and just become a writer about media, or like Ron has done, create a site where people come and kvetch about the media, but charge advertisers for “clicks” (eyeballs). I have also seen Kevin McAuliffe cranking out a lot of Digital Juice “demos” lately, but it seems like the “Total Training, Lynda.com, VASST, Class on Demand, Peachpit online training” paradigm is become way overcrowded as well. I feel 2010 will be a very interesting year indeed for all of us in the digital production field. I wish us all well.Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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“simply charge him by the pixel”
Now THAT is the best business advice I have seen this year.
That should go in the Cow business forum as a New Year’s resolution.
Much better than the old “charge per finished minute” paradigm…Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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Christmas time??
Bourbon Balls, Tom and Jerry’s, and Date Nut Rolls…
And here in the SW,
tamales, posole, a hot mug of atole,
a neighbor’s green neon Cactus in his front yard,
and coyotes howling at the moon…Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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Excellent!
And a much better guitar solo than the original offering…Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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I always used TGA alphas from Lightwave for use in compositing the “final product” in either AE or Combustion,and PNGs with Motion and FCP. Nice to know about the Tiff option now.
Sounds like you should use tiffs if your 3D app supports the full 32bpc.
I guess it all comes down to your software of choice then Dustin!Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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Kevin,
I have never used Tiff sequences for animation work.
Although you can render to 32bpc, tiffs still can’t/don’t carry an alpha channel, correct??Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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Both can be saved out as 24 bit formats, again it is just what works best for your specific workflow,
OS, hardware setup, and software apps. There is no difference in quality.Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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Where did you get that info??
I’ve been using 24 bit Targa sequences out of Lightwave for years,
even for feature film work, without “old, bad pixeling.”
I only started using PNGs because FCP reads the alpha channel better than 24 bit TGAs on the MAC.
Tiffs were always the Apple way to go, where most animators/editors used TGAs on the Windows compositing side. It all only depends on which “flavor” your software prefers.Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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