Tim Wilson
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Consider this the outline of an article. 🙂 But it’s a start.
[kim krause] “davinci has been in trouble for years and probably couldn’t wait to find a buyer”
The problem with da Vinci has largely not been da Vinci. It has been parent companies who bought it largely for the cash flow, hoping to help their own bottom lines. That’s why parent companies are the ones who’ve come and gone, and gone bankrupt, and da Vinci remains.
[kim krause] “my big criticism of davinci of late has been its horrible user interface”
Grant specifically mentioned that in his email to Blackmagic employees, which we reprinted here after they sent it to us. Specifically: [Resolve] needs a new user interface and extra features.
I find it hard to follow threads when they wind too far off the post subject lines, so I’ve provided a long answer to kim’s very good question of why I think this is such a good idea in a thread here.
See you there. 🙂
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[walter biscardi] “The email was not meant for public release.”
Although just to note — when we asked for some information that they could give us before a press release was finalized (probably tomorrow), they sent us this email with express permission to publish it.
There will be much, much more coming soon, including a few things I SHOULD be working on instead of posting this. 🙂 In any case, no need to even get out of your pajamas for some great coverage of this story.
My UNOFFICIAL , PERSONAL GUESS is that there’s not a ton of room on the price of the current products. A lot of the cost of their systems is in hardware development and manufacturing, and they don’t go away with a new owner. Just a guess.
Of course, that’s near the top of the list of the questions we’ll be asking. 🙂
tw
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”
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1) It’s true: Blackmagic is buying Da Vinci.
2) The email posted is one that Grant sent internally, and was released to address rumors that had already been springing up.
3) Official press release probably tomorrow, official rollout at IBC on Friday.
Much, much more to come from your good friends at the Cow, and their good friends at Blackmagic. 🙂
Tim
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Yes, we’ve been speaking with Blackmagic this morning, and will have quite a bit more for you later today…and over the next few days.
Stay tuned….
Tim
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”
Don’t forget to rate your favorite posts!
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[Ron Lindeboom] “RFPs that require a blind bid and that take the lowest bidder are my issue.”
I just don’t think that lowest bids winning jobs is necessarily the rule. I know that I was never even close to the lowest bid, even for the local jobs that made up about half of my work. Before the gubmint contract, it was 100% of my work.
These jobs were typically for a few thousand dollars at a time, for non-profits and chambers of commerce in towns with less than 10,000 people. Evaluators were typically business people who didn’t trust their own colleagues who bid under them, and weren’t looking for this from contractors, either.
Regardless, grinders have many approaches to hiring. In every case, bid exactly what you want to make, and be ready to say no if they try to grind you…
…a point that you, Ron, have made eloquently in “Clients or Grinders,” one of the most popular articles ever written in the Cow.
This is also why I advise never letting the client have the last word on the terms of the contract. As John is doing, bidders should push back to make sure that you’re getting the rate you want for the actual work that you based your bid on, and walk — nay, RUN — away if you don’t get it.
I’m happy to let anyone else have the last word on this, but I think that always rejecting bid processes like this can be bad business. It’s critical for longterm success in changing markets to be ready for any kind of application process…and to not yield on price.
PS. The condo in the Keys was in a town of 7000 people, in a development about 20% full. It was on the lower floor in an older cinder block building, quite nice, but hardly the Ritz. The gubmint contracts were largely gone by then, and I was a scrambling freelancer again. As others have observed both here and in the Cow Magazine, the toughest markets can provide the best buying opportunities. I might – MIGHT – have been able to afford a tent there once the cycle turned back upward. 🙂
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”
Don’t forget to rate your favorite posts!
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[John Murphy] “If you steer clear of these kinds of people, wouldn’t you be (possibly) missing out on work (that is if large-ish organisations do indeed use this method regularly of requesting quotes these days)?”
Yes, that’s exactly what it means. And yes, they do require this method of bidding.
I know that many of you on this thread find this kind of bid offensive, but my business was largely government-oriented, and bidding was exclusively this kind of process. It’s called an RFP (Request for Proposal), a common TLA (Three Letter Acronym). You make a pitch with a number on the bottom line. They take it or don’t, so make your pitch a good one.
These were what’s called “blind RFPs,” and are mandated. The rules also mandated that only the winner can see the other numbers, and only at the discretion of the agency. They awarders aren’t being grinders. They’re following the law.
It turned out that I never came in at the bottom or the top of the range of pitches. I made a persuasive case that I could deliver the quality they wanted at the price I claimed, had some good work to show, good word of mouth, and won. Big. Seriously, six figures, for multiple jobs. Every single one of them came from bids like this.
Why go through this? Because the budget for the branch I worked for was a line item in the federal budget. The particular office I worked for was funded by state government as well as fed. There were two other federal agencies involved in funding. The office for two of them was a three hour drive apart. The third was a three hour plane ride away. Every one of them had to justify the project to their bosses all the way up the chain. I was in Florida, and was paid out of the federal payroll center in Lawrenceville Kansas.
Lots of paperwork, friends. Lots of people looking at that paperwork. But I never saw it as red tape. I saw it as three people in different agencies who WANTED to work with me. But every one of us owed it to every one of YOU as taxpayers to make sure that everything was accounted for.
Here’s the deal, though. Part of what I did in my bid — and what I found out later my competitors did too — was to state very clearly what was entailed. For example, they wanted run-and-gun for Friday. I said that that meant Monday morning shoots. Your mileage may vary, but the point is, I made them partners in meeting the terms of the deal.
They dictated the terms of the bid, and I dictated the terms of what the terms meant. We worked something out, and became partners in it. It was incredibly rewarding, and remains one of the great joys of my professional life.
Grinders? Heavens no! Absolutely not.
The best part? They paid. In full. On time. Every time.
Did I mention NOT grinders?
Can you imagine? Production partners, real partners, across YEARS of working together, with incredible creative freedom, virtually unlimited human support for what I needed to succeed, two-way trust, and flawless payment.
In exchange for a headache-inducing bid that took a couple of days of my time to put together. Are you kidding me? You may never get an offer this good again.
Don’t want to work for grinder rates? Don’t bid grinder rates. You want big jobs? This is what it takes. There are fewer and fewer big jobs. You’re going to have to work for them. This is what work looks like.
Good luck! And don’t forget, the creative partnership rewards can be the best part of the deal.
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”
Don’t forget to rate your favorite posts!
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[Ron Lindeboom] “Yes, it has made it easier but I was the same dogged and relentless refuses-to-accept-contrary-conclusions kind of sales animal….”
Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “Blink,” observed that people only remember how the David. vs. Goliath story ends, but forget the two steps that led to that. The first is that David tried on the traditional helmet and armor, but couldn’t even walk in it. There was no point in trying to dress like a soldier. Second, there was no point trying to act like one either. Instead, he ran straight at Goliath.
“The sudden astonishment when David sprints forward must have frozen Goliath, making him a better target,” the poet and critic Robert Pinsky writes in “The Life of David.” …David pressed. That’s what Davids do when they want to beat Goliaths.
The point being that, while the Cow has a lot of traffic, it’s still a very small company, certainly relative to its advertisers, and certainly smaller than the parent companies of our competitors.
For people who know us, the Cow’s success is an impediment to potential advertisers. As Ron points out, they already benefit, so getting them to pay is tough. And for people who don’t know us, ours can be a hard story to tell.
To mash up Ron’s posts with a couple from Mike’s listening thread…
- Research potential targets. Start with their websites and brochures.
- Listen to what they say their strengths are, which will also tell you their weaknesses. (Hint: they are identical.)
- Find stories of their success to learn what their needs are. (Hint: they are identical.)
- Speak the way they do about what’s important to them. Sell what they want to buy.
You’ll also find that once you get into that mindset, you can optimize your time and effort. You’ll more easily and accurately place jobs on the graph whose axes are “jobs I’d want” and “jobs I can succeed at.” Zero in where the lines cross.
[Ron Lindeboom]Some people look at the donut and all they see is the hole and what is missing. Me? I look at all them greasy, sugary, deep-fried calories and all that blood thickening goodness that is there…just sitting round the hole.
Mmmmm….donuts…
Here is very nearly the only thing to justify flying through LAX….
randysdonuts.comGratuitous, but hey, we’re talking about donuts…
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”
Don’t forget to rate your favorite posts!
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Here’s the link to the Fair Use & Copyright resources at the Center for Social Media from American University School of Communication. The Best Practices guide is a little way down the page.
There are a bunch of other great resources there for documentaries, indie film, stuff you post on your personal website, educators — all very interesting and useful. Poke around the rest of the site to see what you might find. 🙂
Tim
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”
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[Jeremias Nussbaum] “You just made my day with “the fire” joke. Is there a thread somewhere about the most important “tool” of every business? How a good sense of humor gets you through almost anything?”
A perfect thread for you to start! Even if only this very post. We value good questions as much as good answers!
Thanks,
Tim -
[Kai Cheong] “BUT it seems like having a blogspot blog is giving us even more exposure than a traditional website would have.”
As you may have noted when I talked about Molecule in New York, I find blogs to be generally more effective. Easier to update, that’s for sure. Especially when combined with things like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc…even good old email updates…to drive current customers to regularly check out your new stuff. We all know that repeat business is the best business, but too rarely directly market to our customers. Social media is PERFECT for that.
FWIW, searching on your name, the Cow is #3, behind Kai Cheong Trading Company, and the Forbes Magazine profile of Kwan Kai Cheong, executive director of a high-powered telecom company in Hong Kong. You’re in fine company!
Searching on Intuitive Films, your Cow services page is behind only your own site (of course), a stock footage company with the same name and YouTube – and that’s with only one clip at the Cow! Add the rest of your portfolio to make a Cow channel, and I think we can put you ahead of YouTube. 🙂
In any case, you guys are doing great work. I’d love to see it at reels.creativecow.net. (We also host shorts, spots, trailers, etc.)
Best,
Tim