Tim Wilson
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Mark Suszko] “I think if the clients are looking to be impressed by the prop usage of the camera, you’ve already lost the gig or never had it. People that shallow and gullible, you don’t want for clients anyway”
If you avoid shallow and gullible clients, you’ll have none. I really mean that. In fact, I’d argue that the best way to LOSE a job is to tell the client that, even though he has the same camera as you do, YOU use it better than HE does.
I think it’s vastly better to NOT have the same camera, and to HAVE the kinds of tools that clients don’t. Lighting and lens selection, filters, etc. are among the tools we use to get the more professional look that clients will never take the time to get.
At the same time, if the camera’s TOO big, clients will laugh in your face. Here’s an actual conversation I had with one of them about my $29K BetaSP camera in a PR ENG situation — I was getting paid to cover an event that the local affiliates were covering for the air. “What’s that monstrous thing? The guys from NBC and Fox over there have cameras that fit in the palm of their hand. Are you just behind the times?” This was just a couple after I got laughed at by other pros for buying a camera from the UVW series.
Appropos to the next part of the discussion, which I ultimately find much more interesting, is that my UVW rig cost more than most because I chose an especially nice Canon lens.
[JLN2112] “…am I making a mistake if I purchase the Canon?”
All cameras are not created equal. Canon’s image quality surpasses anything I’ve ever seen in a small camera. Not shocking if you think about it, since the top of the Canon line is cutting edge, high-grade medical optics.
One of the advantages of that is the technology that goes with it. Their optical stabilizer is awesome . It completely blows away electronic image stabilizers, and as a result is actually useful. Ditto their auto-focus. There are three different kinds of auto-focus on this camera, including one that’s optimized to not be distracting, and another optimized for rapid adjustments – ideal for doc and ENG work. I still prefer manual focus, but, again, this is the first AF I’ve ever seen that’s actually useful.
Lots of other pro features, including genlock and XLR audio. The viewfinder will take your breath away.
That said, the G1 is also worth considering. The HD-SDI output gives you uncompressed output along with embedded audio and full SMPTE timecode — totally worth it if you have an AJA or BMD card with HD-SDI. (Yes, also FW if that’s the way you go.)
The H1 is fully twice what the A1 is, but still worth a close look. Its larger form factor says PRO camcorder without looking ridiculous (point very well taken, Mark), offers computer software (PC) to take your custom settings to an entirely different level, and interchangeable lenses, obviously especially useful if you’ve already invested in Canon lenses.
They’re all tasty, so let your budget be your guide.
I don’t mean to disrespect smaller cameras from Sony and Panasonic — you’re quite right that image quality is quite high across the board these days, and there are reasons to consider units from these folks. I’m also not comparing the A1 to Sony’s CineAlta and XDCAM HD or Panasonic’s Varicam. But you didn’t ask about those. 🙂
tw
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I meant to mention that the next issue will be out in just over a month. It’s going to be another killah, in part because of it being anchored by Nick’s article.
tw
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Seriously, I’m asking Nick to hold out. The article will be in the next issue of the Creative COW magazine. It’s a free subscription at http://www.creativecowmagazine.net.
Speaking of which, the most recent issue just got posted, and if I may say so myself, it’s a killah.
Thanks,
Tim -
Kathlyn’s the boss. I’m just her enthusiastic lackey. 🙂
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[Nick Griffin] “I’ll be happy to email the piece out a few more times to anybody that asks.”
Cut it out dude. Make ’em subscribe. 🙂
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A BUNCH of federal government agencies have production arms. I don’t want to say “most,” but a lot. The biggest is Armed Forces Television, one of the biggest networks in the world. Easy enough to join the company. 🙂 The Veteran’s Administration has a good-sized arm, too, with (obviously) preferential treatment for veterans.
The next largest I know of is the National Parks Service. When I worked with them just before the turn of the century, they had a 250-person production facility in Virginia, with quite a few of the larger parks also having teams of their own.
Many law-enforcement agencies have them, too, even at the local level. Fire departments, too. These are small-ish, often one person. The good news is that many of them are staffed by civilians. Many school districts have them too.
Don’t overlook contracting. This is how I made the biggest part of my living in production. I was Mr. Outsource for NOAA (which had at least one full-time video guy in Washington), Everglades National Park and the EPA, all in Florida. I also did some work for the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Marine Patrol.
For all of these, you have to keep sniffing. There are online job postings, and any outsource job is required to solicit bids. Remarkably enough, newspapers are still a good place to find these — obviously local to the office, though.
That said, you’re going to find that more and more agencies are keeping the bulk of their work in-house. It’s becoming an extension of desktop publishing, which is why Premiere owns such a massive portion of that market. For small agencies, FCP is up and coming — but very, very few Macs in most govt agencies. (A few years ago, NOAA was the only one of note.) For bigger agencies, Avid is still king, for many of the same reasons they are in Hollywood — significant collaboration tools.
You can get an incomplete but still interesting view of all this at the Government Video Expo in Washington DC. It’s very definitely nearly all local to DC, and heavily skewed toward prisons (you can guess why). The show floor is the usual suspects, but you can meet some folks in the sessions that, as a whole, can give you some insight.
Wouldn’t go there to look for a job, though. Nice, generous folks who are happy as can be to talk about their work….but most of them, like most folks in gubmint, are just hoping to keep their own jobs.
I found it extremely rewarding, though, and hope you can find something too.
Best,
Tim -
[FischTale] “Did you have to sweeten the deal for the Chamber, meaning, did you give it to them for a song in hopes that you would make that up with new business?”
Somewhere between “a song” and our regular rate. Some of it was to make it affordable to them, but some of it was (at the risk of sounding holy) because we were really into the idea of community-building. We were part of a successful campaign to help our area incorporate, and part of the reason the show ended was because my wife went into politics.
We built the pricing around an annual price. The target was a typical small-to-medium sized project of theirs, and you can guess the pitch: we’ll help every event be more successful, etc.
[FischTale] “Where did you air the show?”
It was a small community, and the only local TV was the cable access channel. Only one cable provider, which also made it easy. We bought the time, but that was pretty cheap.
[FischTale] “Was it a tough sell to convince the chamber to get on board?”
I’d call it moderate. It helped that we’d been visibly involved in the community for a while, and in the chamber for six or seven years at that point. My wife was on the board of directors by then — although she didn’t vote on anything related to the show. In fact, being on the board made it a little tougher, I think.
The most important factor was timing. The Chamber was growing, but wanted to get to the next level. They had ambitions of being a genuine influence in the community, and not just a social club. They saw this as lending their efforts weight.
Although we’d already stopped by the time the next administration came in, there’s no way in hell that we’d have kept the contract. There was a strong backlash against activism, including active outreach. The irony was that the veterans deeply resented the newbies, who were finding it easier to just show up and start making their voices heard. So our original goal was a smashing success — and people were pretty pissed about it. 🙂
So, our resented success notwithstanding, the same issues apply here as to anything else. You have to tailor the pitch to what they want.
As a go-go town on the move, Phoenix’s chamber really might respond to a show offering business tips from its members — issues around incorporating your business, tax tips, safety tips from police and fire, how to sell/buy your home or business…those are pretty lame examples, but see what I mean? You know better than I do — maybe profile-raising and muscle-flexing is what they’re about.
Just line the pitch up with the Chamber’s existing goals, rather than try to get them to do something they’re not because “they should.”
Things may be different in a larger town — maybe you can show up and pitch like you would any other business. But for our small town, the key was being known as community-oriented first. By the time we made the pitch, seeing our work was largely beside the point — everyone making the decision had already seen some of it at some point.
I hope this helps. It really was a fun gig. It also forced us to raise our game creatively, precisely because the format was so restrictive. Kind of like haiku. Or a limerick. 🙂
Tim
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[Mark Suszko] ”
“That’s the STUPIDEST idea for a show EVER! NOBODY is going to watch THAT!”I’m thinking of making that my new sig file.”
In the running for best sig ever.
My number one for now remains, “I feel so much better since I gave up hope.”
My number two is, “One: cut a hole in the box. Two: put your junk in that box. Three: make her open the box.”
But you have every chance of passing them on your way to the top.
🙂
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[Mike_S] “What you can do is work up your idea in as much detail as you can – specific detail which might work to make your show special”
That, to me, is one of the two keys. That’s the “what.” The other key is to lay out as much of the “how” as you can before you begin. Good ideas are easy to come by. The skill and the will to pull it off are another thing altogether.
Ron Lindeboom loves to tell people how to build an online community just like The COW, revealing every detail of everything he’s learned along the way.
(Hint: it doesn’t take money. Kathlyn and he started with nothing. Twice.)
He begins every retelling by saying, “I don’t mind telling you exactly what to do, because I know you’re not going to do it.”
Now, if your idea would be easy for anyone to do, you might need to spend a little more time on preparing, so that you’re at least ahead of anyone else who tries.
Finally, as David Bowie said, it’s not who gets there first. It’s who gets there second. He was talking about rock stars wearing makeup (Marc Bolan of TRex was first, but we remember Bowie), but I think the principal applies…with the additional proviso that doing it best counts for something too.
Tim
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Big fan of the Chamber of Commerce approach. We wound up doing a show FOR the Chamber of Commerce! We did one episode per month, and it ran once a week for the whole month — gotta let everyone have their moment in the sun, and then give everyone a chance to see it.
In addition to general community news and entertainment, each show had a 2-3 minute spotlight on two chamber members. We got some business from those members, too, as well as people running similar businesses that wanted us to do something similar for them. Many of those businesses ran the episodes in their offices and waiting rooms — we got entirely unrelated work from those too, just because people had seen our work.
Yes, the meetings can be painful. Yes, they’ll suck down your time and money. Yes, most of them will be a colossal waste. But showing up on time, all cleaned up, big smile, shaking hands firmly, carrying on pleasant conversation — these are all things that build confidence in your ability to conduct business responsibly. Showing up ALL THE TIME tells them you’re sincere about being part of the community.
Those, more than anything else, are what chamber folks look for: that you conduct yourself well, that you’re committed to the community, that you inspire confidence, and that you’re pleasant to be around. We got jobs from some people before they’d even seen our work.
While the Chamber was the center of the network in our small town, the Rotary was the only other group that mattered. They were hardcore, though — very little socializing, all about business. But there was no point showing up there uninvited unless you were already a Rotarian. Much better to get invited by being visible at the Chamber.
Your mileage will vary, but that’s how it went for me.