[Frank Otto]

Odd… I do work for a large multinational, hundreds of thousands of employees, the largest company globally of its kind with billions of dollars a year in revenues –

And we still have to get releases on individuals – even if they’re in a group of a hundred. Plus post signage and shooting disclaimers.

The “best in the world” legal department has just been lucky. Even with releases, we still get sued – people are greedy – for some reason, the “unrecoqnizable” face in the back now has a name and legal reperesentaion and a dozen friends who’ll testify they saw the subject on tv.

We just had a case involving a Margaritaville spot, model with release still wanted more three years down the line. And a spot running for six years just got pulled because one person in the deep background got identified and hadn’t signed a release – sued us for all the teasing she recieved.

The M’ville model got shot down – the other one got a payday. The difference was the release.

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

I’ve always had the knack of packing the proverbial 10lbs into a 5lbs sack

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

The 450 DP rate is with a package that has an 400, arm, Arri kits,200 and 575w HMI pairs, flags, stands, sticks, grip and custom dolly all on a hotel bell type cart that weighs out at about 1100lbs. And another body.

The 350 rate is just me, a 400 and my “work kit” ; a custom dolly, arm, Arri SoftIV kit, a bag full of clamps-connectors-braces-plates and more, sticks, flags and all fits on a magliner.

As I said – the 40 hr gig curently keeps me busy – so rates are sort of an auto stop for the cheap.

Funny, I found an old rate card from 1980; I was getting 650 A DAY for a TK76, 3/4″ BVU100, a Colortran 3x 650w kit, a Mole 3x 1-light 600w mini fay kit, a Sylvania 30vdc batterypak for a 30v light, Shure M67 and SE30 mixers w/2 RE15, 2 635a, 2 ecm-50, Mitchell wood sticks, O’Connor 50, all in a van with monitors, scopes, two-way package and a 2ghz microwave package.

Just some history – some one else can do the math between then and now….

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

It sounds like poor power – it could be the building power not being stable, the sub station not syncronizing to the main grid or an individual leg within the building not being properly wired.

Last year I had a similar problem at home and it turned out to be cheap wire, punched into punchdown type of duplex sockets. Heat and humidity variations caused the aluminum “pinch” connectors to expand and wires to loose contact. I didn’t know until a socket arc’d that it was a internal wire issue – Las Vegas has always been notorius for dirty power.

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

My pleasure, Bob – and as always, I’d like to remind all that my views and techniques are just guidelines – the ol’ YMMV is in effect. I tend to be conservative as an DP/LD – it’s the video engineer in me.

In the broadcast world, clipping can cause buzz in the audio – due mostly to the hetrodyne scheme used by NTSC recievers. In the digital world, clipping can cause artifacts. In some cases the clipping can, in effect, put a compressor on the whites, and cause ringing, shadowing and artifacts around the non-white areas. Sometime the issue isn’t raised until it gets compressed again from the post or distribution process.

RE 88 ire: Its a baseline – I start by holding the BG there and after I get a good balance between talent and BG. I usually set stops again until I get in the 92 ire range and let the mismatch that is everybody else’s monitors work its magic.

As an aside, I always shoot commercial work and some interviews with a scope – its the equivalent of a multifunction light meter. I have a Hitachi VO-59 that I’ve had for just shy of 30 years – it’s portable and dc powered. I know Tektronix makes an LCD scope and when mine finally dies I’ll be getting the Tek.

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

If you are new to lighting or are from a discipline that may not be grounded in lighting, I’d recommend checking out B&H’s on line catalogue just to get a idea of what goes into a kit. Check out eBay for used lighting gear – 2k goes a long way.

General set up is so…I don’t know…general? Are you teaching E.N.G., high key, low key, noir, two point, three point, key-kick-slash? An Arri SoftIV kit will work well for many set ups, but then so will a Altman or even Lowell – for the budget you have.

So when you have an idea of what’s available out there and mate that to what you’re going to teach then check back in to this forum… if you have more questions, we’ll be here to help.

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

Yeah, Bob…the biggest issues for me are always with the difference between talent and BG – some video DP/LD’s light the BG and fill talent, others light the talent and wash the bg into the range prior to clipping. And there’s the school of adjusting black levels after setting clip and (if you have a good video engineer)adjust knee and gammas. This is also the method we used in the extreme to shoot the rotoscope plates for Bakshi’s “Wizards” to get a pure black and white shadowless image.

If you’re doing the head-to-toe, I’d probably light the paper for a target video level of 88 ire and fill in the talent with a pair of large appature softs if I wanted an encompasing shadowless light – or only one source off side with a fill or kick if I wanted more modeling.

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

I should also add that those rates are for real – I’m about fourth or fifth down from the top film rate in the Vegas market. With gear…

The reality is I don’t get many calls or inquiries for D.P. work because my rates are high, which is good, since I have a 40hr fulltime gig right now, holdover company issues from my last go at being independent and I haven’t invested in new hardware or technology (software and workstations not withstanding)since the BVW400.

I’ve had maybe seven or eight clients in the past five years who didn’t question the rate and I took on three that interested me. And although I’d love the money…I’d rather not have the marketing and sales grief, the second full time job as it were, just to make the nut. So it works as basically keeping a place in line.

Something else to think about when asking how much is, “How?”, as in how well can you sell yourself because that’s the only thing that makes your shop unique from the other guy who bought a Mac, a DVCam and a box o’ lights. Frankly, and as I’ve said on this and other forums, I can build a campaign for a client, but I have a hell of a time selling me. That’s why I have a manager.

But – that’s another cost to deal with – when asking “how much to charge.”

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

I think you should charge $250,000 per finished spot…add in an additional 75k if they want you to distribute to stations…

But seriously…This question has been asked and answered so many times in the Business forum…you might want to do a search on the Cow in general and in the business forum. But here’s the short answer:

Is this your business or avocation? Are you gainfully employed elsewhere and are looking to build a business? Is this a hobby/career change/timekiller?What is your goal as a business person – what are your goals as an artist/creator?

Those are the first things to ask yourself –

Then ask yourself, how much money do you need. Cost of equipment, facilities, supplies, insurance, rent – all that has to be paid for somehow. And don’t trap yourself with “I already own the gear”…yes, but it wears, breaks or otherwise goes obsolete and then you’ll need to develop a fee to charge in order to afford to replace.

Then decide what you want as a salary – that includes your check and benefits (medical, other bennies). Don’t forget staff – if this is a one man band you’re lucky – most of us have to have help somewhere, from assistants to specialists to tax guys and accountants. And they have to get paid. As do you.

Now going back to the first questions. If it’s a hobby/avocation/one-time only then ask for what youy think the market will bear, after all, you won’t be doing it again – or only on a limited basis.

If you’re doing this as a business – long term, then it’s a lot more complicated than “what do I ask for.”

Market research of who charges what is the last thing – There are people I work/compete with who charge a minimum of 25k per job, period. If they don’t get the gig, they don’t care- their price is their price. If you are new, or in a wholly competitive market (say L.A., NY or London) competition will drive rates.

And there’s more…but for now, I’ll let you think it thruogh – and open the floor –

(by the way, I charge 450.00 per hour(10 min) for shooting as a D.P., 350.00 per hour as a camera op., 350.00 per hour edit and composite – flat fee of 2500.00 per 30 sec of finished writing)

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Frank Otto]

White is a pain on many levels, Bob. I’ve shot a boat load of these in the late 70’s to mid 80’s – the era of talent on turntables and products being demonstrated in all white sets.

Just being “white” is going to play hell with the clip point. Then, the 5 stops or so span between “talent” and background. And, there’s shadow – do you want em’ or are you wanting the “limbo” look?

For most of my stuff (athletic clubs and cars mostly) I used from 1 to 4 “chicken coops” hung overhead and slightly forward of the subject. Occcasionally for cars, I’d use a white parachute hung from the grid and bounced a few 5ks off it. Rarely was the bg lit – when it was (for a seamless sky-ground background) I’d use a few sky pans – placed above the talent and focused ( if a broad light could be focused) just above the curve of the cove so the top and bottom of the bg just begin to fall out of light.

Backlight was, in reality, side light since I didn’t want a defined ground shadow. Key light was for some, a nine-light punched thru a 12×12 silk, on others it was a Junior or Senior bounced off foam core, Occasionally, I’d pin a baby-baby to add eyelight or other highlights. Lots of separation – usually 10-to-20 feet from talent to bg.

The only tip I have for black bg is to crush the blacks a bit in the camera – 0 insted of 7ire.

There’s a couple of other tricks depending on your look – black plexiglass for reflection, dusting velour with corn starch for an etherial, nebula look, even scattering copper and zinc oxide dust for a slight color variation (DISCLAIMER ! Kids don’t try this at home without proper ventalation and preferably a mask – metalic dust can be toxic) For velour, I’ve also edge lit it to give a color cast – sometimes that’s more work than it’s worth because you end up having to cut light off the products.

Cheers,

Frank Otto