[Greg Ball]

That’s a great idea! Thanks!

[Greg Ball]

Thanks Scott. I really appreciate your advice.

[Greg Ball]

I’m not low balling myself. I never do that. I’m just trying to be their go to guy for everything, and make it worth their while.

[Greg Ball]

Ricardo,

Actually I suggested it, not them.

[Greg Ball]

Hi Mark,

None of the above. The person signing off is just too busy to deal with day to day $600-$900 projects. They do want final approval which is understandable.

My feeling is retainers are a good thing. Why else do other service providers offer that?

A video retainer is an agreement between a business and Ball Media that allows them access to our billable hours for a set period of time at a discounted rate. In simple terms, they pay us to act as their in-house creative video department for a set period of time and for pre-determined hours.

A video retainer gives them first rights to the video services we offer without the overhead associated with a permanent employee on their end. Our goal with a retainer is to have an agreement that’s good for both parties and if it’s not good for both, it’s not good for either.

Maybe I’m not explaining things well to you. Thanks for trying.

[Greg Ball]

Hi Mark,

As always thanks for the detailed response. So far the “urgent service” is something I can handle. What’s difficult is being at their beck and call for last minute editing jobs.

Right now, for each job, I send them an agreement and they sign the agreement and pay for the job. With rush jobs I’m adding in 25% rush fees. This becomes a pain for both parties as I need to wait for their senior management to sign the agreement. They’ve been known to bail on a project from time to time.

This retainer can’t be for “anything and everything” because editing a 2-minute video using their footage and photos is significantly less that shooting and editing a 5-minute video.

Since all of my crew works as independent freelance contractors, shoot rates are dependent on the needs for each shoot. Maybe I can add in the cost for one talking head shoot a month at our going rate for a up to a 5-minute video?

Offering a repeat client simple discount or a “coupon” good for “x” off for a limited, expiration period of a month may be a good idea, but that doesn’t take care of the repeated agreements and rush jobs. Plus even the smallest job has several rounds of revisions. Having those revisions apply towards the monthly fees may be helpful for me.

Without an availability commitment from me, and a financial commitment from them. Thoughts?

[Greg Ball]

In the future you can contact me. We translate videos into any language and we can either provide you with a timed .srt file, or a dubbed voice track. You can easily lay those back into your project.

I just did that today. We translated 4 videos into Chinese, and I inserted the new Chinese voices into the videos.

Here’s a link to my webpage : http://www.ballmediainnovations.com Just click on Translation and then on the drop down.

Best,

Greg

[Greg Ball]

Try Rev.com. You can send the video and script to them, they’ll create the .srt file.

[Greg Ball]

I’m using the audio to sync all 5 cameras. But the problem is that during the shoot, the GoPro needed a new battery, and later on, the overhead cam also needed a new battery. So all of the other 4 angles run for 25 minutes, but the GoPro stopped at around 10 minutes in. It took some thime for the crew to notice that the GoPro stopped and then start it again. I’d like to just add the next GoPro clip to the angle editor and sync it with the other cameras, but I can’t figure out how to do that. Thoughts?

[Greg Ball]

Any help would be appreciated!!