[Grinner Hester]

I’m glad you brought that up because it’s not something we have discussd here with the current economy.
It’s always been best to specialize at a craft, rather than to be a jack of all trades… until now.
As depression sets in more as a reality to most, belts simply have to be tightened. We are all feeling this right now. Specialists are forced to evolve out of tunnel vision to save their own skins.
I, for example, always saw myself as an editor/animator. It’s not something I put on my reel or resume because I could not afford to cut my salary in half by not being a specialist.
Now, man, I am a producing, shooting, editing, animating, compositing, sound designing fool and it’s my ability to be a one man band production that will allow me to survive to the next economy mend.
…at which time I will not be able to be a specialist anymore. This is what will change in our industry. As companies seek and find more affordable turn-key solutions, they will be educated on quality.. which is often better than the 2 thousand dolalrs a finished minute old school way of thinking. You cannot explain these things to old check-writers, they have to be shown and that is what is happening with our economy now. When things start getting more fluid, they will NOT go back to their old ways of reckless spending, at least not in our category. They will have learned otherwise and will have new talent pools. If you don’t place yourself in these veritile pools right now, you will not be in this industry 2 years from now.

My ability to be a one man band production unit is now my saving-grace, not a salary cap. We all will have to utilize all of our talents to make it to the next peak of this peak and vally timeline.

[Grinner Hester]

It applies globally. Our government just rewarded failure in the auto industry to the tune of billions and are about to do the same with the banks. My experience with Avid is the same. They are a company that simply does not try very hard to compete. Your product or vendor just lacks passion and desire to be on top. You cannot hender your progress as a result of others lacking passion.
None of us can afford to do this anymore.
Evolution is gonna have to leave some behind.

[Grinner Hester]

I was not commenting on ethics. I was stating the fastest ways to wed out a client. You are excersising one of those ways.
If you want to keep that client, the answer is yes sir. You could have had a young go-gettinr pull a double and handed em what they needed that next day. They know this and know the guy down the road that’s been trying to get their business will.
It’s in no way about tapes. To them, it’s about customer service. A willingness to please them. If you are not bending over backwards today, you simply aint gonna be bending tomorrow.

[Grinner Hester]

rofl.
While I take that as a compliment, I doubt Walter does.

[Grinner Hester]

There is always something to be found. Don’t go into expecting to get paid anything. Get your foot in the door pro bono if you have to.
I hung shalves and painted walls to get gigs back in the day.
You have to be there to get a gig when it opens up so I was simply there.

[Grinner Hester]

Today’s post industry is devided by two groups, in my humble opinion…
Those who owned an Avid when it was an awesome product and an aweosme brand, and those who have not.
Those who have simply cannot use an Avid today. It’s just too frustrating and buggy compaired to what we use to work on… and pay for.
Then , there are those who do not know what Avid use to be and are willing to roll the dice with em, not very vocal either way as, well, they have very little to lose.
Non of the above, including myself, have a legit gripe towards the company or the product. It’s up to us as consumers to drive supply with demand. It’s up to us to research and not to purchase because some white sheets written by a sales department menationed buzzwords we like. It’s up to them to speak the truth and back things if they want that demand I spoke of. That demand, is not what changed… the product line is what fell. People simply fell around it.
pounbd for pound wel know FCP must be looked at when building a suite now. Wasn’t even in the running 4 years ago. But their upgrades are upgrades, not bug fixes that introduce new ones.
There are many of us who got stuck making payments on a box worth about a payment. Take it on the chin and don’t do it again.
Kind of an old school POV but what are you gonna do, waiste more time and money on em?
Wish them well in their soon to be retirement and rock on.

[Grinner Hester]

lol
I met a guy who charged by the finished minute back in the 80s.

[Grinner Hester]

There are two ways to weed out clientele quickly…
raise your rates or tell em their tapes aint theirs.
Bottom line…wanna keep em, bend over backwards and do so. Tired of em milkin ya, play that hold your tapes ransom game and they’ll split.

[Grinner Hester]

If I spent it, it’s written off.
what’s that include?
anything I trade currency for. Anything.
Truth is, even toilet tissue is required to run the business.

[Grinner Hester]

Adobe sells that stuff too.
A local vendor may be the best bet if you have never built a system before. This will put an expert in your area should something go wrong. really, this is what vendors are for… an extra cost that’s worth it.