Jeffrey Gould
Forum Replies Created
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Michael: Did you not see my post that I decided to buy the drive? I’ve been told I’m honest to a fault, maybe even naive…that should be my worst trait. I thought $2,000 for 5 edits and some new narration was a pretty good profit, except when you add in the $1,200 for the drive. I quoted them $150 per hour, plus restore time, I thought it was fair for them and fair for me. Money is not the issue, I could buy 10 drives if I wanted to…I just wasn’t sure that this client was worth the investment and worth the headaches that come with them. There are times when you need to say no and turn the work down. They gave me a deadline of 2/28, so I really can’t play with the time constraint.
I’m a one man shop and do all the shooting, editing, graphics, DVD’s, CD’s, etc… I happen to be working on two huge projects at 10X what they are paying me and didn’t want to have to remove that footage, restore theirs and restore back, without knowing how long they expect me to keep the footage. It’s actually for Yamaha, but I’m working for an agency geared towards Nursing Homes which are notoriously cheap. Perhaps I showed poor judgement at first, we all do at one time or another…but I read the posts and decided to go ahead and pay for the drive and hopefully they will give me enough work to warrant it.
Bob: I’m actually ordering a solution next week, a tape backup drive VS 160 from quantum and I’ll use NovaBack software. I was burned twice by this set up a few years ago when the drive corrupted the data and I had to recreate everything…another reason I wanted to buy a new drive for the client(which I would still backup). Some software has something called “collect project” or “condense project” as mine is called.
PS: I came here for advice and I received it and appreciate your time and knowledge.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
Thank you Bob for seeing my point. I just wrote my client and told her that the footage itself is not an issue, as I can just swap it out to an IDE dive…it’s the time it’s on the drives. Based on history, they make changes once a month for a few months, then disappear for a few months…so I was just suggesting that I split the cost of the drive and everyone will be happy and I can work on their projects as they come up without transfer time. The woman who works for my client thinks I should just build it into the estimate, but I’m a really honest up front person and wanted to do it the right way.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
Crap? whose post are you reading? I told him I agreed with him on a lot of points and in the end I decided to buy the drive. I already do what you suggested about IDE drives on another computer which I stated in a post.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
Forgot to mention that the computer my editing system is on, will not recognize fire wire or USB. I do backup the footage to my other computer which has lacie drives on it. It takes hours to move it back and forth. The issue is that they expect me to leave the project there for weeks or months while they fine tune the video, which is why I suggested they have their own dedicated drive.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
That is what I was getting at with the inuendo comment. I don’t like this client. I don’t like the way they expect me to jump when they say so, like I have no other projects or clients. Like I said, if they gave me substantial business..I would jump. I have excellent relationships with my clients and we usually become friendly after the project. I just gave it more thought and decided to buy the drive, because in the long run, I will need it for other projects…your comments helped in a to change my mind. Guess you have to take a chance and hope it comes back to you. Thank you.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
You make some good points, I disagree about others. How much can you charge to make 5 simple edits? Point is whether its one edit or 50, its the same amount of work to restore the footage. I’m charging them $1,500 to $2,300 depending on the actual script changes, if I buy the drive, I basically do the job for nothing. True, once I finish the project, the drive is available for other projects. They called me on Friday and the deadline is in 3 weeks but I’m waiting for footage from out of state. The original project was done 2.5 years ago…these are just updates, which come up every 6 months or so. I use a SCSI system for my NLE so buying warm drives isn’t as cheap as IDE drives.
Honestly, I don’t care about losing this client, they are always on a tight budget with unreasonable timelines. If they gave me $10,000 a year in business, I wouldn’t think twice about buying a drive. On another message board, a guy posted that he needs to backup his footage to allow for other clients, and a few replies suggested that he charged the client for backup “warm” drives..that is where I got the idea to split the drive with them. I asked another client of mine the same thing who I work with 12 months a year and he gladly paid for the drive without question. I guess we just see things a little different but I appreciate your reply. There are other inuendos regarding the project that I didn’t share, which could possibly skew your opinion….or maybe those issues are clouding my opinion.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
I meant on my last post…”that you should do it the right way if possible”. I have a sony dru 500, very dependable drive and it still records at 1X.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
Curious…why do these companies only support drives that are obsolete? I’ve been making DVD-R’s recorded at 1X speed using Verbatim discs and have not had one disc come back unplayable…but why do it the right way if possible
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
You’re amazing! I think I’ll buy the drive regardless and hope for the best. No clients have requested copy protection as of yet, but I’m sure it’s bound to come up. Thanks again for your information, I’ll check out cinram as my duplicator has been messing up lately.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
You made my day, I’m going to write my duplicator and see if they’ll take them and if so…order it. I will definitely let you know how I make up. thanks for the replies.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions