John Baumchen
Forum Replies Created
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Adobe states that the new CS4 programs are certified for XP – 32 bit, Vista – 32 and 64 bit.
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When I had my own business in Canada, I charged $95.00/hour. It didn’t matter if it was camera work, going to city hall for film permits, editing, compositing…..it was $95.00/hr. Want me to edit your wedding footage? No problem, here is my rate. For the first 8 anyway. This was in ’05. I wasn’t the highest or lowest amoungst my competitors but I was busy.
No real answer to your question, you need to figure out how much money it takes to live on, home many billable hours you have in a month and that sort of thing, then fix your rate so you can earn a decent living. A business plan will do wonders.
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The only thing I can add to the excellent advice already provided is this. Find out what the prospects pain is and how your services can aleviate it.
What keeps them awake at 2am? Mind you, if they’re in the financial industry, I don’t think video is going to solve it for them.
Cheers.
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Unless you have a written argeement that specifically states that the work you do is a ‘work for hire’, then you own all rights to the footage. Even if the client pays, you still own it. I used to give my clients a license to the material with every paid invoice. If they wanted a work for hire project, my rates tripled.
I don’t understand why people on this forum keep thinking that the client owns anything without a specific clause in the contract stating as much. The copyright law in the USA specifically addresses ‘works for hire’ and how it affects ownership.
Read all about it here:
https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf -
Chalk up another vote for SmartSound. we’re using the plug-in for Adobe PremierePro. With the extensive library of royalty free sounds, we’re finding that it meets all of our needs.
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I’ve always built my own systems. I do the research on the CPU, the MB, RAM, video cards……. I bought a couple of high end pre-configured workstations for present employer and was really disappointed to have to rely on poor tech support, lack of driver disks, “recovery” OS disks, etc.
I recently bought a name brand PC for my wife to use in her business. Thought I’d escape being the in-house tech support by her having it with the retailer’s geek squad.
Discovered a problem where she couldn’t view WMV files from websites. It was a Vista 64bit machine. Nice one with Quad core, 6GB RAM, 650GB HDD….
Called the retailer tech support who said it was an OS issue and they don’t help with OS problems.
Took it IN to the retailer tech support who told me it was a Vista issue, “Vista can’t read wmv’s from older web sites”.
Microsoft says it’s the OEM’s problem, the OEM said it was the retailer’s problem.
Get my drift? I finally figured out the problem, (a setting in MSCONFIG), and it just made me more determined to build my own systems in the future. It really isn’t hard. Plug in some wires and boards, and install the drivers.
Not for everyone I’m sure, but I pity those who have to rely on external tech support when their lively hood is at stake.
Just my $0.02
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John,
Was the time factored into your quote?
I always charged for render time but billed it as editing time, afterall, that’s what it really is. Rendering is part of the process and since your editing system is being used to render, it’s not generating cash flow from other projects.
Cheers.
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Gee, sounds like a career launching opportunity!!
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Inside PremierePro, right click on the clip and adjust the speed upwards.
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I once had a client who always shot their own footage. no tape striping, lots of zoom shots….
I did manage to get them to use a tripod though. The end result was that I actually had more billable hours editing than I would have had I been behind the camera as well. They were always happy with the final, (even thought I sometimes cringed when they would view it), and most important, I always got paid on time and had lots of repeat business from them.
Having begun my video career as an editor, seeing lots of bad camera work actually helped me to be better behind the camera.
If you have a good relationship with your client, maybe suggest to them that you would be open to shooting their next project.