[John Baumchen]

Titles are graphics files that can contain shapes which are not ‘text file friendly’. Premiere only works with ‘media’ type files, e.g., EPS, TGA, PSD, JPS, AI, AVI, MOV….. The only way to save the titles as text files is to open each title, select the text, and then do a copy and paste the text into notepad.

Cheers

“be seen, be heard, be remembered”

[John Baumchen]

Nice work geo!

“be seen, be heard, be remembered”

[John Baumchen]

I found that networking takes time. People do business whith people they know and trust. I would suggest that you check out your local chamber of commerce. They have a great deal of information available on companies doing business in your city as well as what business networking events are taking place. I would be willing to bet that prospective clients just may be chamber members also.

If you’re targeting a specific industry, find out what trade associations cater to that industry and consider joining as a member of that association. I used to do a lot of editing for a professional group of people and joined their association as a supplier. The business I got from it more than covered the costs. Great arena for word of mouth advertising as well as a few great friendships developed as a result.

If you live in a large town or city, try looking looking up Business Network Internation, (BNI), chapters in your area. You can attend any meeting as a guest twice every six months and they usually allow guests to do a 60 second elevator pitch during the course of the meeting, usually a breakfast or lunch meeting.

If your city has a business development center, take some time to visit them and learn about the resources they have available. It can save you a lot of footwork and parking meter change.

Cheers.

be seen, be heard, be remembered

[John Baumchen]

In case you are still looking, you can purchase one of several devices from R@dioSh@ck.

https://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=telephone%20recording&origkw=telephone%20recording

Cheers.

be seen, be heard, be remembered

[John Baumchen]

Sorry fo the typos.

Yeah, if you start giving services away, two things will happen.

1. It will be virtually impossible to bill the clinet for them in the future.
2. Your work will be preceived as having less value, afterall, if it’s free, there is no value in it.

When I first started out, I was tempted to ‘break into the field’ by offering some services for free. I’m glad I listened to a friend who was experienced in business. My first ‘Corporate Project’ was a real nerve whacker. Imagine me, a greenhorn charging $95/hour. But, it was accepted and the more projects I did, the more confidence I got, (honed some video skills too), and really began enjoying the work.

Cheers.

[John Baumchen]

Yeah, if you start giving services away, two things will happen.

1. It will be virtually impossible to the clinet for them in the future.
2. Your work will be preceived as having less value, afterall, if it’s free, there is no value in it.

When I first started out, I was tempted to ‘break into the field’ by offering some services for free. I’m glad I listened to a friend who was experienced in business. My first ‘Corporate Project’ was a real nerve whacker. Imagine me, a greenhorn charging $95/hour. But, it was accepted and the more projects I did, the more confidence I got, (honed some video skills too), and really began enjoying the work.

Cheers.

[John Baumchen]

By all means it is ethical and you are entitled to put a markup on your subcontractor costs. There is no difference in putting a markup on the cost of rental gear or sub-contractors.

Look at it this way, the time you spend on admin time regarding the subcontractor is preproduction time spent on the client’s project. In order to stay in business, you have to make a profit on not only your time, but on your costs as well.

If the sub contractor is billing you by the hour, either mark it up to what your hourly billing is or bill it out as a seperate line item at 1.5 times your cost.

Cheers.

[John Baumchen]

I’m not sure what the prevailing rates are in your area, but in the Pacific NW, I used to charge a flat rate as follows.

My base rate was $95.00/hr.

Travel time was billed at $45.00/hr and .50/mile portal – portal

If I had to fly, the client made the travel arrangement, Air, Transportation, Hotel or else I billed my time out at $95/hr + (expenses *1.15).

Half day – 4 hrs – $350 + travel time & mileage

Full day – 8hrs – $725 + travel time & mileage. Anything over 8 hours was charged out at $125/hr

Editing was billed out at a straight $95/hr with a two hour minimum. Want special effects or graphics, no problem – $95/hr.

I always supplied the equipment. If I had to rent equipment, I charged it to the client at a 40% markup to cover my time to obtain and return the rental gear.

If I had to get the shooting permits to shoot on civic property, I charged $95/hr + mileage + (permit fees *1.35).

I would always discuss the costs with the client up-front and is part of the normal process when determining the scope of the project.

I normally retained copyright of the footage I shot, if the client wanted to hire me on a ‘work for hire’ basis, my rates went up by a factor of 1.65

Hope this helps.

[John Baumchen]

Hire a pro.

They know the ‘market’ and it can make the difference between your message being read or thrown into the bit bucket.

[John Baumchen]

Lots of good advice here on the subject. Here’s my $0.02

Since this is a ‘work for hire’, you might want to include in your contract that all rights to the video remain with your company until payment is received in full. You also might want to include a clause that gives you rights to use the video to promote your company’s services.

Good luck.