[John Davidson]

Excellent info. Thank you!

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

Yeah, I figured it was a long shot. I’m holding out for Leapard before we upgrade. I guess I can keep the pc’s running a few more months.

Thanks sir!
JD

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

First, draw up a proposal (a plain word doc with your company name or logo at the top) detailing your ideas and how they fit in with the company. Be specific, but not wordy. 1-2 pages tops is what you want. It doesn’t have to be gorgeous, this is essentially where you put your FIRST ideas to paper and brainstorm.
Bullet points rock here, as you may need this proposal handy for a cold call and you don’t want to stammer or seem insecure (even though we all are).

Based on the size of the company you’re pitching to, you may want to go to the head honcho, or perhaps the marketing director, or PR director. See if you know anyone in that field who has worked with the potential client before. Mutual contacts will get you halfway there.

Lastly, the phone call. Once you have your ducks in a row, hopefully you have the name of the person you want to call (and googled him/her for any additional tidbits, such as are you from the same hometown, etc), make the call. If you don’t have the name of the person you should call, cold call their main line, ask to speak with someone in the marketing department, that person will tell you who the department head is if you ask nicely. Now, back to the phone call – First, give a quick summary, briefly discuss your qualifications, and see if you can have a face to face meeting with him/her to explain your services and how you’d like to help him accomplish his goals. Share how the article inspired you to the idea. Passion for a clients product coupled with real-world experience is a big draw.

If you can’t get a meeting, ask if you can send a proposal in to him. Send it in with a copy of your work that would appeal to him/her. Make the proposal look nice. Kinkos bindings, quality paper, the whole nine.

They may currently outsource the services you provide already. In that case, try to get in with the outsourcer and complete the project as a vendor to them.

Hopefully this will get you off to a good start. There are a myriad of details I’d need to have to give you the most accurate advice possible, but this should be an excellent place to begin.
Remember, the only thing they will know about you initially is what you present to them. Make it awesome and they’ll think you’re awesome.

Good Luck!
John

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

Don’t see a problem with the DVD, but there may be issues posting online, ESPECIALLY on sites where you can’t easily control the content, such as YouTube.

If there’s a way to ask permission first, this might be a good situation for it.

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

I almost forgot about the corporate videos. Those would probably have a higher incidence of being prohibited from a reel, unless your contract states “out of context” use for promotional purposes is acceptable. For example, if you designed the DVD Menu, that would be ok to show, as long as you don’t expose the widget making secrets of the company to the world.

– and Thanks for the reel compliment, Nick!

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

Weirdness. I’ve never figured out why Avid and Premiere like to dirty up QuickTime files so much. A comperable sized file exported from Final Cut would be about 12mb tops and look flawless. However, your post was about what could be charged for this, so I better give you an answer!

It looks good, certainly more of an eye for design than the original. You didn’t mention how much time/hours you spent, but I’m guessing at least a week of work went into it (probably more since you’ve referenced lightwave and multiple programs). In all honesty, due to the market size, content, and type of client, you probably can’t charge more than 1-2k and expect to get paid (that price may in fact be higher than they are willing to pay). If you were a larger market, other things would be considered like redoing voice over and having a good mix ($700 for VO, $1200 for mix). Edit time, assume 2k for one week of machine use, plus 2k for editor time. On top of that, you’re also working with lightwave and other advanced programs, so designer time needs an additional 2k. Revisions? You bet. Add 2k. Insurance, tapes, web postings, and the purchase of Sorenson Squeeze to get you those small yet juicy quicktimes, add another 2k.

End result, I’d charge at least 12k for the whole shebang, probably more.

Hope that helps!

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

ugh. Real Audio files. I would charge you with disorderly format.

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

I’m not sure of the legal issues, but from a practical standpoint, how many people are really going to see the logo in the credits anyways? Unless this is a video for Christina Agulera or one of the other four artists that MTV plays, you’re much better to thank the client for what he/she gives you, keep them happy, and use the music video as part of your reel. Then prepare for the next 20 music videos that come in the front door.

There are very few instances where you can’t use your work on a reel, IMHO. They are:

1. You didn’t do the work (I know LOTS of people that break this stupid yet seemingly obvious rule).
2. You project is a training video for some top-secret government stuff.
3. You include work a client brought you in a reel sent to that client’s client. EG. MTV gave a friend’s agency a trailer, and he sent it to me on the condition that I don’t use that work to solicit MTV directly and steal his client for 6 months.

If you did the work, then you have the right to show it off. Perhaps you only send out DVD and don’t put the work online if there is a threat you’ll be sued, or perhaps password protect a web page featuring the video so that you can email a link with user/pass to potential clients. Whatever you do, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.

Good Luck!

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeatherinc.com

[John Davidson]

This always gets me. Pull the control panel out of your deck and check to see if the “OUT REF” switch is on “Ref”. If it’s on “Ref”, switch it to “Input Video”.

Through testing, I’ve discovered that for digitizing and normal playback, switch it to “ref”, for layback, switch it to “Input Video”. I’m sure there’s a setting that avoids all this on my Kona, but for my system I know this works.

Good luck!
Neo

[John Davidson]

https://www.magicfeatherinc.com/monitor.jpg

Works for me. Don’t use it if you’re a serious color corrector for film or anything like that though. Adjusting color can be a little tricky with some of trese monitors..

However, if it’s just for you, knock yourself out.

Neo