[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ted,

As Dave says, there are alternatives such as Fusion.

However, with Adobe AE CC being as great as it is + it has been suggested that it is in for a major upgrade this year to address some of the user criticisms, then now is not the time to move.

However, you get Cinema 4D Lite for free with AE and that may be able to take you up “a level”. You should also check out: https://www.x-particles.com/ – their show-reel is impressive, and they are on my shopping-list for when I get that far.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Max,

[Max Fancher] “A client whom we’re about to start working with has changed my very simple paragraph into a very long/complex one. Their version basically says that they will have the ability to reject the final video and if we aren’t able to have it meet their needs that they can cancel the Agreement and require us to give them every penny back.”

Run, and run as fast as you can!!! This is setting you up for the fall big time.

However, there are a coupe of very simple tools that you can use to change the perception of this:
1) Add to their text: If they demand all the money back, all copyright and all usage of rushes and edited footage reverts back to your firm, and you will be able to use it as you see fit…
2) I have full production insurance and my insurance broker (Matt at Chesterfield Group, London) every year gives me a signed pdf letter of “Public Liability Policy” and “Equipment Hire – including all props and set etc”. This I use to show the client that they are covered for costs if anything goes wrong.

As Ned says, there is a third option which includes indemnifying you against any decisions that your client makes at pre-production, on location and in the edit. You could include that in the contract. Make sure that you have a trail of every decision made by the client, either by email or recorded on camera – you may want to budget $1,000 for this extra work. And don’t hand over final master until the money is in your account.

Good Luck – do remember that when you say no politely, the client will have a lot more respect for you.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Eric,

Congratulations, what a great situation to be in.

[Eric Chamberlain] ” A national cable TV channel has asked to license a short film I made specifically for them.”

Did they pay you for the short upfront, or did you make it without their input, and then submitted it?

In advertising you used to be able to get paid per showing, those days have mostly gone, unless you are a big time actor/actress with pulling power.

Calculate out your costs for the production. Times that by 2 = the minimum that you should charge. It really comes down to how badly the channel wants your short?

Another option is to offer it to them free of charge in return for a contract for ordering 10 more shorts. I.e. you give them a discount and in return secure future work that may keep you happy for a few months + publishing all those shorts should help your portfolio big time.

ONE BIG word of WARNING:
Normally shorts are made up of loads of people working for free in return for show-reel footage and/or experience. When doing the license, do you have all of your releases in place? Including agreements with any music composer and DOP? You may be happy with the money from the National Cable channel, they may not, which could sink you before you even got out of bed.
Also, if you have created the music yourself make sure to register it, as you could earn royalties every time it is played on the channel – this alone could under the right circumstances make you consider paying the channel for taking your short… 🙂

Hope this helps.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Don,

It is quite common in the edit not to have all of the assets in the beginning of the edit, from small things like names & titles for lower thirds, to whole segments not shot yet.

How you and the client deals with this is a separate matter.

[Don Leap] “In the past I used to do flat rates where these projects would get dragged out because they were still acquiring their assets. Now I’ve wised up with contracts but I’m still getting new clients who say they’re ready, but aren’t…or expect me to supply the missing media for them (ie: photos, music, videos, etc).”

By the sound of it, you are doing the right thing. I would suggest that you:
1) Include a Terms & Conditions with your contract. What are your cancellation policy? How you will alert your client when they have run over budget etc. And who has the responsibility for supplying source materials, and if you have to do it, what the added cost will be?
2) Give a break-down in time on the flat fee structure. As in, your day rate may be $$$$, where as buying multiple days there will be a reduction to $$$ based on a set amount of hours.
3) If it is clear that the project will run over the agreed time frame, alert your client and let them know what the new total will be.

Do remember, that some clients have a tendency to “burn” their budget on the shoot, and hope that post-production will make up for it through reducing their fees. In which case if the amount is too low, you may want to suggest that production finds another editor…

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

[Todd Terry] “The film is all of past projects for commercial spots or corporate clients, some going back 15 years. Some of it might be valuable as stock footage someday… but who knows?”

Ask your clients – they may even want to pay for a 2K or 4K digital scan of the films. Which would make it a business opportunity. Alternatively, you should charge for storing film footage – if they don’t want to pay for that, dump it at either a local museum, or national or straight to the bin – unless you are emotionally attached to it, in which case make space at home for it.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

[Tom Sefton] “If you manage to get a monkey, I will happily fly from England to work as a monkey fluffer or gear lackey on this shoot.”

What does a “Monkey fluffer” do?
And wouldn’t this only work on male monkeys?

Shouldn’t be thinking out loud.

However, I’m happy to fly out too and be the monkey (NOT the fluffer), although based on pictures there might be other more suitable (local) people in the thread who would be better actors 🙂

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

[Nick Griffin] ”
First was on the CBS drama “State of Affairs.” Apple has for years been a very heavy user of product placement and this show is no exception. Every desktop computer has an Apple logo on the back of the screen and, I believe, most characters are using iPhones. ALMOST every desktop that is. In last week’s show a college professor was being interviewed by CIA agents and I noticed that he was clearly using a machine running Windows 8. What a surprise later in the episode when it was revealed that he was a villain!”

If the company, CBS and/or “State of Affairs” was paid (directly or indirectly) to put Windows 8 on the villains computer, then I would suggest that this would be a breach of product placement ethics. However, I’m sure that if you ask Microsoft, that they would be happy for any professor to use their operating systems – even if the character is dumb criminal that got caught 🙂

Ambush marketeers at sports events are not new. And it is a cheap way of getting traction without paying the BIG dollars. The London 2012 Olympics worked very hard on keeping them out, although some brands like NIKE was deemed successful up against the official brand Adidas. (London Business School report: https://www.london.edu/-/media/files/faculty%20and%20research/research%20centres/aditya%20centre%20research/socialympics%20%20hijacker%20brands%20win%20the%20socialympics.pdf)- their success was in part attributed to getting the sports people to wear their brand.

The smart thing about the Volvo campaign, apart from being cheap to run in comparison, was that by using social media they could release it at a time where none of their competitors could arrange a suitable response. I’m guessing that next time those car brands will have learned their lesson and be ready with a bucket of cold water…

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Emily,

You are very welcome.

[Emily Zhai] “I know it’s probably impossible for me to have a paid assistant (We’re still using 2006 Mac Pros in the office after a year of requesting a new computer).”

That comment has all the hallmarks of a company that is either making no money, or too much money. I am saying that from a position of having been the owner of such company (not making enough money). Although if you are only in the business of editing 720p HD, there are no reason to upgrade hardware. On the other hand, if you’re in 4K then you have to keep the wages low to cover the hours where the employees are starring at the thin progress line for rendering…
Either way, it is not your problem if you work the set amount of hours that you are required to, apart from the rare occasion of having to be part of the team and pull out all stops – but that should not be the norm.

[Emily Zhai] “Does title really matter?”
No, it does not. Anyone can for $5 print cards that gives them any title. Whether you can deliver to the expectations of your title, and whether your titled job is your goal is a completely separate matter for you to consider.
However, if at any point you are going out on the open job market speaking with recruiters for big companies, then a title with a portfolio to match it, is not a bad thing to have.
If “Creative Director” is what you are and what you want to continue to be, then that is what you should continue working as – provided that someone asked to give a reference for you doesn’t say “She made brilliant coffee and was good at logging our rushes before the editor took over”.

BTW: are you giving the 3 editors creative “directions”?
If you are, maybe use the powers of delegation to buy yourself into a normal working week.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Emily,

I’m in London, UK – not LA, just to avoid confusion.

However, the “rules” for employment are pretty much the same where-ever you go in the developed world:

You have an employment contract that states how many hours a week that you should work on a monthly or annual salary. Any hours above that, your employer should in return give you time off, or come to a financial arrangement. Your contract should also have some kind of job description – often with small companies, neither is included.

So as any new employee you would have started out overly eager, and happy to jump when-ever people said jump – this has then become the norm for your role. At the same time, you have also in yourself created a martyr that would always go that extra mile and work those long hours. It is always nice to get the recognition for doing that – but unless you ask, it will never pay the bills, neither will it make up for the loss of social fun and other activities such as sleeping.

I am guessing that time wise, that it suits your employer to treat you like a junior employee, and that until you sit down with your line manager (or owner) and raise your concerns about the amount of work that you do, this arrangement will continue as is.

Money wise, quite simple, look at the job adverts such as on the High paid jobs offered on Creative Cow, and you will soon see what people in similar positions are getting paid. Word of warning though; your current employer might not find you irresistible and decide that you would be better off without a working visa, and that the company would be able to employ a new “martyr” to repeat your experience for a couple of years.

On the other hand, if handled correctly, you may find yourself with (small) pay rise and an assistant to do the heavy lifting. If you can get none of that, at least try and get the company to agree to “promote” you to a senior editor (Titles really means nothing in the film-world as opposed to a good show-reel. However, on LinkedIn it means everything to a recruiter…)

[Emily Zhai] “32-hrs-in-a-row is quite often”
With those kind of working hours, you will not be able to any kind of freelancing – so don’t be upset about not doing any of those extra paid gigs. Neither do you have time to market yourself for a new job.

Final suggestion: Map out your career path and where you want to be both professionally and privately in 5, 10 and 15 year segments. If the end-game is an Oscar with family, house, Volvo and a dog to go with it, then your current employer may never be able to provide that goal (others would say dream). But with that in mind, you will soon decide if your the employer is life-time job, or just a stepping stone for much better things.

Good Luck

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Patrick,

Yep, as most modern note-books and others comes without the DVD drive, USB drive is the next best thing (or better). If you are producing large enough quantities they can come down in price. Although, if it is only a few individuals for their presentations, then the cost won’t be much more than what one would have charged for a Digital Betacam tape – add it to the final bill (Do ensure that they give you the correct media-file requirements).

However, there are a third way – depending on how adventurous you and the client is. Either use a cloud service such as Hightail (formerly yousendit) for distributing link to files. You can password the links + put a tracker on downloads to tell you when and who is downloading the files.

Or if there are no local wifi at location, bring your own NAS with wifi – but that has all the potential of ending up as a real disaster, if everybody in the room are computer illiterate 🙂

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk