[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ben,

Looks full of persistence as that Time-lapse would have taken you months, if not years to make. It certainly should have some value as no-one else is likely to have that perspective on the build.

However, are you doing it for the money, or for the recognition, or a bit of both?

If it is a high profile installation you may want to look out for the duration of the use, any reseller value and credits. The less they want to pay, the bigger your name should be on screen, maybe with your chosen web address.
1) Consider a monthly license fee, for arguments sake call it a $1,000 + tax. With a license that does not allow for transfer or reselling without further negotiations.
2) Negotiate for suitable placement of your copyright information, both on the video and any print, digital and other media. Keep negotiating till you get close to the top billing – after all, you used a long time to created that clip, which have to recognized.

They may tell you to go away if you ask for too much. So if fame is more important for you, charge only a nominal fee. However, make sure that it comes with all the credits, invites to any and all parties held at the installation (think Networking for work) and ask for their PR company to arrange 2-3 interviews with selected publications. It sounds cheeky, but you have to pay your rent and time for being persistent.

Most importantly; whether you are an artist or a commercial entity, when you turn up at the party or do the PR, you MUST know what your next project is and be able to speak about it or it will all be an wasted exercise.

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 Todd,

With all due respect, allow me to disagree:

There are this thing called Opportunity Costs, which they owe. Setting aside the meager interest that could have been earned, this is actual money lost to the customer:

1) Time it takes to track down the payment, and why it has not been paid.
2) Embarrassment and negative impact on future business of having to question the person that made an early payment, if they are sure that they have made that payment.
3) Not being able to clear your own debts early, which may, or may not be on a high interest payment plan.
4) Not being able to invest the money, which may or may not in that time got you a sizable return.
5) Not forgetting the psychological damage and anguish of you not knowing if you will ever get your money.
6) The Sarbanes Oxley Act is about that a listed company at all times have to account for their customers money, as if not doing so can have an adverse effect on investors money. If they have a practice where they may or may not be doing so openly, and is making bank like transactions to add to that, then they could be in real trouble…

Get my drift…

All the Best
Mads

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

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

[Richard Herd] “That’s pretty clever. I wonder what a small claims court in the US would rule?”

Only time will tell, but my guess is that said company will not let this issue go to court with all the associated publicity that follows – not to forget that there in the US is legal firms making a living out of picking up “no cost” class actions…

All the Best
Mads

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

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Erik,

At 10 Euro there are NO contest on a decision between saving money or having a much better picture. If anything, I would offer the hire company a bit more to help take you through the menu’s on the camera (in particularly the audio in as well as monitoring), so it is setup before you arrive on location – or get it the evening before so you can have a little play with it.

Iso recording of audio could in your case be better described as “split mono”. As in that each radio mic is recorded into a separate channel on the camera. If you are only using one radio mic, you could use a camera mic or gun mic for back-up audio on the 2nd channel on the camera. One good advice on using two radio mics is that my hire company supplies a Dual Hot Shoe mount, which allows the two receivers to sit on top of the camera. Either get one from supplier or by one to have.

All the Best
Mads

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

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Erik,

Two shoots yesterday using two Canon XF-305’s and Sennheiser Radio Mics, hence the late feedback. All went well.

Rental sounds like a good place for you to start. My advice is for you to find at least three rental shops and get three quotes – you’ll soon find a company that matches your requirements and setup. When it comes to price and what is in the kit, remember it doesn’t cost you anything to ask for better rates and service. One of the services not to undervalue is the hire-companies that includes collection and delivery to your location of choice.

Personally, if I hire a camera and is asked to pay extra for the card-reader, then it is likely that I am either taken for a ride or hiring the wrong camera – if you can’t get the footage transferred, the whole exercise is null-&-void. Depending on what camera model you choose, it may be worth getting your own cards. High speed SDHC cards are not that expensive and most modern laptops have a built in reader.

In terms of your choice of camera. Because of previous personal bad experiences with a Sony product, I will only hire their cameras based on tried and tested models and on hire price. But my current favorite is Canon.
The Sony HXR-NX5E shows as being discontinued with one of the largest dealers in the UK. Looking at the specifications for compression, I am not sure that the picture quality will be as good as other similar cameras – the keyword is “discontinued”. Which also implies that you may not be able to match the quality of what you record today, in say six months time.

Yes, the XF-300 is more expensive as it gives you a better picture (on paper anyway). However, the difference shouldn’t be much more than £30/day, based on UK prices on similar cameras. For that extra money you get a camera that can shoot 50 Mbps in MPeg compression at 1920×1080, which will allow you to have slightly loose framing to the picture, which you can then later tighten up in post without loosing too much picture quality.

No matter what camera you settle for, make sure that Premiere elements will read the footage, or you will be in trouble…

Because the cameras are not that heavy, the tripod should be fine.

Lights sounds fine too – if in public make sure to carry extension power cables and loads of Gaffa – bring both regardless.

Audio mics for recording to camera fine too – make sure to Iso them on the camera, and do remember if you need more than two people speaking at the same time you’ll need either a sound-mixer or an extra camera with inputs.

Home recording: if only a consumer microphone use that for guide track till client sign off. Then consider hiring a professional studio for the Voice Over (normally around £90-£125/hour). There are USB microphones on the market that will do a very good job – but I am not the right person to give advice on that.

Hope this helps?

Above all, remember that you have the excitement of a real client with real money.

All the Best
Mads

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

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Todd,

In a previous life where I used Quickbooks and on the rare occasion where there would be a problem, I tended to shout at management loud enough for them to fix the problem.

My suggestion would be for you to issue an invoice to Intuit for lost interest, hours spend on investigating the problem and don’t forget to add call charges too. Once you send them an invoice FAO CEO, you have turned the issue into a legal one about costs, rather than one where Intuit doesn’t seem to show a care for your cash-flow – which is the business they claim to help you manage.

Bottom line is that any “feature” that they choose to include uninvited is theirs to pay for if it doesn’t work.

All the Best
Mads

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

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Erik,

Until you are established with a regular income I would strongly suggest that you consider hiring in the equipment for each production. This will also give you the opportunity to find out what camera and tripod you’ll like the most (Not setting aside that the next 18 months will see a number of 4K lower cost video cameras entering the market). I understand that the client wants you to purchase the kit, but it is not clear whether it will yours or theirs? If theirs, then your fees will be reduced by 30-40% which may not make financial sense to you.

Put production/crew/equipment/public liability insurance above anything else you do as a priority – this cost alone could be high, but compulsory for any business working with the public. Based on my UK rates, you could be looking at as mush as 1,200 Euro annually.

Set aside money for Adobe CC (and training). If you want to start low-budget, you could buy the combined Photoshop and Premiere elements package.

If there are budget for it, do consider getting yourself a couple of lapel mics. Radio mics is easiest for you to control if you have to run around after more than person connected to the camera. An LED top light for the camera for stand-ups etc. Eventually leaving the large ticket items for that time when they’ll give you a return on investment within 3 years.

If you are adamant on purchasing a camera, don’t write off getting a HD-SLR with a BeachTek or similar. At least the camera can double as a still camera and you will be able to shoot a lower light in cost comparison to a video camera model.

There are plenty of websites that offers copyright free music and footage at really affordable prices. Again, just make sure that it is in the budget, before agreeing the final price.

Hope this helps – well done on getting a client with a decent budget too!

All the Best
Mads

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

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Found it, thank 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 James,

I’ve had a few of those “offers” with local record companies, and in the end I realized that was being asked to invest into their business, without getting an ownership or even any kind of payment.

The first thing that you are told is that the video will make them no money and therefore there are no serious budget for it. WRONG: The music won’t make money without marketing, hence the video – in essence, the music producer needs you more, than you need them. They might not agree with this (read: have readily available money).

When all that is said, there are nothing wrong with giving an hourly price of what-ever you feel comfortable with. Maybe to make it more tangible for the client, you should consider constructing the 3-4 most likely scenarios and give a package price on each of those – at least the client won’t call you if they only have 1/2 the budget for 3 camera production.

Now, if the client is good at spotting talent, you may want to consider a contractual reduction in your fees in return for copyright and all performers signed releases to your firm. As in that the client can only use the final product as is, and you get the rights to use the source footage as you see fit + charge the client for future versions of the videos.
In this scenario, if lucky, you may be holding the early footage of the next Michael Jackson, Madonna or similar, which could be a very good position to be in – but only works if the client is good at picking acts…

Just a thought, hope that it 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 Richard,

[Richard Herd] “Lynda.com is free for 7 days, via their facebook promo.”
Fab tip, but I can’t find it on their FB page, do you have a link?

Thanks and very much appreciated.

All the Best
Mads

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