Mark Alexander
Forum Replies Created
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Thanks very much for your thoughts and opinions on this. I don’t post too often but when I do ask a question this is where I come to. You folks are the best!!!
Mark
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As far as I’m aware of, yes they pay $200 for these. Turn Here is pushing the model of quick and efficient – 4 or 5 hours total. It looks like the clients can subscribe to a $20 month hosting fee for the videos after 3 mos. free trial or buy the embed code for $600. This last number is what I’m wondering may be competitive enough to interest the mom and pops. It could, if done efficiently, be enough to make a little money. The main thing I’d be looking at though is getting “in” with the businesses that would have other video needs.
If they are having the videographers do the selling by going out and offering a “free” video with no obligation to purchase – well, that’s pretty hard to go up against.
Mark
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Hmm, certainly am not interested in a “race to the bottom” that’s for sure. The Demand Media model seems significantly different though than this one. Take a look at this if you will and offer some opinions. Basically they have you shoot and do one edit, they approve and then pay you $200. The idea being to knock these out in 5-6 hours or so.
See: https://www.turnhere.com/
Mark
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I worked with a first time director on a doc recently. She wanted to guide the editing from the start. I explained to her how this first cut would work and she seemed fine with the explanation: audio levels all over the place, wrong colors, rough in and outs etc. So off we go and not 5 minutes in she’s asking why does it look / sound / feel that way. I got to the point where I understood that she wasn’t going to be able to see past these items so I would clean up as much as I could to help her be able to watch edits without stopping all the time.
On another occasion I was working with a long- long time director who could see past things that just bugged the heck out of me. He would tell me don’t worry about, it’s fine, move on. He had things under control and finished quickly.
In these cases the directors were in the room with me so that really affects the process. Newbies want it all laid out cleanly and the more experienced don’t need that degree of finesse to “see” what they’re looking at.
Mark
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Can’t help with the west side but in Burbank you can take it to Computer Works Technology, 711 S. Victory Blvd. (818) 840-1870. They’ve taken good care of my DVX before.
Mark
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Patricia,
As someone who has been to the same MCAI meetings as you and Travis I’ll agree that there is some truth in the talent vs. technical sides of the room (although it’s the techies who crowd the food table!). But, when it comes to “business”, you voice-over types have a lot of good insight! I bug Travis every time I see him to try and glean a little marketing insight.
You do a lot of “networking” it seems. How is it going for you in that regard? Do you get a lot of work/connections/referrals from going to different functions and just being “seen”?
Mark
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I want to get some info about regional manufacturing companies so I’ve gone to the “Reference USA” website and started looking through their massive database. After filtering for sales and number of employees and other variables I came up with a handful of companies that might be worth looking deeper into.
One problem I’m seeing though is that some of the info may be a bit outdated and not entirely accurate. For example, after I got tired of looking into “widget making” companies I took a break and thought I’d check out some local video production companies and saw a wedding video biz that showed annual sales of $3 million! Wow, and this was a single person operation! That’s some seriously upscale weddings!!!
Have you used this type of reference database before? Was it helpful? Any suggestions on how to best utilize this data in “researching” a company (in spite of somewhat exaggerated sales figures!)?
Mark
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Can you offer some specific information that you would be looking for, and how, that would help you determine what a company’s video needs are?
Mark
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Dear Abby,
A client of mine recently said “thank you”. I was paralyzed with fear because I recently read online that it could be insulting to say “you’re welcome”. Is this true? Now I’m afraid that soon someone will utter those two dreaded words again. What should I say? What should I do? Please help before it’s too late!
Signed: “Grateful” in So Cal.
Mark
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Thanks for the continued posts on this.
Mark
p.s. Tim can I come and work with you? You must have one the best job in media – at least as far as I can tell.
Mark