[Mark Suszko]

It’s a weird feeling where you need to do sub-par work in order to survive because you audience is okay with sub-par and won’t support anything better.

This. All day.

[Mark Suszko]

Did you grill the guy at all about how and why he comes to this idea that he has automatic credit on a client project? I’m asking; is this guy redeemable, once educated? You generally don’t get any credits unless the clients want them, in commercial work. But an easy compromise would be (would have been) to allow something agreeable in their online portfolio or demo reel.

[Mark Suszko]

Take the hit and learn from it, to add the cost of a drive to each job, going forward. Or maybe seek a cloud-based transfer solution next time. Of course, you also clone a backup of everything *before* you send the drives.

[Mark Suszko]

If I had to guess, just based on the description, this is at least a three-day job, i.e. 21 hours, billed hourly, because there are so many unknowns that could rack up wasted time. Since it’s for charity, and family is involved, you might elect to do it for free, which gives you a lot more freedom and fewer “issues” later), but even if you do it “pro bono”, you MUST track the hours and compute and deliver a bill using your day rate. (If you have not yet established your hourly and day rate, there are a million threads in this forum that go into excruciating detail – well worth reading on your own time, so I’ll not repeat them here).

Why go to the bother of making up a bill for a Pro Bono job?

So you can mark the bottom of it “comped” or “No charge”.

This has several benefits to you: first, it puts a dollar value on your time and talent. People don’t value our work product if it’s free (“un-earned” in some way), but if they feel like they got a “special deal” on something that ordinarily costs, now they will treat the work product with respect and value it. It’s bizarre, true, but it’s human nature, and you can count on it.

The second benefit is, you are off the hook for change orders and revisions and follow-on work; the delivery with the “virtual” bill represents a completed package with no “strings attached”. You can submit the work as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, with a clear conscience. If they keep insisting they want more, it’s now your choice to bill actual dollars for the follow-on work, or refuse it. This gets you off the hook with the “family” as well, as there remains no attached obligation for follow-up, which they would also expect to be free, ordinarily.

The third benefit is, others will not be coming to you insisting on the same “freebie” rate. They will know what your time is worth, at the beginning of the negotiations, and that while you have a heart, you’re still a businessperson.

[Mark Suszko]

I’m Johnny one-note on this, but it’s important to me, and though it’s not “sexy”, I think it should be important to everyone.

Captioning.

It needs to be easier to do open or closed-captions for broadcast or DVD/web work, and I mean not just getting the text in there and lined up, but also, automated transcription from the audio track. The future of video, whatever frame size, shape, or codec, is making the audio keyword-searchable. It’s not just for the deaf, but for everyone.

[Mark Suszko]

You can simulate the track-based, FCP-7 style of editing in FCPX, but it’s not what FCPX was optimized for. Kind of like using a stapler as a hammer, or a screwdriver as a pry bar: it will work, more or less, but not as well as if you use the tool the way the designers intended. If you really really liked FCP7, are comfortable with that paradigm, and dead learning something radically different, I’m told the NLE most like a mild upgrade of that is the free Blackmagic Resolve.

I’m stumbling my way towards transitioning to FCPX from 7 at home now, since I have both at the office, on two different machines. Just waiting for enough overtime money to cover it, among all my other competing leisure-time needs:-)

[Mark Suszko]

Other tools I’ve used include mpeg streamclip and FLV crunch, both free.

[Mark Suszko]

Check out the mics section at Sweetwater: they offer some shotgun and lav mics customized for iPhone use, as does a search on Amazon. Another option that may work for you is, for round-table discussions, give them a PZM styled boundary mic to lay on the table and it will pick up everyone within about ten feet. Those typically need phantom power, so you’d also need a small mixer that has phantom power, or just buy a mic preamp with phantom, then a cable to the phone with an appropriate plug.

Any of those options will work better than what they are doing now. Preamps are cheap on ebay.

[Mark Suszko]

It always takes longer to say something in Spanish than it does in English. I learned by experience. This has to be accommodated in the planning before the shoot, so the shots have longer “handles” on them to help the timing work out. Ideally, you shoot a fully separate Spanish version to maximize production value and get the translations perfect. When you don’t have that option, what remains are two choices: record them too fast so they fit the “hole”, which is what you have, or, re-write the translation copy shorter so it fits the time. Neither is optimal. The re-write will miss details and nuances by virtue of the “compression”.

A third option is, you pause the video any time the Spanish needs to catch up.

I don’t think many people talk about this, I’d like to see some stats on it from somewhere, but I think a lot of YouTube viewers actually play their videos faster than normal. I know I can easily follow a lecture or “how-to” vid at up to twice the normal speed, when it’s not a dramatic performance.

Fun fact: Laurel and Hardy Shot a number of their comedies TWICE; once in English, the second time, using Spanish read from cue cards. They didn’t want anybody else dubbing over them, and it also showed a greater respect for a Hispanic audience segment, to customize their product instead of merely slapping a translation over it. Some old horror movies also used to do this: after the day shift went home, a second complete crew and Latino cast came in and worked on the same sets.

You know, there’s the germ of a fun movie script in that story……

[Mark Suszko]

Wives are awesome. Mine makes everything she touches, better in some way. She makes ME a better person than I otherwise am, and makes me strive to be worthy. She helps make our kids better than we are. She’s my sounding board, chief advisor, all-around consultant and guide, all on top of being her own person. I don’t think our wives’ value and importance can ever be overstated. And mine is totally NOT standing over my shoulder as I type this of my own volition. Really. Can I get an “Amen”?