[Mark Suszko]

There certainly is a lot of that jargon going on. Since you referenced the “30 Rock” clip, Jack Welch was a huge proponent of six sigma and credited it with saving or making GE (a subsidiary of the Shinehardt Wig Company) many millions of dollars.

Lean management is about enabling your workforce to become leaders, and make more decisions on their own, to be engaged in the work, to own it and be devoted to it’s continuous improvement. The manta we’re taught is: make work easier, faster, better, and cheaper… in that specific order. And without relying on cutting jobs.

Six Sigma is more tightly and specifically focused on quality improvement, thru measurement and statistical analysis.

[Mark Suszko]

It might only be a semantic difference, but I think I’ve heard the echo you’re talking about. However, I’d characterize it more as a “ringing”.

[Mark Suszko]

Never said easy. But it’s worth trying.

It is so much harder to build a biz from scratch than to start on an established platform with good fundamentals. What you *will* have to consciously avoid is an over-attachment to how things were, and instead be hopeful and anxious to implement what *can be*.

If you have any background in rehabbing houses, or restoring old cars, musical instruments, or boats or furniture, those kinds of things, you will grok where I’m coming from. Evolution is painful but leads to survival, even success.

Finding those candidates and developing them rapidly, that’s going to be a big job, but if the gamble pays off, it will pay off big.

And really, what’s the alternative? Shutting down and cashing out? It would depend on how much risk you’re able to afford. Could be your best bet from a conservative financial aspect is to close it down now, leave the field a champ. Or stay in, and switch to coaching. Not everyone can do it. But succeeding at such transformations to leave a legacy behind can be extremely rewarding.

[Mark Suszko]

Joke answer: Merge with Greg’s company.

Serious(er) answer: This is an opportunity for new blood to come in. Even your ideal present guy had to start out less than perfect and learn on the job. He’s got a duty of honor to help you transition in a new replacement. You go haunt the dean at the nearest university business school, get a short list of MBA’s he’s personally familiar with, that know they don’t know everything and are willing to learn from this Ideal guy that’s been running the shop. You can probably afford to pay them a little less, or consider hiring two of them and splitting the jobs and the pay in some way.

The upside is, they will have fresh eyes and could help move the biz in new directions, find new markets and clients.

This is only a tragedy if you look at it as an ending, and not as a new opportunity for growth and profit.

The best leaders give away as much of their authority to their people as possible – that’s how you grow new leaders. You had The Best Guy… no you gotta build a new Best Guy or Best Gal, or both.
They’re out there, I guarantee it.

[Mark Suszko]

Or get DaVinci Resolve 15 for free… at least until you come up with funding….

[Mark Suszko]

ff mpeg too.

Or the easier ffWorks, if you don’t do command-line interfaces

[Mark Suszko]

Mpeg Streamclip FTW.

Though the free FLV Crunch and VLC might also work.

[Mark Suszko]

I -think- you can do a burn-in. regardless of FCPX version number, if you render it out using Compressor. Worth a shot?

[Mark Suszko]

Probably not, TBH. Though these things are highly situational. When every job you do is “bespoke”, you rent the gear appropriate to that task.

Is the assignment fashion runway stuff? Or sports? Or concerts? Or news? Or documentary? Public affairs? Or theatrical film? Every one of those jobs has different demands. No one rig serves them all, equally well.

My experience is mostly in ENG work these days. A lot of shooters in the news biz I see, use DeJero , Live Vu or similar back packs to livecast their shots back to base in real time. They are not that happy having to tie the camera down to a backpack (nobody “wears” them.) They’re awkward to wear while hand-held shooting off the shoulder, so they tend to be dropped at the foot of a tripod, with an SDI extension cable, and now your camera is tethered. I have NEVER witnessed an ENG shooter actually wearing the backpack while shooting… ever. So far. There are a million little moments when a shooter might need to bend down or step away from the camera and/or tripod for just a second or two – and an umbilical to his or her body makes that a problem. If you see something potentially interesting developing away from the tripod, or a fun/a artsy cut-away opportunity, wanna unhook and go get it, you have to weigh the risk of leaving the expensive backpack unattended, or dragging it along… you may tend to not bother trying to find that unique shot, and sticking to the tripod, just because it’s less hassle… it’s just not ideal.

My current rig for work uses a Terradek Bond that’s small and clips on between the Anton Baur battery pack and the camera’s battery plate. It adds negligible weight and affects the balance just a little, offset by the LED mini light near the lens… but at least there’s no cable to hang up on anything or trip me. I can go anywhere with the P2 camera and the Bond on the back, in seconds. Particularly when running wireless audio. And that’s damn handy sometimes.

Terradek doesn’t make those anymore, to my regret; they’ve gone to a backpack solution that promises higher transmit power, less needed bandwidth, and better hot-swap-ability. To me, it’s one more separate damn thing to haul around, when I could leave the old unit on the camera and forget about it, leaving me just two things to carry: the camera, and the sticks.

I get it that you’re talking something smaller than a backpack, more like a fanny pack or audio guy’s mixer bag… …or the bandoliers of lead-acid or NiCad batteries I used to haul, looking like Chewbacca, in the 80’s… But IMO, to make something space-efficient for a bag that size, you’re already miniaturizing enough stuff that it may as well still hang off the camera or plate, skipping the umbilical.

And heavy fanny packs tend to pull one’s pants down. I know. Between a fanny or belly pack, and a bandolier, I’d take the bandolier. A bandolier also puts a potential connect point right at the shoulder; shorter, and away from places that can snag.

Maybe a better invention would be an evolved camera plate that had break-away magnetic quick-connect/disconnects to the camera’s inputs and outputs, so you can stash a larger battery and storage drive and audio mixer on the pan head/plate. There are already camera grips that combine some or all these features…

Or a sophisticated, clamp-on cage that would manage all the battery/mixer/backup drive gak on a monopod, leaving the smaller camera free to attach or detach with a break-away connection… Zacuto’s probably made one already and I just didn’t notice it yet…

Good luck on your idea. Do consider the bandolier, though. More ergonomic weight distribution, and easier sizing.

[Mark Suszko]

Umbilicals, be they power, or signal, always eventually come up against situations where they get in the way. All the gak hanging off the camera and plate evolved to -cut- the umbilicals and free the operator from connecting to the camera. BluTooth and other radio-based wireless tech enhanced this trend. Your solution might be great for certain situations, and not for others. Can you find enough customers that like hard-wiring again?