[Mark Suszko]

David, I’m going to take that as a compliment, despite your possible intent:-) I think it was Blaise Pascal that once said: “I would have written a shorter letter, but didn’t have the time”.

I actualy double-posted by accident the first time, browser or the site had a hiccup and duplicated the first post. The fancy shmancy new editing controls locked out because you can’t edit a post once it has had a comment, and the duble post was considered the comment…. ok, I’m rambling now, it was a mistake, get over it:-)

I like my answers to be complete and unambiguous, so I’ll tend to write one longer, well-considered answer rather than a bunch of short, incomplete points separately. But I *can* be brief if needed: I can write you a 16-point esay on how to be more concise if you like…

Don’t want none? Don’t start none:-)

[Mark Suszko]

TGWSTC.

[Mark Suszko]

Bill them now for the work already done. You fulflled your end of the contract, delivering what was asked for, even if it’s not what was wanted. (See the “Stonehenge” section of the movie “This is Spinal Tapp” for reference)

Add a friendly note that sounds sympathetic to their problems as the intermediary, and say that the re-do, if it comes, will be billed as a separate job, but you’ll point out that much of the groundwork is already laid from the first job, so the re-do *could* possibly take less time than the first time, depending on how radical the changes are going to be and how much from the first effort can be repurposed. But by no measn can work continue until “accounts have been brought up to date” (Sounds more polite put that way).

Your situation is yet another advertisement for sticking to the policy of getting paid in thirds for these kinds of jobs. It protects you, it protects THEM. See, you would at least have had *some* money already for this project and the work you put in, even if it was cancelled before completion, had you had a down payment and a mid-project payment to begin the work and get it to first review stage.

The client would know that, in a world where “stuff” happens, if they had to cancel this project in the middle, they only had to pay for as much work as was actually done, and not a higher figure. This is how I sell clients on payment in thirds: it is mutually useful and mutually protective, and it allows the client to retain a greater sense of control over costs of the project. While you get what’s coming to you.

You are also the victim of a common problem in the industry, one I’ve had a few times: you were pleasing the wrong guy/ seeking approvals from the wrong guy. The guy you have to make happy is not necessarily the one who comes to the edit bay. In all cases, the guy you have to make happy is TGWSTC:

The Guy (or GAL) Who Signs The Checks.

It is important to find out who this person is during your initial negotiations. When you are not sure what to do, always defer to TGWSTC, not their minion or intermediary. This should also inform your billing procedure: don’t send your bill for services past-due to the jerk you just worked with, who is only going to try and sit on it, send it direct to, (say it with me guys, all together now)…

TGWSTC.

[Mark Suszko]

In powerpoint you can export the show as jpegs, import those into your NLE and add whatever transitions you want. Though if I have the time to do it, I always find it preferable and higher quality to re-make the slides natively in the NLE’s character generator, as they will look so much better. You can copy-cut-paste the words from the PPT slides into your CG and save a lot of retyping.

Microsoft Producer is a free download from microsoft that will turn a PPT into an AVI file, you can also try that. Or, use a scan converter or the video-out from your laptop to import the slide show.

As far as putting your boss “over” the slides, well, the easy way would be that you shot him in front of a blue or green screen so you can chromakey him in. If this was not possible during his presentation, you’re pretty much stuck with putting him in a box or wipe, with the slides as background, or moving him to one side and bringing up the slides in a box, unless you feel like rotoscoping the whole presentation.

You don’t usually want both up all the time, else people read ahead and don’t pay attention to the speaker. You also don’t want to just show the guy reading the slides, that’s radio, we all can read already, why was this thing a video at all instead of an email? USe the slides as intemittent spice or chapter markers int he presentation, keep them off as much as you can and instead mix between tight and wider and cutaway shots of the speaker to keep the screen looking fresh.

[Mark Suszko]

Go the extra eighth-mile and as you begin taping each “actor”, ask them to identify themselves, say the date, and to tell you, on tape, that they understand how this will be used and that they are releasing their rights to the footage.

Not enough without a paper release form, but better than nothing and may discourage any monkeyshines if you can produce it when someone starts making noises like they want to contest the rights.

(not a lawyer/ can’t afford a Holiday Inn)

[Mark Suszko]

You want to start your own editing co-op or boutique or whatever the trendy name is these days, with just you and one other guy.

Well, I often tell folks the only real piece of equipment you need to own to become a film maker is a telephone. What I’m getting at is, regarding the chicken and egg situation, who says you have to own the chicken from the start?

Everybody concentrates on the gear, the tools. But anybody can get or borrow the identical tools, the job always comes down to the guy or gal that wields the tool, who gets the unique RESULTS with the tool. When you are selling people on the idea of booking you, the emphasis has to be on YOU. Not the space. Not the delicous snack tray by the client’s couch. Not the trendy art in the reception area. And not even the high-powered gear itself. Gear is transitory. Gear is just a means, not the goal.

All those things are commodities. The true product, the true capital, is your human capital, your skills and talent and creativity. Lead with that. Sell that. Make them understand that they are hiring an Editor, a service, not a commodity. Let the hardware issue fall by the wayside. You could edit their stuff at somebody else’s existing facility, on someone else’s equipment. Nobody watching the results you get could tell the difference. BECAUSE THAT’S NOT THE IMPORTANT PART.

Do you have a list of clients you’ve already lined up from previous gigs that would be interested in working with you directly? That seems a prerequisite. You need a client who understands what you are selling: you. If they shop for their editing by looking at brochure pictures of facilites or a list of hardware, you never were going to win that job. You can’t win the commoditization race, ever. If they instead ask: “who was the guy that did the xyz spot, how did he come up with THAT?” This is the client you want to try for.

When I was just a kid out of school doing freelance corporate producing, shooting, and editing, I didn’t own anything but a crummy little car to get me to gigs and one suit. Roger Corman would have thought he’d seen his mirror image. Everything was rented, the editing time was rented too, and all the costs passed on with an appropriate markup. The customer never knew nor cared where or how the work got done, they never attended my editing sessions and for all they knew my work was done in a Gold Coast loft; what mattered was the result he saw on his TV set when he put the final tape in his VCR. A difference that makes no difference, IS no difference.

My advice, Start small: use other existing facilites while you build a nest egg, edit without the client in attendance at first, bring all the work to them at their offices. Start with just one setup, and split-shift the work if you have to. Lease the editing gear for a single seat and house it in as cheap but practical a space as possible. Base the lease on having lined up a few initial jobs to start some cash flow, and don’t start until that’s been done.

Even better: skip leasing a space altogether and offer to set up your leased gear in flypack mode in a spare office at the client’s place to start with. Be virtual, reduce conventional business expenses, leverage off the close communication with the client in their own space, while leeching off their utilities and space rental. Put every dollar, er, pound, on the screen that’s not going into retiring debt or investing in things that grow the business.

And never forget that what they are really paying for is what’s between your ears, not what’s in the rack.

YOU are the egg.

Get cracking.

[Mark Suszko]

A simple models’ talent release would be enough for this case, IMO. You can find templates for them on the web.

You should get the company HR person to handle the releases, getting the signatures and keeping the records. That’s their area.

Some companies have a policy in the employment contract that says employees automatically grant a release for any such situation, but this is not a standardized practice AFAIK and may have too many exeptions to count on it. Employees may bring up non-work reasons not to be in the video, such as, domestic violence problems with a former spouse that may see the video at some point, etc. It could be almost anything, so always make participation optional and voluntary, not mandatory, and make it clear that there really is NO prejudice against someone who won’t participate, to avoid future legal hassles regarding coercion.

Best to ask employees to voluntarily sign a release. IANAL, but I’d suggest the release have a line in it that says the release of the recording of the image, likeness, and speech of the signer remains valid even after the term of employment of the signer, to the company and to any future owner or partner of the company, with no further expectation of recompense or pay for additional useage, in perpetuity.

Otherwise, you will spend a lot of free time constantly erasing people from programs after they leave the company, or after the company has a merger, or worse, trashing a perfectly good piece of work just because one key person in it has left, even though everything that was said at the time was and remains valid program material. Ask me how I know:-)

I get a lot of turnover of bigshots in my line of work, and long ago we got into a pattern of making sure that if such folks were to be included in a video, they be kept in seperate “bubble” segments like simple intros and conclusion segments, so that they could be pulled and replaced easily in the still-valid program when management changed. If they were integrated too deeply into the fabric of the show, it would wind up with a very short shelf life. This is somewhat easier to fix now with NLE’s than in my linear editing days, but I’d still tend to compartmentalize those segments where possible, to save time and money on reshoots and re-edits.

[Mark Suszko]

For first timers or only-timers, it is always payment upon delivery. Always. At the very least a partial payment or security deposit with the rest payable at delivery.

You don’t give up the original tapes until you get paid. Once a relationship of trust has been established, you can move on to billing by mail.

If they tell you that they can’t pay you until they see the quality of the tape, give them a window burn with a big old time code window right in the essential area of the footage, but under no circumstances give up the master footage without payment in advance.

Everyone who has ignored this rule has been burned at one time or another.

[Mark Suszko]

Congrats on saving the show, great news.

[Mark Suszko]

Todd, you might consider doing forensic animations for legal firms. The pay will be pretty good. You will have to be able to use real physics in your kinematics though.

Forensic work is highly specialized, with somewhat formidable barriers to entry, but on the plus side, once you’re in there is no kid working in his mom’s basement undercutting you and stealing away the clients. Near as you are to some big cities, you should be able to find a connection to serve some law firms.