[Mark Suszko]

No portable Firewire drive. CDR or DVD only options. Have archived the program via AJA IO’s SDI connection onto another DVCpro 25 tape, but the encoder guys don’t have anything that takes SDI input, only SD NTSC composite.

Got your Gene Krantz white vest on?;-)

[Mark Suszko]

It’s an hour and seven minutes, but we’re wanting to export from the timeline in smaller chapter-like segments, the longest may be 30 minutes, most are 15-20.

It’s going to be on broadband, mpeg 1 will not cut it for quality. The only thing the guys in charge of the streaming can/will do is the standard Realnetworks realvideo Helix.

To refresh this old story: their encoding station only takes composite video input.

I was handing them a DVC Pro25 tape, they were playing that out analog, re-digitizng it in the Osprey card and making that into the realvideo stream. The added D/A/D conversions play havoc with the image detail.

So, I am trying to keep it digital all the way thru. The edit room is not on their network, and probably never will be. I have to compress the video into some compatible file format and sneakernet it over on CD-Roms or DVD. As I said, we tested the mpeg2 before, and this really worked lovely for quality, the Realnetworks Helix sucked it in and spat out beautiful output, twice as nice as the test AVI file we used. HOWEVER, In my youthful enthusiam at having stumbled thru Compressor for the first time without a manual, I forgot about Dre… I mean, I forgot about the audio portion… and that’s why I have a problem now.

AVI works to bring in the audio and vieo as one stream the Helix can convert and output. MPEG2 the way I’m doing it gives me separate streams of audio and video and the PC controlled Realnetworks Helix can encode either, but not both together..

And I don’t know for sure, but am skeptical their PC can handle a QT file of any stripe for this application… but I am oh so willing to be schooled. Anything you can offer is gladly considered.

[Mark Suszko]

Make it a work for hire, charge her a bonus for the stock and she gets the EDL, raw tapes and masters upon full payment. You might sweeten the deal by saying you’re willing to sign an official Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to guarantee her stuff stays hers. This will likely encourage her to return to you with the additional future biz. Emphasize that as long as the money is paid up, she gets everything.

Always, the best way to guarantee return business is to do the absolute best job possible on the first one. People always tend to go with the familiar if there’s no downside.

Where her money comes from, unless you know it to be from a criminal activity, I think is technically not your concern. If you’re worried about it, ask for certified bank checks and make it the bank’s problem. No, I am not a lawyer, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night;-)

[Mark Suszko]

Spend your next $200 on marketing and business books, the other advice already given is what I’d have told you. You have the basic tools, can rent whatever else specifically is needed for a job. Now you have to produce some visible product and start locating clients.

My favorite advice to people starting out is do some pro-bono production for a favorite charity or NGO, preferably the favorite charity of the guy who runs the big company you really want to work for. This becomes a legitimate calling card that gets you in the door to the head guy, bypassing all the gatekeepers.

[Mark Suszko]

Don’t do the miniature, credit-card sized discs, or the odd-shaped novelty discs, they tend to clog or jam in slot-fed drives, then you’ve lost a customer for life, and anybody he complains about it to…

What I bring home in my bag (you should have bags to hand out, pre-loaded with your own stuff, so the atendees have something to carry everything in) are catalogs, spec sheets, CD’s/DVD’s. Swatchbooks of gels. Post-it notepads stay by my phone. Imprinted Pens are always good, sharpies are better, long as are not too cheap, so they don’t leak easily. Maybe, if you’re going into HD or HDV, you can hand out cardboard aspect viewer frames with a 16×9 window on them and some text about “seeing how our HD services give your world a whole new look”. One company was at one time handing out life-size replicas of their single-rack-unit LCD monitors, and we stuck one of these up on an empty rack space for a LONG time while waiting for a budget to buy them. We eventually did get that brand, after looking at the fake cardboard rack unit for 2 years. It’s still there too;-)

Fashion items like t-shirts or “gimme” caps are of interest only if they (A) fit and (B) truly are cool for some reason like very innovative/collectible art on them or a logo with exceptional snob appeal. Or (c) they have something very clever, funny and “inside” on them, a catch phrase common to the business like: “You can fix that in post, right?” and the reverse side would then say something like: “Yes, We can, we’re XBGLE FX company, miracles are our buisness”. Something like that, maybe hats that say “miracle worker” on them, etc., while keeping your logo tastefully small and unobtrusive, like on the sizing band in the back.

Raffle prizes or other giveaways of pricy consumer toys like MP3Players, we generally can’t accept due to ethics rules, and I imagine that’s pretty common at lots of businesses and agencies these days.

[Mark Suszko]

He’s right. Figure what the dub job is preventing you from otherwise doing. If it’s something that can be done as a side process where you push the record buttons and walk away, changing tapes and etc. on your way to and from bathroom and cookie breaks, while doing other profitable work, then you can charge a lower rate.

But…

What if you have multi-channel audio and need to ride a mix? Or weird changing video levels that need proc-amp tweaking just to see well enough to log it? Now you are chained to the rack. That’s man-hours, need to be billed at least at half your hourly day rate.

Are you adding a little something for wear and tear on youre transports, or to go towards the gear replacement fund, and a little markup on the tape stock to cover your hassle in obtaining and carrying/stocking it?

[Mark Suszko]

I would master it off as-is to a DVD or tape, store that in a sealed palstic box with the source tapes, then wipe the drives.

And update the contract language so things are clearer from here on out. State a number of days past the payment due date after which you are no longer responsible for storage of their media.

[Mark Suszko]

Genuine fractals will upsize pretty well, but doesn’t add details that aren’t already there..
There was another outfit called redhawkvision, does something similar…

There’s a free application on the web that will let you turn any image into a tiled PDF that can be printed out to any size, from 8.5 by 11 to wall size. It’s called “rasterbator”. A google search will turn it up. The idea in trying this is to blow the image up and then re-scan or photograph the blowup.

[Mark Suszko]

So you don’t like the couple, then?;-)

BION, I saw a bagpipe wedding CD (I think) last week in the music department of the local Meijer superstore.

Searching Amazon will get you fast results for a CD, but let me also suggest, you can often find a live player that wouldn’t cost too much. I would call the local police department’s community relations desk. Same with the Fire Department. Those guys will know every piper in the county, which ones are good, and what they might charge.

[Mark Suszko]

I believe you can show up “for free”, one time, but don’t expect that they are going to clear the floor, dim the lights, and let you hit them with a 20-minute powerpoint show about your business. That’s reserved for paying members. If they let you introduce yourself, keep it really short, about 30 seconds or less, who you are and what you do, and maybe something tp personalize yourself or put yourself in context with the community. Something like “…and I’ve been a resident here for x years, and do (charity activity) while I’ve been building my video business. I’ll be around afterwards if anybosy has questions or problems I could help with”.

You can use the time before and after the formal meeting to mix and mingle, hand out biz cards, etc. I would be low-key about it, and wear a small name tag with your business name on it. Be sure to go around and meet and learn something about at least five people there. Try to make a comment about their business if you’ve patronized them, to show then you really have been there “I noticed you just re-did your parking lot last week, does that cut down on your customers when you have to do that?” “One of the things I like about your restaurant is you don’t have TV’s blaring all over the place, makes it a nice quiet getaway from the outside world”. Anything to get them talking about themselves and what they do.

Ideally, You should ask more questions than the people that talk to you. It’s very possible that some of the business owners will ask you some video or commercial-related questions just because you’re standing there in front of them. They may be thinking casually about advertising and usually they don’t know how to go about it, or have been bum-rushed by the local cable and radio ad salesmen. They might be looking for alternative views. They might fish to see what you say about the ads they are running now. (Do you know if they are advertising right now, and who’s doing them?) Be very careful to be diplomatic about such conversations, it’s always better to ask them additional pointed questions than to make judgements and pronouncements without all the background.

Resist the impulse to make the big sales pitch for yourself at that moment. Concentrate on building some identification and trust first. Offer free advice where you can and when it’s asked for. Show you know your stuff, be a resource.

IMPORTANT: For God’s sake don’t quote prices or rates, besides poor etiquette it’s the wrong place to do that without complete information, and you are guaranteed to have lowballed yourself or overpriced yourself to the guy. If pressed, explain how many variables there are to bidding a video job. People seem to understand the car or house metaphor: two cars, two houses, two prices – one is sky-high, the other is cheap. Both cars get you across town in about the same amount of time. Both homes keep the rain off your head. So, where are the differences and what are they worth? Explain that those details and features and extra performance are what you need to work out in a sit-down meeting before you can offer a figure. Explain that anybody that offers a cookie-cutter flat-rate solution in video is either naieve or a hustler.

Keep in mind some ideas for types of business-related projects. They might not all be just ideas for TV commercials. They might be training or marketing videos, documentation of, say, how a new building is constructed to exceed code, that might be used later as part of marketing to tenants.