[Mike Cohen]

Sometimes you can ask “what’s your budget” and sometimes not.
Sometimes the response to “what is your budget” is “well, we don’t really know how much something like this costs.”
In that case, if you want the job, write up a proposal and send it to them – giving a price right away before you think it through is a mistake.
For a tv pilot cooking show, I would figure 100,000 minimum, and let them negotiate down until you either agree or agree to walk away.
Mike

[Mike Cohen]

Generally in business when you lose a client, you use your expertise to attract new clients, rather than trying to blackmail former clients in order to make a living. Bad move.

[Mike Cohen]

I have not had a shoot in Canada since pre-9/11, although the hassles we ran into were related to protecting Canadian jobs it seemed.
On one occasion we had a crew that tried to drive to Canada via New York state, and without a work permit were sent back home.
The shoot I had, after speaking with several very polite customs and consular folks, I decided to hire a crew in Calgary and just take my toothbrush.
I am going to Canada next week for a medical conference – our gear is going freight and we have a known customs contact ahead of time, and even have clearance to sell merchandise at our booth.
Going as a tourist might be the best bet!
There have been numerous threads on this board about shipping and flying with gear – it is a mixed bag. Rent what you can, especially internationally.
Production companies that go to Canada for large productions obviously get lots of clearances and permits ahead of time – not so practical for solo operations.

Mike

PS – Getting a little political is ok, but we must refrain from attacking one another’s beliefs, knowledge or character. There are plenty of websites for that type of behaviour.

[Mike Cohen]

it turns out Squeeze has a little drop down menu to set the PAR – which fixes the problem.
Thanks
Mike

[Mike Cohen]

If you are using crews in other cities, hire reputable ones. Post an ad here on the COW for example. I tend to hire crews with news magazine credentials (dateline, 60 minutes etc) because I know they have pretty high standards. I have hired less experienced folks and the results speak for themselves.

When asked by a client, i usually quote $1000 – $2000 for a day rate in most major cities. This gets you a shooter and a sound person with camera, lights and mics.

So if you shoot your talent show with 3 cameras, no live switching, you can ballpark the cost of hiring 3 shooters plus audio and a grip.

Your fee should be 25% of the total. Plus travel – it is a good idea to be on location for something you are being paid to produce. But don’t try to produce and be one of the shooters to try to same money.

Without knowing your other logistics, staging, teleprompter, floor manager etc it is hard to give more advice.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

I base my ideal candidate based upon my own experience – at least an associate’s degree in something. Does not have to be productions. If someone does not have the theory, some technical skills and the aptitude to learn you will know pretty quickly.

Given that technology changes so rapidly, he should not put all his eggs into one basket – that is, don’t become a FCP expert, as others have said. An entry level job may be duping tapes, digitizing or cutting news stories – not creating hour long documentaries.

In my opinion, the important take away from any college experience is the non-technical training, such as liberal arts, science, business classes. These classes turn a 18 year old high school hot shot into a 20 year old with some professional aptitude.

Sure there are plenty of people without a degree who are well rounded people, but this is my opinion.

I did 4 internships during college, all of which were invaluable.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

I was at my local electronics superstore yesterday and noticed all the Hard Disk camcorders, both HD and SD. While this seems convenient, what happens when you are in the middle of nowhere and you run out of disk space?

[Mike Cohen]

80% of our shoots are out of driving distance. We always travel with our gear – always carry camera, tapes and batteries on the plane as carry on. Check as little as possible – you can rent a light kit in most large cities.

We have all had occasion to not get our checked gear when we land, so we leave enough time in advance of shoot to give airline time to find our stuff. If we have a 6am call time, we should fly out as early as possible the previous day.
TWA lost our heavy duty luggage cart which we never got back. It must be useful to whoever absconded with it.

Come to think of it Panasonic once lost my hard shell camera case when I shipped them the camera for service – got the camera back in a cardboard box with foam peanuts – maybe Panasonic has hired baggage handlers to run their shipping and receiving department!

[Mike Cohen]

regarding lights – we have Omni lights – they take a beating, and we use them until they completely fall apart, then replace them.
I am now pricing out either a Pepper or Arri kit – the problem is airline travel, as others have described. Renting a good kit in most cities is around $100 a day, so if you have time to pickup and drop off, or can get the rental house to drop off and pickup at your hotel, that is a good idea.
Most shoots we travel with a golf case with wheels for the tripod, one light and stand and wires, and a shoulder camera case taken on the plane. For larger shoots with 2 people we often have $300+ in excess baggage fees each way.
For a cart i like the rock n roller carts. you generally have to replace some of the flimsy nuts and screws with more travel worthy ones, and carry some extras and a pair of vice grips, but these carts are great.

[Mike Cohen]

so are the component outputs for analog video only?
Will the Intensity let you lay a program out to tape in HD?

Mike