Mike Cohen
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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I wonder what the fast food restaurant specifications are for how many times you can drop the frozen patty on the floor before cooking!
Just kidding, I’m sure my own experience as a teenager was an anomoly.
Do the food companies realize that no matter how much effort they make to stylize their food, it never looks like that when you actually buy it. I know it is marketing, but food marketing is some of the most deceptive. Granted you would not put a picture of a squished greasy burger or dried, shrunked nuggets in a tv commercial.
Interesting video and links.
Mike Cohen
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@Peter – thanks for the inside scoop.
@Debra Kaufman – this would make for a great magazine article
(and maybe one on This Old House too)Check out the Live from Abbey Road series – clips on youtube – they do some interesting things on that show shooting bands with many cameras
Mike Cohen
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Here is the clip from This Old House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afABYKB51ZI.
Would love to see a COW article about the making of this show which has been running for over 30 years.
Mike Cohen
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A co-worker told me about this show and I started collecting them in my DVR. It wasn’t until a few weeks back when Norm Abram from This Old House visited the Daryl Hall homestead in Connecticut (I think) to check out his expansive restored New England house and studio. I guess the 80’s were very very good to Mr Hall, as he has a beautifully restored house and a real affinity for history it turns out.
So I chose the episode with Smokey Robinson and I too am hooked. Turns out Daryl handed his demo to Smokey in NY in the 70’s and Smokey got it to a record exec, or something. Smokey seemed unaware that this happened, but laughed it off, and then sang the heck out of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zj7BIAPUmYYeah, as others have said, as with any project, you factor the cost of crew, equipment rental, post and profit. For a show of this caliber, if that is what you are going for, your costs increase as you need camera and sound folks to equal the talent on camera. This is not a “hire guys off craigslist” project.
Are you formulating a series or a one off, because some economies of scale come into a series.
Fun stuff.
Mike Cohen
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We once had to improvise a Radio Shack power supply to power an HL-55 but could not tell you the pin assignments.
Amazingly, Ikegami still has some documentation online, even though this camera pre-dates the internet!
https://www.ikegami.com/br/products/sdtv/hl55a.html
I used to lovvvveee shooting on the 55 with tethered BetaSP deck
Mike Cohen
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Late to the party here.
I’ve seen both sides. I had a hired camera guy give his card to my client. Seemed a bit odd, although neither I nor my client were within 1000 miles of our homes so that card is probably in a landfill somewhere. In other words, probably not a big chance to steal my client – he was merely introducing himself.As far as a client is concerned, your crew works for you.
On the flip side – same client, different shoot. The client asked the local camera guy about future work and the local camera guy deferred to me showing professional courtesy.
But it is not the end of the world. If you think it is a problem, say something privately to each party, or just let it go based upon your own experience and judgement. Not worth making a federal case out of most things.
Most flabbergasting is how threads can get out of hand with personal attacks. Not professional at all. We’re all here to ask for and receive free advice.
If you ask your neighbor the dentist if he thinks you need a filling, and he says you should consider teeth whitening, I don’t think you’d get into an argument with him if you disagreed. If he told you to see a plastic surgeon, that might be worth a tussle!
Mike Cohen
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Patrick – you have stumbled into the goldmine portion of the COW.
Bob Zelin speaks the truth, and it usually only registers with 5% of new members – the rest hoot and holler until they realize he is right on the money.
Simple question – if you know the locals don’t have a lot of money, but you wish to stay local, and you only have a Fischer Price video camera, how can you solicit your services if you can’t really afford to do the level of work you are selling and based upon the low prices in your area, you’d lose your shirt on every project if you had to rent gear.
In any business you have to take a certain amount of risk initially, in your case to invest in some better gear. It is a Catch 22 situation – you can’t afford the equipment you need to do the work that would pay enough to afford the equipment. It is a double Catch 22 because even if you have the equipment, the prevailing low monetary values in your area will prevent you from earning enough money to make back your investment and make any profit.
Good luck. Good to see you making an effort to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
Mike Cohen
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I am amazed at how many niche reality shows exist. There is a show about custom fish tanks. A show about Vanilla Ice flipping houses. A show about Pete Rose doing whatever a guy like him does. But they all follow the same formula:
Setup the problem
Gather the team
Make a plan
Start the project
Tease some unexpected challenge before the first break
After the break realize the challenge was no big deal
Make progress
Tease some interpersonal conflict before second break
After break learn it was just a misunderstanding
Get close to the deadline and just barely make it
Customer is happy
End on some funny note or a team high five or whatever
Throw in a few catch phrases and a memorable character who is a little out of place in the group
Of course the challenges and conflicts are part of the writing for the show because those need to happen every episodeApply a particular subject such as Hot Wheels collectors or taxidermists or morticians to the stars or horse clothing tailors or circus elephant trainers or corn maze designers or trans am enthusiasts or Burt Reynolds chest hair collectors or 1970’s Pan Am first class salt and pepper shaker hunters or Creative Cow forum hosts – and you MAY have a TV show.
Mike Cohen
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I thought I may have inadvertently checked a box somewhere!
Mike
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Confusing website and unusual business model.