[Mike Cohen]

If your video’s narration is 20 minutes long, then should you only pay for 20 minutes of the narrator’s time?

When you go to Denny’s, you know that 2 eggs cost about $.05 if you buy as many eggs as they do, two slices of toast are another nickel and hash browns are about the cheapest food in a restaurant, yet you pay a lot more than 33 cents for breakfast.

Maybe that was a silly example, but basically I agree with the others – charge for your services. When we estimate charges, we do so based upon the amount of work we know it takes to create a particular type of project. The final length is sometimes not known. Shouldn’t always matter. We know scripting, shooting and editing time may vary down to the hours actually spent, but if you don’t spell out hours of work, then you figure out how to charge for your service, not your hourly wage.

Now if you make $1,000/hour and it takes you 1 hour to cut one minute of video then sign us all up!

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

and speaking of amazing work to watch and get inspired, check out the pre-District 9 work of Neill Blomkamp and his colleagues
https://www.spyfilms.com/

Yeah, Gondry is amazing.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

depends upon the contract, and depends upon the client.

If you have a contract that says “client owns everything” then send it to them. If you are concerned with recouping the $20 shipping charge then go for it, but most clients don’t want to concern themselves with tiny charges. You need to build in enough cost into your charges to account for things like shipping, drives, blank discs etc.

If this is a new client, or a client who is not yet a multiple-return client, and you don’t have anything specified in the contract, then discuss the “cost” of your source files.

If this is a multiple-return client, which is a great relationship to have, then decide how it will affect the relationship to get into a tizzy about this. If the client has paid you six figures and you have projects still on the books, maybe there is another reason they need the files.

In my experience, you may finish a video project for a client, they are happy, but then they ask that you send a master to an ad agency for the next phase. Sure, you could do what the ad agency is doing, but mid-project with a marketing deadline approaching is not the time to hit the client up for the ad agency work. They probably have 20 other pieces to this puzzle going on simultaneous to yours. Help your client do what they need to do, then later talk to them about handling some of the other tasks in the future. You can do it, maybe the client knows you can do it, but maybe they don’t.

In other words, look at this situation as an opportunity. You may be able to sell the client your services as an alternative to you sending the files to another company. But again, saying “but I can do that, why go to them?” may be valid factually but not realistic in practice, due to other circumstances that you may not be aware of.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

…and don’t forget that given a room full of kids and an adult with a video camera, expect the kids to look at the camera more than the Mr Potato Head. You want the play room to be as cozy as possible. Consider a child-height table, bean bag chairs, plush carpeting. A tripod will get you solid shots, but you might need to get down on the floor with the camera as wide as it will go and find camera angles that are compatible with a 3 year old playing with toys.

Soft light is best, you don’t want a 650W arri pointing at a toddler – god forbid a lamp blows. Mommy won’t be happy.

Speaking of Mommy, will she be there or are these kids being locked in an office?

Have you tested this theory of videotaping kids playing with toys in your office?

Technology is readily available and easy to get. The process is what you need to figure out.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

or rent a proper light kit. I can get an Arri softbank kit for $75/day here in CT. You can’t get something for nothing.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Jeff,
your post is repeated every few months on this very forum. People get either enamored or excited with the idea of building a studio from scratch, without thinking of the big picture.
If you are a toy company, or whatever, without in-house media capabilities, and you are not a media guy, then you have an uphill climb.
If you are a media guy, then you should be able to spend the minimum amount to at least get the wheels rolling.

What is your 1-year goal? A video a day, a week, a month? Are these 1 minute you-tube style videos or proper product promos. Look at similar websites to see what you actually are going to try to make.

Then figure out how much it would cost to pay someone else to do the work, especially if you need to first learn how to do the work yourself.

Before you give your bosses a price estimate, I think you need more information – you both need to look at the big picture.

Another common question here is “I want to buy a camera and spend $X. What should I get? Is Camera X better than Camera Y?”

The correct question is “This is what I need to do, what should I buy or should I buy?”

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Greg,
Keep your chin up and avoid posting any more frustrated posts on forums. Potential employers will google you, Facebook you and linkedin you. You are on Linkedin, right? Complaining won’t get you hired.

When I graduated with a 4 year degree in mass comm, there was no internet, so I wrote about 150 letters, got a few responses and one job offer duping tapes. 15 years later I work for the same company in a managerial capacity, but still cut some cool projects. Did I get to where I am because of my degree? Not really. My training helped me get a foot in the door, and it helped me get that first entry level editing job, but the rest of what I know is from on the job experience.
College did teach me the basics of aesthetics and the seeds of craft, some engineering, and most importantly critical thinking, responsibility and gave me some professional experiences in the industry.

So take what you think you learned in college and make a list of what you really know, and how you might apply these bits of knowledge to a career. In other words, don’t think “this post house should give me a job because I need one.”
Rather you need to think “this post house needs me, because X Y and Z. I don’t need a job at a post house, I want the job because it is my passion.”

Most of my classmates did not get jobs straight out of college, but most are working in the industry today in various capacities. But they all started at the bottom and worked for it. It can take a decade or more to get the job you really want. I think back to my dad. When I was a kid, he moved us across the country and back so that by the time he was 40 he actually had a great career as a sales manager and could afford to send us to college.

Regarding your website – the demo reels don’t seem to show any editing ability. For example, your features reel shows shots from different scenes, rather than a segment from an edited scene. As it is now it is promoting the actors and the cinematographer, not the editor. The promos show your promo editing ability. But then you have Batman animation supervisor – what does that have to do with post? Finally, I don’t like hearing mainstream popular music in reels. Find some inspiring yet obscure music, either from creative commons, royalty free or whatever. I hear music from Batman Begins and I don’t watch your reel, I think “hey did he work on Batman Begins?” same goes for OK Go – that song has been played so much it should be illegal, and it has little to do with your reel.

Anecdotally I will agree that LA might be part of the problem. Looks like you have had some good gigs for the cable networks, but you may need to diversify. Adding a good design sense and editing style to corporate training could get you some work, you just need to know where to look.

Good luck.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

[Zane Barker] ”

https://www.amazon.com/TrendyDigital-WaterGuard-Waterproof-Apple-Border/dp/B...”

Can you use it in the shower? Is it shampoo-proof?

[Mike Cohen]

The benefit of so many trades going belly up is there are actually fewer dead trees being used to publish the remaining players.

While we do not publish a magazine, we do publish catalogs and books. With both the secret is having a market of people who want what you’ve got. We have a few flagship products that have sold like hotcakes. One in particular, a book about trauma surgery, is in great demand. Surgeons around the world have bought it and it is used in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hotspots like Boston and Dallas to teach surgeons how to save lives.

Such successful ventures have provided capital to try some other titles. But they key is to know who your audience is before jumping in the lake, because there are no lifeguards on duty. Swim at your own risk.

Any publishing venture has tight margins. Print too few and you don’t meet the demand. Print too many and you waste trees and then need to store or destroy the surplus.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Apparently when you are in Mountain time, and it is not your native time zone, the Superbowl starts early. So I saw the halftime show at the bar at an Outback restaurant, but with only closed captions since they refused to turn off the muzak. The Who with subtitles is not very exciting.

I have watched some of the commercials on Hulu. The Dodge Charger commercial was funny the first 27 times I saw it this evening, then it got a bit old. Most of the spots were so contrived and overtly made to get press that they made me want to not use the companies they were advertising. Ok, I’m a bit punchy after a weekend trip.

cue Michael C. Hall narration:

I will read the forum posts in my inbox.
I will create clever blog posts.
I will take grainy pictures on my cell phone.
I will listen to Bob Zelin criticize my posts.
I will listen to Bob Zelin criticize my friends’ posts.
I will watch tutorials about after effects pre-compositing.
I will view demo reels from motion graphics artists.
I will encourage my friends to subscribe to the magazine.
Why?
Because I am a creative cow.

Mike Cohen