[Ned Miller]

As was mentioned above, even if you think you’re right, and perhaps you are, it costs money to retain an attorney. Many will offer a half hour free consult but that’s their way of determining whether or not to take your case. So, whatever you may make on selling stock footage would be a pittance compared to your legal fees.

And that’s why I do handshakes or letters of agreements rather than a contract: They’re too big to sue, I’m too small to sue.

So, forget it.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

Thanks Shane. There must be a way because I know other shooters are doing it. My Dropbox and Hightail accounts will take up to 10GB and I’d like to save on Fed Ex bills. Sometimes the deadlines are critical. I thought compressing would help but you’re right, just saves a little.

Best,

Ned

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

Hi Daniel,

I have a question. What I will need for Premiere to do is be able to hand off a hard drive of an edit that I have 80% completed and another editor be able to finish it. Will Premiere do that? I understand that Adobe wants me to subscribe for it, which level should I get knowing that I do not want to learn graphics, etc.? I will just be doing basic editing myself.

Thanks,

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

In 2015 there are 251 working week days. You wrote you get $200 a day, and If you work every day (which you won’t) that’s $50200. After taxes and living expenses, for your skill set, that is peanuts.

Keep charging more until there is a push back. No one is indispensable but if their clients come to appreciate and rely on your work and style, you will become close to being indispensable. On the other hand, if you notice an intern with a foreign accent following you around and digging into your file structure, you’ll know you’ve charged too much:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

I disagree. That topic has been discussed ad nauseam on this forum. It is so sad that the mere act of buying $3000 of equipment allows a newbie to compete against us.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re72di5phM0

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

With technological advancements allowing anyone to record great audio in their master bedroom closet (quietest room in a McMansion) all they need is a music stand, bar stool and popper stopper, it’s opened up the market for anyone with pipes to throw their hat in the ring, as you unfortunately know. This creates a flood of oversupply and I for one find it daunting to wade through. Whenever I have done online auditions I usually cut it off at ten and they have had to be in the biz for a longtime, I can’t fathom 50 responses.

For my longest running client we had a female VO narrator and she recorded in the editor’s spare bedroom usually. Sometimes a PITA to schedule. So for perhaps 13 years she was “the voice” of the client. She was (is) a tech phobe so she did not want to buy her own closet rig for her McMansion. Well, one time the client needed a revision, just a couple of words changed in mid sentence, but this soon became a full on re-record charge. That was what made me look around and I discovered Voice 123 and it’s closely named competitor. Although the New Gal has sibillance that drives my editor nuts, the client claims not to notice and so now I have someone who can drop in a few words No Problem. I tell her to save her settings. She’s not cheap but if it wasn’t for that site how would I have found her? I do get several VO artist spams a month and I drag them to a folder “in case” I need new VO but wow, these sites make it easy.

The Old Gal is also an on-camera talent, actress, model, singer, etc. so her VO work is pin money. I don’t see how someone could make a real living at it unless they were union and got picked up by a major brand as their voice? Residuals, etc.?

I just shot a series of 20 two minute training and installation videos on how to service and install complicated robotic (God forbid anyone hires a human) machines that pack prescriptions. The client actually used someone from their factory: Monotone, blue collar sounding, raspy. But hey, it fit the bill right? And saved them what, $1000-$2000?

I’ve produced some industrials where the client company actually posts an intra-company contest to see who wants to narrate the new video.They make it a fun thing. Hopefully find some theatre majors. Then I cut a hour out of the shoot day, find the quietest room at their facility and with my furnie pads and popper stopper and record an amateur’s VO. Even if it sounds less than par acoustically by our standards these clients can’t tell once a music bed is underneath. I’m trying to remember the last time we used a booth? When I think of styles coming and going in my end of the biz (camera work) if I was to put my finger on what today’s style of VO is I’d have to say Authenticity. Real authenticity, as in real people, our people. My clients don’t want a pro narrator to play down his VOG persona but rather to get Real People. Perhaps it is masking that they can’t pop for $600 for a talent and record session? But when I do a bid I ask if they’d like a professional narrator and the response is usually, “No, we’re good.” Just like when I ask if we should get a writer involved. “Of course not! We can write. Geeeeze…”

So maybe Tim’s right and we’re dinosaurs but wow, did we make great money before this interwebby thing was invented by Al Gore. Not only do I know biz was better but I think life was better too. I just got back from flying to many cities and it’s so depressing, everyone in the gate area waiting is looking at their screen. We used to talk to each other! Even to our airplane seat mates. Or in the barber shop. Or in the bleachers at Little League. Oversupply of vendors is a horrible thing when you’re trying to make a profit, ain’t it?

Lastly, for those proponents of “anything that makes searching, creating competition and driving down costs with the internet is a Good Thing”, or what I call Darwinian Capitalism, if you want to see how online crowdsourcing has messed up the birds and the bees, read this fascinating Vanity Fair article about why twenty-something guys don’t need a girlfriend anymore:

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating

And explain to me how all is has changed life for the better?

It’s destroyed rates for shooting, editing and VO work so I’ll gladly take it back to 1985!

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

Yes you did, but don’t worry, no one stays mad for long.

But you do seem to be holding an Old School line, even though you’ve been in the biz ten years there’s been momentous changes on ALL our rates lately. Besides some folks who do spots and TV most of us are in the non-union realm and we can’t even begin to keep track of our clients’ usages. I don’t know how big shops with SAG contracts can keep track. In fact, the trade rag Advertising Age has this article about signatores sneaking around usage rules because of the new digital realm we are all in:

https://adage.com/article/print-edition/disquiet-set-shops-ignore-elephant-room-sag-contracts/299808/

So when you speak of how the video will be used has something to do with VO rates, as of August 2015 I think most of the biz says: Screw That. I know I do. I don’t get paid extra based on usage so why should I care if the VO (or on screen) talent gets paid more?

We are all under extreme budget pressure and I think it’s fair to say the VO folks are being faced with what the rest of us have to deal with: “This is how much we have. Can you do it for that much?”

Followed by, “Take it or leave it”.

So when I am faced with a VO talent or anyone telling me their rates, and if I don’t have that in the budget or there is a comparable quality talent for less, then bye bye the higher priced talent. The crowd sourcing sites like Voice 123 have eviscerated your rate structure just like Thumbtack, and the rest ruined ours. Sorrrrry!

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

Unaccustomed Slow Period or Cheese Moved?

Hey Bob,

I can relate although this particular summer is “OK”. It’s important to figure out if it’s just you being slow temporarily or if there’s a tectonic shift in the area of the industry you service. I imagine it’s just an extended slow patch, but I don’t really know what you do. I think it’s setting up systems? The first thing I would do is some competitive research on your competitors. See what they’re up to. If they are really swamped what are they doing now that you aren’t? If they’re slow too then stop freaking and start selling. If you’re friends with people who do exactly what you do and are not in your area, reach out to them and ask how things are. I found that local competitors will never tell you the truth but out-of-towners will confide because they don’t consider you a threat and you are a Brother-in-Arms. Try that. If they’re also having a bad summer then you can feel a little better.

I tend to catastrophize: I’m too old, I’m charging too much, my gear isn’t the latest new thing, damn these crowd sourcing sites, etc. etc. I often go through the same thing as you are now doing: have a pity party and start freaking out. But then I start marketing like crazy. Soon the fruits of that appear in a few weeks/months, just by reaching out to old clients and then NEW ones. If we didn’t get slow and worried then we wouldn’t market our services, we’d be fat and happy. It’s good to be edgy about cash flow and ARs, the laid back go under sooner or later. A small business owner should always be worried, keep an eye on ARs and be looking to do estimates. A shark moving forward.

Summer can be slow but as you know everything comes down to your client base and if they need your services at the moment. Just because you’ve gotten slow doesn”t mean there’s an industry shift, everybody now hates you, you’re charging too much, etc. Maybe it’s because you’re not used to an extended slow patch? As Mark says we know you know how to market yourself as do I and I assume you’ve been doing that? I come from a long line of micro service business owners and you just got to tighten your belt and hustle, hustle, hustle. Don’t spend one cent you don’t have to.

I have the benefit of being married to someone with a steady (teacher) paycheck so when we get down to seeds and stems at least there’s something coming in. Are you single? If so, that’s tougher. I advise the young freelancers that it’s hard to make it on one’s own. In fact, I don’t think two freelancers can survive together. ONE needs a steady pay check.

Lastly, I don’t like to use the terms Slow or Busy because I can be busy but not very profitable and vice versa. I am doing nothing this week but starting Sunday I will work every day for a week for 3 clients, then nothing on the boards. But that work is for camera work and it is with very slow paying clients, really slow. Yet if I do some producing I can shoot a half day, have the editor do the majority of grunt work and make as much as if I shot 3-5 days. So I like to think in terms of profitability rather than busy.

Second lastly, being just a couple of years away from hanging my spurs up I tend to listen to a LOT of business talk radio, investment shows, financial newsletters, CNBC, etc. I actually hate business and finance but it’s really necessary to know what’s happening in the industries you serve. Just yesterday I learned that my local giant client Kraft laid off 700 people after it was gobbled up by Heinz, so you must keep up with the financial media in terms of the industries you service. Do that and you’ll learn that ALL companies are now keeping their powder dry. No one is spending any money they don’t have to. Cash is King. The whole financial world is worried. We just got out of a recession but it’s possible we could slide back as is Brazil, Australia, Russia and now China. Ugh! If you are servicing companies in a way where they are outlaying new money in order for you to service their systems, they may have to cut way back, waiting to see how the (world) economy is doing. And by listening to biz media I learn and target what sectors are hot and tailor my marketing towards them (healthcare, financial services, etc.) So in sum, if you made your rep and biz on certain industries, if they are in the doldrums due to the new world financial slow down, then you need to see where your cheese went, read this short book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Moved_My_Cheese%3F

My son was doing OK in Australia for three years during their boom and now is forced to move to the UK. The whole Aussie economy’s cheese just got moved, big time, due to the Chinese economy slow down. We all have to figure out where our cheese went and the smart small biz owners predict where it will move next. Your cheese might not have been moved, you might just be in a summer doldrum that you aren’t used to experiencing. But JUST IN CASE: Check your cheese please.

So cheer up! On my No Work days, when I’ve done all the marketing I can think of (LinkedIn junkie), I do volunteering and when you’re around people doing way worse than you it really cheers you up as to how well you have it, even when you’re super slow!

Best,

Ned (on my laptop on my deck, overlooking the golf course, beautiful summer day, but making NO money today)

P.S. How many of you young folk here don’t know what “down to seeds and stems” mean?

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

Hey Jim,

Your friend who did the tribute videos, I think a lot of his success is the credibility of having been in journalism. He must have great shmoozing skills like this ex-Chicago news anchor who gets $80K for a video:

https://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-05-18/features/0805140416_1_family-history-wavering-heirloom

A very experienced producer/editor friend of mine, in his late 60’s, landed one of these tribute videos for a billionaire patriarch lately and the cheap bastard wouldn’t pick up lunch or parking! So I don’t know what the factors of success are. If I did I suppose I would be rich but I think it comes down to innate sales skills, charisma. Either you have it or you don’t. I know I don’t. I’m good at what I do but can’t catch a break in terms of selling up at that level.

And Mark’s advice shows he’s a real optimist! As for advice to young people to make their own way, to sell execs on the use of video: Not in the end of the pool I’m in. If I can’t get decision makers to respond to emails, direct mail or voice mails, how can a kid right out of college? And the idea of networking at Chamber of Commerce meetings? I’ve been doing that on and off for 30 years, you just run into insurance agents, chiropractors, financial planners and such. Small service types.

Last week I went to a networking meeting at a former client, the subject was to show how they now have two interns to do their videos internally. They demonstrated to the audience of comm execs of non-profits how to use the 60D, iPhone and Go Pro plus do the editing on iMovie and online edit platforms. This is a major corporation! So I lost a client and the two 22 year olds are making no money. Who wins?

I wouldn’t want my kids to be in the biz now. It’s a fun thing to do but now you can’t make a real living at it. You just jerk from check to check. There’s plenty of demand for video but for the young folks it’s cheap budgets and the buyers for video services expect the quotes to be low. I’m fortunate in that I am well known in various niches so I get work from staring at the phone, but the young people now entering the biz, especially ones delusional enough to just want to do camera work, they won’t make real money. I work with a lot of them and they are busy but there’s a great gulf between being busy and being profitable.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com