Ned Miller
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COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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I can forewarn you that it is like shooting in Mexico in that everything takes much, much longer than in the US. Laid back, it’s rude to hurry them. Places close early and the people you are counting on are late by American standards. Meals will take 3X as long, especially dinner. Whatever they tell you the time it will take for traffic, double it. They don’t plan for Murphy’s Law.
But it’s a great place and the people are my favorite Europeans, try to stay a few days extra after your shoot.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
Thanks! In downtown Chicago there is a LOT of interference.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
But Todd,
When I sign a contract to produce a video for a company, a contract that is drawn up by the client’s legal department, there is usually an Indemnification Clause in there, so when I sign the contract I agree to pay all the legal expenses that they may incur defending themselves. By having that clause in there does not mean they are planning to do something illegal. So I don’t understand the point of your post, maybe an attorney could chime in.
I think we being prod & post people, we don’t understand what the original poster’s friend needs to do to protect himself if not a Letter of Indemnification. I’ll ask the next attorney I run into, I mean meet, never would want to run into an attorney…
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
Starting to recall how I learned about Letters of Indemnification:
The reason I demanded the Letter of Indemnification:I agreed to their request because it was a ONE TIME SHOWING for a modest size meeting. Well, the president loved the video so much he said, “Make 100 VHS copies and send them to all our retail outlets.” I naively bring the beta master to the duplicator, fantasizing about how to spend the extra $500 I just made on VHS dubs (remember those days?) and the next day I get a call from the duplicator and they want to see my licensing paperwork for the music and footage of major movies so they won’t get in trouble. Otherwise I would have to sign a Letter of Indemnification and my response was, “What’s that?”
So I made the dubs myself three at a time. Here is the famous case I alluded to in my post regarding the famous ASCAP vs Amway case that taught our industry to not do this anymore:
https://www.amquix.info/aus/riaa.htm
And I also know from experience: Don’t use Elvis impersonators!
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
I have been in the same situation when I produced for a company that wanted me to use what I call “Stock Footage By Blockbuster”, plus famous music. I did what they requested since I was up against the deadline but I had them sign a Letter of Indemnification that I found on the internet, stating they would handle all my legal costs if I was sued.
I have read over the years of video vendors and their clients being made an example, the most famous case being an Amway convention using Beatles music and was turned in by the hotel AV folks for a reward. I don’t know if your friend would be considered a party since he is an employee but I do know that attorneys cast a wide net, naming all parties involved, then sort through to find what they call “deep pockets”. But just being named may cause your friend to have to hire a lawyer for a couple of hours and letters.
So in sum, your friend should download a generic Letter of Indemnification and have them sign it. And if he doesn’t get a promotion or raise that he believes he is entitled to use this issue as blackmail.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
Original Poster Ned here, hopefully last post, but it came up AGAIN today:
Just got back from filming the Secretary of Labor for an old time DC client who does mainly govt agency outsource videos, big budget govt PR documentaries and live events for cabinet level honchos. He’s been around the block and I have worked with him for about eight years when he needs midwest shooting.
He complained to me, without me prodding, that clients are calling him up and asking him to incorporate, or make something from scratch, with footage they took with their Flip cameras. At least he gets the editing!
So, all these posts about value, up selling, the work will come back when they realize it’s crap, it’s just a trend, etc. are ignoring the present fact that these are bona fide shoot days that are now gone, poof! G-O-N-E. Shoot days that just a short while ago would have gone to us pros because they couldn’t figure out their little $3000 DV cameras. Perhaps if there are no kids in-house that know iMovie we’ll get the post, but my original point weeks ago when I first mentioned “DP is replaced by a Flip”, is that it’s hard to measure lost work unless they happen to mention it. Have you asked your clients?
Unlike all that has come before, which had lots of buttons, switches, needed to be white balanced, etc. the one button Flip invites shooting even by chimpanzees. In Point, Out Point, Compress + Upload. Just a short while ago that was an intimidating process for most of them and they called in the Pros from Dover, even if it was video destined for social media or intranet sites. Perhaps your client base is impervious and you don’t need to worry about lost work that has gone in-house, but I can tell you I have been seeing it among many different organizations (Mayo Clinic, etc) that do not need to penny pinch. If you have or can latch onto a client that appreciates quality and your creative input, and pays decently and on time, you should appreciate how rare they are becoming and how lucky you are. I have been doing this a long, long time and this market is quite different. We are in a business where prices and revenues are actually coming down, and not just from the recession. Remember just a little while ago how much we all made on VHS and DVD orders? The Flip allowing clients to “think” they can DIY is part of the same steamroller.
Naturally when a recession hits they bring video in-house, I’ve seen it twice before since 1976, but now the Flip has made it “enjoyable” for them to do their own crappy looking videos that they are, unfortunately, tickled pink with. It’s not “low end”, if they have no capability to DIY they would have budgeted for pros to produce, and those video budgets could have gotten to mid-range. When corporations create budgets for their next fiscal year, and let’s say Marketing, or PR, or HR, whatever, needs a line item for video, well I think video is becoming a commodity to them, that is what I am seeing. Forget the Flip for a moment, it’s just a symptom, the underlying problem is that video is becoming a commodity to them and the Flip allows them to exercise that theory. It’s no longer the arcane alchemy art/voodoo of ex-hippies and artists, it is something they think (I said “they”) anybody can now do, since after all, “they” are proving to themselves anyone can do it.
Look at Chicago’s Craigslist under creative gigs for instance: advertising agencies with more money than God are listing for young Final Cut wizards for $10 per hour, if not as a free intern. You don’t think those graphic savvy kids can pimp up Flip footage? A few posts ago a prod co owner said he sends out his interns with Flips, are the Varicams as busy as before when you back out the recession?
There’s still quality work out there for us pros, like me filming a cabinet member today, problem is there’s just thinner slices of the pie, and the pie has gotten smaller. That’s why I’m not going to market to corporate as much and going back to non-fiction TV.
And today when I woke up I didn’t think the subject of a Flip stealing work from pros would come up until my DC client mentioned it. That’s it, my last thread on this, if you don’t see this downhill trend God Bless You!
Ned
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Oh, I meant the bridge metaphor figuratively. A couple of beers will do the trick.
I am moving towards rekindling all my non-fiction TV clients since that end of the biz is more impervious to this cheapness movement. The History Channel and such at least has standards. I am very busy now, compared to the slowness of Jan & Feb, the problem is “busy” now doesn’t mean neccessarily mean profitable, like the “old” days.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
What city are you in? I’ll move there.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
Read:
https://blog.visiblegains.com/index.php/business-casual-video/
THIRD PARAGRAPH DOWN. This sums up what I have been experiencing, propelled by the recession and now with the ease of one touch cameras, a trend among clients to eschew a polished look. This blogger terms it “casual video”, what we call a low end look. I guess I am the only one seeing clients, big clients with LOTS of money, trending towards this “do-it-ourselves” look? They don’t consider it “crap”. And it’s lost revenue for me.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
This is the problem with internet communication, I am not properly communicating my point. My point is:
THIS IS NOT “LOW END” VIDEO. I have shot many dozens of hospital videos, some for external, some internal comm. They always paid full day rate. Some had in-house (very sophisticated) post facilities, some went out-of-house for post. There was a trend towards attempting to do-it-yourself, or hiring cheap kids, but they tended to call in the pros when all the switches and such flummoxed them, or the CEO had to look great. But now with this damn Flip, they are taking what used to be high and mid range quality, which paid shooters and editors rates, and poof! It’s now gone.
And the reason I post this today is that this example is THEE Mayo Clinic, meaning they have money, and it’s happening around the Chicago area with Fortune 100s as well and it’s coming to a client of yours soon. I promise. And they aren’t looking for a generalist rather than a specialist, they are looking to keep it all in-house, some for a speedy turnaround, some to save money, others to be the popular in-house “video guy”, etc. And we can say they’ve now made what used to be upper or mid-range video barely acceptable (low end), but as long as they are “happy” then it is upper end to them, and it’s work they used to farm out that is now, permanently, in-house.
I have never seen something accepted so rapidly that has had such a negative effect on professional video production in terms of hiring professionals. Every house now has a piano and unfortunately they are happy to hear the kids playing “chopsticks”.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com