Neil Hurwitz
Forum Replies Created
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I agree with Bob here. However you should be aware that as a Freelancer your Number One Job will always be selling yourself.
Freelance work (especially production) can dry up just as quick as getting laid off from any job. In addition you have the added work of accounting,collections,taxes, medical insurance, along with the fact that you have no benifits and most likly will never be able to qualify for unemployment insurance if things go south. One thing you don’t mention is what brand of Auto and in what market. A huge BMW or Mercedes dealership in a major market (Large Wealthy Area) is a lot more secure than a Chevy dealership in a smaller less wealthy area. -
I’d say you would be crazy to put your relationship with
client A in any Jeopardy. This is a longstanding client that has paid you net 60, on time, since the beginning of your relationship,
You have agreed to this in the past and changing now would be a mistake. Your problem was not caused by client A but by the client that
went out of business (not a happy day for them or you) So what do you do? Look for an additional source of temporary capital.
Bank line of credit, Credit card advances, Friends & Relatives.
It sounds like your business is sound and you have a temporary
cash shortage caused by a failure of a client. This is not a reason
to put any other relationship in jeopardy. I know of many many
houses in this industry that would jump for joy and count their
lucky stars if all their clients paid them in 60 days. I doubt very much that those advising you to change the way you do business
get paid in exactly 30 days or by the terms of their billing.
In this industry 60 is the new 30, You should feel good
that you have clients that give you a steady flow of work and
pay in 60 days. You will simply have to find a way to plug the whole
caused by the client that went out of business, But to do this by
squeezing other clients is just bad advice. -
In todays’s news items I see that Postworks and Technicolor
have joined forces in New York (call it what they may “Franchise”
it’s a roll up) Technicolor buys Laser Pacific, these things are the big news. Not all this whining about FCPX, It’s getting old and smelly. If you got Work, If you got Billings, If you got loyal customers, Then I guaranty you are not worried about what Apple
does or doesn’t do, You will simply find the right tools for the job
It’s just not that complicated.
Mommy Mommy Mommy The bad man took my toy truck -
I gotta say this whole thread cracks me up.
It should come as NO SURPRISE what Apple thinks about all you
“PRO” FCP users. Hint, THEY DON’T. You are just not a revenue driving force in their minds. I can’t wait to see the fall out of all
the posters, boasters & promoters here, who claim that they have
fiqured it all out with their “business models” as they blowviate
about other closed shops and their “outdadted” models.
This is their first real test dealing with change.
And it’s not about a wholesale change in technology it’s about
one software program. As someone who ran a shop from the days
of grease pencil editing on 1/2″ reel to reel all the way up
to Avid & Henry This just CRACKS ME UP
Just why do you think APPLE owes you anything?
Just how PUFFED up are you?
Give me a break, Adapt or Die.
IT’S UP TO YOU, NOT APPLE -
Needless to say I feel that I somewhat wasted my time and money investing into FCS in general. I can still use 7 (for now) but how long until its retired form the post world 1,2,3,4 years from now?
What should I do? Im freaking out. I feel like I was just raped on a pinball machine buy APPLE, while Steve Jobs watched.
Whats my next step?
Freaking out??
OH COME ON, Give me a break.
Are you kidding?
You have to ask yourself,
Can I tell a compelling story manipulating picture and sound?
If you can, so what if apple changes the buttons and functions.
There are other platforms that you can use.
If you were an auto mechanic and all American cars went metric,
Would you quit? Or just buy some new wrenches?
Furthermore
I find it insulting to all women to equate Apple making some FCP changes to Rape. My friend, You need to get some perspective here.
As for your next step
Buy a Taxi. Of course every 5 or six years you might have to replace
it and if that is too much of a burden, Get a job at the post office.
In a technology dependent field I find all this bitching and moaning
about Apple to be ridiculous. I especially get a kick out of those
Old hands who wacked the CMX world moaning over the “New Cool Kids” that they are worried about doing the same to them. WAH WAH WAH -
ou’re right Neil… Now your clients can shoot video on an i-phone, edit on their i-pad, one day they’ll decide they don’t need you any more; you’ll just say “Well it’s just keeping up with the times”
You are correct, They don’t need me anymore
I closed my facility in 2001
I had a old school big steel shop
CMX,ADO,Deveous,Chyron,GVG Switchers, 1″,D2,D3, BetaSP,Digibeta
and 32 racks of other stuff.
All done in by Avid, Things Change my friend,Things Change
So you ask, Why did I close my shop after 21 years?
At which point I also owned a few Avid MC8000’s
Short answer: I didn’t see a way that I could continue the way
I wanted to (having great people,paying good salaries & benifits
and making money for myself) at what I saw as a future of
constant pressure on rates and increasing competition brought on by
innovation & technology.(AVID) and a diminishing barrier to
entry. In short it was going to become the land of the digital slave
and it wasn’t for me. You make jokes about Iphones, well all I can
say is, turn on the news, any show, and you will see Cell Phone footage being aired. The electronic versions of Zapruder.
In the late 70’s and 80’s I was part of a
news stringer operation in NYC. We had guys out all night running around looking for stories. Two person crew, one carried a RCA TK76
camera and 40 pounds of batteries the other guy carried around
a 3/4″ deck (BVU50)and another 40 pounds of batteries.
These guys were connected by an umbilical.
That’s Over, Done, Stick a fork in it, replaced by a cell phone
or 200 dollar flip phone.
Don’t for a heartbeat discount new technology,
It will be banging on your door soon.
I also see the complete elimination of tape sometime soon
SSD’s are going to eat tape for lunch -
That sounds like another case of welding the battery into case so you need to buy a new cell phone… I don’t mean to be critical, but I really don’t get why you guys put up with this stuff from Mac?
Answer is simple:
It’s a CHEAP editing solution. Like I said before
I know of NO ONE, NOT ONE COMPANY that bought FCP
when it was introduced because it was better than Avid or Quantel.
What it was, was cheaper by orders of magnitude.
FCP became a pro application because it was CHEAP
Tens of Thousands for Avid, Hundreds of Thousands for Quantel
A Few Thousand for a FCP setup.
This is not rocket science.
FCP enabled most here to set up shop. Apple owes you nothing.
I get a kick out of all the moaning here. If FCPX doesn’t work for
you Don’t buy it, Don’t use it and continue doing what you do. I’m sure it will
improve over time and don’t forget that most here don’t have a
clue what a CMX 3600 was and the next generation gunning for your
work won’t have a clue what FCP was, But they will sure know how to
sing with FCPX.
Mommy Mommy I wasted 300.00 on FCPX
No you didn’t, It’s new, It’s here, Learn from the first release
Don’t try to make money with it, Just keep up with the times
I could even make the case for NOT polluting any of your current
equipment or set up with this, Just buy an IMAC and experiment and learn.
Mommy,Mommy, I want my CMX
Give me a break -
Hi Dominick,
Just read this thread and checked your site,
I would recommend that you delete the button for rates
or put something in there that is not asking for a prospective
clients contact information. Lots of people find it objectionable
to be asked for that before they even qualify you as a potential
vendor. They don’t want to be flooded with solicitations.
As for taxes, Run to your accountant and ask for advice.
The taxing authorities are relentless in the pursuit of any
nickels that think they have a claim on and penalties and interest
add up much quicker than you could ever imagine.
Good Luck, NYC is a tough market. -
I have been following along here and I’d like to put in my 2 cents
I Know of NOBODY, Not one single person or company that bought
Final Cut Pro when it first came out because it was better than Avid.
It was bought because it was Way Way Cheaper. Not even in the same ballpark.
Where FCP got it’s big boost was when Avid came out with
it’s Adrenaline System and there were Thousands of Meridian system owners out there that Said
“What the F-ck I just lost 85% of my investment
I’m NOT doing that again”
Simultaneously with that was that the first
generation of Avid Editors
felt well trained & savy enough to Jump Ship and start their
own little companies. FCP was cheap enough for them to do this.
The skills of a capitalist ( The ability to raise the funds to start)
were simply not needed. It opened the flood gates and the rest is history. Avid now has a good opportunity to recapture some market
share if they behave nicely ( Ha Ha ) but then again anyone who has
attended NAB for the last few years has to ask themselves, Is
AVID really in the business of NLE’S anymore? Or are they keeping it alive to feed there Station Automation and News products?
So what I predict as happening here is, that most will continue using
whatever version of FCP they have and are happy with for quite some time and then switch to FCPX because it’s still gonna be the CHEAPEST
Product and most will have somewhat compatible hardware.
AT the speed at which things are changing One would have to be crazy not to look for the least expensive solution. This is kind of a radical change for myself because I have always looked for the Best Solution. But I am tired of tossing hundreds of thousands of worthless equipment in the dumpster. -
As for NLE, Avid put it on hard drives
Please don’t forget the ABEKAS A62
This device was basically two hard drives with a
Digital keyer in the middle
You went from one drive to another adding a key between them
The machine would automatically swap play and record.
We did stuff like 16 sided ice cream cones with moving images
on each facet. The thing sounded like a jet turbine spinning up.
I also owned the first Avid 8000 in NYC, Bob Z installed it
and did plenty of bleeding on the Quadra 950. This was Spring of 1992.