[Nick Griffin]

Tim –

I think simpler is better. We barely scratched the surface on the first podcast, so how about one or two topics at a time and an attempt to go deeper into them.

How ’bout:

[Nick Griffin]

…he might be worried

HE might be worried??? Ever see the movie Marathon Man? This would be a client you would want to make SURE was happy, happy, happy. (Just a thought.)

[Nick Griffin]

Yes, but…

As usual our guys have great input. But do NOT use this as a substitute for having that talk with your General Counsel. Lawyers have so many ways of interpreting things that even when they’re wrong they can wrap you up for days in contradictions and conundrums — ESPECIALLY if they’re under the impression that you’ve attempted to think something through for yourself. Best to at least have one of them believe that you’re operating with their advice. (IMHO.)

[Nick Griffin]

Walter, Walter, Walter. What have you gotten yourself into this time? Welcome to the end of the pasture with the biggest pies. Watch where you step. Oh… and Welcome!

-Nick Griffin

[Nick Griffin]

Ummmm. Are we missing something here or is this pretty obvious?

zmroukhd wrote: there is a contract between him as a client and my production company

There’s a contract. A contract. Do what the contract says and make the client happy in any other ways that you can. Don’t make credits an issue because a) few if any people will notice a credit line — getting it noticed requires a reel or other way of sticking it under their nose, and b) getting the client to think that there’s a tremendous value on the credit just puts you in a bad position where you may have to give up something concrete (money) for something that’s not (a credit line).

Don’t like what’s in the contract? Change the contract for the next time.

John Davidson wrote:
There are very few instances where you can’t use your work on a reel

Yea, in most situations, especially when the work is being shown in the public realm, this is true. (By the way, John – great reel, FANTASTIC stuff, especially the FX promos!!) But in my corp/industrial world there can be any number of situations where it is NOT assumed that anything we do can be shown to anyone other than the audience intended by the client. (That said, I think I can count on one hand the number of times this has ever been an issue.)

So, the long and short of it is, IMHO, specify the right to use work on your reel in the contract and if the client feels that he/she needs it removed, make it a point of negotiation.

And, congratulations zmroukhd, on your new venture!

[Nick Griffin]

That’s just how far down the food chain I am. The boss has a boss who has a boss. (Any wonder I wrote on self-employment?)

[Nick Griffin]

Yes. Boss.

[Nick Griffin]

Consider it done. I’ll be happy to email the piece out a few more times to anybody that asks.

HINT: to diminish the possibility of having your email address harvested use “at” in place of “@” and I’ll make the change when sending.

[Nick Griffin]

Raiderneal-

Yes. It goes both ways. There are brilliant individuals who inhabit the top one percent of their profession and then there are those of us in the bottom 99. (Grinner, you’re in the top 1%, right?)

While we can all aspire to the top, there’s nothing wrong with having a firm grasp on what your skills and talents actually are and concentrating on how to maximize them. Life isn

[Nick Griffin]

OK, Greg. I’ll bite, too, but briefly.

1. We work in industrial markets, mostly in the US. Production trends are we have to scramble for almost every job we get as budgets seem to be under pressure. (So I guess this addresses 2. also.) Working from the inside out with clients has always been important and that seems so now more than ever. I define “inside out” as being part of the planning process whenever possible and not simply a vendor.

3. We educate our clients about why our stuff looks the way it does. Better takes longer and therefore costs more accordingly.

4. Our clients are looking for the work we do to integrate fully with all other aspects of their communication programs. The change is hopefully that we’re getting better at doing that.

5. I consider it odd, or indicative of the narrow segments where we play, that so far NO ONE has asked for high def. In fact, it seems to be going in the opposite direction with more concern always being on down-sampling for web or CD delivery.

I also agree with Seamus that VHS, once our primary delivery vehicle, is dead, dead, dead. Everyone wants DVDs at every stage from window burns to final delivery.