[Nick Griffin]

Here are some others:

royaltyfreemusiclibrary.com – WOW pricing on full disks
PremiumBeat.com (****) – $40 cuts
MyMusicSource.com $125
Audiojungle.net
Audiosparx.com $276
stock20.com
beatsuite.com
pond5.com

Read their license agreements to be sure that you can put what you “purchase*” on the internet.

*- You’re not really purchasing music, you are licensing it, and this is important, PER project. In other words with most of these sources you cannot use the same music on a second project without paying again.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “For an extra five bucks, you also get the Glen Ross leads. :-)”

Subtle, Mark. Very Subtle.

Ned-
Sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[Nick Griffin]

BUT… does one camera solve the problem of “continuous” coverage? What Xavier needs to do is coordinate with the speaker WHEN his breaks will occur and plan accordingly taking into account the length that can be gotten on the cards available. OR record at a lower resolution (which may be fine for some people, especially web use) making it plausible to get the entire 4 hours on one disk.

[Nick Griffin]

Without knowing the specifics this did not read like it will be for a deposition. Instead seems likely it would be used as evidence. More likely than not, defense evidence as to how safe this particular workplace is.

[Nick Griffin]

Todd-

Surely there must be some way you can crowd source basic creative ideas that you can then polish into a workable script.

I was very fortunate several years back to consult for a few large ad agencies and that introduced me to dozens of writers and art directors hungry for moonlighting work.

Contact me offline if you need a name or two. (Besides Mark Suszko.)

[Nick Griffin]

Tiffany-
You are aware that shooting a video for use in court will almost invariably mean that you will have to attend the trial and attest to the veracity of the video. If you’re lucky they might make you one of the first witnesses. If not you’ll be compelled to appear when asked and return until called to testify. So you could be tied up waiting for anywhere from minutes to days. Plan on making sure your rate is established not just for the video but also for all of this extra time your are going to be told to provide.

[Nick Griffin]

I have no experience with the T3i. I do know that this overheating of the sensor has been a problem for many video-capable DSLRs. I suggest you run a test to find out.

[Nick Griffin]

Can this be done with just two T3i cameras? Don’t they have something like a 30 minute shot length before the sensor overheats and they have to cool down for a while before shooting again?

As to the audio, you will need a mixer that can take a “line level” signal from the main sound board and output (what I believe to be) the mic level the camera is expecting to receive.

I’ve been asked to do projects like this several times and, after giving a price, each time I explain that hours of a live speaker make for complete and total snore-a-vision — something that very few people will be willing to watch because a live speaker can make eye contact and find other ways to maintain interest that a video cannot. I then suggest that they develop an outline of the high points of the presentation and produce that as a much shorter video with just a few of the very best segments using footage of the speaker.

Oh, and by the way, in my experience most presenters find it hard to believe that four solid hours of them talking won’t make fascinating TV. I chalk that up to ego over realism.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “Provided that you are a professional working in the business of making videos and films, there are a number of things that you can legally claim expenses on for production purposes. Such as R&D, phone calls, insurance, transport, hire of equipment, asset purchases etc.”

As one of the “out-of-townie experts” I have to question how this is much different than what I was discussing. If your materials (hard costs) are part of your overall business logically they should be deductable. As to the video of “your best friends wedding,” of course not.

[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “I once managed to claim tax back on a Playstation 2 – I also had a lengthy report to show how I had taken part in a research project for developing new software and hardware for it”

Wow, Mads you must have undergone a rather rigorous inspection by the tax authorities or been attempting to claw back a VAT tax. Here we call the rigorous inspection an Internal Revenue Service audit where they look at EVERYTHING, and yes, in that case you are left to defend each and every expense. Ouch.

[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] ” …those people you engage to work for you, may suddenly become your employee.”

In the states we have “Paymaster” companies (for actors and other “talent”). For a fee the paymaster in essence becomes the employer, witholding all necessary taxes and making union-dictated Pension & Welfare contributions. Not sure if you have anything like that there and seriously wonder if anything like that exists for crew members. Anyone know?

[Nick Griffin]

OK, I’ll chime in with similar advice and the same caveat about tax law in general and UK tax law in the specific.

Seems to me that if you are operating a viable business that buys supplies and outputs work then any supplies or costs you have for your show reel are just part of your overall expenses of doing business and therefore would lessen the taxable portion of your income.

AGAIN, don’t know about UK law, but here in the US you simply can’t deduct anything for your time because that’s not considered a real expense.