[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “Those content creators will be independent contractors who license their works to the aggregator, getting a byline and an up-front fee per story, plus a percentage bonus for every extra thousand clicks or whatever the story gets…”

Always the optimist, Mark. Great ideas but let’s see what reality brings. And if the Koch Brothers succeed in acquiring “The Trib” and slanting it to their way of thinking it may be time to give up on newspapers altogether — at least in and around Chicagoland.

[Nick Griffin]

[Todd Terry] “successful in the production business… 1) find an underserved or niche market, and 2) be hands-down better than anyone else.”

Todd-
Succinct and brilliant.

[Nick Griffin]

Brad-

Let me start by saying it’s been 25 years since I worked in the Caribbean so, that said, I obviously have very little in the way of contemporary knowledge. With that caveat let me make a few suggestions.

First, when shooting in the Caribbean it’s best to lower your expectations and/or plan on bringing whatever you’re going to need with you. The chances of finding anything on Grenada are minimal at best. The closest large city (well kind of large) is Port of Spain, Trinidad. The next closest city is Caracas, Venezuela. Since it’s unlikely that you’ll find much by Googling ‘Video or Film Equipment Rental’ you might want to start by calling the TV stations in the area and see if they can recommend any sources — potentially including themselves — for the gear you’ll want. But don’t be surprised if all you’re able to source is C-stands.

Considerably up island is San Juan, Puerto Rico. You may have some luck there, but the shipping charges are going to be higher because of the distance. Back in the day the source for almost all serious film and video rental for the Caribbean was out of Miami. That may still be the case, but I don’t claim to know.

Getting back to bringing your own, if you want a dolly consider bringing one of the smaller/simpler ones. For example we have a Losmandy Spider Dolly that I’ve shipped to several locations domestically. The flex track and dolly weigh something around 45 pounds so the FedEx cost is quite manageable. Of course shipping internationally adds a whole new level of cost and paperwork so you may be better off paying excess baggage fees and clearing your stuff through customs yourself. Speaking of which be sure to obtain the necessary carnet paperwork to facilitate taking gear out of the country and back.

Best of luck and hope some of the above helps.

[Nick Griffin]

[Craig Seeman] ”
The goal is to get them talking so they reveal both their financial and creative needs.”

I fully agree. This is the start of the relationship you want to build and, like most of the process, the part where low pressure salesmanship comes into play.

If a client seems trustworthy and not simply shopping I go for a sitdown meeting where I can show examples and discuss what each finished production costs and why.

Then if they’re REALLY trustworthy I get out my laptop with a production estimate spreadsheet and let them see what it costs if a shoot goes into more days, if we have a voiceover versus an on-camera talent, what the cost difference is between name-brand production music versus the $35 cuts off the internet, and so on. I DO NOT leave the spreadsheet with them. (Nobody’s THAT trustworthy.)

When it comes time for them to get the result of the spreadsheet, it’s presented in “black box” format under the categories of Pre-production, Production (shooting), Post Production, and Distribution/Duplication. This helps with them feeling in control but discourages price shopping on line items.

It’s really about building rapport and mutual respect and getting away from the nitty-gritty of price shopping. To use Joe’s house example, the process is about having them pick the granite versus the NeverMar countertops. They’re informed, involved and I’m there to advise.

Then there’s the people who we don’t trust or even don’t like and for them the idea is to waste as little time as possible. I’ve been known to quote a high, ‘take it or leave it’ figure or, in some cases, simply say no thanks.

[Nick Griffin]

If it was me I would check out Borrowlenses.com and look into renting a real macro for the days of the shoot you will need it. You may be pleasantly surprised how inexpensive their rentals can be. For years I’ve had a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro that can go as close as 1:1 quite nicely. Add an extension to that and you can go even larger.

Also, and let me say I don’t know that these exist for Canon mounts, but if you add a bellows extension with swing and tilt you’ll have enormous flexibility with your macro subjects.

One other thought: have you and your director arrived at a clear understanding of the exact scale of what you both mean by macro? It’s a term that may be considered “macro” by a shooter and “microscopic” in the mind of someone less experienced with the reality of optics.

[Nick Griffin]

Off topic?? Aw, c’mon Greg how is this off topic for a forum as wide ranging as Biz-Marketing? It’s not like the COW has a “fake dog paws” forum.

As to Mark’s suggestion that certainly seems like the best place to start. Another would be one of the big prop houses in LA (if any of them still exist). A third option might be to… no wait a minute… had to self-censor on this one.

[Nick Griffin]

David-

I was in your position four months ago and frankly found there to be a wealth of resources. A good place to begin is right here with the COW’s Kevin P. McAuliffe series of video tutorials. They are excellent. I was also able to get answers to some specific questions and clarifications here on the COW’s Avid forum.

Because it came with my purchase of the Avid side-grade of FCP, I also had access to the full Class on Demand Media Composer / Symphony series by Steve Hullfish. If I hadn’t been given Class on Demand I still probably would have purchased it.

Next I found Christian Foerster’s “Avid Screencasts” through the iTunes store. There’s a lot to learn from these, but the only drawback is the early ones are from previous versions of Media Composer, so there will be some things that are different from the current version.

These 3 have gotten me up, running and making money, but I still have some areas where I’m still learning. And now this is the first I’ve heard of the Gaijin series and, after a few preliminary clicks through I can see that there’s a lot of good stuff here also.

[Nick Griffin]

Okay, so closer to South Park than to Pixar.

If you’re not budgeted for hiring a company who does this sort of thing then you should find a freelance illustrator who works cheap because he or she will have a LOT of drawing to do to provide the basis for this type of animation. Or you could go the South Park route and create characters based on shapes of paper which you manipulate.

If you do have the budget for outside help post the job here on the COW’s Higher Pay Jobs board and browse the Jobs Wanted section also.

Good luck. If you have “many, many” to do I fear you’ll need it.

[Nick Griffin]

This really comes down to what do you mean by “animation?” Pixar movies are animation. So is South Park. Two extreme ends of a fairly broad spectrum. Thousands of man hours of 3D modeling with complex skins versus pieces of colored paper cut into shapes which are moved around 30, 20, 15, or maybe even fewer times a second.

Second question: WHY animation? Is the idea to show things that would be unrealistic or impossible to show photographically? Unrealistic: The view looking down from one of the antenna masts on the Sears Tower. Impossible: the step-by-step inner workings of a car’s engine. So what are you trying to accomplish?

[Nick Griffin]

In a past life as the client/creative director on a shoot of the step-by-step building of a Big Mac I was able to observe a brilliant photographer and equally brilliant food stylist at work. And, as I recall, we had to have a “rules” expert from McDonalds there to be sure that we were presenting their product perfectly.

One small trade secret I learned that day was that the burger was coated in Vaseline so it would keep its glisten. Yummie!! Also, nothing about applying sauce with an eyedropper or pieces of lettuce and onion with tweezers in the Canadian video was any different from what the stylist on my shoot was doing years ago. And did you know that McDonalds has a specification book for literally EVERYTHING. From working on that I learned that they have a spec for exactly how many sesame seeds are on the bun’s top and what their distribution needs to be.

As to Robert wanting to see a high-end food film or video shoot in Houston, I wouldn’t count on it. While still photographers can be a little more spread out, the guys shooting high end food tend to be very small in number and working near the agencies in New York, Chicago and LA. Back in the day they also tended to do little else besides food. I don’t remember his name but there was also one in the Chicago area who specialized in water shots. If the spot had a scene of a refreshing splash of water going through it, it was almost always from this guy.