[Nick Griffin]

[Alex Stanton] “the show is syndicated on several TV channels”

OK, then that makes a lot more sense. I was under the mis-impression that this was another web-only show. There’s been a lot of buzz around them lately and the productions I’ve seen so far have almost always been fairly modest in terms of assets. Nothing about Daryl’s House looks cheap or down and dirty.

[Nick Griffin]

[Chris Tompkins] “I second the audio quality, wow, they did a great job with that.”

Ditto that. I think they did a great job on all of it and couldn’t help but notice the COW’s own Marco Solorio in the credits, which may mean that one or more the the cams was a DSLR or maybe even a Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

But… what I don’t get is the finances of the series. Did the bourbon, the apparent sponsor, pick up the cost of the whole show?? Even if Todd’s estimate is too high, which I don’t think it is given the overall quality of production, where does the money come from? Is this a Daryl Hall ego project and the musicians are working for free? I’d love to know the business details of this project.

[Nick Griffin]

I’ll drink to that.
Bottoms up.
The Brew Crew.

I reserve rights to any you DON’T use.

[Nick Griffin]

You’ll have to research which ones, but I’m positive that more than one of the sliders on the market can be vertically oriented for this kind of move. Especially if you’re shooting with a lightweight camera like a DSLR this should be no problem. Anyone have any specifics as to brand?

[Nick Griffin]

I have to say, as usual, Mark’s ideas are spot on. It’s never works out well to make a client or potential client feel foolish — especially when it’s deserved. Let them find out about the size of their staff and highly temporary 30,000 ft2 facility on their own. Just stay in touch and hopefully you’ll get another shot at this and/or future gigs.

[Nick Griffin]

Well said, Ned. Those bowling league fees are a real budget buster.

[Nick Griffin]

It was our accountants who introduced us to and initially set-up QuickBooks for us. I believe that initial set up is an important factor because the accountant knows how to categorize what they’re going to want to get out of the program come tax time.

As to two businesses using one software program. That’s easy in QuickBooks, Your using it as separate companies just the same way you’d be making a separate spreadsheet or word processing document.

The description of two companies sharing / splitting expenses sounds far more complicated. An accountant may be able to advise you how to do this, but I suspect that the simplest way is, for financial and practical reasons, to operate as two different DBAs (“doing business as”) which are for tax purposes owned and operated under a single corporate umbrella.

Then again, as we always say here… I’m not a lawyer or an accountant so free advice may be worth exactly what you pay for it.

[Nick Griffin]

[Patrick Reagan] “He is the type of person that if I can overlay some text on the screen and the image quality is crisp, he’ll quite literally be amazed.”

Maybe.

Patrick, the previous two threads from Mark and Tim only begin to hint at some of the tools and techniques needed to make a game video look like a television broadcast. And THAT’s quite likely what most civilians — people with no clue of what’s behind what they see on TV — have as their expectation, a switched television broadcast. It’s not their fault, it’s just that most people outside of a discipline have very little idea of the inner details of the discipline and most of us tend to simplify things we don’t fully understand.

My advice is to enter into this very carefully and make sure that your prospective client has been fully briefed on what you can (and more importantly cannot) physically accomplish with the gear you will be using. MANAGE THE EXPECTATION and, as others have pointed out, be willing to walk away if you can’t be funded to do the job properly.

[Nick Griffin]

I agree with Mads. Use professionals to know what steps to take to best mesh with your ultimate goals. You may or may not be able to only get insurance on a job-by-job basis when there’s not already coverage provided by the producer hiring you. But I don’t KNOW this, so check with a good insurance agent.

As to the other part of your query, if your name is well known it only makes sense (IMHO) to use it in or as your corporate name.

[Nick Griffin]

Given the fact that editing and especially mixing on headphones simply isn’t viable, I would think it would be around the middle of the second day when the people in the surrounding cubicles would rise up en masse and DEMAND that you be put in a room (with walls and a door) and NOT a cubicle. Seems to me that you have a manager with little to no idea whatsoever of what goes on in an editing session. Have him or her sit in and watch and LISTEN. Let him or her hear you scrub back and forth in search of edit points for an hour or two and then decide.