[Nick Griffin]

First, sure does make me proud to live in a country puritanical enough that this is even an issue. Jeez to blur or not and how much of a blur? Kind of embarrassing that this discussion is even necessary.

Second, Sam if your showing augmentation there are any number of ways to do so tastefully without a full-on nude shot (with nipple blur or not). No need to get medical in your imagery. Creating a beauty shot with a low cut dress is one approach. A silhouette is another. The key in this is to make it glamorous and appealing to the female viewer and not leaning toward the salacious which, while appealing to men and boys, would be a substantial turn-off to women, your target audience. IMHO.

[Nick Griffin]

[Ala Mctoom] “Artist prefer to work full-time in an established companies instead of offering their services as freelancers. For this reason, I can’t rely on freelancers as a production strategy, I have to offer the artists a full-time job.”

Ala-
If you adopt this view as a given then you are ignoring the fact that we now live in a global workplace. For computer-based work your freelancers could be in India, Eastern Europe or even the United States. (OK, Mads, even the UK.) There are multiple ways to track down people with various specialties including the “Jobs Wanted – Higher Pay” section right here on the COW. And, even though the COW doesn’t have this feature (yet, that I know of), some freelancer sourcing sites allow you to ask for bids based on specific job specifications. You just need to be able to communicate in a common language and as that more often than not tends to be English you’re already ahead of the game.

Expanding on Mads’ suggestions, when you’re starting a business don’t buy things until you get to the point of actually needing them. By renting things like cameras and lights and/or hiring people with their own gear only for specific jobs, not as full time employees, you should be able to grow organically.

[Nick Griffin]

Whenever I have to fly with gear I take the camera, with our wide zoom attached, as carry on. On the few occasions it’s been necessary to check gear I haven’t bothered with the locking wire ties because the stuff that’s being checked (sticks, lights, stands, matte box with rails, etc) is unlikely to have much value to would-be thieves, so why make it look like it should? What worries me is the FSI field monitor because that does have some visual appeal, even if I doubt a casual observer would ever guess that what appears to be a 17″ TV could be worth nearly $3k. But that’s what insurance is for* and why we now have a 7″ FSI that can fit in the camera case.

Having a camera as carry on is why I always pay extra for early boarding so I get onto the plane while there’s overhead bin space. Imagine being told that “because your bag won’t fit it will have to be checked by a flight attendant as regular luggage.” Don’t know who’s insurance will pay for a camera broken under those circumstances and hope I never have to find out.

Far more often in the past few years, now that so many airlines have hefty bag check fees, we FedEx gear ahead (all but the camera) to the place we’re going to shoot and avoid having to schlep it through the airport in the first place. The cost is nearly the same or just a little bit more. AND, getting back to what I believe was posed as the original question, I ALWAYS secure Pelican cases and shipping tubes with wire ties and this has never been a problem with FedEx. Don’t know about UPS because we’ve had such bad luck with them on other things I greatly prefer FedEx.

There’s also an entirely different approach we’ve taken to travel lately. A few years ago we started expanding the range considered acceptable for driving. When adding the cost of two airline seats — to the aforementioned shipping costs — to the cost for the rental car, SUV or van at the other end — it actually takes less time and is more convenient for us to drive to locations 5 or 6 hours away. Add to that billing clients the standard IRS mileage rate of $0.505 per mile and driving becomes an even better choice. I do phone calls while my producer partner works on his laptop.

[Todd Terry] “It’s a crap shoot.”

*- As I said, that’s what insurance is for.

[Nick Griffin]

Greg-
There was a lengthy discussion of this here several months back. Check the archives.

Remember the UPS spots from a couple of years back where the spokesman (actually the Creative Director of the Martin Agency) drew detailed diagrams in what appeared to be real time on what appeared to be a white board? I’ve never done this before, but it seems to me that the simplest way to do this would be to 1) have the finished illustration, text, numbers, whatever as a completed work, 2) using masks in AfterEffects or another compositing program animate a reveal of the drawing, and 3) have the green-screened talent imitate the path of the reveal. Then again I’ve never done this, so it’s a guess.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “This puts you and your company “on the public record” in your support of a particular cause. For some people, this gains them business from like-minded folks over time. For others, it can cost them.”

The positive side of this is true in many ways, not just politics. I’ve seen many businesses gain clients because they go to the same church, belong to the same country club, kids go to the same school and so on.

In politics these affiliations often become completely rigid, especially here around Washington where I am. If you’re working in a campaign you don’t want your opponents people peeking into the machine room while your spots are being dubbed, so you’re going to be careful who’s doing your post and related services. What I find almost humorous (if it didn’t show the extreme degree of polarization) is announcers’ demo reels which clearly state “Republican only” or “Democrat only.”

[Nick Griffin]

Thanx, T2 and Dennis! That’s exactly the kind of specifics I was looking for. Great help!

[Nick Griffin]

No, Todd. You’re weren’t the last AOL account. My 95 year old mother might be. She still has hers because “… you never know when one of my friends will email me…” (About once every six months and usually with the same dumb — and clean — joke that’s been sent around the internet since DARPA turned it on in the sixties.)

And no, I’m not going to get her onto anything else because her retirement community turns off their WiFi routers at nights and on weekends. And frankly it’s difficult enough for her to remember how to get email from AOL so I’m not able to spend as much time on tech support as it would take to get her on the real internet.

As far as AOL selling you to the spammers, I’d bet a healthy amount of money that somewhere in the fine print you agreed to at some point was buried a clause saying that you let them. Yea, it’s sleezy, but I’ll bet they’re scrambling for any source of revenue they can find these days.

[Nick Griffin]

Wow, I’ve been “not an attorney” for so many years I’m equally unqualified to “not be an accountant.” That said,

I don’t think given the current tax incentives you even have to worry about depreciation. I’m pretty sure this year you can depreciate the entire cost of the camera bodies in the first year. But then I’m not an accountant. Ask yours.

I really like Rich’s advise of reading the fine print and examining more than one lease option. I also agree that with a $1 buy-out at the end unless you think the camera will drop by half in street price the first year (been known to happen) you probably can’t go wrong. Then again, even though it’s in an entirely different class, the Black Magic cam is going to reek havoc with the mid market and may even have some effect on higher end stuff like the 300. Only those with a crystal ball can say for sure.

[Nick Griffin]

Have you tried the Batch Export function? Not necessarily “quicker” but allows you to set-up multiple targeted formats and let the system run.

[Nick Griffin]

Extremely common here, too and usually handled by your insurance agent within a day or two. No big deal to have the rental company named