Nick Griffin
Forum Replies Created
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Richard-
First, yes. This is the ideal forum for discussing your question.
I don’t see that there’s much difference between being in the “webmaster” business and the post production business — except for the fact that the post business requires that a much larger dollar amount of equipment needs to be maintained.
As you can read from any number of posters below and in the archives, you have to calculate what you personally need to live, what you need to save, what you need to have for recurring expenses (rent/mortgage, utilities, auto, accounting, legal, etc), what hardware/software configurations you need to keep current and last, but far from least, what you have to set aside for taxes.
Once you’ve added those up, come up with a realistic number of hours you can bill for in an average month (which does NOT include the time you’ll spend marketing your services and doing general business stuff) then divide the costs by the hours to get a STARTING point for figuring out what your hourly, daily, weekly billing rate should be.
Of course you also have to be aware of your competitive environment. If your client knows the college kid living in his parent’s basements is willing (and reliable enough) to be his webmaster for $15 an hour, your business may not be viable. In that case the value you add, the number of prospects you have and many other factors come into play.
One last thing, and I don’t mean this in a mean-spirited way, if you’re going to be doing a company’s social media you will have to be very careful of grammar and spelling. The little stuff matters when it’s someone’s public image.
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[Roderick Lavallee] “the client never realized how loud an HVAC system was until I pointed it out to them in the head phones”
They never do. Some of the best advice here is:
[Chris Tompkins] “More dialog up front.”
This way the obstacles can become more of their problem to accept or fix rather than being seen as your mistake.
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Hey, I know Mark Suszko and have even spoken with him on the phone. So nobody better screw around with me!
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I agree with both Greg and Mark and would supplement their comments by offering that whether you use a make up artist (preferred but adds to the cost of the shoot) or have a few shades of powder with you and take a do-it-yourself approach, you have to do so with confidence. Practice first and do test shots with a spouse or companion. Don’t let the shoot with Mr. Big be the first time you’ve attempted to use a powder puff.
As Mark said, act like what you are doing is perfectly normal and routine. If you are hesitant your subject will be hesitant. If you act like make-up is just another part of set-up before you can start shooting, your subject will go along easily. And if asked, say that a light powdering will be invisible on camera versus a big glaring spot that will stand out.
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Here’s what’s probably a stupid idea but… If you are in hotel conference rooms you could try to get the hotels to allow you to rent a few roll-away beds. You could then stand up their mattresses in key places to stop most of the bounce-back.
The sad fact of the matter is there’s probably no simple and cheap way for you to transport sound-proofing because sound dampening in a square or rectangular space is based on mass more than anything — and that’s what you’re trying to not have to travel with.
Perhaps the best alternative would be to boom your interviews with a hypercardioid mic. By aiming at the subject’s chest, and being in as tight as the framing will allow, the room sound would be substantially lower in volume than it is with the traditional omnidirectional lav mic, hence much less echo.
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VERY nicely done, Danny! I haven’t gotten to the end yet, but if you’re the editor, or contributed to the editing you are to be doubly congratulated.
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Nice idea, Danny, but…
Response to this request for information sharing needs to stay small and very low profile. Otherwise it begins to border on violating the anti-trust laws regarding price fixing. You can survey a group of shooters on their fees and publish the results, you cannot get a group of shooters together and set a price you will all, by agreement, charge.
That said, a friend of mine working in Washington doing network news gets $1,050/day with gear. Without gear it’s $450 for an 8 hour day.
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Maybe it’s how Joe has described the job, or maybe (more likely) this is a complex job with way too many unknowns for a binding estimate. Not the least of the unknowns is the client’s knowledge of the process and what his/her exact expectation is. Does the final involve 5 minutes of gems from each speaker or twenty 2 minute clips from each? (“4-5 DVDs” makes it seem like the later.) Am I correct to assume that someone else has already handled the shoot? Have you seen the raw footage to verify that it’s decent? Is there a starting point for the AE, disk and cover art or are you starting from zero?
Assuming that this is indeed a very complex and not nailed-down task giving an up-front price could easily turn into a nightmare, an ugly fight or both. So how can you get the job, protect yourself and hopefully develop a long-term relationship with your client?
I would be upfront and say that, due to the nature of the project, you would like to proceed on a day rate basis for at least the first week. Propose that you will work with him or her to first organize the material and nail down what’s to be included in the final, that you will get as far into a rough cut as possible, and begin the graphics work.
Present this as a safe way to work for both of you. By the end of the week you both should be able to see how the project will progress going forward, and then likely be able to give an estimate for its completion. Make the deal that if he or she isn’t happy with the progress they are free to take the project elsewhere with the hardest part — organizing and digitizing of the footage already complete. Of course the deal has to be that you will turn over all work files (now repeat after me…) once you have received payment for the work to date.
This is all about establishing and constantly maintaining communication with the client. You must, must, must maintain the balance between the expectation and the end product for everyone to win in the end, (IMHO).
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Get the trial version of M100 Suite 2 and you’ll have 14 days to open the legacy project and export it via XML to FCP. Or… you might find after playing around with Suite 2 that you like it and that the $595 is well worth it. Especially since it will work with almost any of the I/O cards you’re using with FCP.
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If I’m reading your post correctly you’re talking about the difference between a slider that can track a subject for about a yard (.9144 meters) versus a dolly which is either limited by how much track you lay, say 10 feet (3+ meters) or more, or, if you have a lot of track or are on wheels on the floor, a lot more. It all kind of depends on what you’re shooting. Is your subject a foot tall object (slider) or the length of a room / one or more people (dolly)?
Personally I like flexible tracks, in my case the “Spider Dolly” because it can go in a straight line or be curved to do a 270 degree or more swing around a subject. But then I’m usually shooting bigger things.
To get back to your question, though, both add production value and both require a level of practice to obtain smooth results. If you get skilled with the Cobra Crane you may find that you have enough control of movement that you don’t need either.