Nick Griffin
Forum Replies Created
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[Michael Slowe] “maybe WE should post to the FCP forums?”
I did early on after the FCP-X release AND I’ve been telling many FCP users I know personally to download the trial. The problems are multiple with the biggest being Media 100’s image as being an old and out-dated and comparatively little publicity/promotion to reverse that mis-perception. The more people who try Suite 2, the more eyes will be opened and the more new, as well as former, users will adopt it as their NLE. IMHO.
SO, yes… let’s keep banging away at this and, yes, DO post to the FCP forums reminding FCP’ers that there’s a free trial that works with AJA, Matrox and Black Magic I/O hardware.
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[Al Bergstein] ” I agree with all the posts recommending to let it go.”
My sentiments exactly. While it’s tempting to succumb to negative energy in situations like this, it’s rarely — if ever — productive in the long run. Move on to something positive, like going out and getting one of his competitors. KIDDING! Move on. There’s other work out there.
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Being “short” isn’t cool with anyone with whom you are trying to do business. Off topic, but my first CPA was so bad that within a few years he landed in federal prison for stealing from elderly clients. He never stole from me, but in those days I had so little to take that anything would have been noticeable.
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Kevin, I’m sorry to say that I tend to agree (almost always) with Mark. Tread lightly given today’s situation and the abundance of new as well as seasoned people in the marketplace. Perhaps you should ask for a modest raise, however…
The truth of the matter is traditionally the best way to advance one’s career is by changing jobs every few years. Kind of zig/zag to the top. But if you want to stay where you are you should be asking for a review and moderate raise every year. Point out your skill sets, perhaps even to the point of suggesting that your employer do a “shootout” with you and another editor/colorist working on the same or similar projects for a few hours, or better still, a full day. That will help prove that they are getting more so they should be paying more.
Above all else, be humble, non-threatening and approach everything from the standpoint of how having you around benefits them. The days of getting a raise because “I need to support a family” are long gone. Nobody cares, especially the bean counters who may have the ultimate say.
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[Martin Phillips] “having ‘down time’ and refreshment helps working time to be more productive”
Bingo! (An American euphemism for a strong YES.) In recent years I’ve come to the conclusion that downtime is essential to having productive “uptime.” I’ve also concluded that “staying in touch” during a vacation quickly makes it feel like one hasn’t had a vacation at all. Learned this one the hard way by taking a 3 week Caribbean vacation a few years ago and attempting to lessen the impact by staying in touch with clients and the office. The clients may have been comfortable with this, but I came home feeling mostly un-rested.
Robert, stand your ground. You’re on the right track.
[Martin Phillips] “it only happens a few times a year now, rather than every other week”
I have a friend who describes this perfectly as, “If you’re going to do the occasional back flip for a client, make sure it’s a client who is worthy of the back flip.” In fact at his fairly large business everyone who interacts with a customer rates each and every interaction on a 1 to 5 scale. The people dealing with his customers are able to call up the running tally on their order/entry screens whenever a call comes in. If the customer was slow pay, or a pain to deal with, or was prone to screaming at his people, or any number of other factors, the salesperson taking the order can easily identify good customers from less than good.
Our business is a lot smaller, but the principle remains sound.
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I don’t think you should charge for time spent waiting, especially while you’re doing other jobs in the meantime. That said I know all too well of the situation you’re describing.
What you might consider is explaining that jobs which go beyond, say a week, incur the cost of the external drive you’ll need to offload the project from your editing bays to allow other work to keep going on. You might also have a charge for the time it takes to do this and do the restore.
Now it may or may not be the case that your RAID or other space is limited, but it’s the kind of explanation that at least makes some sense to a client who otherwise sees no consequences to his or her inaction.
Last time I checked two Terabyte bare drives were selling for around $100. Use two, just to be safe and price the drive/service around $300.
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Allow me to amplify and add to some of what’s said above.
It’s great that you have “the money and experience in events management. I also have the clients.” That’s a much better start than NOT having them, but not having a basic working knowledge of the operations and technologies is a severe handicap. You have a whole lot more to learn than not knowing what camera(s) to buy.
While you could hire people who know these things, you would be better served by first working somewhere that already has the many operational aspects of running a video business going. As someone with a client following I would think you could easily get in as a “producer,” even though starting out you’d really be more of a salesman.
Do that a year or two or three and you stand a much better chance of succeeding in the long run.
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Thanx, Flo. Downloaded it earlier today.
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Okay. You’re both right. Typed before thinking through the reply.
-Nick Griffin
Department of Redundancy Department -
Thanx to John, AJA and yes, Bob for the update instructions. Worked like a champ and all is well with the world once again. Long live the COW!