[Nick Griffin]

I fear that I already ask too much of my “soundie friend in Baltimore.” But thanx for the off-line suggestion, Ty. You truly are Mr. Audio.

[Nick Griffin]

I’m using two 32″ curved LG monitors – a fantastic;y huge desktop for Avid. (And somewhat of a pain for many other apps that don’t require as many windows open at the same time.)

But, I think your real problem and limitation may be the video card(s) in your older Mac. The LGs are connected via Thunderbolt to (I believe they’re called) DVI connectors. I don’t know if there is a PCI video card that supports Thunderbolt.

If you decide to go to the old Apple 30″ monitors I got a sweet one from Mac of all trades. You’ll just have to make sure that they’ll sell you LIGHTLY used ones.

[Nick Griffin]

[Stephen Pickering] “might be a good candidate for just mailing the equipment to the island. “

That you might find cost prohibitive. FedEx anywhere outside the US gets quite costly and I, for one, don’t trust the US Postal system to “absolutely/positively” get gear anywhere when they say it will be there. Does FedEx even go to the Turks & Caicos these days? Didn’t used to but I haven’t been there in many years.

[Nick Griffin]

[Todd Terry] “One thing I do do is put a piece of gaffer tape over the contacts”

We do that all the time. All it takes is something metal touching the contacts and one will quickly have an actual “hot mess” on your hands.

[Nick Griffin]

Thank you!!
Kept doing a name search and never could find anything. Now I know the names in the Avid dialog boxes are NOT the names of the files.

[Nick Griffin]

Please see my April 24th reply to a similar question in the Business & Marketing forum. I think I confused some of your questions with some of another poster.

[Nick Griffin]

I agree with Greg mostly, but you might want to soften the blow by making it 1/3rd before you get started, 1/3rd after first cut, a limited # of hours before what should be the final. In your agreement you must set a limit on the number of hours you’ll provide changes before it begins accumulating additional charges at rates set forth in the original agreement. Then provide a watermarked or time-coded version before getting the final 1/3rd and releasing a clean master.

You should also offer to help with down-sampling for web versions, iPad versions, DVDs, help with versions for computer playback and projection, etc. but bring this up during review of the final.

A strategy that I find useful when probing for a budget is to say something along the lines of “A video can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand of dollars. It’s all determined by how ambitious you want the project to be. What do you have in mind?” You’ve then put them in a position of: a) understanding that there is a definite relationship between what they want and what it will cost; b) thrown the burden of coming up with the first number them.

Because you mentioned that they have operations around the globe you can offer to help them out by finding locals who can supply footage without the expense of long-distance travel. Or, in a lesser case scenario, say that stills of other locations can be animated to fit into the part of the video that you’ll be shooting in their main facility. Least expensive would be to create footage of their main facility and then have an animated global map of where their other locations are. It’s up to them. Do they want the expense of flying you around the world or will a much less expensive ‘representation’ of their business fulfill their needs? Remember, you’re there to help them get what they want AND you’re both sitting on the same side of the table to get there. Try to make it a consultative relationship, not a vendor/customer relationship.

ADDED LATER: Oops. I think I confused your post with another from the Corporate Video forum. Hopefully some of the advice is still applicative.

[Nick Griffin]

T2 – You are truly someone who has earned every bit of his success. Congratulations on 20 and a hope for 20 more!

Best,

Nick Griffin
———————
“There is a species of antelope than can
Jump higher than the average house.
This is due to its powerful hind legs.
That and the fact that the average house cannot jump.”

[Nick Griffin]

Idea 1: Can you return it to the vendor and ask for a replacement that doesn’t smell?

Idea 2: Charcoal brickets and silica gel both can greatly diminish if not eliminate odors, but both will probably take a while to do so.

(How’s this for a Biz and Mkt answer?)

[Nick Griffin]

Kind of depends on how hungry you are and how long your backlog of business is. If you can afford to, walk away. If not re-negotiate the deal but you MUST have something up front.