Nick Griffin
Forum Replies Created
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There seems to be missing from the later portions of this thread. While yes, most of us should be able to charge for pre-production meetings, phone conferences, lengthy explanations of simple concepts, etc… for it to work it has to be done from the start. It’s extremely unlikely to be able to successfully add a new category of charges to the estimates or invoices of existing clients where they had not appeared before. However if these potentially “non-billable” items are line items on an estimate from the start of a relationship they are far more likely to be accepted. In my experience. Your mileage may vary. Member FDIC.
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[Joseph Dezordi] “I dont like the sound of my voice”
Me too, but mostly because while I know a thing of two about producing others, I don’t have the chops to get the performance I want out of me. That’s why I hire talent, including, on several occasions one of the best — Ty Ford.
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It’s really quite hard to have anything to add to this string of wonderfully informative posts, but I’ll just mention a couple that have not yet been brought up.
Isolation and privacy is critical. You want your interviewee to have a one-on-one relationship with you and the two of you should be looking right into each others eyes. I almost always sit a few degrees to the side of the camera so the subject is talking past and not directly addressing the camera.
Having other people in the room is best avoided if at all possible. If they have to be there to operate camera or sound, they should wear dark clothing, stand very still and do their best to blend into the background. If they are the client and insist on being present (the good clients know not to do this, BTW) I make sure that they are immediately behind me. Keeping a single line of sight in this way keeps the subject looking at you and NOT bouncing their glance around the room to see what the other person(s) may think of their answers. That looks horrible at best and Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook” at worst.
Like Mark, I always apologize in advance for the fact that there will be a great deal of redundancy and remind them of that when asking to repeat or re-phrase an answer. “What’s another way of explaining that?” and “What does that mean to you?” are good questions. In fact, most questions are good if you keep them short and very open ended.
Finally, the biggest secret to getting them to be themselves and relax is for YOU to be yourself and give off an air of engaged relaxation.
Best of luck and great thread, guys!
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[Mark Suszko] “They never did shoot the actual spot, just bought time and played the animatic”
I believe that this has happened more than once. MANY more times than once. We’ve had it happen with sketches used in print ads. As Todd mentioned there are people out there who truly cannot “see” anything that’s not literally in front of them. Whenever possible I try to avoid them.
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I have a somewhat similar perspective in the “rant” portion (4th to 8th paragraph) of my review at: https://library.creativecow.net/griffin_nick/suite-review/1
I’m not quite as negative about all of this as because I was the one renting time in the on-line rooms, not owning them. Yes, the business has changed and yes, many of us are competing with those with little “skin in the game,” let alone experience. But that’s life. Mark correctly points out that the best position to be in as one who drives the business. not just waits for it to come to you.
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[Mick Haensler] “personally, I’d rather clean boat bottoms than work on a political campaign ad.”
I’ve done both. I’d go with Todd’s choice. It’s easier to hold you nose while editing than it is sanding off the heavy metal-based marine paints.
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Classic, John. Simply classic.
I will add one of my own — from recent experience: Moaning and whining when a project comes it at the exact, quoted budget even after I’ve discounted in a few places to keep from going over. First 10 seconds of complaining, $1,000, each successive 5 seconds an additional 20% premium over the original budgeted amount. Bringing it up again before paying the bill, waterboarding until the whimpering stops.
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[Nick Griffin] “I don’t care if FCP has 1.5 million uses.”
Oops. I meant to type users.
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[Kent Wright] “A razor blade to make a cut? Really? And then switch back to the arrow?”
You’re reading from my songbook. M100 is a much faster interface in general. Smarter, too in that the A/B tracks layout is far more logical than is butting two clips up together, only to then find out when applying a transition that the head or tail media for the transition doesn’t exist.
Fact of the matter is FCP does have some cool things, mostly the other programs that come with it and the way that they integrate. But with XML interchange to/from Color, a feature introduced with version 13, that’s almost as easy as it is with FCP to/from Color. I think it’s fair to say that most NLEs on the market have their own special tools. There’s several features in high end Avid systems that I’d love to have at my disposal — just not enough to go for the high end price tag and yet another learning curve.
It’s been said for a while now by others as well as in the three reviews I’ve written about Media 100 — the programs greatest strength is that while it has lots of features you can get to, it doesn’t make you wade through them to accomplish simple stuff.
I don’t care if FCP has 1.5 million uses. I make money with our Media 100 systems so that’s why I’m a fan.
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Christine-
You may get some good answers here, but you should also post this same question to the Business & Marketing COW.
If I were in your position I’d start by researching as many other music libraries and their blanket agreements. You might also get a good overview of this by contacting several large audio production facilities, typically big consumers of production music.
Please let us know when you have some samples available for screening.