[Nick Griffin]

Not to be overly obvious, but I think this sounds like a task for PowerPoint. (Although I greatly prefer Apple’s Keynote.)
However you may have to forget the idea of slow zoom-ins although you could simulate it by dissolves between slides that progressively get larger. Again Keynote would look MUCH better doing this than the rather clunky way that PowerPoint does dissolves.

[Nick Griffin]

Andrew is completely correct. TM means one has APPLIED for a trademark. CircleR means it has been granted. Therefore any number of companies could throw a TM next to their logo and logo mark and legally it has little to no meaning.

[Nick Griffin]

Thanx, Eric!

[Nick Griffin]

Thanx, John ! That looks exactly like what I’m looking for. Never could figure out what the blue power boxes with the two nine volt batteries was putting out. I assume this in-line device is passive and just stepping down the 48v?

Again, Thanx!

[Nick Griffin]

For “talent” the people who handle your payroll and pay taxes, etc. are call Paymasters. Last I recall, they charge about 30% over the amount being paid out. On bigger jobs it’s worth the money.

Thanx to Mark because I was unaware that there are production accounting services who do the same thing for crew.

[Nick Griffin]

A guy goes to a pschiatrist with a fairly unique problem.
“Doc,” he says. “Every time I’m driving I start singing Green Green Grass of Home, which really makes no sense because we live in a canyon.”
“Hmmm,” says the doctor. “Tell me more.”
“Every day when I come home after work I belt out What’s New Pussycat. Problem is, we have a dog. And the other night in an intimate moment with my wife I started singing My, My, My Deliah.”
“And…” says the doctor.
“Her name is Susan, so she got really mad. Can you help me doc?”
“Well,” the doctor replies. “It seems that you have Tom Jones disease.”
“Tom Jones disease? Is that serious?” he asks.
The doctor replies, “It’s Not Unusual.”

(Do I hear groans in the audience?)

[Nick Griffin]

I don’t know much about pricing construction, but if you plan on recording sound here’s a few things you need to know.

Parallel walls produce a short echo or slap-back type of resonance. If you’re building this from scratch try to specify walls that are NOT at 90 degrees from each other. That can be done in an existing space just by putting in an extra wall that’s off-angle where one end of the room is made shorter in width than the other. This could also be very useful for your ceiling. Now the hard part: carpenters HATE doing this because it’s much simpler for them to build square or rectangular 90 degree wall to wall rooms.

One big issue on sound-proofing, particularly if this is being built in a garage where vehicles will be generating a lot of low frequency noise, is keeping that out. Ideally you should “float” a floor above the (presumably) concrete floor. The biggest factor in sound-proofing against low frequency is weight. It’s not uncommon in studios to double or even triple the drywall thicknesses. Some add sand in between for even more weight. My friend and primary host of the COW’s Audio Professionals, Ty Ford has sheets of lead covering the windows in his studio, because as I said weight is everything.

The type of typical sound-proofing foam panels can help, but only at mid to high frequencies. Un-even structures along the walls like panels of different depth can provide a degree of sound proofing and stopping a slap echo. Both can be very helpful as can a structure known as a bass trap, which can diminish low frequencies created within the room.

Helpful input? Probably not because it sounds expensive to pull off.

[Nick Griffin]

I will let others address your primary questions. But as to:

[Chris Henry] “We are going to itemize everything so the client can see what all they are paying for instead of one big flat fee. Good idea?”

NO. Bad idea. What I’ve had the best success with is showing pricing per process segment while listing the parts that make up the price, but NOT an individual cost for each item.

For example our broad categories are:
I. Pre-production, planning & writing
II. Field or studio shooting & related expenses
III. Audio (broken out as a separate item depending on whether or not VO talent is used)
IV. Post-Production (editing & motion graphics)
V .(in ‘olden’ times when this was still a consideration) Duplication and Distribution
VI. Travel expenses (incl. meals)

When you start listing things individually you are implying that it’s OK for them to say that they will take care of some of the items. “Hey… instead of $15 per person for lunch we just bring in McDonalds?” or “My nephew is into this also so we can use his lighting equipment and save that expense.” or “Instead of this mileage charge how about we all just go in my car?” You get the idea. At least that’s my two cents on the topic.

[Nick Griffin]

Ugggh! I do everything I can to keep clients away from raw footage. The one exception is watching a playback during the shoot. Then I’m happy to show them that a take worked, but NOT everything.

VERY FEW clients have any idea what raw footage actually looks like and represents. Showing it to them can get responses like “why was so much time wasted” and “we thought you were better than this.” It’s much, much safer IMHO to shield them from the raw stuff and concentrate on showing preliminary segment cuts and then use that input to help influence the final. Again, IMHO.

[Nick Griffin]

[Ned Miller] “you told him what his hours that day were”

I’m also NOT a lawyer. (Jeez, how many times has THAT been said on this forum?) But my understanding has been that the real biggy in separating an IC from an employeeis whether or not you set the times and places where the work is to be done. If you say “before the 25th I need you to DP and provide a rough cut” then — I BELIEVE — it’s much easier to make the argument that this person is NOT an employee.

I also whole heartedly agree with the IC having insurance. Insurance always seems expensive until you need it. Then it seems to be a bargain.