[Nick Griffin]

[Chris Tomkins] “effective but a lot of work”

Chris, you’re spending too much time on something which can be easily accomplished with one GREAT solution: MediaBatch Pro. Not only is it a snap for you to upload and your clients to view videos, it includes the ability for clients to set marks and draw on top of videos, leave notes, indicate approval and more. I can’t, and I know several others who can’t imagine life without it.

[Nick Griffin]

[James Zesmick] “Am I just going to have to bite the bullet and convert the files, import into FCP, deal with the render times, and make one large qt file?”

Short answer, yes.

Longer answer, you are dealing with two incompatible goals: 1) Less work for you versus 2) Simplicity and ease of use for the playback operator. Unless somebody here can come up with a genius solution I think you have little choice than to put it all together in a single show. Just make sure you’re getting paid to do it.

[Nick Griffin]

Thanks, Stephen. Brilliant piece of work!! AND… I guess we now know where the concept for the Kindle spot likely came from.

[Nick Griffin]

Mark is right that just pointing lights at the subject will be disappointing. There are any number of aids on the market, some are translucent cones with a hole for the camera, others are more like half globes. By directing your lights onto the outside you create a large, specular, soft source on the subject on the inside. You may be able to create the same effect yourself by tenting the turntable with a “silk” or other translucent cloth.

Another highly effective way to light glass – which optically is what jewels are – is having them on a white plexiglass suface. The key (or strongest) light is from below and top or side light is used for balance.

There really is no substitute for a LOT of experimentation. Want to really impress your client and show them just how hard this stuff is to light? Spend a lot of time experimenting on your own, then step-by-step re-create the parts of the experiment that worked with your client watching the monitor.

[Nick Griffin]

[Tim Wilson] “Want Chuck D to record your hip hop beats? Done.”

Umm, yea I guess you’re right, but that’s the stuff I really have no call for whatsoever. Killer, Match, and NYB libraries have sent me so many disks over the years that there is NO POSSIBLE WAY I will EVER have a use for. Maybe that’s the good thing about them stopping the disks part of their service — they won’t take up so much storage space.

I discussed my specific need for corporate stuff with my Killer Tracks rep and he sent me a large portion of the Network music library and it fits our needs extremely well. We still occasionally use stuff from the others including NJJ and Atmosphere, but for our style and our clients’ taste Network is a great match.

(And for those who may not understand how this works, when dealing with companies like this you don’t OWN the disks and as Walter said, they send you a ton of disks for free in exchange for a deposit to be spent against licensing. Then as you continue to use them either on a laserdrop basis of annual contract, they send you new releases as they come out. Should you terminate the relationship they expect their disks BACK as they were never yours in the first place.)

There are so many true-isms in Tim’s post. You get what you pay for with many things in life, music is near the top of the list. I once had a client say that our video was so much better than his old one because the one from the other company “sounded like a cheap porno movie.” (I commented that we aspire to sound like the kind of movie where people keep their clothes on.)

We’ve also discussed here before that good production music raises the level of entire productions, just as Tim mentions. It sounds silly, but the right music can actually make a sloppy shot “look” better. Seriously.

[Nick Griffin]

[Jack Gray] “At the highest end, custom music houses and licensed pop music (ranging from unknown indies to major artists) will get most or all of the business.”

Jack-
Yes, this is true for high end national and many regional spots. Custom music or clearance for pop music is almost always part of the budget and is expected to be there because the agency creatives want something which EXACTLY hits their cues and EXACTLY carries the mood they’re looking for. This doesn’t mean that the right piece of stock music couldn’t accomplish the same thing, but there’s a budget for custom music and in the world of high end TV spots nobody is into “cutting corners.” (What they call saving money.)

BTW, if you’d like a prime example of stock music being used where one would ordinarily expect custom I refer you to HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show’s open/close theme as well as the internal music is from Killer Tracks and available for anyone to license.

[Jack Gray] “At the lowest end, cost will win, so even the most generic stock music will do.”

Yes, but. There are some producers who are looking for something better than generic crap and there are some low cost pieces which are decent. Not many, IMHO, but some.

[Jack Gray] “A company that caters to that niche market, has a viable catalog, cares about results as much as clients do, and does it all at competitive rates should have a shot in this marketplace.”

Yes. Provided that company can provide enough of an outreach (marketing program) to get to the people who will actually use it. The real market that exists these days (IMHO) is mid-priced, higher quality stock music. Less expensive than the major libraries, and of better quality than the majority of royalty-free / buy-out stuff that’s out there now. Do some with a corporate flavor and I could easily be a customer.

[Jack Gray] “My thinking is that folks would prefer a library that has a straightforward website / search and a selective catalog, doesn’t overwhelm you with CDs, DVDs, drives, etc.”

I’ll be honest here. We have seven of the Killer Tracks libraries here, several hundred CDs, and I am very unhappy about their decision to go entirely electronic starting January 1. Why? Because by loading disks into three different machines I can audition music and narrow my searches MUCH quicker than I can by going one—– disk——–at——- a——- time. I’ve tried their online search engine and HATE it.

[Jack Gray] “will give specific recommendations or referrals if called.”

Killer has (and I assume many other libraries have) an on-staff librarian who makes recommendations and can help producers find what they’re looking for. It’s not always perfect, but the service is available.

And why are you limiting yourself to spots? Maybe it’s because we’re in the corporate/industrial business, but there’s a lot more out there than spots and I avoid anything that only comes in 60, 30 and 10 second lengths. I also think that a single niche model is somewhat dangerous unless you can really NAIL it and, as mentioned early, are able to penetrate that niche so they know you’re there.

[Jack Gray] “customizations (at no charge)?”
Wake up, Jack. Under this plan success would quickly put you out of business. You really can’t customize music on an on-demand basis. Good production music is produced in such a way that editors can cut and overlap it to get what they want. They’re the ones who customize, not you.

Hope some of my rant is helpful.

[Nick Griffin]

Jacob-

This interpersonal business kind of stuff is more appropriate to the Business & Marketing COW, but I’ll take a shot at it since the thread is already underway here.

Hmmm, tight deadlines, no pay and a jerk of a director to boot. Yes, you’d like to have this as a completed project for your resume, but at what cost?

Sounds like you’ve got the deadline thing at least partially under control, but the truth of the matter is editors get faster with experience and you’re going to have to cram and jam and push yourself to make this all come together.

No pay? Well, that’s your choice and probably not much of an option if you’re just starting out. HOWEVER, there may come a walk-away point for you. Recognize that this is a possibility and determine where your threshold for pain is.

As to dealing with a jerk, especially one who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, you’re best option is not to be intimidated and especially not to respond in kind. If he’s a hothead, you need to stay cool. If he screams, you need to talk. ALWAYS be helpful and offer to show him options and alternatives as well as techniques. Just make sure that you’re professional and keeping calm.

One thing that’s worked for me in the past with let clients, producers, etc. who act like know-it-alls, is to let them fail. Give them the chair or give them the raw footage disks. Just do it in a friendly and supportive way: “Gee, Bob, I’d really like to see your ideas on this.” Then, once confronted with realizing that they really have no idea how to do it themselves, they’re left to come back to you to save their bacon. And THAT’s why you have to stay friendly and professional. If you are adversarial they will think their only alternative is to find another editor.

Of course for that demonstration to work, try to provide only the raw footage if possible. I especially wouldn’t give away any sequences on which you’d spent a lot of time getting into synch.

Best of luck. Sometimes we ALL need it.

[Nick Griffin]

I believe that an “agent” is the appropriate term for someone who would represent you in attracting and negotiating a job, or at the least a long-term project. You are probably thinking more along the lines of a “sales rep,” someone who brings in lots of smaller projects like TV spots. The good ones function as a producer and the not so good ones like a salesperson who just hands over the client and collects a commission.

Over the years there have been many discussions here on the merits (and mostly) faults of various sales rep relationships. I suggest you go back through the archived years and search “sales rep” and related terms. That is unless some of our regular participants would like to again share some of their horror stories. (C’mon guys, it’s almost Halloween — tell us some scary stories.)

[Nick Griffin]

Hey Justine –

Like the man said up above, the majority of us participating in this forum edit. composite, etc. for money. But there’s another spot here that I’ve noticed that you have not posted which would probably be a lot more responsive.

Click on “Change Forum”and go to “JOBS OFFERED – Low/No Pay.” You’re sure to find a lot of people there who are just starting out. This is also more likely to get you people in Comedy Central’s primary demographic.

[Nick Griffin]

As I’ve written on the Business COW before:

Years ago when a client said “We won’t be needing your help with brochures any more. We got desktop publishing software for our secretary so she can handle stuff like that.” My reply (stolen from I don’t remember where), “Great. Get her a stethoscope and see if she can handle your health plan, too.”