Randy Wheeler
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
-
To add that and to maximize your profit, make sure to use the slowest computer possible when using this method…
Uh,
Just KiddingRandy
-
Ty,
I have two FP410’s and was wondering if you would use both of them in this situation if you had the choice. I was thinking that you could put two mics on each mixer and then run the mono output from each mixer into CH1 and CH2 of the camcorders. You would end up with two mics on each channel instead of all four mics on one channel which may be useful in post if there was any noise issues with the mics during the recording. You wouldn’t be serial linking the mixers, they would operate separate. I velcro mine together, one on top of the other, when I use two in the field.
Also, what do you mean by “manual” when using the FP410? I still adjust the mic gain controls when using the FP410 but just wanted to know what you meant by it.
Randy
-
Yes, because your mixer’s preamp is usually of much higher quality than the one built in to your camcorder. Going line-level into your camcorder will force you to use your mixer preamp and not your camcorder preamp. At least that’s the way I look at it.
Randy
-
I thought this was standard procedure for voice-over talent. Here’s an example showing a significant difference in rates between what is charged for local, regional and national markets:
https://www.brianharrell.com/voiceoverrates.htm
Randy
-
Article from the Kansas City Star newspaper which is where Flagler Productions is located. It has pictures of the two current owners of Flagler Productions and a local perspective on the company.
https://www.kansascity.com/105/story/569277.html
Here’s a link to Flagler Productions YouTube page:
https://youtube.com/user/FlaglerSafety
which has 15 videos.
An article from the site Wal*Mart Watch:
Flagler Productions Co-owner Mary Lyn Villanueva’s Linkedin profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/flaglerproductions
Randy
-
A Bloomberg article:
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601127&sid=aq0H_PQQF9aw&refer=law
Wal-Mart Refused to Pay $145 Million for Videos (Update2)
By Chris Burritt
April 11 (Bloomberg) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, wouldn’t pay $145 million for almost three decades of videos of company meetings and events, said one of the producers of the films.
The decision to leave the movies in the hands of Flagler Productions Inc. may allow lawyers suing Wal-Mart for sex discrimination and other claims to more easily obtain evidence that supports their grievances.
Flagler offered to sell 15,000 tapes to Wal-Mart for $150 million last year. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer responded with an offer of $500,000, prompting a counteroffer of $145 million from the video maker that was refused. Flagler is now selling access to the footage.
“In my opinion, Wal-Mart believed their culture and history had no value to anyone but them,” the producer, Gregory Pierce, said in an interview yesterday. “To this day, I don’t know whether they appreciate the value of what is there.”
About a dozen parties, half of them lawyers for plaintiffs, have bought clips, Pierce said. Another buyer was a labor union.
“We are focusing on the legal people who need help,” said Pierce. He said co-owner Mary Lyn Villanueva has received calls from more than 100 lawyers in the past 24 hours.
Wal-Mart is considering legal options to stop the sale of the tapes. The company won’t elaborate further, spokeswoman Daphne Davis Moore said.
Flagler, based in Lenexa, Kansas, was “well paid for many years to document our company for our use,” Moore said. “Clearly the videos were not produced with that aftermarket in mind.”
Possible Use
Brad Seligman, the lead attorney for plaintiffs in a discrimination case against Wal-Mart, said he’s negotiating with Flagler over possible use of video clips.
“It’s a little premature to say what we’d actually use,” Seligman said in an interview. “The videos are potentially very helpful.”
Pierce and Villanueva bought Flagler in March 2006, months before the retailer told them it was looking for a less expensive producer of its shareholder and employee meetings. That subsequently ended a relationship that began in the 1970s with a handshake between founder Mike Flagler and a Wal-Mart executive, according to David Sexton, a lawyer for Flagler.
Wal-Mart and Flagler never signed any agreements, blunting possible legal claims by Wal-Mart to the tapes, Sexton said.
“It was a handshake, all verbal,” the Gladstone, Missouri-based lawyer said in an interview. “Nobody ever discussed video rights.”
Video Discovery
Pierce said he and Villanueva didn’t consider selling access to the tapes until last year, when lawyer Diane Breneman discovered the videos as she pursued claims on behalf of a boy burned by gasoline in a plastic container sold by Wal-Mart.
According to a Wall Street Journal report this week, Flagler found videos of Wal-Mart managers that parodied testimonials raising concerns about the safety of the gas cans.
Wal-Mart rose 14 cents to $54.80 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have advanced 15 percent this year.
At its peak in 2006, Flagler took in about $10 million in annual revenue from Wal-Mart, which used the vendor to help produce and tape its annual shareholders meeting and two major employee meetings, Pierce said.
“Wal-Mart was about 95 percent of our revenue and 120 percent of our time,” Pierce, 49, said. After losing the work and repaying a bank loan, he and Villanueva dismissed 16 employees and sold their 20,000-square-foot production facility.
Flagler’s owners produced a high-definition documentary and are now developing Web sites, renting equipment and providing video and editing services.
Asking Price
Pierce said he and Villanueva met with Wal-Mart representatives in early 2007 and discussed a possible sale of the film library. The discussions led to Wal-Mart asking Flagler to name a price, Pierce said.
Villanueva and Pierce settled on $150 million after talking to producers in Hollywood and New York who suggested asking twice that much, Pierce said.
Pierce said $150 million was a “reasonable price for 30 years of corporate history and culture. It had all been well maintained and preserved for all of those years.”
Preserving the tapes saved Wal-Mart “millions of dollars” that otherwise would have been spent reshooting videos, as well as “preserved their history,” Sexton said. “It’s priceless. How do you replace something you can’t replace?”
Wal-Mart posted on its Web site yesterday an Oct. 26, 2007, letter from Sexton on reviewing Flagler’s asking price and Wal-Mart’s offer of $500,000. The letter said Flagler intended to try to sell the video library.
“The potential buyers range from a political bent, to legal, to national media,” the letter said. Sexton confirmed the letter is authentic.
The retailer posted the letter “to clarify the amount requested,” Wal-Mart’s Moore said.”
Randy
-
Another Wall Street Journal article with a little more info and a video report with Mr. Flagler in it.
By the way, Mike Flagler sold the company in 2006 to two employees before Walmart dumped them which happened only 9 days after selling it:
“Candid Camera: Trove of Videos Vexes Wal-Mart”
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB120770260120100121.html?mod=WSJBlog
Couple snippets:
“The production company’s founder and former owner, Mike
Flagler, says he was hired on a handshake in the 1970s to help produce the events Wal-Mart holds each year for managers and shareholders, including entertainment portions of its annual meeting and important sales meetings. He filmed them as well.He says he rebuffed Wal-Mart’s suggestions that he reuse the tapes to save money. Instead, he held onto recordings of commercials, executive speeches and manager hijinks.
Corporate records typically are closely controlled through legal contracts that restrict access and use. Mr. Flagler says he never signed a contract with Wal-Mart for the production or video work. Flagler Productions says that that arrangement left ownership and control of the films with it.”
and
“The video library might have remained under wraps if a new Wal-Mart executive hadn’t decided to hire another company to stage a musical production for its 2006 stockholders’ meeting. The decision sharply curbed Flagler’s role. Wal-Mart dumped Flagler altogether as a producer in late 2006, nine days after Mr. Flagler sold the company for an undisclosed sum to two employees, Mary Lyn Villanueva and Gregory A. Pierce.
The current owners say Wal-Mart accounted for more than 90% of Flagler’s revenue. The company’s bank called in a loan, and the pair dismissed their 16-person work force, Ms. Villanueva says.
Flagler offered to sell the whole video archive to Wal-Mart for several million dollars, Ms. Villanueva says, although she won’t disclose the exact price. Wal-Mart countered with an offer of $500,000, arguing the footage wouldn’t be of interest elsewhere, the two owners say.
They sold their 20,000-square-foot production facility and moved into an 800-square-foot rented office. They now hope to sustain the company by selling access to the Wal-Mart videos. They charge $250 an hour for video research, and additional fees for a DVD copy of film clips.”
Randy
-
YouTube video and article:
https://asupremenewyorkthing.com/2008/04/09/flagler-productions-has-wal-mart-videos/
Made the Wall Street Journal:
https://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/04/09/did-wal-mart-forget-the-little-guys/?mod=WSJBlog
Lots of comments after the article…
“Did Wal-Mart Forget the Little Guys?
Posted by Wendy Bounds
Never forget the little guys who help along you the way. That old adage is likely ringing in the ears of Wal-Mart execs this morning following Gary McWilliams’ story about how a tiny video-production company is giving the world’s biggest retailer a massive headache.
It’s the story of Flagler Productions Inc., a small firm who for 30 years was employed as to capture footage of its top execs, sometimes in unguarded moments. Its relationship was sealed with a handshake, not a long-winded contract. Two years ago, Wal-Mart dumped Flagler and nearly caused the shop to fold because it accounted for such a large portion of its business.
Now Flagler is resurrecting itself – by opening its trove of some 15,000 Wal-Mart tapes to the outside world, with an eye toward selling clips. And the material is proving irresistible to everyone from plaintiffs lawyers (and there is no shortage of those where Wal-Mart is concerned), to documentary filmmakers and union organizers. Wal-Mart is upset and says it never intended for Flagler to “tape internal meetings with this aftermarket in mind.” The company says it’s reviewing its legal options.
This isn’t the first time Wal-Mart has heard loud squeaks from a small cog in its wheel. Last year, it became embroiled in a messy fight with a security engineer it fired. And this story tells the tale of how a 20-year apparel supplier to Wal-Mart was singed over 4,000 pairs of cargo pants, fought back, and won.
The biggest players in the world can’t function without smaller ones to keep them supplied, technologically-sound, and otherwise ticking. To stay afloat, Flagler offered to sell Wal-Mart the whole video archive for several million dollars. Wal-Mart, whose revenue is now over $375 billion, countered with an offer of $500,000.
And the little guy hasn’t forgotten.
Readers, do you think Flagler is unfairly exploiting Wal-Mart’s material? Or do you think that Wal-Mart made a mistake in how it handled its relationship with Flagler?”
Randy
-
It was shot using the new Blue 12K camera which will be announced at NAB this year in the big Blue fish bowl where AVID was supposed to have their booth.
The 12K DI was done using latest version of Flake which features a 12:12:12 supersample rate for ultra clean chromakeys.
In fact, the keys are so clean that they go into a parallel universe and come back organically rough which is predicted to be the latest “thing to do” in motion picture VFX studios across the country and will certainly be used in national TV spots.
Randy
-
Are you the owner of the news station?
Randy