[Ron Lindeboom]

[Mark Suszko] “I don’t get to charge more for compositing, for color correction, for Foley, for motion graphics, for composing music and voicing spots. It all fits under one umbrella where I work, and whether I call myself an Editor, Producer, Director, Animator, Sound Designer, Colorist, etc. is based more on which app is open on my screen at the moment. I kind of like it that way since I like variety, but I only get paid for ONE job, no matter how many I actually do.”

I have watched this trend develop over the years and can remember back in the early days of our first site, back when we were in the formative years of the Media 100 Worldwide Users Group, that I regularly used the terms generalists and specialists to describe the phenomenon. As video became more and more ubiquitous as a means of communication, it broke down the walls between the disparate creative crafts and disciplines until today, in many job areas, you are expected to know everything from acquisition to delivery.

Many years back, I remember talking with Nick Griffin about all this, and we used the term “communications” to describe what we do. It is more than video, it is more than images, it is more than print, many of us do whatever is done to get the project out for the client. We help them communicate their message to their audience — and it doesn’t matter if it’s a TV channel creating its new image package or creating a video for a band or building a magazine for this audience. In the end, we are communicating and are doing so as a generalist that uses all the brushes in the jar and the paints on the palette.

I admire the people that get to specialize in these days and times, but I am not one of them, and like you, Mark, I like the fact that I get to use so many areas of experience in my work.

In the end, working like this: what am I worth? Whatever I can get. (But don’t hit me with a low-ball, because I won’t play.)

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

Archie,

For years there have been people creating their own arrays and talking about them all over the COW. I even wrote an article about doing some of the steps, myself. It is still online in our library, though it is pretty long in the tooth by now.

We have never tried to stop anyone from doing their own set-ups and if we are against it (and do things that push our advertising interests), then why did we launch a Blender 3D forum when it’s an Open Source initiative program and will never advertise with us? We’ve had plenty of 3D software publishers that have bought ads from us both here online and in our magazine, over the years. Using your conspiracy theory, that would seem pretty stupid on our part, wouldn’t it?

Archie: It isn’t a conspiracy. (But you can find plenty of them on the net, just visit Google, if you need some to keep you company.)

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[David Roth Weiss] “That’s an impossibility. I think we’re all in agreement that the stuff they serve up isn’t news.”

I would grant that dubious honor as a shared one held equally by all major news organizations today. I gave up on MSNBC long ago as they were every bit as slanted as FOX. CNN spends so much time on Hollywood’s goings-on that I also gave up on them.

Networks? They are every bit as ineffective.

I tend to grab my news on the Net today, and try to sort through the biases and slants to try to find the real story in it all. That takes digging.

Today, if you want real news, you have to treat the Net as a wire service — and you are the news director pulling the stories, along with the trusted anchors, etc., who are also you.

Welcome to the brave new world.

Gone are the days when you got news from any of the news organizations.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[David Roth Weiss] “TMZ is the only honest source of tabloid journalism left.”

According to the movie MEN IN BLACK, that honor belongs to The Enquirer.

“If you want the real truth that you won’t find on the nightly news, then you must turn to The Enquirer.”

— Tommy Lee Jones

Best,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Thanks for the grin this morning, Todd, recalling Peter Jennings and his well remembered tilt of concern.

Today, it’s hard to be a “concerned” journalist — with the patented Peter Jennings Tilt™ or not — when you are spending most of your time talking about stories at which journalists of a few decades back would be laughing their asses off, if told to read them on-air. Britney and Paris?

Oh please make it stop!$#@!

I think I catch network news once every few weeks or so. I think I have watched it twice since last December.

I am sure I am not the only one and so it’s likely budgets are reflecting the eroding market confidence and respect that people feel towards the “news” organizations.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

We had an article about Bill Ferster slated to go into issue 2 of the Creative COW Magazine. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any photo images of Bill in time and so we scrapped the article, as it seemed odd to have an article about the guy who invented this technology and to run it without pictures of him.

Bill also invented the programs StageTools MovingPicture and StageTools MovingParts, which helped make him a living for a number of years.

Like you, Bob, I find it sad that people like Bill seem to disappear without hardly a trace in this industry.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

I couldn’t agree more, Bob. I once did a print project for the United Way in which they were putting on a gala fund raising dinner and they were blowing through money like there was no tomorrow. They did things in print — multiple die-cuts, foil-embedded embossing — to degrees that I have never seen before or since. It scarred me against giving blindly to charities. I check them out now and find out what they do or do not give.

Later, I watched the Red Cross raise over a billion dollars during the 911 catastrophe, under the guise of helping the families, only to later announce that they were not chartered to assist the families *after* the event, and were only chartered to do emergency relief. They kept the money for “other needs.”

The Salvation Army was doing the work, while the Red Cross was busy fund raising and doing the photo ops.

I do not give a dime to the United Way or the Red Cross.

I do support the Salvation Army. They pass along 75% of the monies they raise to the causes they support. If you remember Hurricane Katrina, the news was showing the Salvation Army trucks on the scene almost immediately after the catastrophe, a couple of days before you saw the first Red Cross trucks. In my experience of nearly 60 years, it is always that way.

But hey, you can always count on the Red Cross to be there for the photo ops, and to crank up their PR machine to get on TV and all the news channels to beg for your money. ;o)

When we set the ground rules for the Creative COW Foundation, which is being set up as a federally registered 501c3 non-profit with a charter to raise money for scholarships and educational grants for students in the fields of film, broadcast and related fields, we set it up wherein ALL costs associated with the operation are borne by Creative COW LLC. The Foundation is separate and all its operational costs are the COW’s. The monies raised by the various programs supported by the Foundation, are 100% passed on — there will be no deductions from the funds whatsoever. Part of our commitment and donation to the Foundation’s operation will be to bear its expenses.

Why?

Because I think charities are largely a racket today. I think it’s time that people took back the causes they believe in and made some hard demands on the ones who are supposedly operating as charities.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

It is updated a couple of times each day.

It isn’t automatic as the page is hit incessantly by spambots and so we have to moderate the page so that we don’t get buried in the kinds of garbage that you see on many blog pages around the net.

Thanks, David. Your new blog entry is an interesting read.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Bob Zelin] “at the risk of getting thrown off creative cow (indy contractor)”

Bob,

We have not thrown you off the COW for shooting cows, slapping them around, cow-tipping (that one came close), milking them without a bucket or with the intent to offer graham crackers to anyone, pulling their tails, and about 101 other various and sundry infractions of all known bovine codes, edicts, pronouncements, and even a rule or two here and there, hither and yon. (or is it “yawn”?) And just what does hither and yon mean anyway? Never mind.

So you are safe, Bob.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Rob Grauert] “If you get a big grant for a long term project, and this project requires you to quit your job so you can focus on this project, do you work your living expenses into the grant/budget? Or is that stealing/lying/cheating?”

It depends upon the grant, but I for the life of me cannot figure out how it would be underhanded to try to work fulltime on a project you are dedicated to — as is the grantor or they wouldn’t be putting up the money — and not need living expenses.

If you can ever master the art of spearheading a production project without need of food, shelter or any of the usual sundry necessities, there are plenty of people that will want to hire you. You will never be without work from that moment on.

Heck, Aaron might even finally get entrepreneurial and start that business he’s been pondering, and hire you for some of his jobs.

(With apologies to Mark Szusko for stealing his comedy routine.)

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt