Ron Gerber
Forum Replies Created
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I have been in the same boat. Years ago, we adding a rush charge for commercials with less than 48 hour turn around. While it made us feel good on the production side, it really created some problems with the sales department and with clients. Especially when it was some of our better clients who we liked and didn’t mind their usual last minute work. Eventually we did away with the rush charge. In looking at the bigger picture, the battles that are important to the production folks aren’t always the battles the folks in accounting care about.
About 2 years ago we devloped a “Service Level Agreement” which outlined the expectaions the sales departement and clients should have in terms of turnaround time. When we can, we try to accomidate quick turnaround but the expectations are managed at the begining. Of course the most important part of this was having upper management buy in and support it as a good thing. I won’t say it’s always perfect but it’s now a much more managable situation.
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I work for a large corporation and we started having our freelancers register with temp agencies a few years ago. Basically they are outsourcing payroll and shielding their liability. They should have let you know before the job not at the end. You could make a big stink and they would have to pay you directly but if it’s a good client, it might not be worth damaging the relationship.
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If you are spanning P2 cards make sure your back-up of the P2 cards includes the “last clip” file from each card (it’s not in the contents folder it’s seperate) otherwise it won’t know which clip to span to.
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Use the Transcode/Consolidate function. I believe it’s under the file menu. Select all the clips and sequences you want to move and let the Avid rewrite them all to the new drive.
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Try using the H.264 QuickTime codec when you export directly out of the Avid. It’s been a while but I think in 3.5 that was an option
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In the past I’ve paid $250 – $300. It doesn’t come up that much for me but that’s generally the amount I’ve been paying for years. It also depends on how much I’m inconveniencing the property owner or business and if I’m using their power.
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They want me to sign a 6-month commitment for $4200
Having worked in cable for a bunch of years I can tell you that the AE that wanted you to sign a 6 month commitment has a boss that is asking for revenue projections. So by asking you to sign on for 6 months they are just trying to make budget numbers look good. The 6 month contract also helps lock in your air time rates.
If you want to advertise, ask them what their cancelation policy is. From my general experience, they won’t hold you to the contract – they probably will just ask you for a week or 2 weeks notice to cancel.
Good luck on the new venture.
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The most recent film I can think of that uses that style of storytelling is “Vantage Point” – if you have any of the movie channels, it’s probably on right now.
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Hold on your price and work towards becoming a valuable asset to the client. Another point you might want to find out more about is who owns the $200 commercial meaning will that station allow you to run it where ever you want.
In my market, a lot of the stations offer things like the $200 commercial or free commercial but you can only air it with their station. If you want to air elsewhere or if you even want your footage they have an additional fee which generally ends up close to what you are already charging.
In the end, it’s mostly about customer service and meeting the needs of your client. They won’t mind paying you if things are working and they feel you are giving them good service and a good product.
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It’s all tied to budgets. Generally speaking the people writing the budgets and approving the budgets look a one thing, the bottom line for the company. Since most stations (cable & broadcast) are still primarily viewed in an SD environment I suspect they simply don’t want to spend the money on new equipment especially with ad revenue down (think automotive).
Once the number of HD viewers outnumber the SD viewers you’ll see things change in a hurry. Or in individual markets if enough big dollar advertisers demand it, it might change sooner.