[Sam Lesante jr.]

Awesome guys!! Thanks a bunch. If and when my doc gets produced, I’ll throw you guys in the credits as some type of consultant or something similar if you’d like. 🙂

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Hey Walter,

Just checked out your websites. Powerful stuff. Good luck with them.
I, on the other hand, am choosing a lighter topic for my first run at it.

What type of camera did you use? And can you give or David give me any tips for my first time producing a doc?

Thanks

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Yes, still have the local station. We are actually a production house that produces a live news every weeknight for the local community. We also produce other programs that we air in other markets on the east coast.

I can see your point about doc’s but I still think they are needed, even if most are poorly produced. I have been watching a couple on Netflix and it got my creative juices flowing. So hopefully, after I get the greenlight from this company, I can produce my first one and do it well.

I heard that Netflix offers some type of funding for independent doc’s. Do you know anything about this?

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Thanks Dave for the advice. For shits and giggles 🙂 why do you say “docos” are worthless? Just curious?

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Awesome..thanks for the input..I’ll do some research.

Sam

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Hey Mark,

I agree. I declined the offer for the rate. I did ask him for another rate but he declined.

At this point in my life, I have worked too hard at my craft to have it cheapened like that.

Thanks again…

Sam

[Sam Lesante jr.]

I agree…this is a job for a kid right out of college. In fact when I first started doing this same gig in ’97 with a different prod. crew, the rate was still higher.

To answer Cory, the total pay for a 3 day gig would be $475. So to me, it does not make sense for me to spend 3 full days, a 3 hr drive time and a tank of gas for the price.

Like I said before, I am doing ok in my real job, this was just gravy to me. But I wanted some other opinions so I didn’t think I was the only one who thought this way.

Thanks again.

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Thanks for all of your input.

I know “times are tough” and maybe I should be grateful that I have the gig, but on the other hand I’m not pinching pennies. I have my own company to take care of and this was just “gravy” so to speak.

I will try to get more info as to my specific job.

Thanks again and I will remember the adages 🙂

[Sam Lesante jr.]

Thanks to all for the awesome insight. I will get the show on youtube in a couple of days.

Alot of great things to think about for the next episode.

I didn’t want to give alot of background on the production of this because i wanted to see what all of you thought of the product. With that being said, this is not your typical reality show production.

It started with our sales person trying to interest them in a commercial for the shop that would air on our “hyper local” station (meaning 35,000 households). The owner said he’s done commercials before and wanted something different. So he suggested a reality type show but showing people that they don’t just do custom bikes. They do oil changes, inspections, repairs…oh and tatoos. They definitely wanted the tatoo guy in the show too cause he does some spraying for them as well.

So, yes, the first show had to have all of these people in the show telling who they are and what they do.

We only have a 3 episode contract with the shop owner right now. We only have 2 small sponsors for the show, we wanted to get a show done to show other potential sponsors plus the ones that r mentioned on the show.

The second show is going to focus more on the bike build and the problems that arise and the 3rd episode will have the final bike production. After that, we’ll have to see if sponsors and/or the owner pays for more shows.

Oh, I forgot to mention that only 2 people were involved in the production of the show. Me and another guy. We both shot video at the same time, we took care of the audio with 4 lav mic’s connected to my cam, then we had an intern log some of the video. Then both of us edited the open and the show. I know there are alot more people involved in a show like this. There were no writers, directors, lighting people, grips, etc… It was just 2 guys shooting whatever happened. Which i think gives it a more “raw” look. But there’s good and bad to it obviously.

Hopefully if we get more sponsors = more money, we can get more people to help with the show.

Again, thanks for the comments. For those who couldn’t view it, i will post a youtube link soon.

TIA

Sam

[Sam Lesante jr.]

You might have a bad batch of tapes or maybe the tape was near some magnetic pulse that caused it’s errors.

As far as sending the tape out to a specialist, I doubt they will be able to fix it. Once that data is gone, you can’t get it back especially from a physical tape. Plus, i am sure they don’t guarantee 100% that they will recover it for you.

On the other hand, it’s a matter of how important the footage is to you.
does the cost of it justify what you’ll get back once the job is done?

Just my two cents.

Sam