[Scott Sheriff]

[Todd Terry] “A zillion years ago when I worked in broadcast TV producing promos, the GM of the station would ALWAY find at least one little thing he wanted to change in everything we did. So we would purposely build an obviously-needed change into every spot. Invariably he would pick that item to mention (“I think that logo would look better on screen left…”), and thus my “real” director’s cut was always the final.”

Yep, we used to do the same thing.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

Have I seen this before? This exact situation, no, but something similar.
There are ‘houses’ that think they are to busy to do it right the first time, or that having a standards convention is a waste of time. Me, I lean the other way and prefer things to be organized as a way to get more done. But there are as many ways as there are facilities, with no two alike. Even in large market group ownership situations there can be huge differences in the station work flow(or lack thereof) between facilities.
Not to put the blame on you, or defend this type of thing…but this shows that during an interview, you need to interview the employer as well as being interviewed. I hopes others can learn from this.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

[Roy Schneider] “Hi All:
I just got out of my 3rd meeting this month with a client that wants Production Work without paying. 2 wanted to Barter, and one wants to shoot a pilot on spec, but does not want to give anything on the backside either. His proposal was… shoot the pilot, and if it is picked up we will pay you for the service you have already provided.

Does anyone just pay for service anymore.”

Short answer, no.

You have hit the crux of the problem. There are more of these ‘future work’ guys, than there are real clients. And this is being driven by the millions that will do it for nothing, and this guy knows it. Even if this guy has to go through 6 more production companies until someone bites, he’s still money ahead.

If this was a reality show, I’d call it “A Grinder is Born”

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

[Andrew Kimery] ”
Doesn’t what you just said apply to every reel (and resume for that matter)?”

Some more than others. And as far as resume’s and CV’s, some of it applies there as well, but they are a lot less nebulous than an editing reel. And a lot easier to verify.

[Andrew Kimery] “If 100 people apply for a job I doubt you are going to interview them all, ‘audition’ them all, and call all of their references.”

I’m also not going to look at their reels either. Unless I’m hiring a demo reel editor.
I’ve been in the position of having over a hundred resumes for a single job before, and it goes like this: Look at them all and break them down to the A and B stack. Most everyone that ends up in the B stack (besides those that are obviously not qualified) has typos, grammatical errors or conflicting info on their resume. That’s something you can’t always find out by watching a reel, unless it’s promos or commercials with font. Then get the A stack down to a dozen or so, and rate them best to worst. Call the top 6 and schedule interviews, usually two per day. Often someone will punk out and not return a call or whatever leaving you with 4-5. Before the interviews do a little google work, and make a few calls. If I find something I don’t like, they get the short interview, unless they really do well in person. Rare, but it happens. Now you only have to audition a few people. I would have them cut something like a promo, while I sat in acting as the producer. Easy-schmeasy, maybe work with them a half hour or so each. The fakes and flakes will fall apart under the pressure to perform. BTW, I’ll take the less skilled editor, that is OK to work with over the prick with the great reel because the decent to work with person can always learn to be a better editor…
So now we have material that is guaranteed to have been edited by the prospective candidates, which will be similar to the other candidates work which makes our job much easier since we are comparing apples to apples.
Factoid:Back in the old days it was SOP to ‘help’ interns that we liked by gifting them with things to put on their meager reels, and even edit their reel too. Sometimes we helped others besides the interns. You can’t believe anything you see on the screen.

Another thing that is bunk about editors reels is the way they are put together. Most often they are assembled over the course of time, with cherry picked material. The real world rarely operates that way. Most of us are hiring average people, not Walter Murch. It’s really informative to see what people can do with average material.

The moral of this story is make sure you can perform, and that your resume is at least typo free.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

[Patrick Ortman] “I had an invoice held up over 3 months while some jackass accountant went through and did an internal vetting study to see if our price for certain line items were in line with “industry standards”.”

This is a good case for not releasing the final product until you get paid. I agree that to much minutia can be bad, but they could have just as easily held up payment for lack of detail.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

Reels for editors are over-rated. Editing is a process, but the reel only shows the end result.
For example, they don’t tell me how you are at problem solving, how you are with clients, how well you take direction and instruction. These are all important things since most editing isn’t a free form, do as you please type of thing. Your reel also doesn’t tell me how well you budget your time, how organized you are, or even how good you are at choosing the good take.
And there are a lot of fakes out there. And the reels that aren’t fake, either tend to look like every other reel, or they look more like a product demo for a line of plugins or a camera demo.
That said, the odds of me watching the whole thing decreases logarithmically with every minute it goes over 7.
I’m much more likely to invest that reel watching time in calling your references and clients, and throw you on the system and do a bit of auditioning. I’ll know more about your editing skills by doing that, than I’ll learn from watching your reel.
As far as content, it isn’t so much about what you put in your reel, as what you leave out.
That’s one school of thought. There are others.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

I’ve done this a couple of times over the years, and the camera was not an issue, but hot lights were. It’s best to do as much pre-pro on these as possible, because the rules vary greatly. Also, some places may want to clean the camera, insist you cover it, or both. Depending on the camera, you can sometimes improvise a cover from a pair of disposable surgical pants.
It’s really facility dependent, so do your homework to avoid surprises.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

[Gary Robinson] “The firewire from my JVC BR50 deck to my computer is a little inconsistent…”
In what way? Can you explain what is going on, and include your system and format specs?

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

If this deck has a DV/HDV toggle, make sure it’s in the correct position.
The deck has to be connected to the computer while it’s powered off. Turn on deck power first, then the computer.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

[Scott Sheriff]

Use a slate. This is a basic skill that everyone should know.

Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post Production

The Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair