Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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[Jon Fidler] “What does that mean, any ideas on how to improve it?”
Residents, “One Minute Movies”. Google is your friend.
The video at 3:41 till the end, and the red riding hood stuff both have that weird Residents feel.
Overall, an odd mix of material. There may be some clients that are put off by some of the material included in the video, and think you might not be the guy for the job. Example, if you’re editing my daughters wedding, I don’t know that I want someone that is into ‘weird’.
The audio mix is poor. I had to strain to hear the SOT’s because the music was too hot. You had a good chance to show us some skill there, and blew it.
I didn’t really see a lot of editing in the reel. I saw a lot of plugins, but not much editing. Being able to produce seamless edits that don’t disrupt from the story being told is an essential skill. You seem to have a focus on edits that draw attention to themselves and flashy onscreen FX. For some clients that may be fine, but if I hire an editor I need someone first and foremost that can seamlessly put pictures together. Also the ability to know what shots to exclude is important. I saw shots in the demo that either were onscreen to long, or maybe shouldn’t have been included.
I watched the demo with the sound off, and I really didn’t ‘hear’ what you were trying to say. A well edited video should be able to do that.
I would include some actual non-montage editing, and cut the music to pictures thing way back.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Kinda has a Residents “One Minute Movies” feel to it.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Charles Diaz] “1. Should I charge and how much should I charge to give up the “negative”?”
By your own admission “I filmed a commercial donut(sic) for my highest paying client, no contract was signed, but they paid full price for everything.” the client paid full price for everything, shoot and post.
So IMO, the client isn’t “Pulling the Ol’ Rope-a-dope!“, as you suggest. Perhaps you feel a sense of entitlement that the client isn’t feeling?
Next time get a contract, and quit thinking you’re so good you don’t need one, and that the clients would never leave.
Had they paid only for a finished product, i.e. ‘the doughnut’, you might have some claim on the footage. In the absence of a contract that says otherwise, I would have to go with it belongs to them.
So if they want the master shots you can charge a reasonable fee for the transfer and the materials, but that is all since they have already paid you for shooting them.[Charles Diaz] ”
2. Is it unprofessional to inquire on my status with them i.e. “are you wanting to work with someone else & why? How can I fix it, etc.”?”Not unprofessional, but it needs to be handled carefully. They still have the potential to come back later, and/or give good/bad references to other clients.
There are a number of reasons they may want the master shots, but it sounds like you’re fired. In reading between the lines of your original post, the most likely reasons are your rate, attitude or quality. It wouldn’t hurt to ask even though it probably won’t help with them. But it will be good info to have for the next client.[Charles Diaz] “3. I’m young, talented and know this won’t be my last client, but they are my highest paying client. Should I even be worrying about this?”
Yes.
The fact you find yourself in this predicament should be cause for much concern. There are a lot of things in your post that make me think you might have a poor attitude.
“Client Pulling the Ol’ Rope-a-dope!”
“I do charge pretty high, but I’m worth it.”
“I’m young, talented and know this won’t be my last client, but they are my highest paying client.”
It might be a good time to check the ego at the door and start thinking of this as a business. Get contracts, know the market, know what rates the market will bear. In the time it took me to post this, a hundred new ‘one man band’ shooter/editors just got in the game. And everyone of them thinks they are the next Ridley Scott. Wrap your head around the fact you’re not the only game in town, and act accordingly. It might save you from loosing your best, highest paying client next time around.
Just remember that graveyards are full of people that swore they were too good to be replaced.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Jonathan Gould] “Again, let’s say 15%. I’m repeating myself when I say, without the client nobody gets paid. Not you or the vendors or the sales rep. My feeling is that the person bringing you the client, should be top on the list. Yes I know the others make the finished product possible but my feeling is the one who gets the client wins out.”
You may feel that that the person bringing the client in should get a big cut off the top, but that doesn’t make it so. You want to charge what amounts to a premium price for your services, but don’t want to assume any of the risk, nor do you offer anything I can’t do for myself. You are simply not in a position to demand a large percentage of the gross. And certainly not a higher percentage than what is customary. You need to look at what agents make, and what they do for the money.
[Jonathan Gould] “The pricing (and thus the profitability) is determined by you.”
That is false. The pricing is determined by the market. And the market can’t bear the cost of your service at the percentage you want. You can try to justify it a hundred different ways, but the bottom line is the money to pay what you want simply isn’t there.
Even if it was, you are still way overcharging, and under delivering for reasons that I stated in previous posts. Even if you brought me super easy, low risk, high dollar gig, lets say a low-mid level feature post. Where I didn’t have to hire any crew, or go shoot anything. All I had to do was go to my studio and cut footage, I still wouldn’t give you 15% of the gross. I think you would have a hard time finding anyone that would.As several of us have said before. It’s been tried, and it doesn’t work. And trust me it has been tried in a much better economy, and at a time where there were much fewer choices and the business was closed to outside competition. It didn’t work then, and it certainly won’t work now. This economy simply can’t hand out free money to people that are not significantly contributing to the bottom line in either services rendered, or risk.
I’ll say it again, if you think it is so easy, and you can just charge 15-20% more than everyone else in the market, try this. What you need to do is bid these projects yourself as the producer. Then you can bid whatever you want. Higher whomever you want, offering whatever you want to pay, do all the work to get paid and make the client happy, and you get to keep all the money left over at the end.
I think you will find it a learning experience.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Jonathan Gould] “OK, I hear what you’re saying. But if the margins are that tight, how do you do any marketing or employ any business growth strategies at all?”
Well there are the typical ways freelancers market themselves, web, cold calls. There is also the relationship concept. Often most (freelancers) are trying to establish a relationship with clients that are not going to be one time only deal. This tends to work best for everyone. And then there is word of mouth, and reputation.
[Jonathan Gould] “If I was sending you one client per month or more, could you figure out how to make it work?”
Right off the bat, one client a month is not enough, if they are averaging your hypothetical 6k. That is only 72k a year, which is just enough to support the average one man bad, and his associated overhead. It is not enough to support an additional worker.
What figure could work?
At best, 10% of the net, once the client pays in full. That is the very most a referral from someone with no skin in the game is worth. And I’m talking after paying all the expenses, not just the obvious costs. This would including paying myself to do not only the actual project, but the billing, bank, maintenance, head time/hours on machines, facilities use, insurance, etc costs associated with said job. Which would only be fair since there would be know way of making the 6k, without my doing all the production, and the ancillary work.
It would be impossible to come up with a solid figure with so little info on your hypothetical 6k job, but lets say all went really well, and after it was all said and done the net profit (20%) was 1,200 dollars. Your cut would be $120.[Jonathan Gould] “And, if you knew it was a referral from me, couldn’t you charge $7200 instead of $6000?”
No.
Most projects have an associated budget. If it takes all the budget to produce the project, where does that extra money come from???
Maybe you should try telling the client your charging a 20% finder fee, for getting them a shooter/editor, whatever. There are crew booking companies that charge the client for finding crew. But they don’t get 20%. And they do provide a time consuming service that some clients either would rather not do, or don’t have the contacts or resources in the market to do themselves.
Look, a 6k project, is a 6k project. You can’t just mark it up 20% without delivering 20% more value to the client. This is the equivalent of buying items at retail, then marking them up 20%, and trying to sell them in a market that has access to the items at the same retail price you were paying before the mark-up. The only way this could possibly work is if the client/buyer live in a vacuum, and is unaware of the millions of others doing the same thing for 20% less.[Jonathan Gould] “As far as the client goes after the first job…If I promote another video and send in a referral sheet, I get 20%. If you promote to him and book another job, no 20%.”
Typically, that is correct. Except for that 20% figure you are liking. You get a booking, agent fee, or whatever you call it for every gig you bring, not every client. If a client is a repeat on his own, no soup for you.
Most sales types in local broadcasting get 10% selling spots. Some might even get a little more. No one is getting 20% to sell local air. And plenty of stations that do local production, have tried to sell it on a commission basis, and few, if any, have found success with that model. Most end up going back to production being a loss leader, to get the air buy. The extra “money for nothing”, just isn’t there.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Jonathan Gould] “I’m curious…If I refer you to a local business owner (basically a warm lead that i cultivated) and that lands you lets say a $6000 job, you wouldn’t be OK with paying me $1200?”
No.
Hell no!
You must be crazy.
Or maybe you think most of us work with some huge margins, that we can just piss away 20% of the gross.
To get 20% you’re going to have to work a lot harder than that. Especially since I’m doing the bulk of the hard work, and the part that requires the most specialized knowledge, and the part that requires the most skill, and taking all the financial risks, and…Well, I think you get my point.
Not to mention that most of us get free referrals all the time from friends, clients, etc.Lets say “your” client that you refer me to, stiffs me for the 6k after I do all the work on the project. How much of that 6k are you going to be responsible for?
How much of my income are you going to be responsible for replacing if you strike out at getting gigs for me, and I’m idle?
Because at 20%, I expect performance, and some kind of a guarantee for the amount of work delivered, and that the client isn’t some dead-beat, or grinder.
I think you should risk your money and bid the job as the producer, then sub out what you need done, keeping what is left over. Do it this way a few times, and you will see why squeezing 20% out of the average freelancer is going to be a tough row to hoe.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[mat cav] “Hi, I am sure this is simple but I am having issues. I have a JVC KM-1200u, signal coming from a BetaSP deck, Color bars look fine when bypassing the JVC, but once it goes though the JVC the color turns rather green. I know there is something I am missing but not sure. Thanks”
It’s either out of phase, or missing the sync signal.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Donell Hall] “Basically I have a chip on my shoulder because tv and movies dont actually “help” anyone.”
Sure they do.
They can entertain, inform and employ. They contribute to the distribution of culture, and can be used to teach. Think how much less rich the average persons life would be without films and TV. Most people will interact with film or TV more in one day than they will public/safety service in a lifetime.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Richard Falls] “I was working on a project, and I wanted to work on another project before the first one was done. So, I selected “New Project”, and when I did this I lost my first project. Is it gone forever, or is there a way that I can recover it.”
OMG, is this a real post, or some weak attempt at trolling?
Double face palm if it’s real.[Richard Falls] “I have FCPX .. I totally hear you on the automatic save, but I never saved or said not to save. Also, I can’t find where I can open recent files. I feel like an idiot! ha”
FCP X? OK, now I see whats going on…eye roll…
Wrong forum, try the FCP X forum. Or the computers 101 forum. Not knowing how/when/where/if you saved your work isn’t really a FCP, or editing question.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[john sharaf] “Finally, the company moving to DSLR’s supports the position that anyone can shoot video and further weakens what is left of our contractual job security; this alone is enough to draw the battle lines.”
+1 for that!
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?