[Scott Sheriff]

[Walter Soyka] “Where is there anger?”

I would point out something Ron wrote to Andy, “So please go away and make room for those who can listen and learn. You are beyond help.” Not trying to single out Ron. There were other snarky remarks. But I would debate the necessity of this type of comment at all.
To paraphrase something I said to Andy, I can’t believe the lengths that many will go through to help undeserving noobs that are too lazy to RTFM, and for guys like him, the best we can offer is platitudes and condescension. Aren’t we supposed to be the professionals?
I wonder when was the last time anyone of the ‘big guns’ with all the work turned someone on to a client, some overflow work, or a gig they didn’t have time for?

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]

[Andy jackson] “Thankyou scott for your kind words.

It seems I am getting alot of flack from various members for my opinions. Some seem to be getting very personal.”

No worries.
At times I’m perplexed by what goes on here.
Some Cow regulars will knock each other over in the rush to be first to help some undeserving noob that could easily self-help, by simply reading the manual. And then turn around and treat real colleagues that deserve help rather poorly. None of which is doing any of us any good, but I think it makes some them feel better. It’s rather sad.

As far as your situation, I will admit I don’t have an answer. Your idea about doing the low-ball jobs as extra income seems like the best short term idea until something better comes along.
What I have done is to make sure that 100% of my gear is paid for. And I was lucky enough to get a house that had an apartment in it, which I remodeled into a studio, so I don’t have any of the overhead associated paying rent in a commercial space or any payments on equipment. At the same time I’m not seeing clients in a spare bedroom piled with laundry and cutting on a laptop in the corner. I have an outside entrance and everything a commercial space would have except the cost. So I can do the same work others do in a commercial space, but don’t need to charge the LA rates to cover my overhead.
Part of my good luck is that this type of home business is not prohibited, regulated or even taxed where I live.

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]

[Shane Ross] “Are you just used to 1080i video…or SD video…that runs at 30fps? Pans and tilts at 24fps won’t be as smooth as 60i.”

Especially with a CMOS sensor camera.

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]

Walter,
I’m quite surprised that you would slice and dice my rant in and take it completely out of context. For example, I never said marketing was a waste. I pointed out that there is a diminishing return when based against the going rate for the service that you are marketing. And with current market conditions, it is easy to get there quick.
And of course there is my overall point, the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Good luck and fortune. It would be refreshing if those out there offering marketing (or other platitudes) as a panacea for whats wrong in this business would acknowledge that good fortune is probably a large part of their success in a dying market since there are so many variables which the fortunate have no control over. Did your marketing help? Sure. Power of positive thinking? Sure. Skills? Yes. Schmoozing? Sure. Change careers? Maybe. But so far none of the experts have offered up the magic bullet, because plenty of folks have done all that, and it still didn’t work for them. At the same time, some have done none of that, and had huge success. And my take on that is simply that there is no magic bullet, and that for the most part, it’s luck.
The last point I want to make is I’m quite surprised at the anger directed at guys like Andy when they post about their problems. IMO this is based on fear. The fear that they could be next. I suppose this goes along with denying the business as we know it is in a major state of decline. Whistling past the graveyard, a classic human response to fear.
It seems pointless to go on any further and discuss 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]

[Andy jackson] “This is very interesting!

https://philipbloom.net/2011/08/07/rates/“
It was interesting.
One of my favorites is the guy with the RED, that will go out with a crew of four for 600 (Euros, £, not sure of the exact currency) a day! It won’t be long before someone just like him comes along and will do it for 500. While anecdotal, most of the stories seem to land more on the sky is falling side of the debate.

I know everyone has been beating you up about working harder, marketing and such. All of that is a pipe dream. Most don’t credit the real cause of their success. Luck.
Those that think they are not subject to market forces are simply living on borrowed time, and sheer luck. The clock is ticking because the vacuum that allows some to escape the current market conditions is fragile. Eventually companies go broke, get bought, or the CEO, controller, COO or other key people that control the money are replaced. Your contact at your best client moves on or retires, a new guy comes on the staff that questions your rate, or has ten friends of his in the production biz. Or both. Client ad rates fall off, or their hits start to dwindle, budgets get cut, the job goes ‘in house’, priorities change, etc. That’s the luck part of the equation. If you haven’t had an upheaval like this at even one (or more) of your best clients, that is simply luck. You may think it’s your ‘mad skillz’, but it’s not. Because many of these factors are beyond your control, so your skills have little, if any bearing on the outcome. So, when things like this happen, you are just one search away from losing the gig to someone with a lower rate, if you refuse to lower yours, assuming there is even a job left to bid on. Sure there is the argument that instead of lowering the rate, just provide more. But at some point that will hit a financial wall and no longer work. And how does that keep a client where the new guy wants to give the work to his friend’s? How do you keep a client that goes broke because he has been over-paying his vendors, or his revenue has fallen off? A most often repeated answer here has been to just get new clients, or to be constantly trolling for new clients. There are three basic problems with that. One is the above paradigm of change is at work at the prospective clients, just like it is at the existing clients. Secondly you don’t bill for hours spent marketing, only hours spent shooting, or editing. There is only so much low hanging fruit. At some point the hours spent marketing, the going rate for editing (which you have no real control over) and the available hours of paid work generated by the marketing will reach a tipping point and you won’t be able to earn enough to cover the marketing. Third, in addition to all the noobs competing for those same new clients (and probably your existing clients too), there are just too many long time pros out there that have the gear paid for, have less overhead, that can and will do the same job you do, or even more, for less money. Maybe it’s because they have diversified, as many here have preached, and can afford to do it for cut rate because now its just extra income. Doesn’t matter. There are only so many clients that have money burning a hole in their pockets and don’t care about rates. And fewer of those everyday. The rest of the good clients just haven’t figured out they can get the same thing, for a little, or even a lot less. But many will eventually get there. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when, because no one is immune from change. And those at the top, or are currently doing the best not only have the most to lose, but are probably the most vulnerable to upheaval and change when it occurs. Just look at the big post houses that are no more. They had the contacts, the best gear, the best people and all the marketing resources money could buy. And yet they were knocked off by a bunch of no-names with less resources who would do it for less.

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]

Shake or AE. Not really FCP territory.

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 think this would be better posted in the Business and Marketing forum. There you will find many stories like this, or worse.

[Josh Webster] ” I usually get anywhere from $100 to $1000 for projects he shoots and/or directs, usually I get a 25-35% cut of what he gets paid for an overall project.”

Bad idea. You need to charge what you need receive for your work to make a living at. This guy could be way undercharging and dragging you along for the ride. Set your rates at what you need to stay in business and pay your bills. And if that is too much for him to pay, he can either charge and pay more, or find some other schmuck to work for peanuts. Right now there is no incentive for him to do either.

[Josh Webster] ” I have also done a lot of work for free for him.”
Another horribly bad idea. As I said, go read some threads in the B&M forum. When you do this (along with working for substantially less than market rate) it devalues your work, and is part of why everybody’s rates are falling.

[Josh Webster] ” He recently brought me 500 gbs of DSLR, HDV and GoPro footage to edit. It is two different nights of ballet footage, 56 dance numbers in all, approximately 4 hours of footage. The total pay he is giving me is going to be between $800 and $1000. I have to figure out the actual order of the songs since all he gave me is approximate playlists that are not in exact order. After I sync up all the clips (anywhere between 4 and 15 angles per song, usually closer to 15) I have to color correct, check all the clips, upload a preview for them to see and then design a DVD menu with after effects animation that I have to burn for delivery. This has taken me easily over 100 hours and I have been working with him for almost 2 years now and have been editing for closer to 10 years.Am I getting paid way too little for my efforts? What would a recommended pay be for this next time?”
So I understand not all of this is editing, but lets just average the logging, editing, compression, authoring, etc into one rate for the sake of argument. I would say what you described should really bill out at between 4 and 7 thousand.
Another thing to think about. If you are an average staff editor, you should make between 20 and 30 dollars an hour depending on clients, type of work, market. As a freelancer you don’t typically spend every hour doing billable work. There is all the other business related things that have to be done, and paid for that the staff editor doesn’t concern himself with. So that means as a freelancer you need to charge more an hour, not less than the staff editor. And in your case you’re basically working for fast food wages if you do the math on the hours vs the pay.
On big jobs it is common to bid a fixed amount, and not charge by the hour. But you still need to have an understanding of how many hours the job should take, and how much per everyone of those hours you need to charge for to cover not only your time, but wear and tear, and all the non billable jobs (marketing, accounting, maintenance and so on) that go along with operating a business.

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]

[Craig Seeman] “Ahh, I get it. Produce self help videos and make millions.

“I’m OK, You’re Shooting 1080p30”

“How to Win Friends and Influence Clients”

“How to Stop Worrying and Start Slating”

“Who Moved my Record Button”

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Line Producers”

“Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus, Art Directors are from a small planet orbiting a Red Dwarf in Andromeda””

LMFAO!

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]

This can probably be fixed. Hard to say with 100% certainty from a single still. You might be able to do a bunch of fancy compositing in FCP and come up with a livable fix. But this is really Shake, AE or photoshop territory. The problem is it may not be cost effective to fix this. A lot would depend on how long it is and what there is to work with in the footage.

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]

[Walter Soyka] “The camera operator has the same protection here that a tradesman does — you have to physically be at the shoot”

Robotics. How many studio camera ops have been replaced by the TD pushing the ‘weather pre-set 2’ button?
There is robotics on remotes too. Maybe not as much, but it’s there and more is coming.

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