Stephen Mann
Forum Replies Created
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“I have no intention of doing an end around in any way shape or form. I do not want to do business directly with the end customer. I truly just want to finish this project and leave it be and never look back. ”
Have you tried communicating this with the Grinder?
(It appears to me that Grinder has no business sense or experience. And that Google is his legal adviser).
Bottom line, your work for the Grinder is due on terms between you and Grinder. It’s not your problem that the Grinder can’t pay you until the client pays the Grinder.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Is the potential bad-rep worth $420?
Here’s how I would handle this:
Tell him that you will accept an immediate cash payment of (for example) $370 – a $50 premium to settle the matter quickly. Condition this with an on-screen testimonial (bring your camera) that you can use to promote your services to other clients. (Make sure he signs a talent release for himself and his minor child in the video).
Everyone wins. You get paid (mostly), and a testimonial video for your website.
By the way, I’ve used small-claims court before, and it just isn’t worth the hassle. If your client is determined to not pay you, a judgment doesn’t guarantee that you will ever get paid. Collection is your responsibility, the court won’t do that for you. And you’ve already tried to collect and look where that got you.
In my Small-Claims case [personal, not business related], both of us were being unreasonable hard-asses. I was getting satisfaction knowing that I have a judgment in my hand and I used the system to harass him as much as legally possible. I even had a lien on his house. It had long ceased being about the money (a few hundred dollars), but this individual had scammed many other people and I wanted him to know that he went too far in scamming me. [Bait and switch on a Hawaii condo rental scam]. Bottom line, I put him out of business and into Chapter-11 bankruptcy. But, the fun just began then because in an ironic twist, court judgments were not, at the time, dismissed by bankruptcy. Acting as my own attorney, I petitioned the Bankruptcy Court for a share of the liquidation proceeds. By then the few-hundred dollar judgment had bloomed into several thousand with collection costs, etc, and we finally received about ten percent of our claim. Ironically, close to the original amount claimed. All this time, he was paying his bankruptcy attorney $300 per hour.
Would I do it again? No. At the time I was young, stupid, and enjoyed the challenge. Now I am older and don’t have the time for the campaign. (I am still stupid, though).
I know this is hard to swallow, but, just let it go. Ask the client how much can he pay now? Accept it as payment in full and just let it go. Prosecuting it is just not worth the time and aggravation.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
There is an in-between solution that I’ve used quite successfully. Temp agencies. Sometimes I need someone for a month or more, (project specific) and I don’t want to become an HR manager – too many headaches or legal traps for me. I use a local temp employment agency for my hires.
Here’s how it works –
I contract with a local temp agency to employ my personnel. I advertise and interview my potential hires, and when I find one that I want working for me, I send them to the temp agency to process them. The employee (legally speaking) works for the temp agency, and I don’t have to become an HR manager. I pay the temp agency and the temp agency pays the employee.
Yes, the per-hour rate is higher (it’s about a 50% premium), but it’s scalable (more hires or higher pay rates get a better premium rate), it’s predictable and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring an HR manager. Plus, I am generally free from tax, FICA and workman’s comp issues.
In this economy, the temp agencies will cut their premium to the bone to manage your staff for you.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
“Anyone else buying land? ”
I would if I could find a few partners to share the load. Any suggestions?
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
VBR is best when you have moments of lots of activity interrupted by long periods of relatively sedate scenes. It really comes down to how much work the encoder/decoder have to do. Those sedate scenes will be perfectly good at 5Mbps, but those sudden action scenes really want to be encoded at 9 Mbps. If you encode CBR at 8Mbps, then the sedate scenes have bandwidth to spare while the action scenes lose some quality.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Just Google “Bit Rate Calculator” and find one that you like.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
If your DVD is short – under 70-minutes, then you won’t see any difference from VBR and CBR except for the file size.
If your video is a lot of action scenes with few static shots, then there is not much difference from VBR and CBR. If your video has a lot of static shots, like a talking head with a plain background (where the encoder has to do less work than encoding the video of, say, a football game), then VBR will give you a smaller MPEG file.
So, if CBR fits on your DVD, leave it alone. VBR won’t buy you anything.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Yes, if DVDA needs to re-render (encode, actually) either the audio or video, then your encoding parameters in Vegas are wrong. You could take the easy way and let DVDA do the lifting and thinking for you, but you compromise quality because it is re-encoding a compressed MPEG file from Vegas. You can even let DVDA do everything for you by giving DVDA the AVI file from Vegas. DVDA will then optimize the compression settings for you and most of the time provide good results. The problem with this approach is that you have NO control over the bitrate and other encoding parameters.
Most often, DVDA complains about the size of the MPG file or that the audio is not AC3.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Since you say DVD, I’ll assume that you don’t mean a Blu-Ray HD Disk.
I use the Sony Z1 and make SD DVD’s all the time.1) Encode to MPEG2 (in the “Render As” menu, even though you don’t render MPEG, you encode it). Use the “DVD Archhitect MPEG-2” profile and the “DVD Archetect NTSC Widescreen videostream” template.
If your final project is longer than 60-80 minutes, then you will likely have to reduce the bitrate to make the encoded file smaller.
2) Encode your audio as an AC3 file using the “Dolby Digital AC-3 Pro” profile.
3) Bring the MPG file into DVDA and the AC3 file should follow.
If DVDA says the file is too large, but it appears to be close, then ignore the warning. DVDA is overly conservative in its finished size estimates.
If DVDA wants to re-encode the media then you did something wrong in Vegas.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -