Steve Wargo
20
COW Coins
4
Premiere Pro Coins
Forum Replies Created
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We will do a “save as” and add the date/time to the name also.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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I just ordered the voice activated FCP-HD app for my Blackberry.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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Ok. I read the other posts.
We had partnership studio downtown for 9 years and got tired of driving to work and staying till midnight editing and then driving home.
We hunted for the perfect house for 2 years and bought a third of an acre where we could split out house and also build an 1100 sf studio for a total of 3000sf of business area. Our kitchen sits right in the middle, separated from the office by french doors we put in and we can open those doors and close doors on the other side to make the kitchen part of the company for those time when we have lots of people over.
Our 3 pugs come meet everybody. Sometime we keep them on “the other side”.
We have parking for 12 cars.
Several of my neighbors love it because we are here every day and our block is crime free. Several others hate the traffic.
Here’s some pics: https://www.sntvideo.com/pictures.asp?id=studio
Our office is an 18×18 former family room. Our main edit room is a second master bedroom 14×23. Our machine room used to be a 2 1/2 car garage and the studio is a 25×43 foot soundproof building with a 12′ ceiling, a 20×16 cyc corner and a full lighting grid.
The zoning guy from the city came after us with a slew of city ordinances and we beat them all down with letters from our immediate neighbors. It been a blessing and it’s been a fight but we like it right where we’re at.
Several large local companies folded during the recession because they were saddled with high overhead. Our studio and related costs are about $500 a month and we certainly make a lot more than that in studio rentals to others.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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I haven’t read anyone else’s response yet but if you’re concerned about the cost of a couple posts and stands for a background, you are already doomed.
You need to stop all production work and go to business school for 4 years.
Once you have a location, things get VERY expensive. Nick Griffin wrote an article on “The True Cost of Doing Business” for the COW. You need to read that.
hint: We are a company of myself and two full time employees. Our annual cost for office expense averages $2300. In the 28 years I have been in business, we have spent over $300,000 on video tape.
Our company is attached to our home in an estate neighborhood and has been since January 1998. We spent $200K on building and outfitting the studio and my accountant says that we have saved over $750k by having the studio here instead of somewhere else. Which means, If I were operating somewhere else, I would have had to make $750k more than I did, just to be where I’m at now, financially.
If you were telling us that you had ton of business and you were being overwhelmed with long term contracts, I would say Go For It. But don’t let a couple good jobs convince you that the work will keep coming.
Good luck though, on whatever you decide.
Do not start a business on credit card debt.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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Try another cable first.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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No pictures. Please. no pictures
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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[Mike Cohen] “Steve, as the newest member, you’re bringing the booze”
I knew there was a catch to it.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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My crew signed us on to a business G-mail account a year ago and it’s not been a problem. Yeah, they got all of our stuff somewhere and it could get out but we had a real mess before and this took care of a lot of problems.
I clear my spam once a day and I just dumped 145 messages a few minutes ago.
I keep several different addresses and use certain addresses for certain things. Some, I only check once a week and others come straight to my Blackberry which will soon be replaced by a Motorola Droid. My wife got one and now I have phone envy. It is blazingly fast. The mail function, maps and internet are faster than my desktop.
We were talking tonight about how Google might actually be the government and they just got around to 1984. Has anyone ever seen an actual person who represents Google? What could G-O-O-G-L-E stand for in gov’t alphabet soup language.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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This has been my favorite forum for some time. After all, for everything we do, creative or otherwise, it’s a business and for those of us who have been around a while (1982), we have seen the business turn a 180. The knowledge required used to be technical in nature. We would pull the sides off of cameras to reseat boards, pull he lid off a deck to clean the heads or replace a pinch roller and you didn’t have to have any computer knowledge. Now, the lenses are fixed, there are less cameras being built with tape drives and we record to memory devices. If you’re not computer savvy, you’re gonna get lost.
But, it’s still a business first and a creative outlet later. Before we can do any work, we have to market ourselves and then sell the job. And then, we have to collect. It used to cost $350,000 to have a company with the right stuff and now, we can create a much better product for under $50k. It just doesn’t seem fair to those of us who paid all that money, for someone to get in now and not pay much at all. And they complain about every dime. Jeeez!
But anyway, thanks for the welcome and glad to be here, officially.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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[Todd Terry] “with flames coming out of the nostrils.”
Let’s have flames coming out of everywhere.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards