Steve Wargo
20
COW Coins
4
Premiere Pro Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Kenzo,
I forgot to say that I’m happy that you’ve recovered and are back to work.
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I just recently went through the same thing. Your “friend” needed a sucker who was desperate for work and you were it. He lied about the pricing of the job to take advantage of you. DRW was correct, this is not your friend. He is a user.
I would have a meeting with the client and ask them for a written offer. Then, take it. At some point you have to tell them that you have been working on their job. Above all, never say anything negative about the other guy. He may try to smear your reputation, so be prepared for that. If necessary, have a letter from your attorney ready to present to him.
Plan on catching hell from the rip off guy. Before all of this transpires, have your response ready for when the phone call comes. When the call does come, simply say “While I appreciate the fact that you thought of me and gave me work when I needed it, I don’t appreciate the fact that you weren’t forthright about the money involved.” You do own him that much but nothing more.
As for my story, a “friend” approached me about a project in Mexico. He explained that the client didn’t have a lot of money right now but they would be a gold mine in the future. Knowing that this is always a scam, I offered to work a little extra, out of the country for my local day rate , but only if it was exactly what he was charging them. He agreed and away we went, twice.
The client called me direct 100 days later and explained that they had never received anything from the producer and that they had given him almost $50k. They sent the contract to me and he had charged them 2 1/2 times my rate for my labor. I knew that something was up when the producer never picked up that HDCAM tapes. He simply blew them off. He had also charged them for three crew position that were never filled. I shoot with an F-900 and he charged them $450 a day for a tape operator, just to give you an example.
My point is that these crooks are always caught and those who operate in an honest, ethical, manner owe the thieves in the business nothing.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck -
Quick books has an on-line tutorial type class and you can find it at Intuit.com. You can also find it in the Dummy or Idiot section of the book store. I have lots of those.
The first thing you need to do is make a list of everything you do.
Things you charge for:
Prep for shoot
Production –
Contract labor –
Post production: Broken down of course into sub fields – scanning and logging, digitizing, editing, graphics,Rentals –
Meetings – Administrative
Travel – Airlines
Accomodations – Hotel
Mileage @ $ .50 outside your normal area
Shipping – Boxes, UPS, courier, your sister
Cost of goods: Broken down – Tape, DVDs,
Office Supplies – Ink, printer paper,Look at your check book or the shoebox of receipts that you have for more items
Next, make a list of things you will invoice for. It will probably look a lot like your first list.
Find a grad student of accounting that had a 3.75 gpa and knows QB. Pay them $25 an hour to set up your books. Pay a CPA $65 to look it over and approve or fix things. You can sometimes get a half hour free if you book them to do your taxes each year. A good CPA is the best money you can spend. You’re going to pay taxes anyway and a CPA will way more than save you his cost and he might just keep you from loosing everything or going to prison with Gorgo.
A lot of people put this off thinking that they will do it next week. Next week will never come and then it’s expensive. QB is easy to use it does all of the work for you.
When I first got into the video business (I used to build off-road race trucks), I went 10 years without filing taxes on my video business. I got a letter from the IRS one day that basically said “We are on to you. Fix it”. Gads! I hired a 4′ 9″ tall guy named Calvin, who was licensed to practice before the Tax Court (a BIG deal) and he charged me $2500 to plead my case of stupidity and I had to pay $3900 in back taxes. I guarantee that you will not be this lucky.
For your edit room, we have those post production reports that I mentioned before. Use Word to make a table. List your tasks on the left side with a box to the right. Every time you start or stop, jot it down. I don’t mean potty breaks but be reasonable.
Don’t be so quick to think that you have do work cheap to get work. What you need is good work ethic, honesty, a big box of talent and lots of drive. Don’t think in terms of what you want to pay but instead, what you want to earn.
When someone calls our office for a quote, my office manager comes to me and says “How much?”. I give her a price and then I hear her on the phone telling them 2 or 3 times what I said and I’ll be darned if the job doesn’t show up and the client is thrilled. I just hope they don’t read this.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck -
We do it in QuickBooks. When we start the job, we start an invoice. We enter a charge for every session as a line item. When you’re done, it will auto total and there you go.
A less expensive way would to get a pad of lined paper and write your hours down. Using math, you can add up the hours and figure the total hours. Then, you multiply the number of hours by the hourly rate and you will have the amount to charge the client.
For our edit room, we made a form in Word and it is composed of boxes where we enter line items and also keep track of supplies and tapes used on the project.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck -
How about a putting a camera on the dashboard of a car (securely mounted, of course) and take a tour through a neighborhood at different times of the day and creating a really cool 3 minute tour piece. AND THEN, go to a junk yard and get a dashboard from a new Mercedes that has a DVD player and show the video on the built in DVD player. If you get the dashboard form a local chop shop, you might even get that pretty cheap.
Or, you could shoot from the handlebars of a motorcycle and then get a front fork assembly from a motorcycle junk yard and put a display where the windshield would go. Or you could get a cockpit from a Navy fighter plane… get it?
I wonder where NASA keeps those old space capsules….Hmmm, anybody got a key for the Smithsonian???
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck -
Spend the time that would have been spent on their job to look for a new client. Or, to just go have a beer and thank yourself. There’s a lot of fish in the sea. All you need is a good hook.
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If you cave to their price, that will be your new price. They feel as though they’ve got you and it’s up to you to do what will affect your future.
On the other hand, I’ve had a few situations where the department only had so many dollars for a project and they made it up to me on something a few weeks later.
My suggestion would be to have a heart to heart, strictly business discussion with your contact. If you decide to go ahead because the future looks bright with them, make sure that you even it out before too long or they will quickly forget.
Sometimes, the company contact has been given a budget and there simply isn’t any more. You can be their hero and help them in one situation but don’t make a habit of it.
We’re giving you this advice because we’ve all learned the hard way.
Your results may vary.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck -
You may want to negotiate a progressive pay scale. Let them know where you need to be tomorrow, in six months, a year and on from there. I’m sure that as you work the job, you’ll get a lot more done in less time and your value goes up with each season. But, don’t price yourself out of the market either. $65K a year with bennies is a decent pay level unless you’re trying to put 4 kids through college.
Make sure that the wife works two jobs. Keeps ’em busy.
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https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/126/858013
Please copy and paste. Sometimes I just can’t get the link thing to work. Sorry
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck -
You could start here. These people deal in education. You can make inquiries about the basics and someone will be there to help you.
https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/
Good luck
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck