[Timothy J. allen]

I’d suggest the DVD Authoring forum. I can also say that I just bought an Octave Copymaster II 7 a couple of months ago, after using that brand for several years at the last facility where I worked. The new one has also been wonderful.

-Tim

[Timothy J. allen]

I usually teach for less than my hourly (or actually my day) rate. It’s because:

1) 99% of the time, I’m using their facilities and equipment instead of tying up my own. (This is because part of teaching is ensuring they have a good and stable setup.)

and

2) I really enjoy the change of pace and the experience that teaching provides.

It gives me that chance to go back, slow down, re-examine and re-learn some of the things I’d been meaning to revisit. When I’m with regular clients, I tend to stick with processes and “tricks” that I know work immediately, but teaching gives me an excuse to take extra time in preparation to learn shortcuts and other things before the client asks for them.
So money isn’t my primary motivation, and that’s why I tend charge less for teaching.

That and because my “regular” day rate would probably be a bit out of range for individual classes for most people… and I that I prefer to teach one-to-one instead of a larger group, when possible so I can adapt to each student’s learning style as much as possible.

All that to say just because *I* charge less, doesn’t mean *you* should.

[Timothy J. allen]

I love the background audio! Do you know how much money it would take to recreate that realistic ambient sound?

… and the jump cuts just give it that “edge” that appeals to young folks today.

It’s got ‘Gen Y’ written all over it!

[Timothy J. allen]

My rule of thumb isn’t 50% up front. Or 33% or 10%.

My rule is to get a deposit that covers all of the costs to hire and pay any freelancers that I need to help me complete the project.

That way, no matter what happens with the project, I don’t hurt the people I hire. That’s more important to me than whether I have to eat Mac & Cheese for dinner all next month.

I haven’t stuck with this rule 100% of the time, but I try my best to do so.

[Timothy J. allen]

My issue with the courses at conferences is that they don’t go fast enough or cover the material deep enough!

Even though my critisism is coming fromt the other end of the spectrum, it actually supports Ron’s point in that the more students in a class you have, the more difficult it is to connect with each individual student.

I’ve been certified on Media 100, took Avid’s advanced editing course in Tewksbury, and attended several “tracks” of classes at NAB through the years. My mileage on each of these varied. How much I actually *learned* usually depended on the competance and enthusiasm of the instructors and my fellow students.

If you are interested in attending, I’d say go for it. Why? Not because of the actual learning in class… becuase of the comraderie and support to be gained by connecting with other people who are eager to learn more about the same things that you want to learn.

(Of course there are various way to get that too – for instance in this very forum.)

Are you the kind of girl that actually cracks open and reads the manuals or actually goes through the kind of tutorials that you’ll find in “Classroom in a Book” or the Creative Cow series of DVDs? I find the knowledge there is usually deeper than the classes if you are disiplined and follow through with them. If those kind of things don’t provide enough motivation for you, a class setting might be more beneficial.

What works best is truly dependant on your learning style.

As far as whether certification is worth the effort, I have to say that I never got a job because of my certifications, I got them because of the interview and my reel. BUT… having the certifications DID help me make the cut to where I was one of the applicants who was invited to interview and submit my reel.

Certifications might not get you the job, but in my book, they certainly don’t hurt.

[Timothy J. allen]

That post cracked me up.
But if it makes you feel any better, I just moved locations and I’m going from the past few years of editing on a suite of Avid Adrenaline HD systems connected with Unity and with Airspeeds to play out on to…

(insert SFX of drum roll)

Adobe Premier!

(insert SFX of cymbals and various percussion equipment falling on the floor)

That’s what I get for whining about the Adrenaline’s long boot up time. On the bright side, at least I’m expanding my knowledge base, huh?

[Timothy J. allen]

Paul,
Please don’t let the comments get you down or keep you awake at night. Being brave enough to float the site by so many of your peers shows that you are the kind of person that learns more every day.

I think you have the main idea from us – Keep to your core message and strip away everything that doesn’t support that core message.

Most visitors will decide whether they are interested in your website within the first ten seconds of when they get there. Keep that in mind when designing your page. You want to clearly lead them to the most important things first.

(Hint: The “most important thing” is not your reel. The only reason a demo reel should be there is to demonstrate that you have the capability to complete projects at a certain level of quality and that other clients have trusted you to do so for them.)

You can lead people to “the most important things” through tried and true design principles, but make sure the website is about how your company can solve the client’s problems, and not so much just about your company.

When sketching out your site, ask yourself “So what?”. If the client sees anything on your site, why should they care about it? This goes for videos, testimonials, even fonts and text colors.

Anything on your site that doesn’t support the main point of your site is just vanity.

Here’s another link to an article about web design principles that you may find useful: https://www.garrreynolds.com/Design/basics.html

Use that knowledge combined with the head start that a well designed template can give you and I believe that you will come up with a custom site that leads customers to contact you .

[Timothy J. allen]

While, “In the Blink of an Eye” is on my “all time best editing related books list”, a book that I read recently that I’d recommend is “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath. It’s about making sure that your ideas stick with people when you communicate.

Building on an idea brought forth by Malcom Gladwell in his bestseller “The Tipping Point”, “Made to Stick” has caused me to rethink how I approach some projects from scriptwriting to post production.

[Timothy J. allen]

Tim K.,
I went to NAB for seven years in a row precisely to get a chance to talk with people who knew what they were talking about. Along the way I met a lot of people who knew a lot about a lot of things. I’ll include many of the Creative Cow forum leaders including you and Tim Wilson in that group of knowledgeable people.

I also met some people demoing products that were just there for the free plane ticket and hotel room.

I just don’t believe you or Tim Wilson can paint the level of expertise in the booths with such a broad brush.

I could go to one booth and talk with the owner of a company who wrote the original code for a product, but find myself a few minutes later at another booth watching a demo from a “demo artist” who never actually used the product before the show – and wasn’t planning to ever use it after the show.

You guys both spent a lot of time at NAB. Can you see that you are both right?

[Timothy J. allen]

It depends on which ones you are watching. My favorite HD podcasts to watch are from JPL – and I didn’t have anything to do with those. The guys in Florida also have some great shuttle launch segments. I might edit those into a show, but I don’t shoot them. The credit for those great shots goes to the team at Kennedy.

I’ve worked on some of the shows featuring astronauts during International Space Station missions, training for missions at Houston, and Mission Control, but it’s rare that I’m actually the one rolling focus on the shoots. I’m a producer – that shoots every once in a while just to keep my skills sharp. Our full-time videographers at each NASA Center are the true talent.

Video cameras in space are subject to all kinds of bad radiation, so we get a lot of dead pixels fairly quickly, especially with the HD gear. The camera software can correct for a while, but it doesn’t take long for the damage to be past that point. You might think of it as filming in an airport X-ray machine for 24 hours a day during your production. 😉