Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Willem…
Our situation here is likely a little different than most, likely… but I’ll pass on what we do…
The vast majority of our work is broadcast commercials. On top of that, most of our clients are here in our city, or at least in our market. Lastly, because we are mostly doing :30 projects and not a lot of long-form stuff, there is rarely tons of back-and-forth going on. Probably 75% of the time the a client sees the first cut and signs off on it as good-to-go. Other times there might be a small change or tweak or two, but that’s usually about it.
So, all that being said…
We always greatly prefer (and encourage) clients to come here to our place to view their projects for the first time. Of course we want them to look as good as possible, and frankly they are never going to look any better anywhere else other than in our own building watching an absolutely pure master on a 50″ screen in a controlled environment in one of our edit suites or in the conference room.
We’ve found that most (actually almost all) clients are more than happy to come here. I guess they consider it an “outing,” and find it a little glamorous to go to a production facility (which it of course, is not, by any stretch).
Barring that, usually for long-term clients who know how to interpret what they are seeing (these are usually ad agencies), we’ll often email little low-res files… usually .wmv files but we’ll make whatever they can most easily view. We’ll often do this for follow-up viewings or to approve changes.
If someone needs something higher-res than an emailable file, we’ll make that and put it on our internal server here and then email them a download link.
On some occasions we’ll put things on a private YouTube channel.
There are definite upsides and downsides to YouTube. On the downside, I just think it looks so tacky and “consumerish” to put a production company’s professional videos on YouTube as a presentation outlet. You can’t control the poster frames. And you have no control over the other garbage that pops up when your video is finished. On the upside though, videos on YouTube do look GREAT, and play pretty much flawlessly.
We’ve considered using Vimeo, but haven’t yet. Firstly, we have not coughed up the dough to pay for a commercial Vimeo account, which you are supposed to do if you are a commercial for-profit business. Secondly, I know other people who disagree but I’ve never found Vimeo to work nearly as well as YouTube. Videos seem to require two or three clicks to get started, there is much MUCH more buffering than on YouTube, and I find videos often clog up and the only way to continue them is to refresh the whole page. This has been my Vimeo experience on numerous different computers, browsers, and ISPs.
There doesn’t seem to be ONE good solution for it all, so we often use different avenues.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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So far, so good. We’re hopeful it will be a good year.
Like always, life would be better if things would even out a little bit. We’ll have a week or so where although we have work to do, the pace is a little more leisurely than it would be in a perfect world. Then that will be followed by a couple of weeks where we’re too busy to breathe. Then another few slackass days (the days when I claim I’m going to clean my office or unload all the junk that’s collected in the greenroom or organize the studio… but never do). If it would just all spread out nice and even…. but as I’ve learned, almost everyone has that same complaint.
Lately I find myself complaining more about quality than quantity (which I know I shouldn’t). We have enough work to do (although we’d always love and could accommodate more), but it’s not always the most fun work. I try not to whine about it, as I know we are blessed and are fortunate to have a few main clients that give us decent budgets and fun projects… but it’s all those boring little ones in between that can be a little mind numbing and not always easy to generate enthusiasm for. Recently a COW colleague gave me a great term for those, “nuisance clients.” But, they help keep the doors open, and I try not to lose sight of that.
Let’s hope we all have a great 2014….
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Ok here’s my quick one….
This happened about 10 years ago… as a sucker, I volunteered to do a PSA for a local theatre company’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
I concepted something simple, said I only needed the lead actor to show up at my studio for an hour, and be sure to bring the coat.
The kid showed up without the coat, and said the costumer and director refused to give it to him (it was valuable, and they didn’t want to “spoil the surprise” of people seeing it for the first time).
Well, we made do without it.
After the PSA was finished, the director watched it and said… “Wow… now I wish we’d given you the coat… because….”
Wait for it
Wait for it
“… we didn’t know it was going to be in color.”
Mind you, this was around 2004.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Like Nick, I have had this happen as well… just exactly as you are now, Greg.
It depends on how the company you are using is structured. I know, it seems that what you are doing is simply hiring a company to show up with their equipment and their personnel to do this job for you.
In actuality though, most grip companies (at least the ones I’ve dealt with) and many pure lighting companies don’t have those personnel actually on their staff.
So what you are really doing, is dealing with an equipment rental company who is renting you those lighting instruments, grip equipment, and truck, and also providing one or more grips who are actually freelancers that the company is simply doing the payroll for.
Their theory is, should someone drop a $10K light, you should be insured for it… whether it be you that drops it, or your employee for the day (even though they lined you up with that person).
But yes, I’ve seen it happen.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Kayla Turner] ” the total costs could be over $30,000. Is that too much to expect a client to pay?”
It’s hard to say. I don’t know your client or your project. If this is a low budget project, something in the tens of thousands of dollars, that’s one thing. If it’s a multi-million dollar project, that’s another. I suspect it falls somewhere in between there.
$80 an hour for an editor working on their own equipment in their own suite (with all the necessary tools and toys to do so), expecting to get something broadcast-quality-polished-and-finished certainly isn’t unreasonable, not by a long shot.
If you want to make a professional film and want it professionally edited, that’s simply what things cost. Usually more. Usually a lot more.
A lot has to do with expertise level, too, and what the finished product you can deliver looks like. I don’t know your work, so I don’t know. You say you’ve been editing for three years, and that might feel like a lot… but it’s really a drop in the bucket. I’ve personally been editing for pushing three decades now (and suddenly feeling old) and still think the things I edit today are better than that from a year ago. That’s true of the other editor that works for me as well. Then again, I know one college-age kid who is a killer editor, he just has a brilliant eye and sense of timing and rhythm.
And yes… definitely get money up front and at regular intervals. None of us could survive by completing a six-month job and then invoicing the client. Get money out of them weekly, biweekly, maybe even monthly… but at some regular points along the way.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well, to start with, this is a lot more than an “editing” job…
[Kayla Turner] “organizing 60 hours of footage plus archival footage into a story”
Sounds like they are putting it on your shoulders to pull the story out this footage. That makes you a producer, as well.
As for cost, it depends on a lot of things… the scope and budget of this project as a whole, plus all the things you bring to the table yourself, whatever level of skill and expertise you have, your equipment (I’m assuming), and all that jazz.
For the most part though, if you are editing on your equipment with a high degree of top-notch expertise and skill… then no, $60/hr is not too much, not by a long shot.
People in here for some reason always seem loathe to discuss their personal rates, but it doesn’t bother me a bit. For an edit job like this at our place in one of our suites with me or my other editor, the suite rate would be $225/hr (which includes any and all toys available here).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Since you already have the backdrop roller, why not just get a roll of chromakey green seamless background paper?
It’s not my favorite key background, but would likely be the cheapest (about 75-80 bucks for the roll) and definitely the easiest (mount it in your roller system and go).
Or instead of paper… vinyl…
https://www.rakuten.com/prod/cowboystudio-107-inch-x-15-feet-photography-photo-seamless-pro/247730926.html?listingId=270208738T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Happened to be at Harbor Freight over the weekend looking for something else, but took a stroll down the lighting aisle.
Our local store here did NOT have any of the aforementioned LED Ice-Lightish fixtures in stock (or seem to have a place for them), although they can still be obviously ordered from their website.
They did though have tons of the little puck lights, as well as the 109-LED flashlights…
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-3-4-quarter-inch-109-led-flashlight-98506.html
These are the ones we use sometimes, have four or five of them I guess.
I drilled and tapped 1/4″/20 holes in the heads to attach the baby receiver ball mounts that I bought online, and found cheap barndoors (some from eBay, some from Cowboy Studio) that fit perfectly and came with metal honeycombs and several colors of filters (including white diffusion) as well…
They’re not the greatest instruments, not by a long shot. But are fine if you are need a random splash or two, or a little special on some objet d’art or tchotchke in the background. As I said I’ve used them as hairlights in a pinch, as well.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hey Rick… the one I was thinking of was very similar to that, but a bit bigger (and more LEDs). They used to have one like that, but I imagine their inventory changes frequently.
I haven’t seen this one before, but it could have potential…
https://www.harborfreight.com/120-led-rechargeable-under-hood-work-light-60793.htmlI have also picked up a whole bunch of their LED “puck lights” about about three bucks each, often on sale…
https://www.harborfreight.com/27-led-portable-worklight-flashlight-67227.html
They’re very handy to stick in all kinds of places as little specials or incidental lights where you couldn’t otherwise get a fixture.
My last cheap-o Harbor Freight lighting purchase is a few of these plain ol’ LED flashlights…
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-3-4-quarter-inch-109-led-flashlight-98506.html
I drilled holes in the sides to outfit them with ball-joint baby receivers so I can mount them on a C-stand or any 5/8″ post (parts bought off eBay), and barn doors as well (also eBay). They are good to have in your kit when you want a little bit of a more controllable background splash, etc. I’ve also used them as hairlights. I thought I had a picture of them rigged out, but looks like I don’t. I can take one Monday if anyone needs it.
I haven’t noticed any nasty green spikes in any of them, and most of them I’d put somewhere in the 5200-6000° neighborhood.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yep, I never said the Frezzis were cheap.
For a DIY version of the Ice Light that Rick tracked down, you can find an even less expensive but similarly-built LED light at Harbor Freight Tools.
I’m wondering if that plastic face is easily removed… if so, you could put a strip of Lee 250 or something similar inside it for diffusion rather than crafting something to clamp onto the outside. That is, if you always wanted it diffused a bit.. which would be likely.
I’d also come up with some way to put a 5/8″ post on it, for times when you don’t want it handheld.
But yeah, Jerry the wunderPhotog was using a much harder light than his Ice Light invention in that example. The Ice Light would have been much softer and not have nearly the punch to do what he was doing at those distances.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
