Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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We mark things up, sure… probably most everything. We don’t have a flat set 10% markup or anything.
Some things are marked up little or almost none… a few bucks or a percent or two. Others are marked up more… 100% or more (not many of those). The client never knows what we pay our vendors for a particular item… it’s irrelevant and frankly none of their business. The only thing that matters is what we charge them… which we always think is fair.
One example, we used to charge clients for individual music tracks used. We payed the providers one amount, and charged our clients a bit more. Due to a new deal we have with one of the music publishing houses we use, we now pay them a flat yearly fee and consequently the tracks now cost us much less than they used to. We still charge the clients the same amount per track as before, though. The client doesn’t need to know our inner goings-on and the fact that we have negotiated a better deal for ourselves.
This is pretty much the same view I have with those who are vendors to us… this was discussed in a previous thread in this forum. If I buy a roll of paper towels at the grocery store, I don’t care how much the store had to pay their vendor, or what their markup or profit margin is. Don’t care, and it’s none of my business. I only care what they are charging me, and whether I think it’s fair and a good deal.
Obviously, we try to make a profit, but without gouging clients. We’re the most expensive game in town (we used to be the cheapest years ago… but times change), but we give clients a good value for their money… considering quality vs. cost.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I guess I’ve just learned to live with the “hurry up and wait” way of operating.
Seems that when we are waiting on the clients, they take their own sweet time, and then some. But when they are waiting on us, it is invariably an emergency.
We pitched a concept for a television commercial, at their request, to a client last November, something they wanted to do “pretty soon.” Then, not a peep… and we couldn’t get an answer out of them.
This August, nine months later, they call on something like a Friday and want to know if we can pull trigger on the shoot early the following week. Never mind that this was a pretty complex production that would require tons of pre-prod, casting, and even special creature costumes that had to be built from scratch.
They got it… but not in the three days they were expecting after the phone call.
This is one example out of countless ones… and I really don’t expect it to stop.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I’m pretty sure that’s a composite, with the background matted out (shot on either greenscreen or bluescreen). Since the phone is often displaying icons etc that contain green and blue, those pieces would have to be garbage matted out for a clean key.
To do it practically on a real while background instead, I’d shoot it on a piece of milk-white glass (possibly frosted to avoid reflections), and backlight the glass. That’d be a super easy way to control exactly how bright the background should be in relation to the phone screen, and would also eliminate hand shadows.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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You did nothing wrong.
As Wayne observed, the people who get all worked up and their feathers ruffled over “having their honor questioned” are invariably the people whose honor should be questioned. Virtually without fail. Anyone else wouldn’t haven’t taken any offense at your comment or even given it a second thought, because there was nothing to be offended by.
Why did you get a dressing down? I’d bet anything this guy got so upset because “his honor had been questioned” before… probably many many times. And likely deservedly so.
A 10-minute lecture is, by the way, about 9:45 more than I would have listened to.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Ian Bee] “there is a tiny bit of vertical movement when the camera goes back and fourth or dollying in / out).”
I watched it again, HD, big screen… and I just don’t see anything. Certainly nothing like a “wobble.” There is camera movement, but it’s just the camera operator tilting and panning as needed to follow the subject.
[Ian Bee] “know of any less expensive dollies for in / outs that produce great results? And also is there any dollies that are made to do in & outs as well as truck moves?”
Any dolly will also do a truck move… there are no dollys really specifically made to do trucking moves, except maybe sliders (which are I suppose in the dolly family). But of course you can dolly in and out with those as well, just depends on how you point the camera.
Most of the lower-rent or eBay (or DIY) dollys will do a serviceable job… I’m talking about the skate-wheel type. It mostly depends on how good the wheels are, you want real wheels that have bearings. PVC pipe or electrical conduit can be used for track. PVC actually probably works better. Keep it clean clean clean for a smooth ride, and before a shoot apply the super-secret stuff that Hollywood dolly grips all use on their track (Lemon Pledge furniture polish). If your dolly shot doesn’t seem steady enough, you probably aren’t heavy enough… pile on sandbags until you get a rock steady shot.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Watched, I’m not really sure what the question is.
It’s just a pretty run-of-the-mill slow dolly shot at 2:34. I certainly didn’t see any “wobble” in it. My guess is that is a dolly on track with either a good fluid or maybe even geared head on the dolly.
I’m not sure what you mean about looking more “natural.” And again, not sure what you mean about “wobble,” unless you are just talking about the pan/tilt movements of the head.
And since you asked for some nomenclature clarification about push/pull/slides… moving a dolly toward a subject is called a “dolly in,” and pulling it away is called a “dolly out.” Your “slide” where you are moving a dolly sideways (camera perpendicular to the dolly direction) is called a “truck” move.
If you can give some clarification as to what exactly you are seeing there, would be happy to try to help.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Not tons… but I’ve had to do this a fair number of times in commercials spots… the last one just a couple weeks ago….
https://fantasticplastic.com/portfolio/news078.html
https://fantasticplastic.com/portfolio/news088.htmlAll the screens of phones and tablets in those two spots were greenscreen composites.
We, too, have tried the “green poster board method” with some success (in fact that was the method in that second link above). But since then we’ve done it a different. We’re still greenscreening but we’re now having the tablet and/or phone display the solid green as an image. Before a shoot, I just load a green .jpg that I can display full screen (I have blue images, too… just in case). Also, I’ve made a couple of .html files that live on our server that just display the solid colors on a browser. That way if I’m on a foreign or new device, I can still call up the solid-color screen on anything (as long as I have a wifi connection, of course).
Displaying the color seems to work a lot better than the poster board method. It has perfect and even illumination, never smudges or gets dirty, and you have to worry much less about hand shadows affecting the key.
After you get a good key (and I’ve not had any troubles when keying with something decent, like KeyLight or Ultimatte), and have your insert screen motion tracked perfectly… then comes the task of getting the keyed screen to look real. The biggest mistake I usually see are screens that look too bright and perfect. Fixing that usually means turning down the contrast, and brightness. And sometimes chroma. Then we almost always add two more reflection layers… usually of whatever the environment is (lights in a room or whatever), and we will often also add a reflection of the subject that is looking at the device as well (you have to remember to get this footage on location, obviously). These layers have to have their own (and different) motion tracking as well. The viewer’s reflection is often a technical impossibility if it were practical (you likely wouldn’t really see the viewer’s face at that angle in the real world), but it does help sell the shot.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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It’s probably not a hard gig at all… I think we’ve been in this same exact situation quite a few times.
But it is of course another job… and one you should charge for. It’s obviously well outside the scope of the deliverables of your original gig.
Quote ’em what your time is worth, whatever your hourly rate is x how long you think it will take.
If you have any “extras” don’t forget to include those, too… such as music. You said you were using royalty-free music… but depending on your purchase details you may have bought it royalty-free just for one particular project, and this might be considered it another one. Things like that.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Just a knee-jerk first guess… but I’d certainly consider renting the Novo camera from Radiant Images.
If you’re not familiar with those, they are modified (heavily modified) GoPro Hero3 cameras. I’ve certainly seen some outstanding stuff from them.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The Konova actually isn’t bad, especially for the money. I’ve used a K3.
I found it worked best if not overloaded, and the rails kept immaculately clean. The K3 has little end slider/bumpers that you use to keep the rails polished, I’m guessing the K2 does too. Use them freely and often.
You need to keep the bearings tight in that unit, too (although not TOO tight). You have to take the top plate off, but they are adjustable. Takes a couple of allen wrenches.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
