[Todd Terry]

[Bouke Vahl] “You’re missing the point.”

No, I get the point… it’s just that’s not what I was asking for, nor what would work for me.

Appreciate it but I was only asking about the availability of Firewire recorders, since my camera as I said in the original post does not output 24p footage via HD-SDI.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Thanks Steve, appreciate the thought…. but sadly, no.

I unless I missed something, I believe all the current various flavors of Atmos recorders only accept HDMI or SDI inputs (or both). As I said in my original post, I need a recorder that will input Firewire.

I’ll keep looking….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Looks pretty darn good.

I would say the only thing that looks a bit wonky to me are the shadows.

The background plate is obviously full sun (very sharp shadows from the little rocks on the ground, and on the face of the big rock), and the dragon himself (herself? itself?) seems in full sun, too (sharp shadows on the face, etc.). All of that looks good. Yet the dragon itself casts very soft shadows underneath on the rocks and ground… as if it were maybe a cloudy or cloudy/bright day…which doesn’t seem to quite match the full-sun look of the rest of the scene.

That was the only thing that looked a bit unnatural to me.

Of course I’m being picky and it’s infinitely better than anything I could do (that’s not my area of expertise at all)….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Ralph Chaney] “…still working with me on the details of my submission (what’s “proper”/allowed for things like ethnicity and union things…)”

Well when hiring actors, unlike almost every other kind of employment, it’s perfectly politically correct to specify things that you could never mention in any other kind of job posting…. age, gender, ethnicity, type, heck even weight… all of that is not only permissible but is expected. The breakdown submission form will have check boxes for the main traits (gender, age, ethnicity) but in your role description you can put absolutely anything else as well.

As for the union situation, unless you want to go through the ginormous red-tape hassle of doing a union shoot, I always specify that this is a non-union shoot. The thing is, if you do that you’ll still get plenty of union actors submitting, they are simply willing to work on a non-union set. Of course AFTRA/SAG does not like that, but they have no authority over who you hire…zero. If a union actor wants to work on a non-union project, they can and it does not affect you in the slightest. We hire union actors all the time for non-union jobs… most of the time we don’t even know about it (unless an actor tells us) because it is not pertinent info to us.

You’ll probably get some direct Actors Access submissions with a $300 dayrate. I think it’s unlikely you’ll get any/many submissions from talent agencies though… just like when we filter submissions, agencies filter breakdowns, too, and don’t fool with any that are lower-dollar than is worth their time. There’s no official cutoff, but I’ve found when dayrates hit in the $500-700 range then that’s when you start getting agencies to submit.

Good luck!

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Ralph Chaney] “Thanks for the link. I worked through the site and posted a call.”

Good deal.

Couple of tips about that….

Depending on how much of a day rate you are offering, you may get a few submissions, or you may get TONS. It can be a little bit overwhelming. We generally get somewhere between 300 and 1500 submissions for each role that we post.

Since that is a dauntingly high number, time to start filtering (it’s the control panel on the left side of your project window). The first thing I do is eliminate any submissions that don’t have any reels attached. You can’t tell much from a headshot, I have to see a performance…. so if the submission doesn’t have a reel, out it goes. That usually eliminates half right off the bat, sometimes a lot more. Next I do a geographic filter, and limit my search to anyone within 200 miles of me. I’m in Huntsville Alabama, so that lets me keep all submissions from places like Birmingham, Nashville, and Atlanta (and by far most of the actors we hire are from Atlanta), but it eliminates all the submissions we get from Tampa, New Orleans, etc. I don’t mind hiring people from farther away (and we’ve hired from MUCH farther than that), but I’d rather not get too far from home because it just becomes logistically more difficult.

The higher the dayrate, the more/better people you will get obviously. For very minor jobs, we’ve actually posted extremely low rates on occasion… maybe $200-300. You won’t get any or many talent agencies submit for those, but you’ll get some individual submissions though Actors Access. For higher rates, you’ll get tons of AA submissions as well as tons of agencies. I don’t know what your project is or it’s usage, but for broadcast commercials (either single market or, say, statewide), I’ve found I get a sufficient number of great people if our dayrate is in the $750-$1000 neighborhood. I don’t think I’ve ever gone over $1500, and even that much is rare.

And… I should have mentioned this before I you posted your breakdown, but I also say that while we are willing to consider hiring talent from anywhere, all roles are “as-local” hires…. meaning the rate we pay is the rate we pay, and there are no additional allowances for travel or accommodations. If your dayrate is high enough, that will not deter actors from submitting… there are lots of people who want to work. I also say that our dayrates are inclusive of agents’ commissions and any other fees. So I know right out of the gate the total amount that I will be paying.

When your submissions come in (and they usually start RIGHT away), if an actor is represented you’ll be able to see their agent’s contact info. You can contact the agent directly to hire someone, or schedule an audition. BUT, if an actor submits directly through Actors Access, there usually IS no contact info (unless someone happens to put an email address or phone number in their notes, which is not usual). The only way to contact these people is through the Cmail system, which should be easy but be VERY careful about that. Basically, Breakdown Services wants you to use Cmail ONLY to tell an actor “You’ve got the job,” and they HATE its use for anything else, ESPECIALLY asking an actor to contact you. I used to do that all the time, telling an actor to send me a message to my real email address, and I took it from there to arrange auditions, etc. Breakdown Services HATES that and really yelled at me about it, claiming I violated their TOS and threatening to suspend my account. If you want to consider an Actors Access actor, you MUST go through the Breakdown Services scheduling system, which is a GIANT pain in the rear… but it’s the only way they will allow.

Hope it works for you, good luck!

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’d cast that the same way we always do, which is to post a casting call and get submissions in from talent agents through Breakdown Express and directly from talent through Actors Access (breakdownservices.com).

It’s easy and free (at least it’s free on the producer’s side of things), and the only way I know to really get lots of people in to check out.

Although I’ve used them in the past (and am a former one myself), I tend to steer clear of news people most of the time, especially if any acting ability is required (which you usually need, even in an on-camera spokesperson role). Unless you really work with them, 99% of them are too “anchormannish” for my taste… although now and then you’ll find someone versatile enough to do the job.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

And when you think about it… usage in airport and train station billboards for only a month is potentially just a pittance compared to the original online usage, which has a potentially virtually limitless market. This may seem like a bigger job with a bigger potential audience, but is really only a tiny fraction of the total available eyeballs.

It’s a little like when we create a broadcast commercial (our usual business), and then after-the-fact the client says “Oh, can I get a file to put online?” We always say “Sure!” but explain that (depending on the track used) we might have to charge more or secure additional music rights. That usually surprises them a little, but what surprises them a lot is that those internet usage rights are a great deal more than broadcast rights… sometimes by several multiples. “Just for my little website?” or “Just for YouTube?” they’ll ask. That requires a little education about something that seems obvious… that depending on where you are a single-market TV spot might have a potential audience of only a couple of million people, but on the interwebs the potential audience is billions.

But it’s really a moot point. Unless you are talking about content that has managed rights of some kind (music, actors’ performances, etc.), then the production rate is the rate and the intended (or future) audience has no bearing on the cost.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I hope I’m not the only one who gets that.

https://youtu.be/Y-Elr5K2Vuo

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] ” I had some good luck putting an HMI keylight behind the talent and bouncing it off a foam core panel on the camera side, the HMI in that position had just enough spill to act as rim/backlight AND keylight in one instrument.”

That has been my go-to trick for years. I posted a “how to” pic on the COW years ago that I would look up if I were not so incredibly lazy… umm I mean busy… today.

The only real downside is lugging around an HMI and ballast, which we don’t do much anymore… we are almost totally in the stinger-less LED world now. But I think I’m about to buy another LED, Movofilms finally has an affordable bigass LED fresnel that is about as powerful as a 1200w HMI (and can run on batteries, two bricks)… looks to be almost a clone of the much much more expensive instrument from Aadyntech. Should be able to do the same kind of setup with that.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Sarah Rimassa] ” I generally only work in online content, so I have no idea what this is worth. “

I think this is true for most of us here (it certainly is for us)….

Here it really makes no difference if the content is for web, broadcast, Jumbotron, or any other usage… our rate for our work is our rate, no matter what the client’s end usage is.

So in your case, I’d simply charge them whatever your normal editing rate would be for this job, and disregard what the end usage or venue is… that’s not a factor.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com