Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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The short answer…. no.
In fact, all that gelling your tungsten instruments for daylight is going to do is cut their output.
BUT…
If you think there is ANY chance that you will not use the footage as b/w but might need it in color (even if it is a slim chance), it would probably be wise to correctly color balance everything. If not, you will kick yourself later.
But if it is absolutely positively definitely a b/w project, don’t bother.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Steve Wargo] “For starters, what about sound?”
Well… ya know film cameras don’t record sound either. And are the REDs sound-enabled yet?… early ones weren’t.
But yes, they would be a rather combersome production tool…. at least right now. Maybe in the future.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Aaron Cadieux] “In the end, I guess I’m just shocked that so many people find it acceptable that someone should have to work on personal projects for their bosses at work.”
I think we’ve come to the point where we are beating a dead horse here, as you feel the way you feel and there’s going to be no changing it. But you are being very myopic and perhaps not looking at the big picture.
About ten years ago, as a new company owner I was excited to get my first employee… she was a combination of many things: office manager, personal assistant, secretary, etc. Her job was to run the office, and although I didn’t define her job as such she took it upon herself to include just “taking care of me” as needed. The first time she said “I’ll pick up your dry cleaning after lunch” I was like, “Uhh.. you shouldn’t do that. That’s not your job.” The same with “Do you want me to make you a haircut appointment,” or “Should I pick your dog up from the vet?”
Personal work? Sure. Very personal. But you know what? It helped me, freed me up to do the work that brought the money in that paid my salary and hers, too.
Maybe you don’t see the value in editing the bosses kid’s wedding video… even though it’s on company time and you’re getting paid for it (by the way, if the company’s speciality was wedding videos you’d be doing that every day). But then again, maybe that helps your boss… frees him up to go after business… or just takes a weight off his mind and something off his plate so can better concentrate on building the company. At least the work is within your area of expertise… it’s not like he’s asking you to go out back and dig a ditch.
[Aaron Cadieux] ” I think the bosses are giving me boss answers and employees are giving me employee answers”
Probably true. But I guarantee you that every one of us who are currently “bosses” have been employees as well. You’re only seeing the view from one side of the fence.
[Aaron Cadieux] “majority of the people on this forum (the bosses) will think I’m a snot-nosed spoiled-brat punk”
Not completely… but I’m not sure you appreciate the dynamic of the employer/employee situation.
[Aaron Cadieux] “I would NEVER ask an employee of mine… to work on a personal project of mine without additional compensation… no matter if it’s office hours…”
Why not? If you own the company there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, it’s perfectly ethical, and your duty to do as your employer requires. And it has nothing to do with “being nice.”
[Aaron Cadieux] “most of the people telling me to ‘suck it up’ have probably dumped personal crap on their employees at one time or another.”
For the record, I was a decent employee… but I’m a great boss. My employees will tell you so, unprompted. They’ve worked on personal projects on occasion, but i’ve never “dumped crap” on any of them. Most of them would probably tell you the personal stuff was a lot more fun and creative than the “real” work and they enjoyed it. And got paid for it.
[Aaron Cadieux] “But believe me, I’m always looking.”
Well, good luck, hopefully you will find an employer you think is more fair and have a long, happy, and profitable relationship with them… sincerely.
Probably should hope they don’t read the COW.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Sounds to me that there is an extreme and fundamental difference of opinion as to what you expect out of an employer, and what an employer expects out of you the employee. I’m beginning to think that this divide might be too wide to be bridged, considering your present opinion of your boss.
As to: “Them asking me to do personal projects on company time is like a nurse’s boss telling her “today you’re assignment is to go take care of my mother at my house instead of your patients on the floor”.
Well, hate to say it, but if you were a nurse and the boss told you to do that and the boss owned the hospital… then he or she has every right to require you to go take care of ol’ mom rather than the floor patient if that’s what they want. Their house, their rules. You might not like the rules, but they’re not making you play there, either.
The fact that the company is up to its eyeballs in work and with big accounts means that you have more ammo for asking for a more fair salary. It doesn’t however give you any more ammo for your “I don’t want to do this kind of work I want to do that kind of work” arguments. Bottom line is that you are not the boss, you are an employee. Employees do as their bosses require. Well, at least the good ones do.
Then again, there are good bosses and bad bosses. Take a good look at your situation, as objectively as possible. Is your employer actually a good one?…just doing some things that you don’t like? If so, then suck it up and do your job. It’s called work, and doesn’t necessarily have to be fun. If it was always fun it would be called “play” and you wouldn’t get paid for it. Then again, maybe your boss/employer is actually a bad one. If so, get your reel and resume together, and be prepared to give him the two-weeks’ notice when the talk with him goes badly.
Or… if you can’t find any employers that you can work with to your satisfaction, pour more energy into your freelance career. Then the boss will be you.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yes, I agree… if it is OFF hours, employees should be compensated. We’re all salary here, but we try to either pay time-and-a-half (or double time) of what someone’s hourly rate would be for OT… or give them time off during the regular work week. I let them pick which they would prefer.
Employers do fairly “own” you during regular business hours… but I’ve seen bosses take that to very unpleasant extremes. I try to be as nice about it as I can, we strive for a working environment that is pleasant, fun, and creative as possible.
It doesn’t happen every week or even every month, but we’ve been known to say “Is anyone working on anything super deadline critical today? No? Alright, saddle up, we’re going to the movies.” Or to a leisurely lunch. Or even something a little borderline-silly like playing miniature golf. For creative people there is something very liberating about being able to hit a pink golf ball through a fiberglass giraffe’s legs in the middle of the day… and get paid for it (plus, I absolutely rule at mini golf and take no prisoners).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I am going to go out on a limb a bit and disagree with Walter somewhat (something I rarely do)…
Sounds like it’s a two-person mom and pop company, plus you. Bottom line, they can do with their company time what they want. They have no partners or shareholders to be beholden to… if they want company time used to cut their kid’s wedding video, so be it.
Unless your compensation agreement includes some kind of commission or profit sharing it is irrelevant whether or not the projects that you are working on are ones that “bring money in” or not. You might not like it (I wouldn’t either), but the bottom line is that is their choice, not yours.
The discussion you need to have with them is regarding duties and compensation. If they say they are going to pay you X amount of dollars in exchange for your employment there on salary which can include working odd hours and weekends, etc., and you agree to that, it should make no difference to you what you are shooting or cutting. It doesn’t matter if they pay you for an hour to shoot a car chase, or pay you for an hour to shoot paint dry… it’s the same thing.
You keep saying they FORCED you to do this and they FORCED you to do that. They are not forcing you to do anything. Two words I used to say to my better half frequently were “Clown Shoes.” She’s a graphic artist and previously had a nut-job of an employer who would put her on mindless and unpleasant tasks although they were well within her job description. When she would almost reach the breaking point and yell “They have no right right to this,” I would contend that yes, they do… and that if he wanted her to “Stand on the corner wearing big clown shoes and wave to people,” then that’s what she should do. Or choose not to work for him. Unfortunately in most cases the workplace is not a democracy.
As I said, the conversation you need to have is regarding duties, hours, and compensation. If you don’t like what you have there now in those parameters, tell them so… come up with a duties and compensation deal that you can live with. If not, seek employment elsewhere.
Do I think what they are doing is “fair”? Hmmm, not really, but I’ve seen much worse… Is it unethical? Again, not really… it’s their company and they can do with it what they want.
BUT… do I think it’s a good situation and a good job and working environment? No, sounds like it definitely isn’t. It’s up to you to either seek greener pastures, or turn the pasture you have into one that you can live with.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The situation might not work for everyone, but I secured a loan to start my business 11 years ago by working with a partner. She owned an advertising agency that would benefit from my production company (actually, that agency was our first and for a while our only client). She is well-heeled (could have easily funded the company herself, but didn’t choose to) and basically co-signed for the loan. Within our agreement, she owned half of the company (actually 501 out of 1000 shares) until the loan was paid off (it was a three year loan) when the shares in the corporation reverted to me.
She got no direct profit from being an owner, but rather her agency profited by having its own production company. Work for her agency though was treated like any other client… budgeted and billed at the same rates… but she also got the benefit of being first in line and having a guaranteed source of good afforadble production for all of her television clients.
Also, as Chris said, if you have personal property to secure a loan (house, etc.), that’s one way to go if you are COMFORTABLE doing so. Rather than an actual “loan” a HELOC is probably the way to go (Home Equity Line of Credit). It basically becomes a “fund” that you can use or NOT use as you see fit, and you are only required to pay the interest on the balance each month… which can be helpful if your cash flow is not constant. I would only do that though if you are absolutely positively sure it will not be a financial burden (for example, if you have guaranteed contracts for work that will more than comfortably cover the payments you must make). You certainly don’t want to lose your house.
Also, as Chris said, leasing is an option. We have never leased equipment (only vehicles), but have considered it. There are tons of equipment leasing companies out there. The downside is, that it is a bit expensive… you’ll be tempted to ask them “What’s the interest rate?” They won’t tell you. They’ll say “There is no interest rate, it’s a lease not a loan.” But you can look at the payments and figure out what the effective interest rate would be, and it’s usually much higher than a loan to buy the equipment would be. On the upside, you can directly expense evey penny of a loan payment, whereas if you buy equipment you must depreciate it over time. End terms of leases vary, too… with some, at the end of the lease you give them back the equipment. With others, you buy it for a low amount… a dollar, or whatever. With others, you have the options to buy it for the market value. With computer-based equipment (NLEs, etc.) that can get a little tricky as the actual market value of the equipment might be quite low after the lease expires although the actual value to you of the equipment is still high.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[johnsabbath d’urzo] “i always come through for the guy and then go through all this to get my money, he already has the final product.”
The client is repeatedly taking advantage of you. Because you are repeatedly letting him.
STOP.
Not to be mean about it, but much of this is your own doing… he doesn’t give you deposits because you don’t require them. He is slow to pay because you let him… and continue to take jobs in spite of that. It probably wasn’t your fault the first time, but your repeated acceptance of this practice established the ground rules for him and he’s going to use them and abuse them.
No one can take advantage of you like that without your permission, and your practices in the past with him have clearly shown him that is pretty much prefectly fine for him to screw you over.
STOP.
I don’t know what your chances are of getting all your past invoices resolved, others here might chime in with suggestions.
If it were me when the next job comes up (which it apparently will) I would never ever do anything for this client or even consider taking a job from him until every penny of his overdue invoices were cleared. ALL of them. Then I would take no less than a 50% deposit on the future job’s estimate, with the balance to be paid before he walks out with the finished product. Period.
He might not go for that, and you might lose a client. But to me, this sounds like a client you need to lose.
You might think that in these uncertain economic times that you “just can’t afford to turn down any job.” But you have to realize that this client is costing you money, not making it.
Personally, I’d cut him lose.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The problem is not the reflector, the problem is the key.
Your 650 or 1K (even with the “diffusion paper”) used directly like that is going to be a very very hard light source and going to create some fairly harsh (some would say dramatic) results. Sometimes that’s what you’re going for, but for a beauty setup, more likely not.
You need to increase the size of your key… that is, you need to enlarge the surface of the area of the lighting, not the intensity. This can be done with a softbox, an umbrella, silk or some other diffusion material in a frame some distance in front of the instrument, or rather than using it directly bouncing it into something (a bounce card, foamcore, beadboard, or another reflector).
The bigger the surface area of the key, the softer the results will be. Right now with an unaltered 1K blasting at the talent the light source is pretty much as small as it can be. You want it bigger, not smaller. Even a piece of frosted shower curtain material can act as a good diffuser (just don’t get it too close to the light).
The reflector you have should work fine on the other side… just keep in mind that the gold side is going to lower the color temperature of the reflected light and result in a warmer fill. You’d probably want to use the white side (or a silver reflector) unless your goal is to purposely warm up that side.
Hope this helps….
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I think your inclinations are right… if these are just mock interviews and they need a raw burn immediately on DVD, then hot rolling right into a DVD recorder is probably the easiest way to go. Also, probably the cheapest. You rarely see that combination.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com