Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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[Nick Griffin] “…is a good time to do MORE advertising and marketing activities rather than less.”
VERY true… but sadly, some people will never learn.
We have one automotive client that we do some reasonably slick spots for, and they sell high-end stuff (they have Porsche, Jag, Land Rover, and BMW dealerships)… but they just can’t seem to catch on…
We do buttloads of spots for them, about every other month. They will advertise heavily, have a great month, and say “We’re selling like crazy, we don’t need to advertise.” So they’ll stop. Sales tank, then they say “Maybe we need to get back on TV,” and the cycle starts over again. This has been going on for years (have been a client for almost a decade)… but they can’t see the cause and effect, no matter how much we try to point it out.
We finally stopped wasting our breath… just smile and take their money every alternate month.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Mark is absolutely right…
Many offices actually expect invoices that have standard “2/10 net/30” terms and will pay fast with only the 2% discount.
In fact, I’ve heard tell of some government offices paying within 10 days and taking the 2% discount, even if you didn’t offer the discount on the invoice… they are just used to doing it.
We don’t do tons of government work, but do occassionaly do the odd military or Nasa gig (another post house in town does LOTS of it… I’ve always told them not to consider us competition because you can’t pay me enough to be that bored)… however we have always found them to pay very quickly.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Jeff….
It’s been about a year since I’ve used a Kona machine (which traded ours for a Matrox AXIO LE) so I’m doing this a little bit from memory, but….
Are you using AJA Machina to capture?
If so, under one of the tabs there is a “Capture Settings” window or something like that. In that window, there are several dropdown boxes which define a bunch of different things about how you are caputuring. Among them are boxes that define your audio and video capture paths. In the video drop-down box you would assign “HD-SDI”… in the audio drop-down box you would assign “Analog.” I don’t know what you are using to edit, but if it happens to be PremirePro and you capture directly into Premiere (not using Machina) there are identical dropdown boxes in PP capture settings.
I think I’m remembering that correctly… if not maybe someone here who is still using KONA can straighten that out if I made an error…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well, I’m not sure I completely agree with the assessment…
Randall’s glass may be half empty as usual on the subject, but I’m going to (perhaps foolishly) be a Pollyanna and consider ours half full in this case.
We do almost nothing but :30 broadcast commercials… and have been blessed through the years that most of our clients realize the value of advertising. Fortunately only a small percentage of ours tend to cut back when economic times are tight… the rest tend to stay pretty much the same or see the value in advertising more, not less, when the economy takes a downturn. We have managed to see continuous almost perfectly-steady growth that doesn’t seem to mirror the national economy all that closely… and I know several colleagues with similar businesses in other markets that have seen the same.
In a variation on the “If you build it, they will come” attitude, I think if you do excellent work and give your clients great service… then a lack of work is not going to be a danger. There are zillions of production companies out there and if you are like me you watch tons of other people’s reels… and while some are great, sadly the vast vast majority of them are simply not very good (the same is true for almost any business). I’d say step one would be to make sure your work is as near the top of the quality heap as possible, and you will not be lacking for work. Of course it will fluctuate… sometimes our production boards are full far in advance and sometimes not as much so, and sometimes the waiting list for clients is fairly lengthy and other times not as much… but it all tends to even out in the wash.
As to “What can one do?”, I’d suggest first taking a close look at the companies you serve, pinpointing the ones that keep production budgets fairly irrescpective of economic factors, and work as hard as possible at maintaining and increasing your relationship with them in particular. As for those clients that may be expected to bail during tough times, if you can’t educate them on the advantages of your work then don’t count on them as factors in the regular daily budget that you must make… but rather just as gravy when times are good.
Oh… and maybe don’t make any unnecesary capital equipment investments if the economic forecast seems gloomy. If you’d like a $50,000 new toy but only really need a $10,000 one, then go the cheap route.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well, fortunately the math isn’t too advanced…
First, determine the size of the breaker for the particular plugs you want to use.
Then… figure how how many amps your instruments that you want to use on that particular circit would be pulling…and don’t exceed the total amps for which the breaker is rated.
Watts / Volts = Amps
(Or expressed another way Watts = Amps x Volts, or
Watts / Amps = Volts)So, if you have a 1K instrument on a 110v circuit, then as you’ll see that instrument is pulling about 9 amps.
Calculate it all up and see if your breakers can handle what you need. If you need more light output than those can handle, one option would be to go with fluorescent fixtures (Kinoflos, etc.) instead of tungsten. Another option would be HMI fixtures, but now you are getting up into real real money.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Randall Raymond] “Be aware that smaller agencies are usually pitching print.”
Hmmm, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Just depends on the agency. About half of the small agencies we deal with are print-heavy. Most of the rest split print/TV/radio. Two of the agencies deal almost exclusively with television and almost nothing else.
Even the print-heavy agencies, at least around here, know the value of television. They can produce tons of print ads, collateral, outdoor… but often their clients don’t feel “legitimate” until they see themselves on the boob tube. Maybe we are an anomaly, but arm-twisting has never had to come into play.
For those print-heavy agencies, if you are crafty enough you can actually use their “television ignorance” to your advantage. Those particular clients of mine know absolutely bupkus about television production…. and I like it that way, actually. They will pitch a project to me, and I will give them a projected budget based soley on what I think it will take to do the job. If I think a spot needs better (i.e., higher priced) talent, then I budget it. If I think a spot needs 35mm to be effective, that’s the price I give them. Some of them are great ad guys, but being very UN-television-production savvy they generally don’t question my decisions or budgets. Do good work for them, give them a great product with a great value… and they will come to trust your rates and your judgment.
As for mark-ups, that varies wildly too. Some mark our work up 10%. Some mark it up 100%. Some just pass it on, as is. One of our agencies actually sometimes just eats the production costs, because their spots are generally low dollar (<$5K) and the production cost is dwarfed by the amount they make on the media buy. It just depends on whom you are dealing with. I'd say go for it. Sure, you risk disappointment, but that's true in everything. As long as you are not letting any other paying work slide, it won't really cost you any more than the effort to pursue it. T2 __________________________________ Todd Terry Creative Director Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc. fantasticplastic.com
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Hey Wes…
I heard back from my buddy… what they use in their Educational Television studio is a SMART Board (https://smarttech.com)… I was only able to give it a quick look, and some of their products might do what you need, but I’m really not sure. Seems as the ones that I saw (mind you, I just gave it a quick look) were mostly for drawing on computer-based output screens (VGA displays, etc.). I’m not sure if their products will actually draw on top of a “regular TV” image… but they might.
They are at least worth checking out to see if that’s looking in the right direction. Their systems seem to start at a few thousand dollars and go up.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[joel jackson] “yeah she’d be great if you need a 13 year old girl with braces!”
Oh we’ve got those coming out of our ears… dang stage mothers!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[joel jackson] “Would you suggest sending them to the web to see samples of work”
Not if you want them to call you. 🙂 Well, they might (there’s a reason we all have websites), but if you can get a face-to-face with a person they are much more likely to see your work, give it the “Let’s throw the reel in and see what you’ve been doing” treatment. Just my opinion.
[joel jackson] “By the way, I see you’re in Huntsville, my daughter lives there.”
Yup, Rocket City, USA. She wouldn’t be an actress, by any chance?… we are always casting.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Joel…
I’m in a similar situation, or at least we are in the situation that you sound like you are trying to get yourself into….
We do mostly local/regional broadcast commercials… and while some of them are created directly for the advertisers, the vast VAST majority of them are done for agencies.
I would say pick your targets carefully… I’d say the medium-to-smallish agencies are the ones to hit. We work for about 10 agencies, I guess… most of them have about 5 to 15 employees, handling mostly local and some regional accounts (no BBDO by any stretch). We’re talking clients like area hospitals, banks, attorneys, plastic surgery groups… and yes, car dealers (fortunately one of our agency clients produces fairly nice higher-end car spots… not “screamers and dealers”).
In a smaller agency that size it might not be that tough to just pick up the phone and make an appointment to see the exact person you need…. which will probably be the agency’s Creative Director. At a giant agency you would have a hard time getting to that guy or gal… but in a smaller one it’s likely possible. Try making an appointment and show your reel… or ask if you can take them to lunch or out for a drink after work. Most ad guys won’t turn down a free meal 🙂
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com