Trey Gregory
Forum Replies Created
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Ryan-
You’ve got a great point! I completely agree that you need to be able to provide a client exactly what they need ASAP. We are fortunate enough to have several very large, very well stocked rental houses in our city, which allows us to provide our clients with any camera, any format, pretty much ANY gear they could request, within 30 mins of the call. AND, as you said, this is critical to clients coming back. I’ve found that clients don’t care if we rent or own the gear, as long as it’s there when they need it. HOWEVER, as you pointed out, renting gear cuts into profit…..which is the absolute pits. Profit is king.Best of luck!
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
Ryan-
There are plenty of kinds of jobs beyond broadcast and corporate, but in my opinion what is going to help your company more than anything else, at least in the beginning, is having VERY LOW OVERHEAD. Small shops need to be nimble in terms of expenses in their first years.
You mention getting the backbone of the company in place, using SAN, HD gear, etc. Will you really need these big-ticket items to start the company? You mentioned some big-names where you worked before, so you may have work lined up already that will require that you get all that gear right away.
But if you don’t already have clients lined up that will require all that high-end equipment you mentioned, I would advise you to purchase the equipment when you have the clients in place to support it. You can always rent equipment.
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
This sounds sort of fishy to me, you should definitely be cautious going forward with this situation.
Without knowing any of the details of you and your client’s relationship, I would advise you to stay on them. Call every day till you get results. Obviously you want to be friendly and cordial, you don’t want to wreck the relationship. Just make sure that they know you want to resolved the situation quickly. You can also offer to help with some of the legwork on your end too, if there is anything that you can do from where you are.
Just be cautious, if the client’s story starts to change, or he gives you excuses for more than a few weeks, you might have a problem on your hands.
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
I’ve heard a LOT of great things about Studio Suite 8, but that program will cost you a pretty penny.
If you are looking for a very cost-effective way to track your projects, I’ve found that iCal, MacMail, and the Address Book (in conjunction with quickbooks) is all we really need to have a networked calendar in which we can track equipment, shoots, post-schedules, A/R, and A/P. It’s works great for us, and we’re a small shop.
Entourage works just as well if you are using PC.
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
There have already been some very useful suggestions for the production! So I’ll just throw out a quick suggestion for the post-production.
For our large projects, we charge by the day for post, but we always include an hourly rate for client changes to the final product. With something like a football game, there may not be ANY changes, but it’s helpful if you inform the client ahead of time that changes to the final product are not free. (Note: I am talking about taste changes here, not fixes, those you should always do for free)
And I want to echo Bill’s notes. Don’t forget to add in blank media, tapestock, mileage, etc. These things can add up and will cut into your profits.
Good luck! Hope the deal closes!
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
Grant-
“My problem lies now in marketing my services to new clients. I have the references, the reel, and a tangible amount of experience considering, I need now a general direction to throw myself. ”
Throw yourself at EVERYTHING and keep at it. This industry has a LONG sell cycle most time, particularly in freelance work. Be enthusiastic and VERY aggressive. It’s a competitive market, you need to stand out and be the 1st person they think of when they need video.
“Also, kind of unrelated but I would also still like to know how freelancers, designers, and agencies get those really big projects (Station Idents, MTV Spots, et cetera). Way out of my league, but still curious just the same.”
Most station Idents….”You’re watching Fox 35…” are done by the promotions department of your local affiliate. Any of the Network ID’s are usually done by the net’s corporate promotions dept. MTV’s promos are mostly done in-house as well. I have a friend who used to work as a promotions producer at MTV, she told me that there were a few companies that they worked with for graphics, but that about 90 percent was done in-house. This was several years ago, so things may have changed there since she left.
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
Thanks T2!
Great info!
Your booth area sounds like a trip! Very creative way to do it, and not too expensive either.
A few other questions have popped up:
What is a good price for a booth at a show? How is the price calculated and how do you know that you are getting a good deal?
Best-
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
Ed-
There are 2 main ways to pay people from your company. Unless you want to take out and pay taxes for your web designer, I would recommend paying them as a contractor. To do this, you need to do the following.
1. Have them fill out a W9. (like Walter recommended) We do this for ANYONE we pay, even if it’s only a small gig.
2. Write them a check and keep tabs on how much money you pay them.
3. At the end of the year, before Jan 31st. Get the total of all the contractors that you paid. If you paid any 1 of them more than $599.00(for the year 2008) the government requires that you report the payment of that contractor when you do your taxes.
4. Send a 1099-misc to all individuals who you paid more than that year’s threshold.
A few things to keep in mind. If the person you are paying has an EIN and not an SSN, then you DO NOT have to 1099 them. They are responsible for reporting their own income to the gov’t and it’s no longer your problem.
That being said, we use an CPA to prepare and pour over our books at the end of each year….I would recommend you do the same, even if you just have them look over your work and double-check it.
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
Craig-
Try converting your clips from the HDV codec to ProRes(HQ) @ 1920 x 1080.
I’ve noticed that if you try to color correct hdv clips in their native framesize 1440 x 1080 Color tends to worsen the already bad compression artifacts that are an unavoidable part of using HDV (even with the gain @ -3db) It’s sort of a hassle to convert all the clips, but we’ve been getting better results in Color with HDV footage using this workflow.
Also, you may want to try using the Noise Reduction features in the Custom Preset on your camera. Hook your camera up to an HD monitor and shoot in low-lite while messing with your NR settings until you find one that will minimize the noise.
You can’t adjust the bit-depth on the camera, it comes capable of shooting only 8-bit. I’ve hear some debate that if you use the HD-SDI out on an XL-H1 and feed it into a deck that can record in 10-bit then you can get a 10-bit signal…I’ve never tried this, nor can I speak to the accuracy of the statement, but I’ve read it on the internet…..and why would the internet ever lie?T
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com -
Wanted to follow up on this conversation with some pictures from our shoot.
First of all, the shoot went fantastic! The client was happy and the final product came out GREAT!
The mini35 adapter is an great tool. Having that shallow DoF really makes the shots pop.
A few things you warned me about that I experienced:
1. You were right about the monitors, we rented an 8 inch HD monitor for the shoot, it was good enough, but we definitely could have used a monitor twice that size to REALLY see the picture, and properly check the focus.
2. The Digital tape measure was a life saver!!!! Thanks for that tip! We brought along “The Cinematographers Handbook” which had all the DoF charts that we needed.
3. Lighting lighting lighting – lighting with film lenses is a whole different ball-game. It took a little getting used to, but we got the hang of it after getting the 1st shot in the can.
Here is a small sampling of what we shot.
Our “High School Students” in the hallway of Statesboro High School
More of our “Students” passing notes in class
The main character of the Alumni spot takes a break from eating donuts to answer the phone.
Thanks again for all your tips, they really made things run smoothly for us!
Cheers!
Trey Gregory
ECG Productions – Atlanta
HD Production and Post
https://www.ecgprod.com