Walter Biscardi
Forum Replies Created
-
[Ronald Lindeboom] “Life kicks your ass sometime. Get over it. Suck it up and get on with it. Do something about it. Don’t take no for an answer. Build something. If it doesn’t work, quickly build something else.”
[Ronald Lindeboom] “Fight back or lay down…it’s your call.”
As they say in the MasterCard commercials. “Priceless.”
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Mike Cohen] “5. Refer to item 1 – print that one out and hang it on your wall.”
Yessir! That’s a good one!
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Neil Hurwitz] “Hi Walter,
I was referring to your post of June 17th, 2010 in which you said” One of the sweet things about Georgia is the 30% tax break for
the media industry and our expansion will be able to take advantage
of some of that”Your exact words, Not Mine”
Quite honestly a LOT has changed since then. Yes our expansion will still put us in a position to take advantage of any productions in this area that require Post Production, Sound Mixing or even just a Screening Room. We will not be able to directly take advantage of the tax breaks, but we might be able to bring in some productions looking for a Post location.
But since I posted that, we have had many changes in our production outlook for 2011 and 2012 that will change the way we approach those productions.
[Neil Hurwitz] “I am glad to see that your organization was able to get the ear
of your legislature and get some advantageous tax policy past.
Maybe you should hang up the post-biz and become a lobbyist?”That tax break was brought to bear long before I joined on to the group. The GPP has simply an amazing leadership team that has really done a LOT of good for the community.
[Neil Hurwitz] “Anyway I don’t mean for any of this discussion to be taken
personally and wish you the best of luck in your new spot.
How did the build out go?”It’s nearing completion and believe me, I know how fortunate we are to be in a position to even try to make a run at this.
[Neil Hurwitz] “My point was that the business is not expanding but that the pie
slices are getting sliced and diced smaller and diferently.”Absolutely. One of my biggest strategies in my entire 10 years has been my pricing model. It differs from just about every other production company and freelancer I’ve encountered and it works for us. We just take a different strategy that results in a much more stable, long term clientele.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[David Roth Weiss] “One need only go back in time to see the many times in past history when Walter has turned some poor Cow’s passionate plea for empathy into an opportunity to spout off about many new toys he’s recently purchased. And, ever since wiring Walter’s shop, Bob has become Walter’s wingman whenever someone takes offense and chooses to point that out.”
Sorry if my positive take on situations doesn’t fit with your doom and gloom philosophy. And Bob is certainly not anyone’s wingman, although with that wild head of hair I’m thinking he can get up to some serious heights.
[David Roth Weiss] “hopefully leaving this thread for more bemoaning of the Apocalypse, more sympathy, and more solutions.”
See that’s the thing. If you want to moan, look for sympathy and cry “what now?” then you’re done.
Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can complain about the situation you’re in, wonder why the old ways aren’t working, look for others who feel the same way as you do so you can all cry in your beer together. Have a nice moaning party and feel bad for each other.
Or, you can look at what’s going on around you, spot trends and adapt to what is going on. If you’re willing to adapt to changes, you have a fighting chance to survive. I simply refuse to complain when the entire business model I was planning to follow falls apart around me. I just create a new plan and keep supporting my clients and my production team the best way I know how.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Ronald Lindeboom] “One thing I know about Bob is that he knows more about this industry in his little finger than I do in my whole body. And like many here, he sees how greatly the industry has changed and in the number of phone calls I have had with him over the years, it is clear to me that Bob is all too aware of the pace of staggering change in this market and its affect on both who we are and what we can charge.”
What I love about Bob is he is involved with so many high end clients that he sees a lot of what works and doesn’t work. So he ends up giving me options and solutions I would never even think of.
The Ethernet based SAN is a perfect example. I thought I was going to be forced to spend boatloads on FibreChannel and then he tells me about this thing that actually works.
Without the Cow I never would have met the man and my business would definitely not be what it is without his continued expertise over the years.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Tim Wilson] “Of course, this was the wheel of karma. When we set up our shop for $100,000 all in — 1 computer, drives (I spent $15,000 for NINE GIGS), one BetaSP camera, one UVW-1800 deck (for my money, the thing that lit the fire on the NLE revolution: now we could actually DELIVER broadcast video), 2 computer and 1 broadcast monitor — and I could get away with $1500/day, this was a staggeringly low price that cratered my local market.”
See, Media 100 was my big saving grace in getting started in all of this. When I purchased my first one, I knew I could build four systems for the price of one Avid. I remember my boss in Connecticut specifying that I HAD to purchase Avids for our company and I asked her “why?” “Well why not?” Then I explained Media 100 and how not only was it cheaper, but had better codecs to boot.
We went with M100 and never looked back.
Now of course Final Cut Pro makes it so much cheaper than we ever imagined.
As for my attitude and all of that, just call me a glass half full kind of guy. We get one shot at this thing called life and I’m going to make the best of it, sink or swim.
If this fails, I’ll just go get a job as a short order cook….
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Neil Hurwitz] “How much “Incentives” you received to build in Georgia?”
Zero. Tax incentives don’t apply to Post Production. We’re paying for the entire build out of our own pocket. Well we will be for the next 20 years anyway.
[Neil Hurwitz] “How big was your suck at the public teat?”
Zero. We have not benefited from the tax breaks at all because we don’t do any production that falls under the guidelines and as I said above, Post Production does not fall under the tax breaks. So even if were editing any of the films or TV shows that are shooting here, we would not benefit from that.
[Neil Hurwitz] “Do you feel good about knowing that Interstate Warfare
has hurt your fellow workers in other states?”This “interstate warfare” was initiated by the Georgia Production Partnership. An independent group of media production professionals from all over the state (of which I am a member) that approached the Georgia Congress with the tax incentive proposal. The incentive is 20% tax break for production work that qualifies and an additional 10% if they include the Georgia Production logo in the credits.
Any production group in any state of the country could have come up with the same initiative. The GPP saw this as an opportunity to make good of a bad economy to give producers and production companies a reason to come here to do production.
Now other states in the area like the Carolinas are following suit with their own incentives and the SouthEast at the moment is a hotbed of production.
Do I feel bad good people are not getting work in other states? Of course, who wants to hear about production companies shutting down. But at the same time, I made a choice to locate my company here in Georgia from the get-go because the cost of living is so incredibly cheap here compared to New York where I’m from, Connecticut where I used to work and of course California where I might want to visit but never live.
So was the work “stolen?” No, not really. Georgia just made it worthwhile for studios and productions to come here. We have incredibly talented people in this state and incredible locations all around for shooting. It’s no different than all the “runaway” production that was hightailing to Vancouver, Canada for the longest time because it’s cheaper to shoot up there. Now in some cases, it’s cheaper to shoot here.
Eventually enough other states will have the same incentives and production work will move around the country. Those in this state who have built up their companies solely to support the tax incentive productions will go bust while those who build a well rounded client base will survive.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
That….. is…… AWESOME!!!!
Happy Holidays to you too Todd!
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Scott Sniffen] ” Can I back up the current Mac system HD to an external then do a clean install. Never done this wipe out thing. Do you start by reformatting the system drive? If so, I have the Snow Leopard disc and I assume it should install on a clean drive?”
Yes you can back it all up to an external drive.
Yes, you install the Snow Leopard Disc, launch the installer, and then you would choose “Utilities” in the top menu before you actually install SL. From there choose Disc Utilities and erase your HD.
Then do NOT simply drag all your applications and such back from your backup drive. Install everything clean from the original installers.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
-
[Scott Sniffen] “Having similar issues and yes I upgraded over the old version. Is there a recommended method to this?”
You have to erase your main hard drive and do a clean install of Snow Leopard.
Then run all Software Updates.
Then install FC Studio. If this is an upgrade version, it will ask you to enter the serial number of your original full version during the install process.
Then run all software updates.
Run it again to ensure it got everything, some updates require an initial update before it goes.
Then install all the rest of the your software. Run updates on each of them as they are installed and be sure to launch each one after its installed. This way if something crashes you know exactly what the last piece of software was that was installed.
If you have a Mac Pro, the easiest way to do this entire process is simply install another raw hard drive inside your computer. Do the entire Snow Leopard / Software installs to this new drive. This was if all heck breaks loose, you still have your original Leopard system still available to work.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.