Friday, May 6, 2011

Why I Decline (most) Offers to Create Video Content


   
   Do you recall this episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Rob and Laura hired this famous "colorful master painter" to paint the interior of their home?

The year was 1963 and The Dick Van Dyke Show was in it's second season.


Fast-forward to 1990. I am entering to my first season of being a freelance cameraman and director of photography.

Throughout the 90's, budgets were big in all things film and video. With those big budgets came ample time to do the work. If there was a pressing deadline, clients and production cos had no problem paying a premium. The bar was high; quality was not only expected, it was demanded. If you failed to meet deadline you were out. If your creativity wasn't fresh and better than the competition's, you were out.

Through times like this, you grow and expand. Skill sets evolve, different revenue streams develop; workflow adjusts and re-adjusts with the ever-changing dance of hardware/software improvements with creative tone and manner.

All of this began to change when desktop video workstations became affordable in conjunction with Sony releasing the DVCAM format in the late 1990s. It took a couple of years for the effect to be felt across the production board, but what happened is that because quality production hardware itself became more affordable, more people dove into it. With more people in it, the bar lowered, costs were in a downgrade.

This happened again with affordable high definition production coming onto the scene a few years later. A couple of years after that, DSLR HD video and affordable 3D hit the scene. That brings us to present where now, full-format digital 35mm video cameras (awesome images 4x the size of HD) are affordable and available at B&H Photo.

With each progression of technology, there tends to be a downward trend for a) cost; b) deadline and c) expectations. Because of this, labor is getting cheaper and younger (greener). Clients can now base quality on meeting the immediate deadline under their budgets. If the project happens to look great and make sense, that's icing on the proverbial cake. If the video runtime is under one minute, then well done faithful servant.

Recently, a colleague tweeted this which appropriately sums up the last three paragraphs:

Cheap gear has produced cheap labor, which has, in turn created cheap clients.

What does this have to do with that episode I mentioned in the first 'graph (written by Carl Reiner) aptly titled "Give Me Your Walls"?

Well, I'm not comparing myself to any master painter by any means. But I am saying that, like with anything else, quality does need a bit of time.

Vito Scotti as Vito Giotto in
Give Me Your Walls, 1963
That painter lived with the Petries for weeks. He was a craftsman that poured over every detail and was proud of his work (and he wanted a free place to live, another irony). Rob and Laura just wanted the walls painted.

Like a great painting, Story takes time to produce and unfold. Telling a great story with great connecting images takes time. Cramming all of that in a two minute YouTube clip for upload tonight takes talent and time (not to mention a stable broadband connection). Time is money; clients and agencies seem to have neither these days. So basically they settle with what they can get for their money: thrown-together content that may or may not make sense; content that may or may not look great; content that's all eye-candy and no protein. That's acceptable today and it's a travesty.

By the end of part two of Give Me Your Walls (yes, it was a two-parter), Rob Petrie told the guy to just hurry up and get out. And in the past three years, more often than not, digital media projects that come my way have one main criteria from the client: hurry up and get it online.

With labor rates well below what they were in the 90s and expectations well below that, I am fine with turning down immediate-delivery, run-of-the-mill projects in hopes that there is someone, anyone, any company, any agency out there that demands quality, honors story, is respectful of deadline and has a reasonable budget based on this criteria. If this is you, let's talk- I eagerly await.





on Hulu:

Monday, March 7, 2011

Is Ebay a Remarkable Communicator or WHAT?

  As sort of a hobby, I tinker with selling on eBay. It's relatively fun. I get to lighten the household load and the stuff goes for considerably more than it would at a yard sale.

Occasionally, I have the basic non-payer. These come in the form of people who somehow manage to win an auction "accidentally",  want an item shipped BEFORE they can pay or they simply do not communicate at all, which includes not paying.

Now, being in the communications business, I was surprised, mortified and really, horrified when I received this verified email from eBay regarding a recent non-payment issue I had with a buyer. The writing is so terrible that I completely dismissed the fact that somebody in Nigeria was trying to rip me off.

With so many people out of work and so many people (myself included) looking for work in communications, HOW can eBay justify having writing like this go external?
________________________________________________________________

From:         eBay Customer Support - rswebhelp <rswebhelp@ebay.com>

Subject:  Re: FR%T00073 Buyer Check or Money Order

Date:       March 6, 2011 9:45:08 PM PST

To:            Duane Conder <dconder@mac.com>
Hello Duane,
Thank you for writing to eBay regarding to your buyer who wants you to
shipped the item before paying. Duane, I appreciate your effort in contacting us about this issue and I'm glad to assist you with this and by the way, good to see that you've been a member of eBay for quite some time now. We value your business with us.
Now to address your concern and for your future reference, I would
suggest that you need not to shipped the item if your buyer wants you to
shid the item first before he/she can pay for the item as this might be
dodgy buyer. Please understand that the correct process of transaction
in eBay is for the buyer to pay for the item first before the seller can
send the item.
Moving forward, after I have reviewed your account on file I could see
here that your Final Value Fee as well as your listing fees for this
item has been credited back into your account.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Regards,
Rich Q.
eBay Customer Support Team
__________________________________________________________

Whether Rich Q is a person in a support center in a far-away land or a 'bot on a server, there's clearly some training (or programming) to be done. English Grammar, syntax, spelling. All the basics. And eBay, seriously?...


You're a multibillion dollar corporation and this is the best you can do to quell my concerns?!

Again I stress to you, eBay, there's a lot of great communicators out of work.
Maybe it's time to hire a few.


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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Tammy Harper


As published on carlsbad.patch.com; Dec. 11, 2010

Still Keeping the Skies Safe: Tammy Harper

Meet a local mom who has experience refueling jet fighters in flight.


   Sometimes I don't even leave the neighborhood to find someone interesting to talk to. In fact, I didn't even leave my front yard when I met Tammi Harper who brought her two daughters over for a play date with my daughter.

While they played, we talked.

Born in Spain and raised in an Alaska town called North Pole, this unassuming lady, I find out, was stationed in France in 1999 and flew in Operation Allied Force. And she didn't fly in a tiny craft, either. She was the navigator aboard the Hawaii Air National Guard's KC-135 and was part of the team that refueled the 240 NATO combat aircraft in flight.

An air-to-air left side view of a 495th
Tactical Fighter Squadron F-111F aircraft refueling from a
KC-135E Stratotanker aircraft. Credit STAFFSGT.DAVIDS.NOLAN

Sometime before 1999 and while in flight school, she met her husband, Mike, a Navy P-3 NFO. After they married, he took an assignment in Hawaii, and Tammi relocated from the 49th state to the 50th. "They happened to have the KC-135 there, and that's what Alaska trained me to fly." She elaborates, "Alaska paid for my training but I took a job in Hawaii, and they just didn't like that too much." Nevertheless, she got to serve her country on an important humanitarian mission over Kosovo.

F-16 Fighting Falcons receive fuel from a
KC-135 Stratotanker.
CreditU.S.AirForcephoto/StaffSgtSuzanneDay


















Today, in the 31st state, and being in management and programming for the FAA at McClellan-Palomar Airport, Tammi helps keep the skies over Carlsbad and much of Orange County safe.

Tammi, Mike and their two daughters have lived in Carlsbad for four years and say they love it. "Carlsbad is a beautiful village, has a small town feel and there are ocean views all around," she says. "It's costly to live here, but we have a choice and we choose to live right here. We hope to retire here; we really hope to."


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