My 5 COW Posts
Re: Release form dilemma
by Mark Suszko on Nov 15, 2009 at 2:18:48 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
1 Yes, they would.
2 You are over a barrel on this. I'm sure you will not repeat this mistake, so lets let that issue drop.
As to deciding on a figure, there are many ways to go. The assumption...
Re: Studying for the business - looking for helpful advice
by Mark Suszko on Nov 5, 2009 at 10:27:27 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Internships are perfect for this, because you're getting academic credit and seeing how real-world practical experience fits into your "book larnin'". Many (but not all) internships can lead to full time work after graduation, so when you...
Re: Lighting a white background
by Mark Suszko on Nov 5, 2009 at 6:21:09 am
in the Lighting Design Pros Forum
You light the talent separate from the backdrop for most control. To me the issue is that you have to leave some headroom in your levels to go up from; if everything is at 100 IRE on the scopes you're...
Re: How to get the moving vector effect
by Mark Suszko on Nov 4, 2009 at 6:47:23 pm
in the Motion Graphics Forum
This looks like simply adjusting or re-drawing parts of the illustration so you have two slightly different versions, and rapidly cycling between them. There is an expression/effect in AE that can be used for getting the same or similar effect,...
Re: Shooting a conference in San Francisco, tips?
by Mark Suszko on Oct 23, 2009 at 2:08:26 pm
in the Indie Film & Documentary Forum
Well, go ahead and shoot some coverage of registration, that really is not much use except in a news-style report, though. Seems to me you want to shoot two things: a little news documentary piece, and a promo/commercial. The...
Re: Is this Avid worth selling?
by Mark Suszko on Oct 7, 2009 at 1:20:07 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
I came across a used gear broker's site in LA, and he had copious notes and opinions on Avids. "Uncle Geno" I think he was called. Seems like a nice guy.
His bottom line was that selling used Avids is a...
Re: Professional Video Editor
by Mark Suszko on Sep 30, 2009 at 11:08:11 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
James, Amazon.com is your friend; browse their used books and videos. I would suggest if you never got any formal Tv training, pick up a used copy of a college TV textbook, any edition of Zettl is good, I...
Re: Documentary editing with one camera
by Mark Suszko on Sep 30, 2009 at 4:39:56 pm
in the Art of the Edit Forum
All well and good, as far as it goes... however, I want to point out that film has spent the last 100 years or so building and establishing visual conventions of one kind or another, and while nobody is saying...
Re: New Legal Question
by Mark Suszko on Sep 25, 2009 at 9:44:51 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Cohen has it right: you can waste thousands on executing a bad (lazy) idea, or you can fix it with a 10-cent pencil and 1-cent sheet of paper. People don't spend enough time on the creation of a good, well-thoguht-out...
Re: Somewhat OT: Health Issues
by Mark Suszko on Aug 28, 2009 at 10:50:49 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Simple things:
Skip elevators and always use the stairs where practical. If you eat out for lunch, try to walk to the place as often as you can, instead of driving.
Cut soda and lose a pound a week, as well...
Re: When to insert B roll?
by Mark Suszko on Aug 17, 2009 at 12:16:56 pm
in the Art of the Edit Forum
He was asking me; I've been working in the field and too busy to come back to this. Frankly I thought someone else would step in, there's been a lot of good suggestions/comments so far.
Pick out a middle-length, simple declarative...
Re: client not paying - need advice!
by Mark Suszko on Aug 5, 2009 at 10:26:59 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
You won't have the time to waste on this in small claims, plus the time spending on the collection end if the judge finds for your side.
If the client posts to youtube, you can protest it as not legally belonging...
Re: Rules of thumb for new Producers/Editors
by Mark Suszko on Jul 22, 2009 at 9:24:04 am
in the Corporate Video Forum
(These are to be read in Michael-Westin-Voice-Over style as in the TV show " Burn Notice ")
In no particular order:
Always get the talent's business card, before they leave, or you will be re-doing their lower thirds forever.
Treat...
Ultimate sample typical contract for newbies
by Mark Suszko on Jul 13, 2009 at 11:02:58 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Template contract for typical beginners. Modify to your specific needs.
I, (name here) henceforth to be referred to as "the dummy", will contract to work on your ill-defined project for an unspecified amount of hours, with no limitations on how many...
Re: Graphic style guidelines
by Mark Suszko on Jun 27, 2009 at 12:32:45 am
in the Art of the Edit Forum
Coincidentally, I was going thru old files yesterday and came across a reprint from an old Kodak fact sheet paper called "Audiovisual Notes". The title was how to make legible slides, but the principles are the same as for what...
Re: music in corporate videos
by Mark Suszko on Jun 2, 2009 at 12:30:57 pm
in the Corporate Video Forum
Wall-to-wall music is a mistake, generally. Use it as a spice, not the entree. I like to have the same theme at the front and back title sections and credits. If you have chapters or sections, they can have a...
Re: Music for client--Pulling Hair Out.
by Mark Suszko on Jun 2, 2009 at 10:41:45 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
My guess about the delays to decide is that the project has too many bosses and none of them can agree, or none of them wants to take the responsibility for the choice if it turns out to be unpopular...
Re: Grant Money
by Mark Suszko on May 16, 2009 at 8:57:16 am
in the Indie Film & Documentary Forum
Try a google search for National arts + grants.
The other way these things may go is that block grants go to states, so check with your state's Arts Council about prospective new grant awards. If the state doesn't have an...
Re: An ad without a home
by Mark Suszko on Apr 1, 2009 at 5:16:55 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Do try to pitch it to a bank or credit union though. They don't advertise as often, but car loans thru them might be a good fit for the skeleton of this spot you have here. Making the car...
Re: Do I have to blur Canon Logo in Video?
by Mark Suszko on Mar 25, 2009 at 10:56:16 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/pdf/cspdcomicscreen.pdf...
Re: how to start a news channel - Brentwood
by Mark Suszko on Mar 18, 2009 at 2:38:20 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Well even the *real* 24-hour news channels don't fill all 24 hours with actual news . They mostly "wheel" the same handful of stories a couple times an hour, then "update" them, not by finding new content, but by...
Re: College degree really necessary ?
by Mark Suszko on Mar 18, 2009 at 9:36:39 am
in the Art of the Edit Forum
Well John, I wouldn't say it was *impossible* to get along doing as you propose; there are a number of people who are auto-didacts to one level or another, who make out okay. You could go take a short...
Re: Sticking to rates when you're poor and desperagte
by Mark Suszko on Mar 17, 2009 at 7:56:06 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Stick to your guns, Alison. Once you get a rep for low-balling prices, it is very hard to change that perception, and it becomes self-fulfilling; people won't consider you for bigger and better things, and the lowball stuff is all...
Re: Your employees: Rock stars or sheep?
by Mark Suszko on Mar 9, 2009 at 12:52:29 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Based on empirical evidence in my life I think the 80-20 rule applies to any "voluntary" group endeavor: 20 percent of the people in the organization get 80 percent of the work done, 80 percent of the donations contributed,...
Re: Editing: Experimenting or Papercutting?
by Mark Suszko on Mar 3, 2009 at 2:09:48 pm
in the Art of the Edit Forum
There are two kinds of basic editing technique, what I call additive and subtractive. In Europe, their tradition is more on the additive side, in the US, the tradition is more subtractive, though of course everyone does a bit of...
Re: The value of time
by Mark Suszko on Feb 25, 2009 at 8:53:05 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Absolutely, there is an extra charge for rush/emergency orders or orders outside of normal business hours. How much is up to you. I think your only real trouble is, these terms really need to be explained to the client...
Re: Editor's Resume
by Mark Suszko on Feb 13, 2009 at 4:35:28 pm
in the Art of the Edit Forum
Two main resume formats are chronological and functional. Of the two, I prefer and recommend functional, meaning a resume that gathers like tasks together regardless of their chronology. It also tends to hide gaps or other quirks in employment history.
A...
Re: Basic Agreement
by Mark Suszko on Feb 10, 2009 at 5:46:58 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
My 2 drachmas:
Define in your agreement who has the power to sign the bill and authorize payments, and make that person also the one that authorizes any changes once the project is under way. This will prevent a lot...
Re: First time to broadcast
by Mark Suszko on Jan 26, 2009 at 4:49:17 am
in the Broadcast Video Forum
Simply call the station/ broadcaster's engineering department or traffic department, tell them what you're doing and ask what their standards are. They may even post them on their web site.
At very least you are going to have to put up...
Re: Chromakey filter - realtime adjustments?
by Mark Suszko on Jan 12, 2009 at 7:16:41 am
in the Apple Final Cut Pro basics Forum
I don't drag the effect icon onto the footage, I use the menus at the top to apply the effect to a highlighted clip. Then I go to the tabs in the viewer and turn down the triangular "spigots" to...
Re: Shooting A Computer Application Tutorial
by Mark Suszko on Jan 11, 2009 at 1:25:56 pm
in the Corporate Video Forum
If the machine running the app is a mac, use Snapz Pro from Ambrosia. On a PC, Techsmith's Camtesia is the popular choice. These are screen-recording software and work really well. If the computer is using an LCD screen,...
Re: Hopping mad: cable co's putting PEG in ghetto spots
by Mark Suszko on Dec 18, 2008 at 12:38:25 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
I'll tell you why I am irked. I'll refer to some politics, but really that's not my main thrust here, not only is this not the place, but I don't think this is a left or right issue.
You know...
Re: Marketing & Promotion for Beginning Video Artist
by Mark Suszko on Dec 12, 2008 at 8:12:59 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
I liked your one art gallery commercial for Chasens, and it gave me the following thought.
If you are looking for some kind of overall direction, my initial impression is skip music videos and law commercials: you could do more youtube...
Re: Awards
by Mark Suszko on Dec 1, 2008 at 12:47:52 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
That's a brutal over-generalization, IMO. You're tarring all the awards with the same dirty brush. I've entered some before, paid my money and NOT won, so it is NOT automatically "buying" an award every time, in my experience. OTOH, you...
Re: Is Stock Footage a Viable Way For an Independent Artist to Earn Money?
by Mark Suszko on Nov 13, 2008 at 8:22:37 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
I think you have two kinds of stock sellers; one set that has some nice footage that rents out at a reasonable rate and thus brings a small but steady trickle, and a few that really specialize in unique stuff...
Re: Things I learned from a film student
by Mark Suszko on Sep 4, 2008 at 7:09:23 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
This is how it really went down...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5058529870025933880...
Re: Broadcast Formats
by Mark Suszko on Aug 20, 2008 at 7:51:38 am
in the Broadcast Video Forum
We're looking at this differently in my shop. For Standard Def dubs, we used to ship everything betaSp, one-inch spot reels, and Umatic 3/4 inch, according to station preference... and we still get the odd occasional order for a betaSp...
Re: Editing biographical documentary - creative advice needed
by Mark Suszko on Jun 18, 2008 at 10:14:24 am
in the Indie Film & Documentary Forum
You can tell it strictly linearly, or you could hop around. Some novels alternate chapters between characters and/or time periods, so one chapter/setting puts the next one in context. You could perhaps cut it like that too; putting parallel...
Re: Questions to ask before a video shut.
by Mark Suszko on Apr 9, 2008 at 11:37:51 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Well there are two separate sets of questions to be asked, after the number one question: "how much money we talkin' 'bout?"
Set one has questions all about the needs analysis: what the customer wants and needs to convey,...
Re: Dance Recital Question
by Mark Suszko on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Look, by no means do I claim the title of professional ethicist or legal counsel.
But a major rule of thumb to look at that has always worked for me is: "did any money change hands at any point?"
If it...
Re: hourly rate
by Mark Suszko on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Corporate Video Forum
Never charge using a flat fee. That way lies madness. Always establish an hourly rate.
You can use other folks in your area as a guide, but the first step is to calculate what it is costing YOU to edit,...
Re: Clients Can Be Dangerous
by Mark Suszko on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
One of the perks of the sheer variety of work I do is I get to peek in on many other people's specialties. I have worked on video programs about domestic violence and abuse before, and listened to the experts...
| COW Posts I've Tagged
Re: Never Gets Old: Value for the Price
by Mike Cohen on Nov 3, 2009 at 7:36:09 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
I'm late to this party, but here is my answer:
Pay yourself first. Don't make your hourly rate the hourly rate you pay yourself. You have to figure your prices based upon your business staying profitable, not just you paying the...
Re: Any way to un-PAL a PAL tape in FCP?
by Jeremy Garchow on Oct 9, 2009 at 1:47:25 pm
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
So that camera shoots 50p, so you need to put the deck in the 50i/25p mode which should be on the sys freq menu. Also, take the tape out when changing the sys freq....
Re: hooking up an edit system
by Bob Zelin on Oct 9, 2009 at 9:00:01 am
in the Broadcast Video Forum
your feedback issues may be unavoidable with your limited budget. If you take a VTR output, and send it into a mixer's input, it works !. If you take the output of the mixer, and send it back...
Re: Station & Cable System TV Spot Issues
by Todd Terry on Aug 5, 2009 at 6:55:34 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
We have struggled with this same problem for years and years... commercial spots leaving our facility looking pristine... yet look like absolute crap on the air.
We've begged. Bargained. Pleaded. Yelled. Met with engineers at television stations...
SD is Dead...Long Live SD
by Mike Cohen on Jul 9, 2009 at 3:48:36 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
The Real World
SD is far from dead. In the broadcasting world is one thing. But in the corporate world we have a way to go. Corporations cannot upgrade 2000 computers every two years.
I have had clients, first ask me...
Re: Music for client--Pulling Hair Out.
by Franklin McMahon on Jun 2, 2009 at 12:51:54 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Part of the problem is it seems you are not charging for your search. If that is the case, then you will go another 25 hours, maybe 50. The reason they are saying "keep looking" is because they have no...
Re: Music for client--Pulling Hair Out.
by Franklin McMahon on Jun 3, 2009 at 10:21:35 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
There are 4 stages of career levels most creative people go through.
1. Paid Hourly $
You punch a clock and are paid via time
2. Paid for Talent $$
You get paid for your talent and technical skills
3. Paid for Ideas $$$
You get...
Re: Defining your customers
by Ron Gerber on Apr 24, 2009 at 6:02:24 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
When I meet with clients and they want to target everyone, I try to find out who are the customers that would make the biggest difference to their business and focus the message to them. To the point where...
Re: problem is finding the clients.
by Timothy J. Allen on Apr 10, 2009 at 7:28:18 am
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Mahesh,
Do you have a certain area of expertise? I don't meant videography versus editing or graphics or audio expertise, I mean what can you offer to a certain type of customer that puts you above their other potential choices?
For instance,...
Re: Client conundrum
by John Davidson on Apr 4, 2009 at 12:00:34 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
Who is the worst editor you've ever seen in your life? Refer them to him.
John
Magic Feather Inc....
Re: Alternative simpler than DVD @ccess?
by Michael Sacci on Nov 14, 2008 at 10:03:22 am
in the Apple DVD Studio Pro Forum
Just add the folder via the DVD-ROM content on the inspector when the disc is selected (click on the empty gray part of the graphical window.)
Then it is not a bad idea to put a menu page on the...
Re: hourly rate
by Mark Suszko on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Corporate Video Forum
Never charge using a flat fee. That way lies madness. Always establish an hourly rate.
You can use other folks in your area as a guide, but the first step is to calculate what it is costing YOU to edit,...
Re: Clients Can Be Dangerous
by Mark Suszko on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Business & Marketing Forum
One of the perks of the sheer variety of work I do is I get to peek in on many other people's specialties. I have worked on video programs about domestic violence and abuse before, and listened to the experts...
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