Work offer from India?

Work offer from India?

on Aug 7, 2009 at 5:57:56 pm

Hello. I and a friend have both received an emial from

parthasarathy.hariprasad@gmail.com

asking for a bid on some Bluescreen work on stills. This person says they are from Mumbai, India and wanted to get a rate and close the deal same day. The website on his account looks legit:

http://lighthousemumbai.com/

We think he got our info from the Cow since we are both members here. Has anyone else been contacted or worked with these people?

I didn't know which forum to post in but figured this was a "business decision" kind of a topic.

Thanks

Chris Heuer
Freefall FX, LLC

Re: Work offer from India?

on Aug 7, 2009 at 5:59:44 pm

To legitimize this a bit more, What are the implications with working with businesses outside of your native country? Currency conversion, contracts holding up, legal recourse?

Thanks again

Chris

Chris Heuer
Freefall FX, LLC

Re: Work offer from India?

by Franklin McMahon

on Aug 7, 2009 at 6:42:17 pm

I am interested to hear members thoughts on this, I seem to be getting "pitched" by more producers in other countries than my own lately.

Frank

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Re: Work offer from India?

by walter biscardi

on Aug 7, 2009 at 6:54:55 pm

If you go over to the Final Cut Pro forum, you'll find Neil Sadwelker as one of the hosts who is based in Mumbai. You might want to contact him and ask his opinion of the company.

With any new client, they are required to pay before the final material are delivered. So in the case of these shots, I would have a watermark right down the center of the screen for all approval shots. Once payment is received, they receive the full resolution, clean images.

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Re: Work offer from India?

by Nick Griffin

on Aug 7, 2009 at 8:14:28 pm

I've recently had a couple of incidents of "sticker shock" with a European-based company. I believe it came down to using union on-camera talent and licensing real music in addition to the fact that a 2 man crew seems to get paid more here than what they we're used to. I mention this as a caution because, ESPECIALLY with third world countries where labor is typically MUCH, MUCH less expensive, you might run into serious issues with these folks. "You want HOW much?!?!?" may very well be the response you get.

Certainly GET A DEPOSIT and GET PAID IN FULL by bank wire transfer before releasing final materials. Over the years I've been screwed over (or the attempt has been made to screw me over) by people from many parts of the world, so I can say from experience that the legal distances provided by international borders CAN bring out the worst in some people.

Re: Work offer from India?

by Bob Zelin

on Aug 10, 2009 at 11:23:19 pm

Walter's is the best advice. Neil Sadwelker is one of the "top 10" of Creative Cow - a REALLY bright guy, and he seems like he knows the Mumbai market (as well as everything else). This is probably as close to a reference as you can get off of Creative Cow.

Bob Zelin

Re: Work offer from India?

on Aug 11, 2009 at 12:16:18 am

Thanks for the replies. All great information and solutions. I haven't heard from them in a few days. We'll see what happens!

Thanks, Chris

Chris Heuer
Freefall FX, LLC

Re: Work offer from India?

by Neil Sadwelkar

on Oct 5, 2009 at 1:58:21 pm

Chris,

I only just came across your post and the kind recommendations from Walter and Bob. I know its rather late, but did you make any headway with Lighthouse?

Actually I didn't get whether they wanted to get some work done from you, or you from them. But any way, did you do business with them and what was your experience?

You can even mail me off the list on
neil at sadwelkar dot com

-----------------------------------
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

Re: Work offer from India?

on Oct 5, 2009 at 2:38:34 pm

I did not end up working with them. (they wanted me to composite photos for them) I asked for some details like final delivery format and resolution, they got some answers back to me and were working on others when the trail went cold. I figured one of their other inquiries took the job first.

I see you are in Mumbai. Do you know of them? The work seemed cool. the approach was just different enough that it seemed off.

Chris

Chris Heuer
Freefall FX, LLC

Re: Work offer from India?

by Neil Sadwelkar

on Oct 5, 2009 at 3:34:01 pm

I am in Mumbai, and work with or have worked with most of the post houses out here. But I haven't come across this company. Possibly because they seem to have a rather deeper print background.

We have a busy movie industry here. As well as VFX animation CGI etc. I spend most of my waking hours in a large post house servicing clients here - DI, VFX etc. And TV commercials post as well.

We also have a company in London which does the overseas work that we snag. In fact, we actually 'reverse outsource' work from here to London. That's why I got interested in knowing how your experience was in this direction.

-----------------------------------
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India