Gotta Love This One

How to price a video... It's always a tough call. My on-going joke is: It's like asking "How long is a string?". Obviously, the answer is it could be anywhere. Usually a prospect calls and asks how much it costs to do a video. After biting my lip, I go through this explanation. What they're really saying is 1) they have no idea where the pricing ballpark is, and 2) they want you to say a number first so that if you're foolish enough to cut your price to the bone, they may take you up on it.
More on all of this in a later post.
My biggest laugh today was when a law firm emailed me and said they wanted to do a short video for their website, but two things: 1) they wanted it very professional, and 2) they wanted it very cheap! Duh, yeah, sure... I just emailed them back... "Hey, that's exactly the way I shop for an attorney!"

Where is Indy moviemaking going now?

Just when you thought was getting good....The old rug pull! Latest info from the film markets is the fewest number of indy movies are being pick-up... and for the lowest prices. Why? Simply because there is now a glut in the marketplace. The very things that made it easier for all of us to make good looking movies, i.e.; Hi-Def cameras like the Sony EX1 and fantastic editing systems like Final Cut Pro with the Studio II bundle, have also allowed a bunch of other folks into the pond. Many with marginal talent, yet they get to muddy the waters. I'm even reading posts where video guys are bemoaning that falling marketplace and saying they think they'll get into feature moviemaking as a what to make some money?!?! What? That's truly a grasping at straws. Let's see... you have falling income now, so let's go out and spend, spend, spend on a high risk venture that has a history of not making the investment back? Duh... Yeah, that's the ticket! And there's the message. From the outside, moviemaking looks profitable, but I ask you, who do you know in Sacramento that has made "profit" from making movies. Maybe one or two I can think of, but that's it.
Now I didn't say I'm going to quit making movies. What I am saying is, I have to be even more careful on the budgets in order to even have a chance to make a profit. I'm not going to look at those inflated $750k to $2million budgets because if I have to self distribut (which is most likely going to be the case), I pretty much have guaranteed I'm going to have a substantial loss. My thinking is to keep the budgets around $80K to $150K and I might have a chance.

Piano Disc Product DVD

PianoDisc was in this week doing another DVD production. These are essentially "music videos". But rather than a single extremely over produced song, PianoDisc does a whole album of material. The purpose is to produce a product that they sell to their customers of their "customized" grand pianos. The pianos are outfitted with an electronic device that essentially converts them into "player pianos". Then they are hooked up to a High Definition DVD player where the customer can see the music video, but the sound is, in fact, coming out of the piano! So you're getting a personal performance on the piano in your living room and are able to see that performance on your big screen TV. Quite a product...but alas, only if you have the money!