December 2009

Mingle Bells!

          Various local San Diego communications industry associations including MCA-I co-sponsored MIngle Bells 2009 on December 10th. Attendees enjoyed rubbing shoulders with peers, hanging with associates, and making some new connections in a casual nightclub atmosphere at Belo on E Street in downtown San Diego. Finger food, DJ music, Rock Band Karaoke and raffle prizes kept the evening entertaining. Tweeters could twitter and have tweets show up on the monitor behind the bar -- another fun feature to occupy the occupants. The event was great opportunity for creatives to let our hair down and hang loose right before the holidays. Be sure to put Mingle Bells 2010 on you calendar as soon as you learn about it.

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November 2009

Going Green With Your Productions

          The meeting started with a live video tour of the entire Groovy facility where Brent – followed by Jim Staylor with a camera and Jeff Underwood with a computer output to an almost live feed – explained and demonstrated the many measures his team has taken to make their production company eco-friendly and a certified green business.

To view the full meeting from the comforts of home, click here to watch our ustream recording of Brent's tour and the Q&A that followed.

Guests enjoyed delicious and sustainable pizza from Pizza Gourmet Express and vegetarian “Neatloaf” from Jyoti Bihanga. Jim Simcoe donated a free consultation as the big door prize. Broadcast Rentals donated use of their PA System. Thanks again to all who contributed to this green meeting.

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October 2009

Production Horror Stories

 Within a few days of Halloween, at the October San Diego MCA-I meeting a ghoulish gathering of production professionals shared our scary stories of projects gone wild. Among the accounts of crazy clients, atrocious actors, and funky freelancers was the best/worst story by Michael Brueggemeyer, about a union crew member who slept through lunch and then filed a couple grievances with the union -- one for a meal penalty because no on woke him up for lunch and the other for overtime since he was on the clock while sleeping through lunch.

In the medical profession they call events like our get-together "Morbidity and Mortality" meetings, wherein doctors get together to compare notes and learn from each other how to save lives and stamp out disease. This MCA-I meeting may or may not result in saved lives, but the ideas and insights gained from each participant's handling of the various challenges will certainly save us all some grief, time and money.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their stories and solutions. And special thanks to:

Alicia Eschwege of AliVega Studios for donating her studio space and for providing snacks and a raffle prize for our meeting

Broadcast Rentals for providing A/V support

Bill Bork of Lens Flair for organizing and Jim Staylor of Staylor-Made Communications for facilitating.

Additional raffle prizes were provided by TV Magic and Staylor-Made Communications.

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September 2009

MCA-I Member Showcase

Our “Members Showcase” was held on September 23rd, 2009 at Qualcomm’s theater on Lusk Blvd., where a good size group of members and non-members gathered to view some of the talented work that our San Diego MCA-I Members had to offer. The video offerings were shown on the large screen, with smaller screens around the room showing the evening’s program and presenters. The evening started with Networking, food provided by Broadcast Rentals, and good conversation. To his great surprise, our own Martin Banks received a “Shining Star” award in recognition of all he does to support our organization. Next, Sony Reps Jamie Raffone & Anthony Cianfarano showed off some of Sony’s new display equipment. Sony also provided MCA-I the use of one of their HD Projectors, allowing us to show our members work on both Blue-Ray and DVD. Master of Ceremonies Bruce Pechman, “The Muscleman of Technology”, kept things moving along, introducing each presenter and being the showman that he is!.

The presenters were as follows:

Special thanks go out to San Diego MCA-I Boardmembers Michael Stewart and Craig Bentley for setting up this event, along with help from Qualcomm’s Hank Moore & technical support by Bernie Gancarz of Broadcast Rentals, and our Master Of Ceremonies, Bruce Pechman, “The Muscleman Of Technology”. Last but not least, thank you to Qualcomm for the use of their great Theater and Sony for the use of their HD Projector.

2009 Media Showcase

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July 2009

No Meeting

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May 2009

Everyone knows that acquiring pristine audio and video is critical to the success of any project.  But what happens when your source material is less than perfect?  That was the subject of May’s San Diego MCA-I meeting - Fixing it in Post: Improving Mediocre Audio/Video Source Material.

The meeting started off with a vendor’s corner featuring Richard Crow talking about the new online database for feature films, conventions, television, conferences, commercials, exhibitions, concerts, tradeshows, corporate videos, documentaries, music videos called 360 LIVE. 

Since sound is 50% of the picture, the first presenter of the evening was Robert Mason.  Robert is owner of Doghouse Productions, a digital recording and post production company that specializes in words and sounds for film, video, and multimedia productions.  In his usual, easy-to-comprehend manner, Robert explained the complex physics of sound to the audience.  He went on to describe how understanding physical properties is critical to making good decisions when improving audio.  As part of Robert's presentation, he played a short snippet of dialogue that everyone agreed sounded terrible.  Utilizing some of the fundamentals he had explained earlier, Robert took unusable dialogue and turned it into something that was workable while the audience watched!

After Robert finished wowing the audience with his audio magic, Brian Kim, Creative Director of Groovy Like a Movie stepped up to the microphone.  Groovy Like a Movie is a San Diego based video production company with a mission to inspire people to think, feel, and do.  Brian described a range of video problems and mistakes that people make.  While there are many technical tricks and tools to improve a bad video source (including deliberately introducing noise, blur, or manual frame-by-frame touch-ups), the focus of Brian's talk was on being creative with your solutions; the most important tools in an editor's arsenal are their brain and their creativity.  Brian finished his talk by taking a clip of the Flinstones smoking cigarettes and turning it into something that could have been the opening to an "Adult Swim" style show.

Special thanks to Canon USA and Video Gear Rentals for providing raffle prizes, and Empire State Filters for providing the raffle grand prize.  Video Gear Rentals also generously loaned the PA system for the evening.

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April 2009

NAB Wrap-up / Favorite Gizmos & Equipment That You Can't Work Without

Along with pictures and video from the show floor, the following reps showed their wares:

Thanks to this month's vendor's corner, Peter Kreklow from Acme Lighting and Grip. Peter demonstrated the Comet LED lighting system. Keep Acme Lighting and Grip in mind for all of your lighting and grip supply needs!

Thank you to Brendan Wood and Empire State Filters. Again, Brendan came through with a large assortment of audio and video hum eliminator filters for our meeting! These filters are all hand made by Brendan himself, not mass produced in China, and provide the best filtering available at any price!

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March 2009

Don’t Let the IRS or a Bad Debt Bite You in the Butt: The RIGHT Information is Power!

The March Meeting of the San Diego MCA-I proved that lawyers and accountant types can be engaging and yes, even funny. The topic – Don’t Let the IRS or a Bad Debt Bite You in the Butt: The RIGHT Information is Power!"

About 40 members and guests, (plus a small handful of viewers watching the stream on the Internet) gathered in a comfortable and well-appointed conference room at Intuit. The social hour included a selection of delicious appetizers and an incredible chocolate cherry cake from Dinners by David.

Kicking off the meeting, a Vendors Corner featuring Barbara Lange from San Diego Audio Video Supply - AVS – who let the group in on some specials from Panasonic. AVS also provided some great door prizes including two back packs from IDX, ball caps from Williams Sound and playing cards from TV ONE. Other door prizes included TurboTax Business, and TurboTax Home and Business software from Intuit. President Jeff Gelder began the meeting with some introductions and turned over the reins to Connie Terwilliger who reminded everyone that the membership drive – March Member Madness runs through April. Not a member? Join today (or already a member, then get a friend to join) and be sure to put down the name of the member who referred you!

Our hosts did a brief presentation about a new product under development at Intuit – ExpensePro. Attendees had a chance to fill out a brief usability questionnaire to help improve the product. Try it for yourself at www.expensepro.com – Intuit is currently open to new users, and it’s free at this time. Here are a couple more free resources from Intuit.

 Promptly at 7:30 our first main presenter took to the podium. David Branfman – owner of the Branfman Law Group – after his typically amusing but entirely legal disclaimer talked about the importance of knowing when to hire a person as an employee or as an independent contractor. The new list from the IRS asks 53 questions to help you determine the status. Check the website for David’s handout which includes a copy of the IRS’s SS-8 – which will give you a better idea of what the IRS considers important in making this determination. While you may never have to fill out one of these forms, it will help you know if you should sell yourself as an independent contractor – or if you should hire someone as such. Pay particular attention to the questions in Part II – Behavioral Control and Part III – Financial Control.

After some great questions, David turned over the podium to Nikki Dell’Ara, San Diego Business Law – who, again after making sure that everyone understood that this was simply information and not legal advice, helped us understand the issues to consider when deciding to incorporate. She covered the differences between Sole Proprietors / General Partnerships, Corporations, and Limited Liability Companies – stepping through many of the advantages and disadvantages of each. While the main reason to incorporate is to limit personal responsibility, not everyone’s job/company would benefit from incorporation. In fact many small operations may find their best protection is adequate insurance. Each situation is different and should be carefully researched – including talking to tax preparers and accountants to look for unexpected tax consequences of incorporation or LLCs.

Special thanks go out to Mark Schulze for arranging for the speakers this month, Craig Bentley for forwarding the caterer’s information, Phil Ferrari for arranging the Vendors Corner and Bill Manning and Raegan Matthews for running the check-in table. And a special thanks to Bill Bork and Bob Gardner and Melanie Peters for helping videotape and stream the meeting.

2009 March Meeting

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February 2009

How to Deliver HD with Style and Grace to Clients Who Say They Need It

Our February meeting was held at Digital Outpost, and focused on delivering HD content your clients. With presentations by Doug Hyde and Maureen Sweeney from "SAFE", Eva Langer from TV Magic, and featured presentations by Brian Douglass from Digital Outpost, Rich Ford from Hot Sprocket Films , and David Scovel from Multimedia Production Group, we had a very full night. Door prizes were provided by Digital Outpost, TV Magic, MPG, and Val Reynolds from Sony. Food and Beverages were provided by Digital Outpost and Sony.

We started the meeting with SAFE Board Member Doug Hyde and Maureen Sweeney from Sweeney Media Marketing, Inc who talked about the upcoming SAFE fundraising event April 16. SAFE, the San Diego Advertising Fund for Emergencies (SAFE) provides financial aid in life crisis situations to members of the San Diego County advertising and production industry.

Eva Langer from TV Magic provided the vendor’s corner, and talked about the many services that TV Magic provides.

Connie Terwlliger detailed the International MCA-I membership drive, “March member Madness”. For the month of March, the top 3 MCA-I members who refer the most new members will be eligible to win prizes ranging from Adobe CS4 Production Premium software to a flat panel TV to a gift card from BEST BUY. the details can be found here.

Rich Ford, Editor, Post Supervisor & Co-owner at Hot Sprocket Films stepped in at the last minute to give a presentation on shooting and delivering High Def content for broadcast and on the web, after Rob Brambila from Promax came down with Strep Throat (we wish you a quick recovery, Rob!) Rich presented techniques and samples from experience with PBS High Def Broadcasting and gave compression tips for HD.

David Scovel, an account executive at Multimedia Production Group, presented the capabilities of the Spyder presentation system from Vista Systems Corporation. This video processing system can handle almost any input and project in an extreme wide screen configuration for seamless integration in a live presentation. David invited those interested to a follow up demonstration at MPG.

Brian Douglass, President of Digital OutPost, presented several examples  of Blu-ray video (projected using an HD projector system provided by Sony) developed for the United States Army. He also demonstrated his proprietary web based client access system, developed to allow clients online access to raw footage of recent shoots from anywhere in the world. Examples were also given working processes involved with HD, and some of the challenges of shooting multicamera for such clients as the US Army. After the meeting, Brian conducted tours of the facility.

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January 2009

The San Diego chapter of MCA-I kicked off the year teaching video pros how to be better at budgeting and bidding. Over 60 attendees enjoyed the fine catered food, powerful networking and exceptional educational content. Producer and MCA-I Board member, Jim Staylor facilitated a panel discussion with Account Manager Michael Finn of Script to Screen, DP Mike Kurtz, and Creative Director Cliff Pia of Millennium Creative Group. The presentation was both entertaining and enlightening. See below for notes and nuggets gathered by Jill Schrag of DV Creations (thank you.)

Special thanks to:

NOTES AND NUGGETS

Keep in your back pocket how much the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hour of overtime costs the client, then let them know in real time when you hit that mark what it will cost if they want to keep going. (If it’s our fault we’re behind, usually just eat the cost. Sometimes also eat it to preserve relationship.)

Always ask, “What’s the budget?” He who speaks about money first loses when it comes to budgets. Let them say the number first.

When the client asks for more than the scope of the work once the project is underway, ask, “If this is added, then what do you want to take out?”

Do a Project Orientation. Spend an entire day with the client and staff. Cover the 6 P’s:

Always include the date on agreements about scope of work, so that if things change later you can pinpoint that they changed after the agreement.

Don’t give away your creative before the contract is signed. Just whet their appetite, but don’t fully disclose your ideas. Give an overview. Can give them styleboards (images off the internet/magazines) so they can get a feel for how you would approach it.

Idea: keep proposals to 3 pages: 1 page overview, 1 page with a rundown or scope of work, and 1 page budget summary.

Always state what’s included (ex: number of days, number of talent, etc.)

And state what’s NOT included (duplication, travel, etc.)

If you aren’t a huge player with a known reputation, include testimonials to endorse yourself.

When you go into negotiations, you have to know in advance what number you’re ok with and not let it go below that number.

Two helpful tricks in dealing with clients: 1) Be able to say No. 2) If they’re really pushing you, just do not respond. The silence will push them to talk next, which can lead to a resolution.

Sometimes it’s good to drag out the process of bidding on a project (say, “let me get back to you”), so you can build a relationship (throw out ideas with each conversation, get connected relationally.)

Interview your clients. The more they talk, the better listener they think you are. They have a good feeling about the relationship.

Ask them about their job, find out the value of the project (then remind them of that value later when negotiating budget). These questions build the relationship.

Ask them about a job that didn’t go well, let them really relive that emotionally, then say “Would you like to know what we do so that doesn’t happen?”

Script to Screen charges $25K just for a creative meeting (before the contract is signed)—using their resources and staff. Plus it shows the client is serious. It’s part of the vetting process.

Include a line item in the budget for “variance”, aka “contingency”. Percentage depends on what’s appropriate for that project.

Budgets: get 50% up front when contract is signed (usually ends up being paid right before shoot), and 50% on completion. Others say get 50% up front, 25% at shoot, and 25% at completion. Try to have 70-80% of the money in hand by the time you’re in post, because it can be very difficult to get that last payment at the end.

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2002

2009