Disappointment

[Chad Stockfleth]

Recently I shot a spot for a local company that I was very proud of. SDX900 with Zeiss digiprimes, Fischer 11 dolly, nice lighting setup...an all around good day. I thought, wow, if only they all went so well.

 

The unfortunate thing is, we didn't edit in-house. They sent it to another post place.

 

So yesterday, i see the spot on air. Yikes! It was shot in 16x9, but shown squished to 4:3. Also, they had dubbed it to mini-dv from the DVCPro 50 and all my nice highlights were EXTREMELYY over-exposed on air. Such a shame. I thought this would be a demo reel piece (and it still may be as we are going to do a re-edit for ourselves) and it turned out to be something I'm kind of embarassed of.

 

Just thought I'd share this experience. ;-)

[Ram Shani]

you have nothing to do

 

i had the same exprience with a camercial i shot me and the director went for almost B&W photography

 

thr presantion to the office and the client was like that thay love it!!!!

 

after finish shooting and edit in the post house we showed it to them and all the same the clint wife didnt like the look so we had to change it by using affter effect and grab same skin color that left there and it aired like that so its happend all the time i learn my lessen and now i will give more of a clean image with alittel bit shift to the look i want or at the end of a shooting day the last take or two of the last shoots i give the look i think is best for the commecial

 

and deffently not crushing the black

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rc0MwoPda0

 

you can it look at it if you like on this link

Edited June 22, 2006 by ram shani

[Michael Nash]

It happens. It's almost a given you won't be able to use the final cut for your demo, at least with commercials.

 

Sometimes these problems are technical down the line, and there's nothing you can do about it. Have you ever run across the same infomercial running simultaneously on two channels? It's interesting to toggle between the channels and see how the same shot can vary so much in color, contrast and noise when it's broadcast.

 

I've got some of the original footage of a music video I shot awaiting the new cut of my demo, since the final cut of the music video is almost 100% unusable they buggered it up so bad.

[Rik Andino]

Well the first thing you've got to remember is it's not your work.

It's their work and they just hired you to do it.

 

When you work in the service industry

You have to remember the client is always right.

And as long as they're happy you should feel good--

You satisfied the person writing you checks so you might get some more work later on.

 

When you're shooting your own personal project

Then you can concentrate on how you want it to look ultimately.

But as long as you're a hired hand you have to remember the final product is beyond your control.

 

That's the way some parts of the industry work

Get used to it if you want to shoot commercials, corporate vid, or music vids

You'll rarely have much of a say on any of those.

Welt it's a decent living...so welcome to the working world.

I hope the paycheck was worth it.

[Bob Hayes]

If the job is that important to you get a hold of the original footage and cut your own piece. If you like the way it was cut then use the original as a guide. Next time keep in touch with the post process and get a high quality copy before they dump it from the machine. This happens all the time. When you start shooting features it may be a year before you get a hold of usable footage.

[Jaan Shenberger]

as a professional, showing your own cut of your projects is not only common, but almost standard practice. almost everything gets watered down or stupified somewhere between the start of post and final sign off... not really any particular person/stage's fault, it's just part of the whole process. just be keen about it and try to get your own dub/copy of your footage at the earliest stage, like from the telecine house.

[Adam White]

I am sure this has been asked in previous threads but do you guys insist on a copy of the footage when you start work on a project? It sucks when a third party ammends your work, even worse when you cant get your original for your reel.

 

Ive had several instances of this with one production company and its got to the point where I either go in demanding copies at the start or treat the gig as a non-promo effort.

[Alessandro Machi]

I would insert wording into your contract that states you will receive a straight cut, unaltered digital copy of the edited commercial master. While this may sound outlandish, the reality is that ALL commercials should first be cut "normally".

 

From the normal version the colorized, posterized, black and whiteized, crushed version is then made. This is a logical work flow that ensures alterations can be made at any time from an timed original. Of course the timing and pacing may change as the look is changed, but that really isn't that big of a deal to fix as the "bin" should have every shot with generous heads and tails on them. It's during the video sweetening stage when these commercials should be altered, not on the actual original edit master. There are so many simple work flows that have been eviscerated as more and more people edit the way they want, rather than follow a community work flow that actually acknowledges that the post production house is not the only one that exists in the scheme of making a commercial.

 

If they give you grief about your request for an adulaterated edited master of the commercial just explain that the only reason you have a demo reel that they were able to use to select you is because others before honored your request.

[Andy Sparaco SOC]

If it were not for those pesky clients this would be a really good job!

 

A very good strategy is to

1) Film project: ask and pay for a lay-off to a 2nd deck or clone of a harddrive xfer. As we transition from video tape (which is dead!) to harddrive recording it is an easy thing to do

 

2)If you are shooting Digital video you might supply a portable firewire drive which you can present as a "backup". This is reasonable and shows you are thinking ahead. Of course at the end of the shoot you take it home , right! If you are using a Laptop as a Video Assist station this is easy to do it's just part of the kit.

 

Most folks still have not realised that recording to a harddrive is superior to recording to tape.

 

You can dump the digital files to DVD or flash drives should they want to use firewire drive.

 

You have to have a trusting relationship with the director or production company. There are ownership and copyright issues you have to dance around.

 

And I see an increasing number of NDA's being signed now so you can't even show the material without permission.