Bill Cammack

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One of the things that makes me who I am as a video editor is that I can visualize aspects of the project that haven’t occurred yet. When I see a scene or a picture, I know how it will work (if at all) with other footage I’ve seen. When I hear something, I know what I can use it for. Basically, I create the video while I’m reviewing the footage and then I basically trace what I already saw instead of building a video from scratch and wondering whether it’s going to work or not.

There are a lot of elements that go into making a video that don’t become important until the final output, yet if you don’t pay attention to those elements ahead of time (known as pre-production), you may end up needing to re-do all the work you just did. Elements include frame dimensions (16×9 vs 4×3), frame size (in pixels), data rate, codec, font, font size, lower 3rds, drop shadows, transitions… For just one example, if your video is going to be seen @ 320×180 (width and height, in pixels), you’re going to want to deal with your font sizes differently than if you were going to present in 1280×720 HD (high definition). If you act as if you’re going to output in HD, you might have to change all your titles when the client sees them in 320×180, because they can’t be read.

The reason I bring this up is that this ability increases my efficiency. I know the questions to ask ahead of time so I don’t waste time. Also, I can see my way clear through to the end of the project. I can basically “see” the finished video as if I fast-forwarded time to when I was finished. This is because everything goes onto a “checklist”. If I know what the video dimensions are, I can visualize the size that the final output will be. If I know the font, I can imagine what the text will look like…

OTOH… If I *DON’T* know what the background color is… That becomes apparent to me in my visualization and I ask the client if they want to use a background image or they have a specific color in mind. Same thing for font color or music selection. I have a good basic idea of what’s missing and what I need to figure out ASAP in order to efficiently get the job done.

What does it look like when I don’t know an aspect of a project? It looks…. blank. It looks like nothing. I can’t really explain it. It’s just a lack of data. It’s like in the movies when they’re trying to solve a mystery and you flip to the page you need and it’s torn out of the book. You can’t visualize what’s on the page, because it’s not there, other than perhaps a torn border on the inside.

What do I do when I have zero information? If I’m working on something for a client, I’ll ask them, and the project can resume when they figure it out. If it’s something I’m supposed to be in charge of, then I have to go through the process of research and selection, similar to Time, Part 04: “Spend Your Money”.

The reason that post is called “Spend Your Money” is that there are some things that it’s not worth your time to do. In the time you wasted reinventing the wheel, you could have cleared your desk of other projects and invoiced clients for your time. In that particular case, I searched all over creation for a better solution than was presented to me by a professional and then ended up buying that exact same application anyway, AFTER wasting a bunch of time.

The way I felt when I was trying to find a better solution was the same way I feel when I have no information about an aspect of a project. It’s basically that you’re in the dark and have no clue at this point in time how you’re going to get from point A to point B. IMO, That’s the time that you want to subcontract:

Main Entry:
2sub·con·tract Listen to the pronunciation of 2subcontract
Pronunciation:
\ˌsəb-ˈkän-ˌtrakt, ˌsəb-kən-ˈ\
Function:
verb
Date:
1842

intransitive verb
: to let out or undertake work under a subcontract transitive verb 1 : to engage a third party to perform under a subcontract all or part of (work included in an original contract) —sometimes used with out 2 : to undertake (work) under a subcontract

The goal of subcontracting is increasing your efficiency on a project and most likely your ROI as well. For instance, I don’t do 3D Modeling. If a client wants a 3D model as a part of their video, there’s NO WAY I’m going to waste MY TIME figuring out how to do it and slooooooowly creating what the client wants with my lack of skill. Nope. I’m going to query people that I know that do that type of thing, check their availability, their interest, the date on which they feel they can deliver the video and how much money they would need to do that. If the client gave me a definite budget for that section, that will be one of the first things I mention so that if the number’s too low, whomever I contacted won’t waste any of their time thinking about a project they’re not going to do anyway.

If there isn’t really a budget for an addition to a project and there’s not going to be enough money for me to bring someone in that knows what they’re doing, that aspect of the project gets VETOED. Period. It’s not happening. “Your budget doesn’t allow for this”.

The reason you want to veto these things (and sometimes the entire project, if the client can’t understand budget constraints) is that in the time you wasted making that model, you could have finished the entire project using skills that are actually in your repertoire. Actually, there’s another option. Bounce it back to the client. “If you want this part done, have it done yourself and get it to me in 1280×720, Apple Intermediate Codec (or whatever) and I’ll cut it into the video.

On top of that, when you work more slowly and you’re not getting paid by the hour, the time you’re spending is becoming “worth” less and less to you and you’re decreasing your own rate. At the same time, if you ARE getting paid by the hour, I think you STILL want to subcontract, because a lot of customers return not only because of your pricing and attention to detail, but also because of your speed of delivery. I think it’s better to spend some of your project’s budget to get a better product than you would have delivered and get it way faster from someone who knows what they’re doing. Also, it’s good business. When you look out for people and pass them work, they’ll look out for you through passing YOU work they find out about that isn’t in their realm of expertise and also by going above and beyond to provide you with excellent work, completed on or before your proposed deadline.

All of this stuff needs to be worked out during pre-production, and you need to put down in writing what you intend to deliver to your client and approximately when. This comes in handy when, down the line, they go “Oh… Can you make it like this?” or “Oh.. Can you change that?”, because they get to see very clearly what you agreed to in the beginning, and you can explain to them how much extra it’s going to cost them to make these changes or bring in subcontractors to replace that photo montage wth a 3D model.

Of course, there are lots of other aspects to deal with. Website creation. CSS Coding. Video Compression for web, television, DVD, etc. Publicity. Community Growth & Management… All these areas and more can bring your production to a grinding halt, so you might want to consider making professional alliances and subcontracting. If you can make a video but you’re not good at making websites, hire someone else to do it. If you can make the site but not tweak it, hire someone to code. If you can get a video to look good in its native format but you’re no good at compressing video for the web or DVD, hire someone else to do it. If you spend all your time creating your show and you have no time to have a presence on your social site and interact with your community, hire a community manager and have them create a list of things for you to do or respond to so you can efficiently maintain a presence and make people feel like they’re actually communicating with YOU and not just on some fansite.

So take a long, hard look at your projects to see if there are areas where the time you’re spending isn’t worth the money you’re getting for that time. Get in tune with your actual strengths and weaknesses in your chosen field. Search for areas where you’re just not that good, and you should really hand the ball off to someone else who can do the job better than you can. Seek out opportunities to turn those empty spaces in your business plan into something that makes sense as far as your ability to complete the project on deadline and within your budget constraints.

~ Bill Cammack

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• Time, Part 04: “Spend Your Money”
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