9 Videos, 4 Days

It started out with me missing my 6:00 a.m. flight.

I went to start the car at 4:30 a.m, and it popped, chugged sputtered. Finally, I figured out that a vacuum line had come undone. But, the :20 or so minutes it took me to fix it caused to arrive at the airport at 5:35 a.m. The cut-off for checking in was 5:30 a.m. So be prompt to the airport.

My latest professional challenge involves producing an instructional DVD that includes 9 separate video modules. The big challenge was the budget. A third party fronted $50,000.00 for its production. The total script length is 72 pages, which is lengthy. Production called for shooting 2 on-camera hosts on location in small retail stores. These locations require a day of travel to and from.

Now, the $50K number had to include an agency mark-up by my client, or 15%. So, that really leaves a budget of about $42K. This is a definite challenge. My initial budget estimate came in at about $70,000.00.

Arriving at $42K was quite a trick, but somehow we did it.

We shot a total of 4.5 days on location. 4 days included 2 non-union on-camera spokespersons and a Teleprompter operator.
I used a 2-man crew (DP and audio tech) for 4.5 days. Then, there's my day rate, plus meals, hotels, mileage, and equipment rental.

By estimates we needed to shoot 17-18 pages a day in order to complete photography of just the 2 on-camera hosts. This schedule worked pretty well until day two, when we got only 11 pages shot due to extensive travel between locations. This put significant additional pressure on the next 2 days. We had to cover 20-24 pages of shooting each day in an uncontrolled environment. Somehow, we made it, and with minimal overtime.

The next challenge would be to edit the 9 videos as quickly as possible. This includes digitizing the 12, 1/2 hour reels of tape we shot--a real-time proposition. This could easily be a 6-8 hour proposition. It could take even longer if the tapes had to be logged by me.

Luckily, I was able to use a Scriptlinc--a wireless, timecode receiver that enables someone to see and record time-code from the camera as it rolls. I simply wrote the timecode for each take directly on each script. I then marked the "Keepers." For digitizing, my editor simply took the scripts, and digitized the clips for the good takes based on these notes.

Now we've just got to get through the edit in 6-8 days to come in anywhere close to budget.