Why I'm BLEEDING money (and what I could have done to prevent it)

[DennisD]

I name every substantial piece of equipment I get.
The previous equipment (camera, lighting kits, edit rigs) I've owned as a video guy:

• Cerebro
• X
• Wolverine
• Nightcrawler
• Cyclops

Through some very creative deals, I could finally afford to welcoming a new addition to the family.
My new editing rig, Galactica, arrives tomorrow at 2:00pm.

It's 50% of what I aimed for, but 10x better than what I have now, and good enough to put up one hell of a fight.

I will use this to keep making cash.. with which I will be able to buy the machine required for the complex stuff.
When I upgrade, Galactica will go to my assistant and I'll purchase a new system.

I've officially fixed the bottleneck in my business. Just watch what happens now.

 

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[Red]

The videos you produce are pretty amazing. My background is graphic design/motion graphics (and my current skills are waaaaay outdated), but I still mess with After Effect & know the pain of setting something to render, coming back the next day & noticing your timing was off on *one* tiny thing... Fix. Rinse. Repeat. lol.

 

[CigarMan]

sounds like you have given up...

If I had 30k knocking at my door I would find a way to get what I need.

 

[smartman]

congrats and good luck dude!

 

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[Bouncing Soul]

Have you considered building your own?

I used to run dual Xeon processor number crunchers for work and my last two machines we built even when I wasn't paying the bill. I could get more machine for half the cost, and just as importantly, if it broke in the middle of a job we could go buy the pieces to fix it ourselves same day.

 

[DennisD]

sounds like you have given up...

If I had 30k knocking at my door I would find a way to get what I need.

No giving up.
Accepted the situation, accepted my faults and bad decision making, and took steps to rectify.
Read my last post.

There's always 30K knocking at the door. Most of us just can't see the opportunities.

Have you considered building your own?

Yes. Galactica is custom built.

The videos you produce are pretty amazing. My background is graphic design/motion graphics (and my current skills are waaaaay outdated), but I still mess with After Effect & know the pain of setting something to render, coming back the next day & noticing your timing was off on *one* tiny thing... Fix. Rinse. Repeat. lol.

It's even worse than that.
My computer, the one I'm using now, the one I'm going to throw off a balcony tomorrow at 2 when Galactica gets here...
I can't even check the timing when the videos done because this computer couldn't even playback standard video
It's that slow.

So I'd watch my videos frame by frame, and then send them off to the client, fingers crossed that it was passable without have even seen the videos.

I DID learn to work around most of my problems. lowering the resolution to 1/10th, using preview areas, turning off unnecessary effects until the final render, only rendering every 3 frames during previews.

 

[LeungJan]

Do many other editors have this problem? Smells like an opportunity somewhere in here

 

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[Guest428]

Hey Dennis,

How is the campaign going? Just read the entire post.

Were you able to get some money in order to get this new machine?

Looking forward to hearing about this.

 

[DennisD]

Do many other editors have this problem? Smells like an opportunity somewhere in here

Depends on what they do. Many can get by with a macbook pro.
I do lots of 3d work which requires more than your standard editor,
So I needed a custom solution.

Where there's a heavy need is in a website that teaches how to get started.
Is the Intel Geforce GTX 780 better than the Intel Quadro K4000 for Motion graphics?
How much better is the Quadro K4000 than the 4000?
If you want to know "what's best" you have to start randomly googling video cards and processors until you get some bearing on how things work.

If you're good at video but you're not particularly tech savvy, there's no starting point except for forums.. and most of the forums that come up in google search are outdated over the past 10 years... and I'm not about to register for 8 different random tech forums just to use their search feature.

Huge painpoint here, if I wasn't in such a tight spot, $ I'd pay double just to have someone else take care of the whole thing for me.

Even googling "prebuilt editing machines" didn't do much for me...
It's all way too complicated to get started. Somebody needs to step in here.
Even some sort of continuously updated resource or ebook would be worth it to me if it really broke things down.

Hey Dennis,
How is the campaign going? Just read the entire post.
Were you able to get some money in order to get this new machine?
Looking forward to hearing about this

The campaign didn't do anything for me.
I actually booked 5 guest spots on the #1 crowdsourcing podcast, but by the time he got around to airing it the deal was over.

I had to figure out a few other creative solutions to make my $.
What really did it was a licensing deal which allowed existing assets to be offered inside somebody else's membership site.

 

[Red]

So I'd watch my videos frame by frame, and then send them off to the client, fingers crossed that it was passable without have even seen the videos.
I DID learn to work around most of my problems. lowering the resolution to 1/10th, using preview areas, turning off unnecessary effects until the final render, only rendering every 3 frames during previews.

Holy. Shitballs. Batman.

Please video you smashing that old machine to bits. I will enjoy it vicariously after reading your paragraph of pain above.

 

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[million$$$smile]

So. the campaign is over before it started?

Shucks man, let me know if you ever decide to do one like you mentioned. I think you could launch the campaign but sub alot of it out and just oversee.

I'd be interested if you ever decide to try it.

One or two vids

R

 

[DennisD]

So. the campaign is over before it started?

Shucks man, let me know if you ever decide to do one like you mentioned. I think you could launch the campaign but sub alot of it out and just oversee.

I'd be interested if you ever decide to try it.

One or two vids

R

I had the offer open for two weeks, linked to it in my sig, purchased a marketplace ad, and not a single purchase went through.

Plenty people say "I'd get one"
Yet actual purchases were at 0 when the offer's open.
Failing on my part, I should have done things differently

I actually AM thinking about officially starting a video editing service...

I think I can be a top contender in the space fairly easily with the right framework. With my new rig, I'll easily be able to kick things off the right way.

 

[RogueInnovation]

Could you take a 20k deal, get it in writing and then go to the bank and say you need "x amount" for your work gear.
I mean, they get paid back in a week, so its not a huge issue.
If not, there are other ways, like a high limit credit card or a few, and you use all that credit and repay it in the week etc. Sure that can be a major pain in the a$$, but they are options.

You can also offer a friend with the money to buy you a station a RETURN on his investment.
"yo guys, give me xyz, after I call these guys up, and after I've done the project, you get back the money PLUS xy% as a return"
Also, to minimise risk, you can, say they own and can sell the gear if it doesn't work (which it will), so that there only possible losses are matched by reward.

Renting gear, or getting it off a friend who has it for the week can also work.

 

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[csalvato]

maybe I'm missing something...how many gigs/how much money are you turning down regularly?

getting the gigs is the hard part. seriously, you already solved the biggest problem.

you don't even need to do the work...you can outsource or subcontract, no? can't you subcontract this work out to finance your next gig that you do yourself? then the game is selling more than you spend on subcontracts...which is easier than it sounds, because getting the business is the hard part...

if you ever want to scale this you will need to start outsourcing/hiring at some point anyway, no?

 

[DeletedUser12]

I've been a video editor for almost 15 years and I'm looking to get out. Everyone wants things on a tighter and tighter deadline for less pay. Because the price of an edit system has dropped 90% in the past decade, people assume the price for an editor should have dropped the same amount.

Subcontracting these type of things is very difficult because clients want *you*, and it is extremely difficult to find someone with your exact skill set and creativity.

I think there are some opportunities with remote editing. I'm currently editing on someone else's edit system and drives from 1,000 miles away. This will become more and more common. Perhaps there are rental opportunities here. I know there are render farms for AE you can rent over the web.

They wanted 10 videos for each of their upcoming clothing lines. They wanted it done in a week.

That is an insane deadline -- it may have been for the best you turned it down. It's normally not a good sign...

 

[cautiouscapy]

photo editing classes. Enroll in those just so you can have access to the editing computers in the library. You don't even have to go to class. For a few hundred dollars a semester, it was well worth it

Now that is excellent "outside the box" thinking...like many of the posts in this thread.
Inspires me just by reading them.

Thank you all of you.

 

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