This IS the Avid L2: [Avid-L2] Re: Won't do this again

Saturday, June 15, 2013

[Avid-L2] Re: Won't do this again

Which means that notes from the network are from the very bowels of hell....

--- In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, Curtis Nichols <curtisnpcs@...> wrote:
>
> The length of the show has no bearing on the approval cycle.
>
> You have to treat WPD like children - set boundaries and stick to them. Expect them to be tested.
> Shows are never finished. Thank heavens for deadlines.
>
>
> And never - never - label a bin or sequence as "final".
>
>
> Curtis Nichols
> Senior Editor
> PCS Production Co.
> Irving, Tx.
> ------------------
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Greg Huson
> Subject: Re: [Avid-L2] Won't do this again
>
>
> This is a common problem - the beauty of release dates / festival deadlines / etc is that you have to stop. Don't remember the attribution, but someone important (or, more likely, self-important) said a film is never finished, you just stop working on it. (sic)
>
> Normally when we agree to help a filmmaker we put limits on it - typically we do a cut, then supervise a cut, then there's one more round after that for whatever reason - after that, they pay more.
>
> You're going to have to create a deadline, for whatever reason. If you're working for free, that would be starting a new gig, moving to a feature-length production, surgery, moving to another country where they don't have internet... and back time your other finishing tasks from there. Even if the deadline is 'I refuse to work on this project after next tuesday,' that's a deadline. Try to find something real, not made up, and hopefully it won't be contentious. In other words, you can't fire the w/p/d - just yourself.
>
> I hope the pay you're getting isn't 'the promise of future work.' That's a very bad bet, even if the w/p/d is a genius and destined for greatness. If you're working for free, it should be for what you get from that specific project - the experience, the knowledge that this film will change the world, whatever.
>
> Being a little bit of a hard ass will actually help the w/p/d at this point, too.
>
> ---------------------
> On Jun 14, 2013, at 11:18 AM, john.maio5011 <jmaio@...> wrote:
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> > In the world of no/low budget independent films, the writer, producer, and director (WPD) is often the same person. Often, the budget for post is well below the percentage needed to fund the work required (some say 40% of the total)
> >
> > I'm working on a short film now and having great difficulty getting the WPD to agree to picture lock so I can finish the trimming, audio mixing and other things needed to clear this project. Seems every time she sees a version, she thinks of something else to change, and, since she is also the writer, the script flow is also changeable.
> >
> > Guess what I'm asking the L2 community is how many approval cycles is the norm for editing a 15 - 20 minute short, and how do I fire the WPD if the change cycle goes on and on.
>
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