Clients And Talent

(From the Yahoo Avid User's Group)

Clients are happy to pay for TALENT.

They are no longer interested in paying for EQUIPMENT.

As a freelancer, I occasionally do jobs on my own with my own gear (or gear I supply). Clients seem to have no problem paying my rate, but when I tell them that DOES NOT include gear, I get resistance. Thus I have the dilema of cutting on my laptop, finding a shop which will really discount the rate, or eating the difference.

The same is true of facilities.

Clients in most of the country aren't willing to pay for the true costs of high quality HD hardware, so shops have to figure out the best way to provide the same service on the available dollars. Yes, you have to promote the talent, but part of that is being good on the tools clients expect.

If you are a facility, you can only afford to sell Symphony HD at FCP prices for a small time. If volume makes that up, great!

Good editors gravitate to good tools. Those that push Avid to excel, do so with the hope that it still makes sense to use those tools, because clients can see the obvious edge.

When there is no edge, you move on.