Cinematic Arias

If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, you know I’m looking for small shooting/editing gigs. I was recently put in contact with a San Francisco based company that primarily produces short videos for small businesses. Sounds like the perfect kind of work for me. I contacted them, they asked me to attend a webinar, I sent them a link to my films and I received this reply.

Thank you for attending our orientation webinar yesterday. I hope you found it informative.

I took at look at your links and they’re really create & good, but I had a difficult time assessing what kind of a job you’re capable of doing if sent out on a XXXXXXXX project. Do you have any links to your work that are more XXXXXXXX-style (b-roll over interview) that I can take a look at? If not, do you think you could create something like that for me to look at? Please let me know.

So after watching an interview driven documentary short…

… and a verite/observational documentary…

… plus a spec spot that I directed, wrote, shot, edited, sound designed, color corrected and animated…

… they’re not sure if I can produce a 30-60 second video that’s interview driven yet intercut with b-roll (for the record, I taught at class at UCLA [proper, not extension] for three quarters where the students produced this exact kind of work) so they want me to shoot something for them to take a look at?

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So this is where you help me help you. I need to produce a 30-60 second short that promotes something so why shouldn’t it be your small business/services/cause/whatever?

Did I mention I’m willing to do this for free?

But wait, there’s a catch (a few, actually):

1. I will come out and shoot for an hour, two max.
2. Half the time will be spent interviewing you (or whoever runs the organization/business in question).
3. The other half of the time I will be shooting b-roll.
4. I am willing to travel a short, reasonable distance from my home (let’s say 20 miles). Any further than that and you have to pay for all associated travel expenses upfront. I might be willing to forgo this expense if your business/organization/cause is super cool (e.g., I’d do this for Tippi Hedren but only if she lets me in the cage with the tiger).
5. As I’m doing this for free, I retain final cut.
6. I will retain all master tapes.
7. I will upload the piece to my Vimeo account where you can grab the embed code and repost the video.

If you’re balking at my terms, remember that 1) I have a track record of high quality films, 2) I’m a professional using this piece to seek more work so it will be of the highest caliber and 3) I’m doing this for free for you.

Time for me to hear your pitch.