Color correction guy turns in unusable work, what would you do?

[mr_goodbomb]

Whether it is $175 or $350, something like quality is a very subjective matter that PP isn't going to look at or get into.
The CC guy can simply say you're trying to get the work for free now that he delivered by claiming poor quality.
Disputes like these are a part of this business and unless you have a contract with very specific terms and landmarks, (and your failing to follow up on quality checks throughout will definitely work against you) PP or any court will see it as a completed job.

For something like CC work, you need to be there regularly or receive copies of the work done on a very regular basis. Unfortunately you were unable to do this, so you were going on blind faith that you'll get a usable product delivered.

Again, and this probably sounds tough, but you paid for a learning experience that unfortunately wasn't a good one. It won't be your only one, but it was a cheap one.

I'll let you know how it turns out. The PP representative seemed pretty confident.

I wasn't "unable" to do anything. He didn't ask me to come by when he was doing the majority of the work, but asked me to stop by when he was DONE, and didn't offer any online samples when I asked for them. He tried to rush a considerable amount of work into a few days, after weeks of my guidance and participation before even starting.

 

[Jawa Ex Machina]

I agree with Pookie. Last year I ended up spending A LOT more money on bad learning experiences.

 

[Pookie]

I agree with Pookie. Last year I ended up spending A LOT more money on bad learning experiences.

Sad but true, and there isn't anyone doing films that hasn't spent money on the same thing.

Contracts in film school is soo boring, but soo important to stay awake through.

 

[wjm]

Seems to me all the time spent documenting and venting could have been spent correcting the problem.

OP, Pookie's right. You paid pennies, you got nothing in return.

$250.00 is nothing to anyone. He essentially did it for free.

Move on. Yes, it's an owie, but move on. Keep it classy, Goodbomb!

 

[Gary Huff]

You get what you pay for.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

Seems to me all the time spent documenting and venting could have been spent correcting the problem.

I'm sorry, but what EXACTLY could I have done to spend that time "correcting the problem?"

$250.00 is nothing to anyone. He essentially did it for free.

Move on. Yes, it's an owie, but move on. Keep it classy, Goodbomb!

It's something to me, or I wouldn't care. It's something to him, or he wouldn't have asked for it, or be miffed when I ask for it returned. I hate this sentiment. You have no idea how many clients I've worked with who can't spare $250, and I live and work near DC. So, yes, it is something to someone, and if it's nothing to you, maybe you'd like to fund our next project?

Our producer feels $250 isn't "nothing," our DP feels $250 isn't "nothing," my photographer friends feels $250 isn't "nothing," my freelance graphic designer friend I'm discussing this with right now feels $250 isn't "nothing," our composer feels $250 isn't "nothing," and the fact that you do makes me feel like this conversation might not pertain to you, because you're clearly not on the same level as the average working man. It was his asking price, and he knew the amount of work he was getting into, so clearly he felt it significant. This sort of mentality is beyond me.

You get what you pay for.

So if I paid more, and someone did this same thing, acted unprofessionally, turned in work incredibly late, and done unacceptable work, THEN it would be call for alarm?

 

[Gary Huff]

If you had paid more, you probably would have paid more attention to little things like "contracts" and making sure you had the time to supervise it because more money is at stake.

If you don't like spending real money, then you're in the wrong business.

 

[ugafan]

I'll get back $175 of it if he doesn't put up a huge fight, and I suppose he can keep $75 just for doing... something.

excuse me, waiter. this hot dog i ordered doesn't taste anything like filet mignon.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

If you had paid more, you probably would have paid more attention to little things like "contracts" and making sure you had the time to supervise it because more money is at stake.

If you don't like spending real money, then you're in the wrong business.

I'm wondering how many times I'll have to say I was there for the duration, over his shoulder, short of the two or three days he decided to cram the work into and DIDN'T want me present, before you'll actually read it.

I don't have much real money to spend. I feel like we're clearly at different points in our lives, and you're forgetting a particular point when you were brand new in the business, and small amounts of money were the only money you were making or spending. Please don't bother posting any further, we obviously don't have much to share with eachother.

PayPal has refunded my money, by the way. Thanks.

 

[Ted Ramasola]

mr_goodbomb,

Most of the comments here are right on, based on reality. If I were you, I'd learn from them and move on. Heck, I live in a "3rd world" country and even here $250 is small for "color correcting" a movie.

You must have heard of the iron triangle in production, GOOD, FAST, CHEAP, and you can only pick two.

There are a lot we can glean from your posts and your age. One thing is certain, you gained experience from this. THAT is priceless and worth more than $250.

 

[Jawa Ex Machina]

If you had paid more, you probably would have paid more attention to little things like "contracts" and making sure you had the time to supervise it because more money is at stake.

If you don't like spending real money, then you're in the wrong business.

Come on, man. It's obviously not about not wanting to spend more money. It's about being able to spend more money.

250 bucks is a lot to me too.

When you work under the circumstances these low budgets force you into, every penny counts and if the guy took the job and claimed to be able to do it but didn't deliver on time and on top of that unusuable material, it's his fault.

Luckily on my film, the first day of shooting was on March 1st last year, and the main production wouldn't start until May. So I sent the material of that first day to our editor and what I got back was so... not what I wanted, that I ended up letting him go before any damage was done. I hated doing that because he was a really nice guy, but it was one simple scene. A guy walking out of a house and has a one way dialogue to a person in a car (shot only from one perspective). There's not a whole lot of ways you can edit that, but he found a new way. He just wasn't right for this project.

I think the absolute best thing to do when you're working with people on this budget and everyone has very little experience is to first do a pilot for your film to test your crew out. If you're happy with them and it all works, then you go do the film.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

mr_goodbomb,

Most of the comments here are right on, based on reality. If I were you, I'd learn from them and move on. Heck, I live in a "3rd world" country and even here $250 is small for "color correcting" a movie.

You must have heard of the iron triangle in production, GOOD, FAST, CHEAP, and you can only pick two.

I appreciate your input. I'd like to add that I work a freelance video job fairly consistently when I don't have other work going. It's a 2-hour gig, and then I go home and edit the footage and turn it in. It's $120 per shoot. It's an annoying job for that low amount, but you have no idea how many shooters they have with high-end equipment working this job, and scrambling to get scheduled for these shoots. For a professional videographer, that's LOW, but man, with so many people working, you'd be astounded how many people are ready and willing to do that job for that price. Talented people, too.

Also, it took him an extra 2 months to do the work beyond his original ETA. I wouldn't call that fast, and I can upload samples if you'd like, it's certainly not good by any standards.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

Come on, man. It's obviously not about not wanting to spend more money. It's about being able to spend more money.

The issue here is actually just having money to spend on someone else who will do decent work, rather than having burned that money on this guy's lack of anything usable.

 

[Jawa Ex Machina]

you have no idea how many shooters they have with high-end equipment working this job, and scrambling to get scheduled for these shoots. For a professional videographer, that's LOW, but man, with so many people working, you'd be astounded how many people are ready and willing to do that job for that price. Talented people, too.

These are the sort of people you should work with on your film. Not old talentless guys who work slow, deliver bad material, can't use the internet and doesn't have modern software.

 

[Ted Ramasola]

I appreciate your input. I'd like to add that I work a freelance video job fairly consistently when I don't have other work going. It's a 2-hour gig, and then I go home and edit the footage and turn it in. It's $120 per shoot. It's an annoying job for that low amount, but you have no idea how many shooters they have with high-end equipment working this job, and scrambling to get scheduled for these shoots. For a professional videographer, that's LOW, but man, with so many people working, you'd be astounded how many people are ready and willing to do that job for that price. Talented people, too.

Also, it took him an extra 2 months to do the work beyond his original ETA. I wouldn't call that fast, and I can upload samples if you'd like, it's certainly not good by any standards.

Quality is subjective, so maybe by posting those grabs or samples you can get "technical" responses from the forum. Just frames will give us an idea what "unacceptable" as you mentioned is.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

Quality is subjective, so maybe by posting those grabs or samples you can get "technical" responses from the forum. Just frames will give us an idea what "unacceptable" as you mentioned is.

Our producer burned me I copy, I'm gonna go snag it in an hour or two.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

Come on, man. It's obviously not about not wanting to spend more money. It's about being able to spend more money.

250 bucks is a lot to me too.

When you work under the circumstances these low budgets force you into, every penny counts and if the guy took the job and claimed to be able to do it but didn't deliver on time and on top of that unusuable material, it's his fault.

Luckily on my film, the first day of shooting was on March 1st last year, and the main production wouldn't start until May. So I sent the material of that first day to our editor and what I got back was so... not what I wanted, that I ended up letting him go before any damage was done. I hated doing that because he was a really nice guy, but it was one simple scene. A guy walking out of a house and has a one way dialogue to a person in a car (shot only from one perspective). There's not a whole lot of ways you can edit that, but he found a new way. He just wasn't right for this project.

I think the absolute best thing to do when you're working with people on this budget and everyone has very little experience is to first do a pilot for your film to test your crew out. If you're happy with them and it all works, then you go do the film.

Luckily, I think I know who in our crew is worthwhile and who isn't worth working with now.

On a side note, you have no idea how many effects editors (digital effects) we went through. Luckily, we didn't pay anyone prior to getting... well, nothing back, but several guys were lined up and ended up turning in nothing. I mean upwards of 20 people, but three to five big ones that had work for months and never turned anything back in and bailed at the very end of their deadline.

 

[Huy Vu]

So if I paid more, and someone did this same thing, acted unprofessionally, turned in work incredibly late, and done unacceptable work, THEN it would be call for alarm?

I think what everyone is trying to say is that there's a certain level of expectation depending on how much you're paying. For $175 you really should not be expecting even decent work unless you've worked with him before or seen examples of work he's done for that level of budget. You should have let him go from the moment that he starts causing problems instead of crossing your finger and hoping that things will turn out alright. I've been in this exact situation before and I've come to realized that although I can blame the guy all I want, the bottom line is that I'm still the one with the unrealistic expectation. It's good that Paypal gave you your money back but even if they didn't I would just take this as a lesson learned and moved on.

 

[Pookie]

mr_goodbomb.

No one is slagging you off, and sure $250.00 is real money, but you're preaching to the congregation, most all of us have run into the same problem you have, work not up to what we expect.

The majority are all saying the same thing, learn something from this, and move on.

You're already low balling at $120.00 per shoot so are probably going to shoot your own foot at some point (look up under pricing the competition in the book of lessons), but everyone here will understand the need for $$$, a tempting trade off for sure.

CC is a very important part of the process and you have to oversee it, or, as you have learned you take your chances. I can't imagine having work graded without wanting to see it constantly.

You say it took him an extra two months to do the work.... That's a flashing sign of trouble you should have handled immediately, it tells you you're in trouble right there.

If you don't like what you're hearing here (and we've all run into the same stuff) fair enough, but what were you expecting?

Chase the guy for the money and you'll find out how wide his connections are, even bad beginners can spread stories you probably don't want getting around considering the competition you have.

People don't remember who complained, they remember the complaint.

 

[mr_goodbomb]

mr_goodbomb.

No one is slagging you off, and sure $250.00 is real money, but you're preaching to the congregation, most all of us have run into the same problem you have, work not up to what we expect.

The majority are all saying the same thing, learn something from this, and move on.

You're already low balling at $120.00 per shoot so are probably going to shoot your own foot at some point (look up under pricing the competition in the book of lessons), but everyone here will understand the need for $$$, a tempting trade off for sure.

CC is a very important part of the process and you have to oversee it, or, as you have learned you take your chances. I can't imagine having work graded without wanting to see it constantly.

You say it took him an extra two months to do the work.... That's a flashing sign of trouble you should have handled immediately, it tells you you're in trouble right there.

If you don't like what you're hearing here (and we've all run into the same stuff) fair enough, but what were you expecting?

Chase the guy for the money and you'll find out how wide his connections are, even bad beginners can spread stories you probably don't want getting around considering the competition you have.

People don't remember who complained, they remember the complaint.

I appreciate this, but you're really not listening to anything I've said. You've screwed up my facts and ignored what I've said so many times it's not even worth correcting you. Thanks for the input. Have a good one, guys.

PS. Do you think THIS GUY has any connections who will worth with anymore? I don't. He's currently writing for some website for $5 an article, and each one takes him several hours.