How do I get new gear?

[roxics]

I've got a bit of a predicament. I work for an employer who provides me the gear to shoot corporate videos, local TV commercials, etc. I've been here for over 5 years now shooting/editing/etc. We've done everything from hour long speeches to short interviews to green screen talking heads to location shoots where we're running and gunning b-roll mixed with interviews. We've worked with mom and pop small businesses all the way up to the big three automakers, their suppliers and government organizations. As a result we charge accordingly. But most of our video projects fall in the $3k-$25k range. Some have gone north of six figures but in many cases those projects span multiple shoots (10-15) over the course of a year.

For the last four and half years I have been working with and XHA1 and an HV30. Audio from a shotgun mic fed into the A1. The shotgun mic, the three lights and portable green screen were all here when I started at the company five years ago. When the old video department head left the company in frustration, I took over and proposed the XHA1 to move us into HD. I was granted the request. I think mostly to show that they were happy to have me at the company and showing initiative. When one of my interns broke the firewire jack on the A1 my boss sprang for the HV30. He had to, otherwise there was no way for us to get the footage off the tapes. But since then all of my major requests for new lights, sound gear and cameras have been denied.

I also have a sound/second camera guy that works with me. Although the equipment I described above along with a 400D (non-video Digital Rebel) is all we have.

So much has changed over the last four years and I'd like to move our gear into the new decade with larger sensor cameras and interchangable lenses,, portable audio recorders and lights with modifiers.

Considering we also do photography shoots with the 4 year old digital rebel, having a new still camera that isn't falling apart and overly embarressing to show up to a professional shoot with would also be beneficial. My audio guy was denied a zoom recorder last year and was instead given a $60 Blue usb mic and told to use that with a laptop instead. Completely useless for us. Multiple times we've requested wireless lavs and been denied. On a couple of rare occasions we've gotten the chance to rent them. But those were very hard sells.

As you can probably tell already my boss is not a spendy guy. He seems to take pride in us doing the best we can with the cheapest gear out there(XHA1 aside). And when we end up in situations where we don't do the best job because of lack of equiptment like the proper mics for the job, the properly lighting or grip gear for the job, we're told to re-examine our process and write up documents about how we can be more efficient and overcome these obstacles without spending a dime. Even though we charge industry rates for what we do and have made plenty of money to pay for the gear we have a hundred+ times over in the last four years.

I don't dislike my boss, on a personal level he's a nice guy. I also like the people I work with and the company as a whole. But when my boss is in boss mode he seems to suffer from delusional ideas about using the cheapest consumer stuff out there for professional shoots. I can't tell you how many times he's sent me buy.com links for $150 pocket camcorders asking about how something like this would fit into our workflow and whether he should pick one up, while simultaneously denying me fresnels, audio recoders, grip gear and pro DSLR's.

I would like a Mark3 kit and a zoom recorder for my audio guy. But I have a feeling I'm just going to get laughed at like I did two years ago when I suggested a new camera kit and what I got back in response was a list of beer making equipment my boss would like for his hobby.

I'm sorry if I may come off at all unprofessional. I just don't see the logic in not buying us new gear every few years that we use to make the company money. It affects my career as well because I look like a total amateur when I show up on shoots and clients ask me to flag a window and I don't have flags or I show up with a four year old digital rebel with stock lens to shoot a bunch of doctors who always seem to have an interest in photography and 7D's or mkII's at home.

I'm about to do a product shoot in two weeks for a major automotive parts supplier. The really sad part is, I'm going to do an awesome job on those photos because I know my gear and I know my craft and I aim to always give the client the best work possible. But when my boss sees it, he's going to wonder why I need anything new.

Please don't get me wrong. I love what I do, I love the fact that I have a job doing what I do. The last thing I want to do is come off whiney or unprofessional. But after so many years I do feel the need to vent my frustration a little bit to others who will understand and seek advice on how I can solve these issues.

So my question is, how do I get new gear? Gear we really need. Neither my sound guy or I get paid enough here to buy it ourselves and we shouldn't have to since we're on salary and they are supposed to provide it for us.

 

[thatwalshguy]

Honestly, here's what I'd do in terms of equipment:

• Spend time brushing up on modern advertising aesthetics- I'm not saying this in a mean way, but I'd honestly do a lot of research on what us other film-makers are shooting. Natural, raw aesthetics are in. Even blown out light in shot is normal. If I was you, I'd spend time finding attractive spaces around where you work, and shoot there. Don't worry as much about your lighting scenario. If the space around your work really sucks:
  • Use your greenscreen
  • Google Image, Flckr search for beautiful non-copyrighted places like lobbys, etc...
  • Then use Magic Bullet Looks and effects like Swing-Tilt to create fake depth of field
• Give your boss a short presentation on a few key differentiators between the camera you want, and the camera he wants:
  • Have a frank, honest discussion with your boss about the quality of your equipment, and how that impacts both what your customers perceive, and how significantly it stifles the quality you can produce for him.
  • Let him know about equipment you should be using, and then equipment you're willing to compromise on, that will still give you a great result.
• Your boss doesn't understand a difference between a Kodak Suck-Shot and a 5DIII, and frankly, he's not going to care. You need to find ways to make him care. Demonstrate value of the equipment to him in terms that he can understand, so he'll be more motivated to get it.
• Get a Panasonic GH1 as soon as possible- they're cheap money, work fantastic, provide a great DSLR starter for lenses/cheaper equipment/etc... You can get a GH1 for between $4-500, and if you hack it with the firmware, you get incredible results. I've worked in the corporate field for years, and I use five of them regularly.
• If your audio really sucks, I've been using a set of $70 Azden wired lav mics for years, along with an H4N. That would run you about $300 total.

Finally? Stop having hobbies. I take the girls I date to shitty, cheap places, and I'm not ashamed. Every free dollar I have is spent on newer, better equipment. I eat, sleep, and breathe this ****, and I'm proud of it. For years I have scripped and scrapped to make sure that I could produce film that matched the quality of my skills. To do what we love, to accomplish our dreams? Sometimes we've just got to sacrifice. I feel your pain, though, brother. I do.

Welcome to the club.

 

[jambredz]

I can see why the old guy quit from frustration. Re: the above about saving and buying your own stuff...thats great as I and im sure alot of others sacrificed to do...but I make $$ back from that gear. He wouldn't be making $$ from his gear cuz his company wouldn't rent it from him.

 

[keylight]

Roxics,

Here's what I have done in the past when I worked in the corporate video world:

1st, break out Excel and work up your budget for all the gear. Demonstrate why investing in new equipment is a financially sound decision and how the equipment will help with any (or all) of the following:

• Increase the quality of product, allowing you to increase prices the company charges
• Take on bigger (or more glamorous) jobs - from the perspective of how you can leverage that work into even bigger and better jobs.
• Decrease the amount of time spent producing, allowing more jobs to be completed in the same amount of time. Some examples:
  • Ingesting from tape is a time killer that a card based camera would seriously help with)
  • A 4:2:2 (or 4:4:4) camera will help you pull better green screen keys in less time.
• And so on...

Now, your boss is unlikely to care about the details of 4:2:2 or tapeless ingest, and you don't really need to present it to them in that form. Rather, you should present it in the form of $$ or time saved. The goal is two-fold. First, you demonstrate that you're approaching it seriously and with the success of the company in mind. Second, you are demonstrating on paper that it makes at least some financial sense - they won't loose money on their investment, they'll make more money.

I'd do three budgets actually. One for top end stuff, another for mid-range, and a final budget for what you can realistically live with. You might put the same audio package on all three budgets, and a high end lighting package for the top budget, and a different package that goes on both mid and bottom end budgets for example. And then different cameras for each budget. Do what makes sense. I find doing the top and bottom first make it really easy to come up with a very attractive middle budget.

And get real quotes from a few places - at least one local vendor if they exist in your market, and a couple of online places (B&H of course, but Amazon can be surprisingly good for stuff these days). Quotes you can print out and bring in with you to discuss.

I took this approach at each of the three companies where I worked to significantly upgrade the equipment and capabilities at each company. So what I've described above can work. (One company went with the low end option, the other two chose the mid-range. I never got any to buy in to the high end.)


Now, if that isn't enough, ask them to give you the opportunity to demonstrate some of the benefits by getting them to agree to let you rent all the equipment one time to demonstrate exactly how beneficial it would be for the company.

Then, when the right project comes along, rent the kind of equipment you want to purchase (I'd suggest the mid-range), and do the entire production with it. If you aren't familiar with the kind of camera you're going to rent, rent it wet - that is, with the operator. You'll get great footage and learn some great stuff about the camera. But budget time on the project using the old equipment. That means budget for things like tape ingest, even though you'll end up using just a fraction of that time. The goal should be to demonstrate how much better the project looks with the right gear, and how much time (and therefore money) you've saved.

By the way, I would bring along your old gear as well, and have someone take a couple of shots of your old gear vs the rental gear on location. And shot some stuff side by side with the pro gear, so you can present a comparison of the old way vs. the new way.

So, what's the right project? I'd pick one a project that's for a good repeat client. It's a great way to show them how much they matter, and you can ask them for their feedback after the project is done. They'll hopefully have a lot of strong positive feedback about how much better everything looks, sounds.... The stronger the positive the impression they have, the better.

If that's not enough to convince them to make an investment, then the next time you have a project with the client, you'll show up with the old gear (you'll have no choice) and the client may ask you where the new gear is. They might want to know why they aren't getting the good stuff. It'll give you an opportunity to get more feedback from them. If you're boss isn't listening at that point, there's nothing more you can do.


One final thing separate from how you get some coin for gear....

IMO, a DSLR for the kind of work you're doing is NOT the direction I would go. I do love my GH2, but for the stuff you're doing, an ENG type of camera is probably going to work a lot better. I personally use and HPX370 for the kind of stuff you do. (Although something like an AF-100 might be a possible compromise - or whatever is similar that Panasonic or others might release at NAB in 2 weeks.)

Good luck!

 

[jambredz]

great advice keylight. I do also agree that getting a sound video camera like the af100 or fs100 will be a better route for what you wanna do. In addition you can try and get a consumer dslr like the t3i for the pics...that can double as a 2nd video cam if needs be.

 

[keylight]

Oh hell no....

I thought to myself, I wonder if I still have a copy of one of the 3 system budgets I worked up. And sure enough, I did. Here's a screenshot of the final Excel file I put together. This was back in 2001 btw.

The company I worked for went with option #2. And we bought everything from a local vendor:



Edit:

A few things to note:

• My comment for the cheap system explains why the price is artificially low, and why why the low end system will work, but why it isn't the best.
• Some software in the low end is not in the mid or high end, because it was being included. I could have noted that here, but I'm sure I mentioned it when presenting the budgets.
• Because we went with a local vendor, the Rebate line was a nice thing for my boss to see on the mid and high end systems. Can't get that from an online quote. Don't know if a place like B&H would do something like that for you if you worked with a dedicated sales person on putting together a quote. Never heard of them doing that, but they might. Can't hurt to ask. Bosses like rebates!
• Oh, and the light kit we ended up getting was an Arri 4 point kit in a hard case, not the Lowel kit spec'd out. That added another $2500 or so I believe, although I'm pretty sure we dropped the on camera light and belt.

And can you believe that an Avid Xpress Deluxe system ever cost $25K?

Edit 2:

I also found this document I put together at the time to help make the case. It's focused on the editing gear since that's where the biggest cost was. You can see how I highlighted negatives in the first, and benefits in the second....



Wish I remembered what I was thinking with the analogy, "Difference is between a flat sheet of paper and a folded sheet of paper."

 

[Paul F]

Keylight has it right. Make a business case. But it has to appeal to your boss's priorities. If he is making money and is not losing business to competitors that are making better videos, then you are in a tough spot. Why should he spend money when his customers are satisfied?

You are providing a satisfactory product. So from his perspective, there is no reason to spend money on new 'fancy' stuff.

If you are competing effectively with other vendors, then this is not an argument for new equipment. If you are losing business, then state why and how to correct it.

Perhaps he wants to expand business but can't due to inadequate equipment? Then make that case.

Making a big presentation with a lot of facts and figures will get you nowhere unless it directly answers what he perceives to be a business issue.

Good luck.

 

[gonzo_entertainment]

The corporate term is ROI, Return On Investment. He has to be shown how it will quickly pay for itself and start adding to the bottom line.

 

[roxics]

Honestly, here's what I'd do in terms of equipment:

• Spend time brushing up on modern advertising aesthetics- I'm not saying this in a mean way, but I'd honestly do a lot of research on what us other film-makers are shooting. Natural, raw aesthetics are in. Even blown out light in shot is normal. If I was you, I'd spend time finding attractive spaces around where you work, and shoot there. Don't worry as much about your lighting scenario. If the space around your work really sucks:
  • Use your greenscreen
  • Google Image, Flckr search for beautiful non-copyrighted places like lobbys, etc...
  • Then use Magic Bullet Looks and effects like Swing-Tilt to create fake depth of field
• Give your boss a short presentation on a few key differentiators between the camera you want, and the camera he wants:
  • Have a frank, honest discussion with your boss about the quality of your equipment, and how that impacts both what your customers perceive, and how significantly it stifles the quality you can produce for him.
  • Let him know about equipment you should be using, and then equipment you're willing to compromise on, that will still give you a great result.
• Your boss doesn't understand a difference between a Kodak Suck-Shot and a 5DIII, and frankly, he's not going to care. You need to find ways to make him care. Demonstrate value of the equipment to him in terms that he can understand, so he'll be more motivated to get it.
• Get a Panasonic GH1 as soon as possible- they're cheap money, work fantastic, provide a great DSLR starter for lenses/cheaper equipment/etc... You can get a GH1 for between $4-500, and if you hack it with the firmware, you get incredible results. I've worked in the corporate field for years, and I use five of them regularly.
• If your audio really sucks, I've been using a set of $70 Azden wired lav mics for years, along with an H4N. That would run you about $300 total.

Finally? Stop having hobbies. I take the girls I date to s*%tty, cheap places, and I'm not ashamed. Every free dollar I have is spent on newer, better equipment. I eat, sleep, and breathe this s*%t, and I'm proud of it. For years I have scripped and scrapped to make sure that I could produce film that matched the quality of my skills. To do what we love, to accomplish our dreams? Sometimes we've just got to sacrifice. I feel your pain, though, brother. I do.

Welcome to the club.

I do own a GH17 myself and an H4N. My sound guy has a XHA1 of his own, a T1i and a Sennheiser wireless lav system all in a nice pelican case. When I said "we can't afford the gear on our own with what we get paid" I was referring to the fact that we aren't going to use our personal gear on our day shoots because of the wear and tear on it and the fact that we aren't getting compensated for that. Because honestly we don't have the money to replace it. I got my gear last year because of a $2000 child support check I was refunded. I was paying too much. An error on my employers part that had them withdrawing more from my checks than was supposed to be. Surprisingly the state refunded it to me. So I got a bit of a winfall last January. I was having an argument with my boss back then about this very topic and decided it would be wise to use that money to get a camera and recorder of my own incae I had to go freelance or found some work on the side to bring in a little extra money. I already had my own tripod, shotgun mic and mixer that I've had for over 12 years. From back when I was 21 and living with my folks and could afford to spend all my money on gear.

My sound guy got his equipment from a friend who works on the auto line and had a great idea about doing wedding videos on the side with my sound guy. Then he just became disinterested and has let my sound guy hold onto the equiptment. They are close friends and band mates and he has kind of unofficially gifted the video gear to my sound guy. So we both sort of got lucky getting the gear we have. As a result we know what we can do with better gear, but like I said we're not willing to put our personal gear through the wear and tear of our day job without compensation for it. I didn't even really want to bring that aspect up. But what you suggested about making a demonstration video is a great idea. My boss is already aware that my co-worker and I have this gear, but he also understands our position on not wanting to use it for our day jobs. We've never officially had that talk with him, but he seems to just assume we won't be using our personal gear for company shoots and that's the just and right mentality on his part.

I will take your advice. I forwarded this thread to my co-worker (sound guy) as well and he read your reply and agrees as well. So together we're going to shoot one of these demonstration videos.

 

[keylight]

When I said "we can't afford the gear on our own with what we get paid" I was referring to the fact that we aren't going to use our personal gear on our day shoots because of the wear and tear on it and the fact that we aren't getting compensated for that.

IMO, you should never use your own gear to make money for someone else, unless you're compensated for it. So, if you have a job where your gear would really help, rent it to your boss' company and then use it.

I was having an argument with my boss back then about this very topic and decided it would be wise to use that money to get a camera and recorder of my own incae I had to go freelance or found some work on the side to bring in a little extra money. I already had my own tripod, shotgun mic and mixer that I've had for over 12 years. From back when I was 21 and living with my folks and could afford to spend all my money on gear.

Sounds like going out on your own might make more sense than staying where you are....

I will take your advice. I forwarded this thread to my co-worker (sound guy) as well and he read your reply and agrees as well. So together we're going to shoot one of these demonstration videos.

Probably will be a wasted effort without the groundwork laid of why it makes financial sense. Paul F is right when he wrote:

If he is making money and is not losing business to competitors that are making better videos, then you are in a tough spot. Why should he spend money when his customers are satisfied?

You are providing a satisfactory product. So from his perspective, there is no reason to spend money on new 'fancy' stuff.

If you are competing effectively with other vendors, then this is not an argument for new equipment. If you are losing business, then state why and how to correct it.

Perhaps he wants to expand business but can't due to inadequate equipment? Then make that case.

Making a big presentation with a lot of facts and figures will get you nowhere unless it directly answers what he perceives to be a business issue.

 

[roxics]

Roxics,

[... edited out to save space, but quoted so that you know I'm replying to you ...]

Good luck!

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and be so thorough with that reply. Also thank you for the excel template you provided showing how you broke down your proposals.

I think this is aslo a great idea. I've written proposals to my boss in the past, but mostly they were explaination about why this gear would hep us. Nothing was really done "line item" like yours. I think that would be very helpful. My boss, like I'm sure all of them are, is very keen on having options and rebates and refunds and all that fun stuff. So seeing where he can save money would be helpful to point out. The only issue I have with my boss is that he's the "creative" type himself in that he believes he already knows what is best for us and often gives us suggestions about how we can do things better. Sometimes his suggestions are decent and we take them, appreciate them and incorporate them. But often times they are not. I would say that 8 out of 10 times they are not. This is a guy who decided that the sign outside our office building in a business district side of town should be done in graffiti. Eye catching, yes, but in the sense that it makes us look trashy and unprofessional. But he get's these crazy ideas and thinks he's some kind of Steve Jobs, when clearly he is not. Sadly unlike Steve Jobs he's not willing to throw whatever it takes at a product to make it the best. In that sense he's the reverse and wants to us to do genius work with the lowest common denominator gear. He's overly inspired but lacks the grounding needed to realize that quality costs money and/or time. Both of which he gives us very little of.

To be fair our boss didn't start the company we work for, his parents have some money and 10+ years ago he bought into the company as part owner. The founder of the company is much more understanding of what is needed to do quality work, one the rare chances we've gotten to work with him we've had things we've needed approved for rental at the snap of a finger. But the founder doesn't deal with the creative side of the company much, he leaves that to our problem boss. So if we attempt to go around our problem boss to the founder we risk getting fired. I'm about 99% sure the reason we got the XHA1 four years ago was because of the founder. I had sent the proposal back then to the both of them and it was approved and the founder even gave me a bonus check for my initative. I was new and could get a way with a little more back then because I didn't know better. Today I would get a talking to or worse if I did he same thing.

That said, my problem boss (I hate calling him that) is not always entirely unreasonable. If I catch him on a good day I can work with him. But I have to watch my limits. I could never propose $10k worth of gear. He would laugh at me. Even though $10K worth of gear is what we should be shooting with considering what we charge for our shoots. I don't it' at all unreasonable to have an AF100 or FS100 and you are absolutely right that those are better choices for our line of work compared to DSLRs. But DSLR's are cheaper and with the mkIII and GH2 cpable of 30+ minute record times, that falls well within 98% of the work we do. The other two percept can be handled by our XHA1. The bigger reason I propose a DLSR is for our photography shoots. I would not be able to get away with a stills camera and a video camera. I would only have a shot at getting one. Considering we already have the A1 which is great for video specific shoots, I could really use a second canon camera (to match color with the A1) that can be used for interviews, b-roll and still photography. I don't really need a new video camera. I'm plenty happy with the A1. But expanding the kind of looks we can get by having the option of a large sensor interchangable lens camera would be beneficial for shoots where my background choices in some of these offices I have to shoot interviews in are less than desirable.

So what we really need are the following:
--Pro stills camera with nice lens for still shoots that can double as a second video camera for specialty looks/shallow DOF interviews.
--Portable battery powered LED lights like those made by Coollights, great for locations shoot where we can't run power. Like the shoot we did in horse stables.
--C-stands with flags, cookies, etc.
--Pelican cases - right now we've been given a small luggage cart and some cheap metal boxes. My boss suggests we go to home depot and build a cart out of 2x4's.
--Flos for our studio setups. I've been shooting green screen with two lowel tota-lights and a chimera for the last four years. Very difficult to light the screen and subject separately with three lights. But I do it, the key being to light the screen and backlight the subject with the tota-lights and use the chimera as key. But that means you always have the same look for green screen. No way to mood light the subject.
--Audio recorder - the A1's audio isn't great. It's passable, but noisy and low. Even and H4N is miles ahead in audio quality.
--Wireless lavs - Not always useful but I can't telly ou how many times we've had to shoot an event where the talent is 50-100 feet away and a wired lav or shotgun is useless.
--Teleprompter - We've made one out of a computer screen and some software. It's a pain in the butt because our studio room is so small the distance from camera to talent is short, it becomes visually noticable that the talent is not looking at the camera.
--Real tripods - Only tripod we have is a small bogen unit I found on craiglist for $60. It's all I could get my boss to spend at the time. At least it has a fuid head. But it's max height is only 5 feet and was clearly designed for pocket sized handycams, not something like an A1 or even a DSLR. Plus that's the only one we have, which makes two camera shoots nearly impossible.

I will use your suggestion to come up with a breakdown, item for item of what we need, what it will cost and offer three lists. Sadly though I think all of this will be for nothing as we've been denied every piece of camera, lighting, sound and grip gear we've requested in the last four years. Always coming back with suggestions that we have a digital rebel already, we have lights already, we have a teleprompter that can be made out of a computer monitor, etc.

There is also supposedly some magical bag somewhere in the office that contains everything we'll ever need accordng to my boss. As he claims he bought a lot of this stuff years ago and we just have to find it. Well we haven't found this magical bag in five years so I doubt it exists. What I think he's referring to is a camera bag one of our old photographers used to carry around with $15K worth of his own Canon gear, stuff he bought with money from shooting wedding photos on the side. We know it was his because he started after me and came with it. That photographer has since left and done much better for himself on his own. He was only here for a couple of years and was our in house photographer at the time. He was not about the use the rebel for cleint shoots so he started using his own gear and regrets that he ever did. He left after too many arguments with my boss.

But all of this is worth a shot anyway. I think we can make a compelling argument that we use this gear to make money for the company, that there is a centain level of perception a client has when they hire us and that improving our kit will help us do better work and get better jobs going forward.

If it weren't for the economy and the lack of work in the industry in this town, my sound guy and I would be looking for alternatives. We've fought too many uphill battles against delusional thinking when it comes to getting what we need to do our job. It is my understand that there will always be some resistance and tht you have to state your case to get what you need. But from many threads I've read here over the years it seems that my predicament is a special scenario of great resistence and unreasonable philosophy. It seems that in any proper production company there is an understanding that camera, grip, lighting and sound gear needs to be refreshed every so many years and that it requires investment that will be paid off over the course of X amount of shoots. A concept that seems be fall on deaf ears here.

I honestly believe that my boss is only willing to buy us gear that he can personally take home and use to shoot his kids with. Which is why we had very little reisistence when we requested the HV30. Even though we absolutely needed it. The same was true when the company bought an ipad for our web developers. It's something they have to request from him every time they need to use it. It's often loaded with games and his personal stuff. With this philosophy in mind, I can see why wireless lavs, LED banks, teleprompters and c-stands are not high on his priority list of purchases the company needs. We aren't a tiny mom and pop shop either. 40+ employees and some very respectable clients.

I think I started this thread more to vent than get suggestions, but I'm very happy with the suggestions you've all made and will act on them. So thank you all very much and I'm still open to any new suggestions anyone else might have.

 

[roxics]

IMO, you should never use your own gear to make money for someone else, unless you're compensated for it. So, if you have a job where your gear would really help, rent it to your boss' company and then use it.



Sounds like going out on your own might make more sense than staying where you are....



Probably will be a wasted effort without the groundwork laid of why it makes financial sense. Paul F is right when he wrote:

I was typing my first reply to you when you replied with this.

I think you're right with what you say here. i generally consider it hopeless and I'm pretty much just venting. But I do really appreciate the input and will try anyway what you have suggested. Why not take a shot right?

 

[maranfilms]

Maybe try to take your boss to a higher end shoot. This way he can see for himself how proper gear can make the job go faster, and produce a better overall poduct for the client. Sometimes you can try to explain till your blue in the face, But then other times all it takes is for someone to see how it should be done. just a thought.

 

[David W. Jones]

Bottom line... Are your clients happy with the work your company provides?

While it may be frustrating not having the latest gear at work, you do have a job.

 

[roxics]

Maybe try to take your boss to a higher end shoot. This way he can see for himself how proper gear can make the job go faster, and produce a better overall poduct for the client. Sometimes you can try to explain till your blue in the face, But then other times all it takes is for someone to see how it should be done. just a thought.

Yeah my boss has actually been on some higher end shoots (mostly TV news) and comes back to us and tells us about them. Then expects us to do the same things as they do. To him it's all about process. If something isn't going right it's because the process is wrong, either we're not documenting something right or haven't developed a thorough process. He likes to think of us as a news crew and wonders why we cant turn around stories in a hour like a news crew can. But we're not a news crew. We have workflows, but every shoot is a little different.

Bottom line... Are your clients happy with the work your company provides?

While it may be frustrating not having the latest gear at work, you do have a job.

Yeah we've gotten really good at what we do. I don't mean to sound egotistical about that, but we are professionals and know our craft. Clients are sold what we are capable of, typically. But there are situations where clients have not gotten what they wanted or the quality suffered because we were undeerequipt for the job. So it's not really about having the "latest" or "fanciest" gear. It's about having the right tools for the job. There was a time when a client asked me to flag windows and I couldn't, a time when a client asked me to use a fresnel and cookie behind the subject and I couldn't, a time when the talent was 50-75 foot away during a live presentation and we could only mic the podium but then during their speech they walked away from the podium, even though we told them not to before hand. Situations where we needed to shoot in locations that required light but there was no power.

We've gotten shoots where we can location scout ahead of time, check for power, check for acoustics, check for PA systems we can tap into, etc. So we do our leg work. But there are plenty of shoots that we can't or situations where things come up on the shoot that were never imagined. Over the years we've kept track and figured out everything we need. We just don't get it when we ask for it.

But you're right, we do have jobs and very happy about that. Which is what makes this is a hard line to cross. So the question becomes, do we even approach it and risk a potential fight about it or just continue to do what we do and risk situations where we are underequipt again and a potential fight about why we couldn't get the best footage or sound.

 

[Paul F]

He's cheap and he is process oriented. That sounds very familiar to someone I know (no way related). So appeal to the process. Tie the better/proper equipment into the process. It may not be easy. But I think you need to try for your sake.

I don't think there is a downside if it is presented in a way that appeals to his sensibilities.

 

[David W. Jones]

Well the best advice I can give at the moment... is keep your head up and continue to to act as the professional you are. I know how demoralizing it can be when your personal kit is tits above the place you work, and they don't seem to be in tune with the times. You might consider letting your employer know that they might be able to save X amount of dollars over the course of X amount of time, by switching to a modern camera like the say the AF100 or FS100 which shoot to low cost SD cards, and cuts out the cost of tape and real time transfer of footage. Then again I'm sure your boss makes you use the same tape over and over.

Good Luck!

Dave

 

[roxics]

He's cheap and he is process oriented. That sounds very familiar to someone I know (no way related). So appeal to the process. Tie the better/proper equipment into the process. It may not be easy. But I think you need to try for your sake.

I don't think there is a downside if it is presented in a way that appeals to his sensibilities.

Yup I think you're right. Which goes in line with what the others were saying before about showing a demonstration video to him about how much the quality can be improved as well as doing a line item based list of three packages that can help improve our offerings as a company. Plus as you said, demonstrate how it can improve our process.

Well the best advice I can give at the moment... is keep your head up and continue to to act as the professional you are. I know how demoralizing it can be when your personal kit is tits above the place you work, and they don't seem to be in tune with the times. You might consider letting your employer know that they might be able to save X amount of dollars over the course of X amount of time, by switching to a modern camera like the say the AF100 or FS100 which shoot to low cost SD cards, and cuts out the cost of tape and real time transfer of footage. Then again I'm sure your boss makes you use the same tape over and over.

Good Luck!

Dave

lol Luckily he isn't that cheap. He does buy us tape. I've been running the same brand and type of tape through the camera since we bought it. I baby that equiptment and take care of it as much as I can.

To be honest I do like tape. Because we archive every shoot. So switching to solid state recording media would require us to just buy more hard drives to archive footage. I haven't run the numbers in a couple of years, but last I did tape was cheaper and smaller. But you're right in that it takes more time. But the way my job is, I'm on salary anyway and there 40 hours per week. We don't constantly have video projects going on. So it's not as if saving time on capturing tape is really going to save the company money. One of the reasons we have our jobs is because both my sound guy and I also do web edits and web builds. So when we aren't doing video work we're doing web work. So while they still charge industry rates for the video work, often times video projects are added into web projects as part of a package. Half the time as an upsell, the other half of the time as a solo project. Which is why clients come to us, they can get it all done under one roof.

I think this is one of the key reasons why video is treated the way it is. We aren't soley a video production house. They still advertise the heck of it to clients and potential clients. When you're doing a tour of the offices there is only so much you can say about web builds and programming without getting overly technical and losing the clients interest. But when you bring up video and tell them about how we have a "studio" and our guys travel around the state with cameras and sound gear and shoot "productions" and "tv commercials" for high end clients, it all sounds so Hollywood to them. But the reality is, internally the company treats us like we're the high school AV club.

 

[BlkBull-it]

Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we need to have new equipment (toys) and it's always important to remember the equipment we use are just tools to accomplish a job. Different jobs require different tools and also different levels of tools. So far I agree with what everyone has said in regards of needing to show some form of ROI for new gear such as a way to make your work more efficient/streamlined (time=money), a solution to a problem you've encountered in the past where your equipment was the limiting factor, etc.

I work in a similar environment as you're describing. I produce all of the photography and video production (among other things) for a company that does business throughout the US and Canada. Here are a few things I'd suggest...

1. First, do you currently have a yearly budget for equipment purchases and maintenance? If not you need to propose one. Production equipment requires maintenance and care just like any other tool and the cost of maintaining and upgrading your equipment should be built into the price you're charging your clients for each job. Also, there needs to be a well communicated understanding of the lifecycle of equipment between you and your boss. Pieces of equipment have different lifecycles and it's important for you and your boss to understand the lifecycle of each piece of equipment you currently have. This helps to eliminate any unexpected equipment proposals.

2. Do you have any equipment you don't ever use or rarely use? Are there multiple pieces of equipment that could be replaced with a single piece of new equipment? My company had all sorts of old gear that was just sitting and collecting dust, but was also valuable (just not to us). So I came up with a plan to sell the old equipment we weren't using to fund new equipment that would be more useful to our current needs. For example we had a bunch of old Beta gear that was just sitting around. I sold it several years ago and used that money to invest in some new lenses. Another example is we has purchased a Steadycam a while ago and while it did add to our production value we didn't really need it. To me it didn't make sense to have it as we didn't need it for a vast majority of our shoots and if we did need it for a shoot the cost to rent one made more sense than the cost of owning one. So I sold it and used the money again to invest in equipment we would use more often.

3. Are there projects where you or your boss wanted something specific or you needed to get a certain shot, but your equipment was the limiting factor on achieving your results? Take note of these situations and when you make a gear proposal refer to them and explain how purchasing new equipment can solve these problems.

4. Ask to rent equipment you're interested in possibly purchasing for a shoot or two. Renting allows you to show your boss the difference a new piece of equipment will make and it also allows you to see if the new equipment is a good fit for your production or not. I primarily shoot stills, but do quite a bit of video as well. We currently have a Nikon D3 (stills only), Canon 5D2 (mainly video, but also stills) and a Sony HVR-Z1U (only used to shoot action now) and I know I'll be renting the D4, D800, 5DIII, and the 1DX this year before deciding what body will work best for us.

 

[sonofaresiii]

If you have an upcoming shoot, and you know you're going to do a good job with the gear you have... then maybe your boss is right?