T. Larkin Productions editing contest

T

tomlarkin

Member
T. Larkin Productions recently shot a music video for Dusty of The Drama Montage. We wanted to make the video a special one, so we devised a contest that is sure to excite editors, and aspiring editors out there.

We have uploaded all 18 clips from the music video to our vimeo.com account, and we're inviting anyone that thinks they can piece the clips together to give it their best shot. The submission that we feel is the best will be awarded $100, and used as the final cut of the "Little Pieces" video.
We've even made it easy on you. All the clips are synced up to the track, and all that you'll need to do is download the footage, cut it together, add effects, color grading or whatever you plan to do, reupload, and submit.

To download the clips, visit http://vimeo.com/album/158579 . All of the clips are located there. Open each one up, and on the bottom right part of the video's page, you'll see "Download Quicktime Version". Right click, and then click "save target" to download the videos.






The videos are H264 .mp4's. They are 1280X720 (square pixels), 24p, and compressed to 5mb/s. All rough drafts must be re encoded the same way. The finalists will be provided with a lossless, DVCPro HD, version of the footage to replace the compressed clips.

Rough drafts must be uploaded to vimeo and posted to the T. Larkin Productions page on Facebook (facebook.com/tlarkinproductions) no later than the 30th of January, 2010. These will be voted on, and the top submissions will be asked to finalize their edits. The final edit of the piece will be due the 18th of February, 2010.

There are a few rules, so check them out, and get to editing. Good Luck!

1. No alterations of the music track. No effects, or alterations of duration. All submissions must start on the same frame, including the sync beeps in the beginning.
2. You may not use the audio, or video track for anything else but the contest, until the contest has ended. This includes demo reels. The winner, of course, will be able to use the piece in their reels, but anyone else must first obtain permission from T. Larkin Productions.
3. You ARE allowed to add extraneous footage to the video. This must be your own footage though, and you have to be able to prove it. We can't accept anything with copyrighted media in it.
5. You MAY NOT upload any of the 18 clips, your edited draft, or the audio file to any other site besides vimeo.com. Vimeo is our preferred video hosting site, and it offers outstanding quality for HD videos.
6. You may not distribute any media related to this contest, unless given explicit written permission from T. Larkin Productions.

If you break any of these rules, you will automatically be disqualified from the contest, and we'll more than likely sue the pants off of you
 
WoW!!!! 100 dollars to the winner!!

I'm so sick of people trying crap like this. Get some money and hire an editor. Or go post on Craigslist and see how fast you get flagged for trying to get people to work for free. Oh, wait, I forgot about the $100...

This "contest" isn't fooling anyone around here. You have an artist that no one's heard of (although I think he's actually decent), you went and shot some stuff, and now you want to get the best possible editing for your amateur music video for free. That's just insulting.

Be honest with people and they'll return the favor. Try and hustle people and see where it gets you.

If you would have come on these forums and showed some of this footage, then explained that you were a relatively broke filmmaker looking for an editor, you would have been surprised at the positive responses you would have gotten. I know I would have helped...

Contest? I have a contest for you: my car broke down and I have $100 to whomever can donate the nicest car to me. If you donate a new model luxury vehicle and win, I'll let you put a bumper sticker on the underbody that says it came from you. There's a bunch of rules to make it sound more legit, though, so don't worry... it really is worth your mercedes.

Instead, I'm calling this SPAM. I vote for deletion.
 
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Whoa whoa whoa ryan brown... Calm down bud. I think you are misinterpretting this, or I am unknowingly lumping myself in with a group of spammers.

I'm not trying at all to scam anyone, or rip anyone off. We have an edit of the video already, I'm actually an editor myself.

We are partnered with an audio recording studio here in town, and one of their engineers was showing me what Nine Inch Nails was doing with the multitrack versions of their songs. They released them to the public, so everyone else could remix them. It was pretty inspiring.

Unfortuneately, I don't have the fanbase of Nine Inch Nails, so I can't simply post my files, and expect something to come of it. Dusty (the artist in the video) and I thought of this contest as a way to get people interested in putting their own spin on the video.

Initially, we weren't going to offer money for the winner, but we took what budget we had left over from the video, and put it up as a prize to the editor.

I'm a big fan of networking artists over the internet. I've had a couple business plans that revolve completely around satelite operated video production via the internet. I really like uniting people through art, and for me, art is video.

I'm sorry if this post rubbed you the wrong way. I'm not trying to scam, or rip people off, I'm simply trying to encourage collaborations between likeminded people.

If you could advise how I could avoid a mix up like this in the future, I'd greatly appreciate it.


PS. I'm also working on finding a way to increase the prize value. Maybe sponsors, or something along those lines. The artist we are working with also has paperwork tying his media with national music video channels, and we are in the process of seeing if that would be applicable to this contest. Don't quote me quite yet though, I"m not a fan of counting chickens before they hatch.
 
Clip Sample.

Clip Sample.



Sample of one of the clips. If someone could tell me how to embed a hubnut player from vimeo, I can post a player with all of the videos here.
 
OK, I'm sorry to jump down your throat, but it needed to be said. Every so often posts like these come along, and I'm sorry you feel differently about it, but it is, essentially, spam. You're asking someone with thousands of dollars worth of editing gear, years and years of experience, and in an economy that already has us filmmakers struggling, to put our effort into something for free. With no guarantee of anything on the flip side.

Your footage looks good, and there's better ways to go about promoting the artist, video, yourself, etc. that won't step on toes. Yes, the internet is great for networking, but as we all know, it's also full of people asking for work for free. The sad part is that people take up these "free" offers which in turn lower the bar for our entire community.

Like I said in the first post, coming to these forums with an attitude of collaboration with fellow filmmakers would get you a LOT of positive help. Instead, it seems like you're just trying to get something for nothing. If I would have seen this footage in a different light, I would have been happy to do all that I can to help, as would many others on just this forum alone.

But alas, I'm out. Good luck.


P.S.:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later.
I AGREE
 
Essentially what I'm asking for IS help. I'm sorry you were rubbed the wrong way because of previous posts, but please don't exclude us for other's actions.

The goal here is collaboration. I'm able to put up some cash for the top pick. That's all I've got. I think that's a lot better than leading someone on false hopes for some huge prize that will never come.

It's an honest deal, and any contributions would be appreciated. I've been told that this would be the best forum to post in, because of the level of professionalism this site is known for.
 
I'm wth Ryan on this. You could probably get the work done by just asking and letting the editor use it in his/her reel. In any case, you make the material available for editing and experimenting which is useful to many.
 
milksac said:
You must not be a very good editor if you think you can get better cut for $100.
Click to expand...

Sigh.... you guys are relentless. I do think that I could get a better cut for 100 bucks. It says nothing about my editing skills though. I'd just like fresh eyes on the piece. I shot it, and did the original edit, I just feel that someone who doesn't have as much time invested with the piece already might be able to do something better than me.


You have all rights to remix and do what you want with the videos, and I'm eager to check out any derivative of it. For the purposes of the contest though, we have to enforce a couple rules to make it fair for everyone. If you'd like to submit your cut, you'll have to go by the rules... Simple as that.
 
silly thread - and tom larkin doesnt get it - and only has 7 posts on this site - hmmmm - wonder what his first post was.
 
really 500 - is that what a music video is worth - on spec nonetheless

come on people - charge and get paid what you are worth
 
I'm pretty amazed by all the hostility here. If you think your time is worth more than $100, then fine, don't bother. But just because someone isn't willing to pay what you think is a fair price doesn't mean they are somehow doing something unethical.

There are lots of people who will work for next to nothing, especially when times are tough. If they are happy with such pay, then it is their choice to participate. If you can't compete with the hordes of people willing to work for less, then perhaps your skills really aren't that much better. Or maybe you are that much better, but the person looking to hire just doesn't need the job to be perfect.

Do you really think somebody like Spielberg sits around reading the internet and thinks "I can't believe all these jerks want people to direct their films for only $20,000! Anyone not offering at least $20 million should be thrown out of the business" ?

The point is that just because someone is ASKING for *someone* to work for free or for what you consider to be low pay doesn't mean they are FORCING *you* to. If you don't like it, move along.
 
I downloaded a few of the takes from Vimeo today. The zip file is broken, and Vimeo only allows a few of the clips anyway. I had intended to do this on a lark since I am currently slogging my way through learning AVID, and thought this would be a nice way to work on something fun while I learn.

But here's the rub. The "video" source clips are all single person, single-shot. There is NOWHERE to go with this. In order to make anything effective, I'd have to go out and shoot the entire backstory.

Tom, while I understand Ryan's position on this, and agree to a point, I am not trying to come down on you. But if you are an editor as you say, how could you leave yourself in a corner like this? There is absolutely NOWHERE to go. Every cut would be a jump cut. There's no angle changes, no coverage, not even any different focal lengths to get in and out.

If someone handed me this job for money, I'd call for a reshoot. And I don't say that to be harsh, but it's just the reality of what's here.

Oh, and for goodness sakes, please stop with the intentional shakycam. I can add that in post. Even if this WAS workable, I'd be cutting every other second just to try to make the editing pace match the performance...
 
In this case, the problem IMHO is not the rate. It's that a standard editing job was disguised as a competition and the prize was lower than what a single edit would cost.

I remember other posts that tried to get multiple free contributions for commercials etc (news and dvxcafe), for less than what the job would cost, and they were also presenting it as a competition. I understand that there are lots of cameras and talent sitting around, but this is getting out of hand. It's always the same story, they try to exploit the community and when they get no interest or a moderator drops in their way, they disappear from dvxuser with 5 to 10 posts total.

I dont think the actual amount is important. It's ok if they need a commercial shot for $1,000 or a feature film shot for free. Many people will find the job interesting and many need the practice. It's so rare that it does not distort the market in any way.

TwistedLincoln, the problem with low rates as a business practice is that low rates reduce the perceived value of the work and the level of quality that is perceived as acceptable. Some inexperienced people do it for a while, just because they don't understand the damage they do. It could be a hobby to them, but others are barely making a living on this service with the "high" rates. The low rates also promote exploitation of new professionals. Low rates in creative services are a major problem, because the quality of the end result is not easy to quantify. It might be a surprise, but many people into creative services of any sort consider undercutting to be unethical, in the same way that avoiding taxes is considered unethical (not only for the the usual reasons, but also because it allows major undercutting compared to the legally operating competition).
 
Dude you are off your rocker you aren't offering a low rate which is bad enough. You are getting many people to work on spec. Lets not delude yourself here. And this happens on your very first post. Why not get to know the community first before you try this gag
 
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