Two sets of envelopes are on stage at all times. One PwC rep on one side of the stage and one on the other, each with the exact same set of envelopes. The rep who handed the envelope to Warren Beatty inadvertently gave him the unused envelope for the previous category, Actress In A Leading Role, which was Emma Stone for “La La Land.”

And what did Price Waterhouse Cooper do? They owned the mistake, almost immediately and without reservation.

A human error was made, the wrong envelope was given, and instead of looking to blame everyone else, PwC took ownership of the mistake immediately. This is called taking responsibility and the hallmark of outstanding leadership. It’s a great lesson for any company, but especially for small businesses.

No person and no company is perfect. Well all fail. We all make mistakes. We all fall short of client and consumer expectations. It’s the response of you and your company that makes the difference in your reputation and client retention. When you do not, or simply cannot, deliver what is expected, you owe it to yourself and to your client / consumer to own the shortcoming. It’s then up to you to provide the resolution up front and without reservation. Throwing the blame around to others will simply lead to frustration and ultimately loss of client / consumer support of your brand.

PwC went 83 Academy Awards without a major mistake. Yes there was a minor hiccup in 1964 but that was a music category and long before social media. Nobody is perfect. I sincerely hope The Academy retains the services of PwC and for the rest of you, use this as an outstanding example of how to handle a client shortcoming. Own your mistakes, learn from them and grow from them. Your reputation and business depend on it.

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See how all of this started was a simple request on Creative COW from a local Director of Photography who needed help with his editing system.  I responded and when I got to his office, I noticed he had a stack of “Good Eats” DVDs on the desk.  That’s when I found out he was the DP of one of my favorite shows AND it was shot right here in Atlanta.  I honestly had no idea at that time.   When we were done with his system, I left behind a demo DVD that included some silly animations I had created for another client.

Well just a few days later, I got the email below that started a great 5 year run that’s still my favorite project I’ve ever participated in.  The episode was “Sprung A Leek” in Season 8 and Alton was looking for Monty Python inspired work.   As a huge fan of Terry Gilliam and all things Monty Python, AB and I clicked right away and the rest, as they say, is history.  It all culminates with AB proudly proclaiming me as his “Super Geek” in the “Behind the Eats” episode.  Oh I do also have two speaking lines in “Fishin’ Whole” where I get to taunt Alton for his fear of clowns.   Here’s a little article I wrote back in 2006 about the series workflow.  

For me that’s the most wonderful part about sharing knowledge about this incredible industry I get to be a part of.  You just never know who is connected to whom and where your little act of kindness might lead.

The post The Start of “Good Eats” Animations appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

See it’s a video centric learning program but just showing videos and scenarios isn’t enough.  We really need to test the employees at each step along the way to ensure they’re getting the material.   Years ago I established a relationship with a really good e-Learning partner for these very situations.  For this project we’re going to work together with them taking point on the educational design and me on the video production.  We’ll work together on the overall project management and development.

Moral of the story?  Work on your network of connections for really good and really honest partners you can bring in so when you get a call that says, “Can you do that?” your answer can be “Absolutely!”

The post I Can Do That! (How am I going to do that?) appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

New client calls asking to meet and discuss a potential project using my services, which happens to be media creation and creative design.

Meeting goes great, runs well past the original scheduled time, good discussion all around. I promise a proposal for the project.

Proposal is sent, client responds with thanks and……………. radio silence. Instead of telling me “no we’re not going to use your proposal” the company simply goes radio silent.  

Not only is this behavior unprofessional, it’s just plain rude.  You called ME. YOU asked me to come in and give you a proposal. Now that you have the proposal, the very least you can do is respond with a simple yes or no.

Many of my colleagues say it’s a result of the younger generation now moving into positions of responsibility that’s degrading the professionalism from companies.  In my experience, I don’t see that. This unprofessional behavior stretches far and wide from young to old, small / startup to multi-national, billion-dollar companies.  It’s now the norm to simply ignore a proposal rather than give a proper response.

Maybe companies are scared to deliver bad news? I really don’t know what started this level of unprofessionalism throughout the business world for such a simple task as responding to a proposal. But I’ll offer some advice to those of you who choose to hide behind emails.

Business owners are Ok with “No” or “Sorry we’re going with someone else.”   It’s part of doing business. All of us own “big boy” and “big girl” pants, we can handle rejection.  Besides, the sooner you give a definitive answer, the sooner we’ll stop annoying you asking for an update.

So stop hiding behind your email and phone barrier. Be a professional and provide an answer. I’d love to hear from others on their experiences.

The post The Business of Hiding (behind emails and phone screening) appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Whether you own a production company or you’re a freelancer, we’re all independent contractors and it’s important to understand and document the full scope of work and fees to be charged for a project.   In other words, creating an accurate budget.   

In this course, learn how to plan and create professional budgets and proposals for video projects.  I provide detailed information and advice that’s applicable to the various types of projects video professionals handle in their business operations. Learn how to tackle client assessments, develop a working concept, put your budget together using Showbiz Budgeting, and present your budget and proposal.

The ability to properly budget time, people and materials will help to make sure you don’t get stuck paying for all those “little things” that can turn profit into loss. 

Topics Include:

Completing a client assessment

Discerning between client needs versus wants

Developing a working concept

Creating time and crew assessments

Coming up with the budget

Presenting the proposal

Revising the budget

Knowing when to walk away

Duration:  2h 15m

This course is built upon my over 25 years of experience in the video production industry and I really hope it helps you to grow your business.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.

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It seems that Microsoft has decided to take advantage of the current stagnant nature of Apple in the computer world.  Oh sure Apple introduced a “touch strip” calling it “new” but PCs have had a version of the touch strip for a few years now.   And of course, Windows PCs have been available with full touch screen displays for years now as well.  But Microsoft sees an opening to not only the creative world, but the general public through some very innovative and “Mac-like” products.

Apple has, rightfully, become a lifestyle company built around “things” with the centerpiece being the iPhone.  The iPhone put Apple on a completely new track arcing away from computers and towards consumer goods.   The iPad, the Watch, the AppleTV.  All consumer goods designed to make the lives easier of those who own them.  They’re all mini-computers to be sure, but they’re consumer items with more or less specific purposes.  And consumers have rewarded the company well.  So it appears that Apple’s current position is the general consumer doesn’t need much more than a laptop these days and they don’t really want a touch screen.  I personally believe Apple is just waiting for the death of the “computer” as an item in the home and you’ll just use your phone / tablet / watch as all the computing you’ll need along with a wireless keyboard to use cloud based apps via your TV or tablet.

Now how did Apple come to be “THE” lifestyle company to the masses?  Well it wasn’t through blazing computer sales.  Apple computers sales ALWAYS lagged behind PCs.  Generally far, far behind PCs because you could only get them from one company, they were more costly than PCs and you couldn’t just build one easily of the shelf.  Only “artists” would use a Mac because….. well we liked working with them and they were generally “cooler” than PCs.

That “cool” factor helped Apple when it was ready to make the leap from computer to lifestyle company.  Enter the iPod.  10,000 songs at your fingertips and in your pocket.  No matter what the competition threw at Apple, the iPod was too cool to beat and Steve Jobs was the ultimate cool salesman.   The iPhone sent the company to the stratosphere and suddenly computers were no longer front and center at Apple.  The iPads and MacBook Airs followed along with the Watch as the old bread and butter towers of yore faded to the background.    But it was those cool computers that gave Apple the clout and the consumers the confidence that their innovative devices not only looked good, but would work reliably.    And now we’re at the point where Apple is no longer a computer company first.

I believe Microsoft sees an opening into the hearts and minds of both consumers and professionals alike by re-inventing the computer experience around touch screen.  Consumers are already used to touch screen tablets and phones.   While the Surface Tablet has steadily improved, sales are far behind the iPad, though Apple is no longer the dominant tablet maker with less than 25% market share as of Q2 2016.   So by taking a step “back” and re-invigorating the personal computer experience with an over the top Surface Studio and more powerful Studio tablets, Microsoft has suddenly become the “cool” computer company.    Their Surface tablets run full desktop software putting it on par with the MacBook Air.  Microsoft has a buzz around their products that resemble the Apple buzz of old.

So taking a page from the Apple playbook, Microsoft could use the reinvigorated computer experience which includes Windows 10 as an entryway into the full lifestyle experience.   The Windows Phone failed to catch on and the Zoom audio player never got anywhere.  But the living room is probably the next great battleground with streaming video services and devices.   If Microsoft gets the Surface re-launch right, they could re-introduce Microsoft as an innovated lifestyle company.   Right now Microsoft, HP and other PC companies are getting noticed for innovation in the computer space while Apple treads water.

As for me personally, I have probably made my final Apple purchase as I’ll trade in my current MacBook Air for a Surface Tablet.  For my professional computers, the 27″ 5k Retina iMac will be my final Mac for work.  What will replace it remains to be seen, either a custom PC desktop or the Surface Studio.

Where does the computer and lifestyle space go from here?  It will be interesting to see how this Apple / Microsoft story plays out over the next 2 – 5 years.

The post Could 2016 Be The Year Everything Changed? appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Now this is my PERSONAL MacBook Air so I didn’t mind being a guinea pig for this new OS.  It would not affect my paying work.     I would NOT install Mac OS X Sierra on a professional workstation or any machine you use to make a living at this time.  

Observations so far:

Overall operation of the entire MB Air is slower and hotter.   One fix Apple Support suggested was to restart in Safe Mode to force the machine to clear out a lot of cache and it sounded like it did a bit of cleaning up on the startup overall.  After doing that and then restarting the machine it does seem to work marginally better.  The machine continues to run hot for no apparently reason.   That area of the keyboard just below the “MacBook Air” name is almost continuously hot.  Prior to installing Sierra, the machine would only really heat up if I was doing a render in Premiere Pro or After Effects which would be expected.  But generally I’m only using this machine for writing and organizing photos.

Battery life is definitely degraded, seems I’ve lost at least an hour to 90 minutes of battery working time on the Air.  Now this is probably connected to the hot machine since that’s due to the CPU working hard so something is making the Air work harder than it should.

Mail app is much slower to retrieve incoming mail and slower to open each piece of mail.  It also has a weird refreshing behavior each time I open a new piece of mail.   The entire screen refreshes when I look at a new piece of mail.

Safari and Opera continually shut down a page due to a non-working extension or other similar error.

Printing to an HP wireless printer is not working, but printing to an Epson is.   It’s an HP OfficeJet all in one model that’s about 5 years old.  I can’t print to it.  But I can print to an Epson all-in-one wireless model we got earlier this year.

I have NOT launched any Adobe software on here yet.  Am

On the upside, Wi-Fi connectivity seems to be better.   I have several networks at my office and for whatever reason the Air would NEVER connect to one particular network.  Now it does.

So if you want to dive into the OS X Sierra pool early, proceed with caution.  ALWAYS CHECK WITH SOFTWARE MANUFACTURERS BEFORE UPDATING AN OS.   The folks at ToolFarm have created a great Sierra Compatibility Chart that’ll get you started.  But just because you don’t see your software on your list, doesn’t mean it will work.

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As someone who first edited video in 1986, I have borne witness to a wholesale revolution and evolution of the creative industry. Well actually, just creativity as a whole. Amazing creative work now comes from all corners of the globe, all age groups and all skill levels.

Creative professionals used to have very defined roles. Producer, Director, Writer, Camera, Lighting, Sound, Editing, Graphics, Animation and so on. When I started at CNN in 1990 I was a video editor. That’s it. I arrived at work each day and when I left 9 hours later, the only task I did all day was to edit video. In Hollywood, New York, Georgia and other locations were major film and television project are happening, those roles still exist on set, in part mandated and governed by unions. For the rest of us, however, being a creative professional is wholly different.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Picture this scenario.  You’re ready to build a house.  You pick out the contractor and the first thing he says is, “Ok, here’s a list of tools you’re gonna need to buy at the hardware store and here’s another list of things you’re gonna need to rent for me to be able to do this.  I’m happy to do the work, but my little toolbox isn’t enough to build this house.”   

Yet there are editors who will say, “I’ll edit your show / documentary / feature but my little editing system can’t handle it.  You buy the system and I’ll edit on it.”  And the client does it.   With money that could have been spent on other things or simply saved and not spent at all.

Building a proper system to take on a job is the cost of doing business.  You want to take on larger projects, you need to set up a system.  You work the cost of a system into a job or a series of jobs.   I didn’t build a 96TB NAS with 10Gig E connectivity to 20 computers overnight.   That has slowly been built over time with incremental investments so right now, we have no problem taking on multiple features and episodic television at the same time.   Nor would we ever ask a client to purchase extra hardware just so we can work on their project.

Editors, if you need additional hardware to complete projects you want to do, then it’s your responsibility to purchase it.  If you can’t afford it, pass on the job.  Clients, if a contractor asks you to purchase the tools to do a job, move on, there are plenty of smart creative businessmen and women who are willing to invest in proper system setups to take on your projects.

Now before you freelance editors jump all over me and say “well it’s easy for you to say you’ve got a big facility and all this awesome equipment….”  I started my company in the bedroom of my house in 2001 with a $30,000 loan to outfit a spare bedroom with everything I needed to work with anticipated clients.  I was also $50,000 in the hole from a failed previous business partnership.  So I started this company $80,000 in the hole for a standard definition Final Cut Pro system with a whooping 240GB of RAID storage.   I’ve never asked a client to purchase anything just so I can take on a job, if it needs to be purchased, that’s my responsibility.

The post I’ll Do The Work, You Buy The Tools. Wrong. appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Read the rest of my article at LinkedIn

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