Demo Reels and Marketing
18 messages in this thread
John,
Your point, that those demo reels were a collection of a few seconds
of
great animation work from god know's how many hours of actually work
is
good to keep in mind. I heard Yost say they got something like 3.5
hours of animation submitted on tape which they had to cull down to 20
minutes or so. It is inspirational and a good to to gauge the level
of
our own work against. The truth is this, if you really like what you
are doing, trust your aesthetics and get the work out there. Getting
the work in front of other people is where it is going to do it's
magic.
I went to a SCORE workshop on starting a business Monday and it was
great for me. The most important hit I got was from the woman who
talked about marketing. Marketing has to be the most mysterious
aspect
of this business for me. I ask myself, "who are my customers?" I
often tell people when asked this that like a piegon on the street I
take whatever I can find. That isn't a very good approach but
freelancer's have to survive. I want to come up with a better plan.
My strategy is to find a market niche that fits my particular skills
and talent and cultivate a client base that knows me.
Humble is not so bad.
Michael B.
so michael-did your work come out in the magazine? what is the name of it
again? What months issue? Let us all know!
-rachel
Thanks for asking Rachel.
Look for the September issue of "PC Presentations/Productions." I haven't seen
it yet and haven't heard what the current status is.
Michael B.
september, isn't it september now? i'll go hunt the mag racks next time i
emerge for milk. It is so nice to have met you at the 3ds event…any
good movies lately? i'll let you know if i find the magazine….rachel
Hi Rachel,
Sure is September, egads. What is September like down in Laguna Beach? I
enjoyed visiting and seeing the art festivals and the beach.
Looks like a good place to live. It was a pleasure to meet you, always
more fun to associate a pleasant face with a name.
The magazine is a mystery. Good movies are few and far between this summer
unless action/adventure is important aesthetically. I enjoy the
entertainment value but hunger for fine art.
Michael B.
Rachel,
See my response to Michael with regard to PC Presentations/Productions
subscriptions.
Danny…
Michael,
I'm a contributing editor for "PC Presentations/Productions". The September
issue should be available any day now. If you would like to get a
subscription please contact:
PC Presentations/Productions P.O. Box 84 Pearl River, NY 10965-0084
Regards,
Danny…
Hi Danny,
I read your contributions last month and thought they were pretty good.
Don Johnson just told me that the September issue would be out this week.
Thanks for the info.
Michael B.
thanks Danny for your note-can you look in the september issue and tell us
if michael E Bartlett has a piece in there?
I agree with you on the importance of marketing. I believe that in our
particular market it is difficult to predict what clientel one will be most
successful with, because there is such a variety out there. I particularly
enjoy the entertainment part of our buisness, but if a great industrial, or
architectural job comes along I'm all for it. Versatility is the key to
buisness in the nineties, as many of our stiffer, larger companies are finding
out.
I hope you and I both find our niche and make the most of it.
Regards,
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
Variety is right. I haven't seen any patterns emerging yet from the clients I
have dealt with but that may be a factor of how I am looking at them. One week
it is games, next week presentations, next something else again. There must be
some common threads that can be identified.
I have a pretty clear idea of what I want I have to offer, the question is to
whom to offer it? My sense is that there is a robust market for 3D Graphics
shaping up.
Michael B.
I have little illusion (I hope) and no desire to pigeonhole myself. I do
animation and that is what I have to offer the "market". Right now I can't
turn away any work, so there's no real pattern developing here either.
I'll be a happy animator when I can turn yucky, boring jobs over to my
junior employee <g>, and keep the juicy stuff for myself.
Regards,
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
What kind of animation would be a "juicy" animation?
>> What kind of animation would be a "juicy" animation?
Peeling off a Gatorade bottle.
Hey Gus,
After that you would have a few bills to peel off too. I think 3D Studio
is ready for the big time with R3, don't you? How about a few Cheerios.
Michael B.
I personally enjoy character animation the best. I would also like to
break into film digital SPF/x, but that requires a huge investment in
equipment, generally SGI's and lots of expensive software. I think
pre-visualizations for stunt and effects work would be very fun, although I
hear it doesn't pay that well. I'd still do it, though. Basically any
aesthetically glorious high end stuff is "juicy" to me.
Regards,
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
Did you see the presentation at the 3D Studio/Sony bash down in Anaheim
last month? Sony Image Works showed their demo reel of pre-film sequence
visualization. Their pitch was that it was cheaper to do an animation of a
film seq. before actual shooting because it reduced the need for reshoots
by identifying problems before they got to film. They said they were also
looking for 3D Studio animators.
I think juicy would be a contract for a national advertising campaign. Have
you ever figured out how much the difference between a SGI/TDI or like
system would cost? I for one don't want to have to get any further into
programing than a batch file.
Michael B.
I did see the presentation at the Adesk/Sony bash. That's where I found out
about the pre-visualizations. I also found out later that they are looking for
interns for the time being, because they are having a hard sell to producers
and directores (nothing surprising about that). I'll still approach them and
Disney, who also do a good bit of 3DS.
A national ad campaign would be juicy, but hopefully it wouldn't be one of
those heinous/obvious propaganda bits like the coucil for energy awareness
campaign. If only they could be a little less over the top. It's like a Third
Reich propaganda spot, just for nuclear power. And I'm not even
completelyagainst nuclear power (lets get fusion happening), I just understand
the reality of it.
TDI/SGI setups are entirely modular, as are most "high end" packages. Siggy
boxes run anywhere from $18K to millions, depending on how much horsepower you
want, and the software packages cost from @ $6K to @$80K, depending on how much
you need. And then there's all that neeto input stuff like the cyberglove and
the Willow Technologies' motion sensor stuff for real time, live input
kinematics (inverse).
Regards,
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)