It’s Time To Change Our Post-Production Model And Value Creativity!

(Part One)

We have a deeply ingrained idea that post-production is just like production. We show up, we do the same work, and we get paid for our time.

It’s not!

You are chosen among many contractors for your unique way to solve creative problems.

Whether you are an editor, a sound designer, a colorist, a motion graphic designer or a music composer, you impact the story.
With time and experience, you work better and faster. You learn to anticipate challenges and design solutions before they arise.

You gain mastery.
The truth is, no one cares how long it takes for you to do the work. As long as you can deliver results!

Charge for those results instead, and stop selling yourself by the day.

I will repeat it: start selling your creative talent. I mean it! Your world will change, so will your relationships.

While the following article is for all self-employed and creative solo-entrepreneurs, working in the post-production industry, it applies to all creative work.

There has never been as much content being created in history as there is today. There has never been as much profit generated, and we certainly haven’t seen the peek yet either. This should be great news for all creative talents in the film and television industry? Right?

Then why are rates going down? Why is high paying work so hard to come by?

One trend is that the intrinsic value of TV shows are going down due to the increasing number of low-cost subscription-based platforms that produce content at a high volume at a lower and lower cost. They know they can’t change the price much or else you may cancel your subscription, so sadly this trend will most likely continue for the foreseeable future.
There is nothing we can do about that.

One other reason (there are many more), is that you are probably charging a day rate, you can only raise it with new customers who are probably choosing cheaper contractors. You might feel that your time and experience isn’t rewarded. Because you are selling your time, clients ask for less of it. You then agree on a flat fee based on the project, and you lose control over the entire scope. Notes keep coming, last minutes tweaks, etc. You work at night and on the weekends, and your business isn’t growing. And finally, your relationship with your client takes a sour turn. He doesn’t value time, and you stop being creative. But why would your client value your time and your creativity is you don’t make it the center of your proposition?

There is a better way. It is a long conversation. It is called “Value-Base Pricing!”

I didn’t invent it (not sure who did, but it is floating around)

Value Base Pricing will make you more creative, more effective and therefore valued.

But let’s leave marketing behind for a second and consider why post-production is historically time-based and why it is different now.

The traditional large post-production groups who rent their services and their tools are thriving and raising their prices:

https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/tech/post-production-houses-to-hike-prices-in-2019/5135742.article

This could be great news for all the artists who are riding the gig economy wave. A revolution is quietly taking place in the creative workforce. It is already happening in the marketing service industry, and it is happening in the post-production industry too.

What is Changing? Our Tools.

Let’s briefly track back in time: The Avid Media Composer Revolution.

(You may skip this part if you want)

In the 90s, the post-production industry was revolutionized by the invention of Non-Linear-Editing (NLE) by creating software that allowed editors to be faster, work intuitively, with more creative tools than ever before. Avid doubled down by releasing the Open Media Framework (OMF), into the public domain as well. It allowed Avid sequences to be exported from their own system into other systems (for example, ProTools (Audio) and DaVinci Resolve (Color/Finishing).

Leading the revolution was AVID Media Composer systems. While their turnkey workstation cost between $50,000 and $80,000, which sounds outrageous today, it was 10x cheaper than their analog rivals. When Avid went public, their revenue jumped from $1million to $112million which quickly positioned itself as the Broadcast industry leader. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/avid-technology-inc-history/

Avid’s innovation disrupted the entire post-production industry. For less than $100k the Avid film editing system offered film editors more creative freedom, at a faster pace and a cheaper cost. In 1996. Avid was worth half a billion dollar.

Smaller post-production facilities were now able to purchase editing systems and get a foot in the door of the film business, which was previously reserved, to the big Studios.

What is true for editing software is also true for color and finishing software, sound design & mixing, as well as VFX later on. In 2010 a turnkey color and finishing solution cost about $100K.

Studios quickly realized they could be more profitable if they changed their entire business model from being all-in-one large movie factories, to focus on development and outsource most of the production work to smaller size companies.

But even by 10x cheaper, $100k remains high for creative artists to go off on their own.

They had to work in facilities that own the equipment and rented it to producers. Facilities had to compete in price by offering the latest technology. As a result, facilities lowered their cheaper editing suite as a loss leader to encourage producers and filmmakers to finish their film with them.

Time-based pricing is excellent for facilities which run somewhat like hotels (they lower their price in low season or charge more at peak hour).

It is also justified by their need to be in prime real estate spaces, in the world’s most expensive cities. Because of the high cost of entry and the high burn-rate of those companies, the pricing model for facilities is “rental.” Clients buy time; could be a day, a week, a month, a year.
Along with the purchased time came an operator, usually creative artists and many assistants.
Unions also use time as their primary currency, protecting minimum rates by the day and by the week.

But if time-based pricing is a great model for pricing repetitive physical task with equal value, like most production jobs, rental services, and full-time employees, who must show up at the same time every day), is the second worst pricing model for self-employed creative artists work.

The advantages of time-based pricing are that it is convenient; it is an industry standard, it is easily understandable and negotiable. The downside is that it prevents creative people from scaling and growing.

- Time-based pricing punishes both experience and creativity. If you work fast, you make less.

- It fosters a race to the bottom where the lower rate wins.

- And finally, it becomes an incentive for the creative artist, not to fasten the decision process.

….

Part Two: This article continues here https://medium.com/@hroyo/new-tools-new-era-the-opportunity-of-the-gig-economy-in-post-production-f92f038f4d8b

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Originally published at round2.xyz on February 12, 2019.