22 Aug Behind the Stream: Bang For Your Buck
When it comes to making great videos more money and more crew don’t always equate to better videos. Instead, we recommend having a team that knows the right questions to ask and the tools needed to get you where you’re going.
This week we take on the very exciting topic of managing a budget and the things to be considered to get the most bang for your buck.
Beth: So managing timelines and budgets. In the beginning, everyone’s on the same page for budgets and timelines and then the second you schedule something, or you decide you want another shooter, or a drone, sounds like a good idea for this shoot, you have a situation where you have a budget and a timeline that’s changed and we have to manage it.
Beth: So I can do it as best as I can that’s typically my role, but how do you manage it on the fly?
Steph: I try to stick with the production schedule as closely as possible. Of course, there are times that we push the line and we start to go over time. So the first thing I do is I’m gonna talk to my videographer andd say “Can you–You know… What do you have going on after this?” “Can you stay an extra hour or two hours?” or whatever it is. And then you have to go to the client and say “Hey, we’re gonna hit over time, are you okay with that or do you wanna get as much as we can get done in this amount of time.” And then we’re done. We’ve gone over a couple of times where we have pushed into overtime and talked to the client and it’s fine.
Beth: I would say we’re both– Erica’s really good about that. If I say “Hey, can you do this?” She’s like “Yes and…” So then I say that to the client as well. We’re gonna do this, but it’s gonna cost or, it’s gonna be an extra it’s gonna– it’s not something we do in the rearview. I think that’s really important. A lot of people don’t understand what is and isn’t included. I mean to this day, I still have a hard time sometimes being like “Wait, that’s not part of it?” or “What is included in the service?” and “What’s not included in the service?” and it’s not because I’m trying to beyou know cheap. It’s because I genuinely don’t understand. Or our clients genuinely don’t understand what it takes. You’re the professional, you’re the one that knows what the lights– that the lights need to be built, and here’s how long it takes for this light to be built. What was the situation we just had? We were talking about doing a studio shoot and I was like— Whoa, whoa, whoa! You need two and a half hours to set up? I’ve been budgeting for all of our clients an hour to set up. I was super rude about it to Erica. I was like, “Hey! Hold on!” I wasn’t, but Erica was like, “I would need two and a half hours for a studio.”
Erica: It was like open communication, you know and to just make sure everyone is on the same page. And sometimes staying longer is not the right answer. Maybe it won’t get what you’re needing to get and it’s more important to focus on, you know other things and you know it’s just that communication.
Steph: And in the moment I try to sound the alarm. I kind of get annoying about it a little bit, like, “You guys we have like a half hour.” “We have a half hour.” And when we’re shooting B-Roll, Erica will say “Just stop me!” because she’ll keep on shooting and I’ll be like “Two more shots in here and then we gotta go, move on.”
Erica: And I will have to say that, we’ve been working together on location for a very long time. We have a good open communication and we kind kind of read each other, and I think that’s really helpful. As opposed to trying to cobble together a crew that maybe hasn’t worked together before, you know they just maybe can’t feel each other out, and stuff is just taking a little longer. Where you and I with that experience we’re very valuable.