The Platypus Producer Part II by F.R. Fritz Nordengren

In Part One of the Platypus Producer, we discussed how roles are changing and the marketplace is beginning to see value in the use of a Platypus. But if you're the Platypus who's just spent a minor fortune on all this new gear, what's more important is how you are going pay for it and make money in this venture.

So where are the clients for this Platypus work? While many publications are making an advance into web based publishing and distribution, I think the more immediate market is corporate journalism.

Any major corporation who is currently publishing print newsletters, reports, or marking pieces is a candidate for Platypus creativity. Consider the very competitive health care market of HMOs,  PPOs, hospitals, clinics, and specialists. While they spend big money for print pieces, the reality of web marketing is just beginning to be understood and the usefulness of the Platypus producer is astounding.

Take, for example, a hospital offering a residency program in a practice specialty. They have some straightforward communication goals:

-Publicize the program to the public
-Provide information about the program to prospective medical residents
-Relay information about the community

A Platypus producer can hire a freelance writer or using the hospital's PR department as the writing resource, and develop a web-based newsletter, which includes:

-The core information about the program (text)
-Updated features about current residents (video/audio/still)
-Features about patient care (video/audio/still)

÷ and all of this can be delivered via the web for a fraction of the distribution costs of a booklet or video.

As producer, we've added value.  And our role as Platypus producer is a gaping hole in the current technology explosion.  That's why, with a little understanding and learning, we can fill a need and significantly profit from our learning and skills.

We have three kinds of people trying to fill this niche:

1) The "tennis shoe and pony tail" set.  These are the true computer geeks who've hand built computers and run operating systems most of us have never heard of (Linux). Because they originally discovered the usefulness of the Internet and web, they have controlled things like server access, bandwidth decisions, TCP/IP subnets and a whole lot of other geek speak.

2) The "suits" -- PR /Communication specialists. These are the folks who do everything from spin doctoring to ordering embroidered golf visors for the CEO's annual summer outing.

3) Content providers and technicians. These are photographers and layout artists, working in one medium that they understand and do best.

What's missing? The Platypus producer. The person who understands the issues and needs of each of the above players, and can integrate the limits and opportunities to tell a story.

When I meet with prospective clients and talk about new web technologies, I get one of a few standard responses:

Some people, whose firms are not technological savvy, just don't get it.  I can recognize these when we ask to play a CD-ROM demo of our capabilities and the company exec calls in the computer "guy" and asks him to turn on the computer.  More often than not, the computer is a PC compatible 286 with 5 ū inch drives.  This is not going to be a good prospect for services.

Other clients have seen ads for "free" web pages or "$29.95 web sites" and think that's the cost and value of a site.  Again, not a good prospect.

But after eliminating those folks, you find the corporate clients who recognize the need for web-based  communication and marketing, and understand that sites can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 to develop.  The advantage of these clients is that also have each of the above mentioned players trying to tell them how to run the website and develop it. And, more often that not, it's these clients who turn to us, as Platypus producers, and ask that we make sense of it all and make it work.

Whoa!  $5,000 - $50, 000 a job.  How do I make that kind of money?

Setting a price can be a difficult task.  Often, new producers get involved in thinking about the fee for services as a price for "me", instead of a larger, and less personal, "the project". It's easy to fall into a trap and think, "I'm not worth $2000 a day!"-- and that can make it hard to close big projects.  But if you shift your attitude to thinking in terms of what the project is worth, the project IS worth $2,000 a day.  Or more÷

As a producer, you have additional responsibilities for the project. Remembering that you, alone, are responsible for your story, realize that you are entitled to earn more for shouldering these tasks.

As a photographer working on an assignment, someone else has made the choice of medium to tell the story. As a Platypus producer, you are now going to take responsibility for making medium choices.  As you analyze the story components, you'll make decisions about what can be captured as a decisive moment in a still image.  As you record video talking heads, you make realize that as video, this is boring stuff, but as audio, it has power, especially combined with 2 or three stills. Finally, you may see a process or sequence that lends itself to a short video segment.

As you research a fee to charge for your services, examine the market to see what others are charging and how much competition exists.

Think about what alternative the client has for achieving his goal. LetĖs imagine that you are working on a corporate journalism project for a health care organization. In addition to shooting photos for their newsletter and newspaper supplement, suppose they now approach you to develop content for their website.

Aha!  A Platypus is being called!

What are the traditional options?

Acquisition:
- Beta Cam SP: Typical camera and shooter will run $1000 - $1500 a day
- Camera rental alone: $650 a day for the high end and $350 a day for the middle of the road
- DV and DVCAM DVCPRO cameras rent around $200 - $250 a day with higher end cameras in the $650 range.

Tape: An hour of tape in Beta SP could run nearly $100. The DV formats will be half of that or less.

Editing : Offline edit suites often cost $100 per hour.  Broadcast quality on-line suites can run $250 - $280 per hour.  A day in one of these suites can be $1000 to $2800.

Compression for the web

We could spend a whole article on the decisions and processes necessary to develop video for the web, but plan on significant additional time to compress the video to a size and data rate reasonable for the web or CD-ROM distribution. The compression process is not symmetric.  By that, while video de-compresses in real time it takes a second to show a second, the compressing process can take as much as 60 x real time, one hour for each minute of video (your mileage may vary).

All of this needs to be entered into your formula for establishing a fee.

Consider the value of your equipment and how fast you want to recover your financial investment.  While a still camera may last 3, 5 or 20 years, the technology curve of the new Platypus gear is going to be much shorter.

My personal choice is to be very conservative with gear and lifecycles. When I budget for new equipment, I need it to pay for itself in 1 year. My assumption being that it is out of date that fast, but if I get any usefulness out of it beyond a year, it's an added bonus.

So let's play some financial games:

Suppose you buy a DV camera in the $3000 range. You also purchase a reasonably fast computer (PC or Mac) for $5000. Let's add a medium end video capture card $5000.

You have $13,000 in hardware invested.

Let's also assume that you can work 75 days as a Platypus producer.  This leaves 175 "unpaid" days for marketing, lost jobs, and other administrative tasks. In order for your equipment to pay for itself in the first year, you need to make $13,000 over 75 days, or approximately $180 a day.

Your overhead, insurance, phones, paper, supplies may add an equal amount ($180).

Finally, if on a gross level, you want to equal the 'average' producer salary based on surveys in AV Video Multimedia Producer magazine ($50,000), you'll need to make $50,000 over 15 days, or about $670 a day.

This gives us a grand total of $1,030 a day.

This begins to make up your base rate. Looking at the alternatives in the marketplace and other costs to you to perform the job will help you move towards a final figure.

These numbers are representative. There are many resources for helping identify your true costs and what to charge for your work.

Remember these thoughts as you head out:

There is a real void that needs to be filled by Platypus producers who understand how to integrate the geeks, the suits, and the content providers.

The value of the project determines your fee more than the value of "you".

This is a great time to be a storyteller.

As I left town for a 4-day shoot, Des Moines got hit with a major rainstorm, dumping 4 inches in a day.  The Raccoon River crested a little less than 2 feet below the 1993 level.  The new multi-million-dollar-federally-financed-flood-control projects kept the water contained.  Even from out of town, I debated registering the domain name  flood.com.
 

F.R. "Fritz" Nordengren  (mailto:%20nordengren@digitalstoryteller.com)
digital storyteller
Verdict Media Consulting, Inc.
West Des Moines, Iowa