30f, 20. May 2008, 22:53
The Layaway Plan


Labels will gladly pay you Tuesday for a music video today.
         
30f! Great to see you blogging again. I thoroughly enjoy your postings, I have your blog bookmarked and check it often. I know that it may feel like you're simply treading over the same ground again and again but I must admit I'd rather see more frequent posts about very similar topics than very infrequent posts about differing aspects of the music video industry (I guess I'm just greedy that way).

Also, your post was particularly timely. I just shot a job and the client bounced a check on me and we're also wrangling over the issue of overages. I run my own small prod. co. and so I had to cover the overages and the funds from the bounced check myself.

Normally, because my business is so small and the margins are even tinier, I don't do anything without the funds. We do 85% of the budget upfront (in installments) and 15% after the approved cut but before delivery. This keeps us in the black (financially) and until this last job (where the client bounced a check) our system worked well.

However, on a video we shot mid-summer 2007, that client leaked our first cut to youtube, the blogs, dailymotion, etc and then tried to blame us for the leak and never paid the final 15% (which means I wasn't paid). The weirdest part of this whole fiasco was that the client was okay not receiving their master. I don't send the master until the entire budget is paid.

So, after all the expense, the client ended up with nothing more than a decent quality flv file. This shocked me more than anything; that someone was willing to put up tens of thousands of dollars and then be content with a less than dvd quality digital file.

In fact, they don't even have the file because they're not that tech saavy - it was ripped by bloggers and put up on youtube and the client has simply linked to the youtube video on their personal site and myspace page.

I guess, at the end of the day, my manager and I try to take all of these experiences and work them into our system. I think we run a much tighter ship today than we did even 3 months ago and we shore up more and more of our business' weaknesses everyday but it's a damn shame to see just how willing the clients in this business are to screw you over... :(

K

P.S - before I even had a chance to hit save on this comment my manger called and told me that he had just spoken with the 'bounced check' client and they have promised to have the funds owing (incl. overages) in our business account before the end of the week...fingers crossed on that one.
         
kal -

fingers crossed, fer sure. I added a link to your comment on the blog - that is a good (if painful) story.
         
Which label leaked your video and then withheld the final payment?
         
it was an indie artist and her management company. the artist is a minor celebrity and decided to try out music. she's better known from tv and she's graced quite a few magazine covers. really she's one of those z-list celebrity types. but even that kind of celebrity attracts attention (the video was viewed more than a million times).

and while i'm definitely tempted to out her here for her shady practices i value the anonymity that allows me to talk freely about the industry and my experiences in it.

k
         
Ok. Sounds like Heidi Montag. Especially with the 'z-list' celebrity types comment. I won't start a guessing war just like you will not confirm that my guess is correct. Thanks for posting your dealings with the business. I always enjoy reading your 2 cents kal.
-stef