Looking A Little More Professional

Have you ever wondered what could make you and your company stand out a little more that what your doing now, but for cheap. Well there always ways, you just have to find them. As simple as the mail that a client recives in the mail and the way someone anwsers the phone when they call you, all the way to the lifestyle the individual lives alone out side of work.

            When you receive mail, would always think, is it a bill collector, advertisement, or a letter from family. Of course it usually a bill collector or someone trying to add another bill, but if you make the envelope look like a letter from grandma and you could just be sending out a thank you note to a recent client. It all helps and leads to one thing, more money. As a client if I finished a business deal with you today and unespecectedly received a hard copy letter in the mail a week or two later. That letter reminds me of the great service that you provided them and lets them know that they are always welcome back. One thing. To spiffy those letters up to make them look good I simply purchased a Dymo Label Printer. There are many different ones that do certain things and for many different budgets, but they arent that expensive at all. It makes all my mail look very professional, all the way from the return address to the stamp. It prints everything inluding pictures, logo anyone.

            When it comes to phone service, it simple. No need to go get a whole nother phone line on your cell phone bill, and having to carry another phone around, that’s already doing to much. Simply get a Google Voice account its free and amazing. You can use it as an app on your smartphones, just log in. Google Voice allows you to recive phone calls, text messages, and it converts your voicemail into text. Install the app on your phone and now you have a second line just that quick. Just with a look thru your settings you can then have it set up to call your phone and ring as the company name, just so you know its business when they call you.

            There are many ways that you can manage your company for lower than what you may think. You just have to look around for things and research your products.

Goole Voice image: http://news.cnet.com/google-voice-a-push-to-rewire-your-phone-service/
Dymo Printer image:  http://global.dymo.com/enAU/Products/LabelWriter_450_Twin_Turbo.html

Holding Onto Resources

Always keeping up with what’s going on in our ever-changing industry can be a hassle sometimes. When having or delegating someone else maintain a certain aspect or area can be a relief. Like working on a film, it would be very hard to do everything on your own. That’s why we have others like the Director of Photography for the camera and lights, the Director for the talent, the Production Manager and Producer for all the paperwork and legalities. Using delegation and previous relationships can go far. Have someone else do the work for you and if they know how you like it done the process will be easy and flow like a river.

This previous month I have been working on an assignment for class. This assignment requires us to post links of resources that we use in our industry, and then give a brief description of what the source is and how everything works. Great and sounds simple. But when you run out of the “usual” things it’s not so simple. Going thru the usual sources that I use to purchase equipment and find crew and other sources that I provide to my crew to maybe make their life simpler and more enjoyable. Using the usual sources like Online Video Contest, Zooppa, B&H Photo, and Kuler. After you make your “A-List” resource list, make a “B-List” just incase something is going wrong on the first one in line.

Just like people the should be kept close as you use them as a resource to equipment, funding, support and other things, the internet holds a bigger crowd that can touch many more people. Also don’t burn the bridge with some of these companies or people because you’ll never know what they can provide to you unless you do. It always means something when you can say I’ve been using “a certain company” for “this long”.

The Loss of Independent Movie Theaters

Having a past high school instructor that managed and ran his own independent movie theater was pretty amazing. Especially the easy access I had to go see how theaters ran and how the projectors worked and things. Receiving a phone call not too long ago from my previous instructor warning me that he may be going out of business soon if he doesn’t find a way to get things on the move and get something new going so that he can make some new profits.

            After doing some research I notice that he is no where near the only independent theatre going out of business. For multiple reasons the smaller theaters are thinning out. The big guys like Regal Entertainment Group, AMC, and Cinemark Theaters will always have patrons coming in and they will always have the most current films. Just because of there name and because they are apart of a chain. Being apart of a chain simply means that there are multiple locations, which there is usually a group that maintains all the legal aspects and business deals with each location. It’s easy for a film to go to a company with hundreds of locations, and thousands of screens, instead of dealing with all the small guys with one location, and probably 6-10 screens. The smaller independent theatres don’t have the newest thing that is one reason why they don’t have that steady income, the newest thing they may have may be a month or two old.

            So let me ask, when was the last time you’ve visited an independent movie theater? And why?

            Most people don’t like independent theaters because of the number of screens, number of seats, management, location, and the overall presence of the theater. Many theaters are breaking down financially because of how things are changing with technology. Many distributors are going digital. Of course with new digital projectors, new personnel to run these machines and all the other new things that the smaller theaters aren’t used to, its going to really hurt finances just for these new machines.

            Independent theaters have been doing many different things to keep people coming in. Like hosting a “Dollar Night” where you can go view movies for a dollar on a certain night. They have been also film festivals, different local presentations, since they do have the space. They have been doing many things just to keep the doors open.

A Couple Concerning Legal Issues...

Looking towards NuProdigy Media’s business plan, I see many cases that could come about just with our day-to-day normal projects for our clients. There is a lot to look out for when it comes to creating any visual media especially when it’s for profit. Listening to a couple podcasts on Entertainment Law Update (.com) I found out a couple things that could help me out in the future. Gordon Firemark is the host of the show, along with being a lawyer; he gives his legal opinion on various cases.

            Listening to “Episode 36 – Faulkner, Einstein, Superman and Talent Managers” they go through a case talking about an author of the book called “The Match” by the name of Mark Frost. Frost was negotiating an offer with a production company to make a movie adaptation from the book to a movie. During the negotiation the representative from the production company asked about the rights and about forwarding them over to him so that he could start to receive funding for the film. Frost’s lawyer then replied with “Done, Thanks” and the representative from the defense started to proceed with using content from the protected book for his prospectus for the film pitches. In the actual case it stated that Frost’s attorney never had actual authority to transfer the rights over to anyone, and that if the rights were to be transferred it had to be in writing, which of course was never done. Gordon Firemark explained that the should be some type of power of attorney that would and should have been in writing if Frost’s lawyer really did have the authority to transfer the copyright over, being backed by the equal dignity rule. Also not having the transfer be in writing was mess-up number two. Firemark also stated that any deals you make especially when it comes to Intellectual Property you should always have it in writing, and not making the determination from the comment “Done, Thanks”.

            There was another case discussed on “Episode 40 – Areo, ReDigi, Veoh & IMDB”. An art collector bought about 8 photographic works from a photographer. The collector bought them as a limited edition being that they were printed on die transfer prints. Changed the size, medium, production date and other things to make sure that no one would mistake them for the limited edition set. The collector also sold them at a show making profits from those reprints. The photographer argued that the monetary value of the limited edition was diminished because of the making of the reprints. The court dismissed all cases from fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, to promissory estoppel, stating that even though both works come from the same photograph; both works are markedly different from one another. He used a different digital process, in all creating a new piece of work. Firemark stating that them being in different jurisdictions could have caused some confusion. Stating that the case might have gotten a different opinion in New York courts than in Memphis.

            All these issues affect NuProdigy Media and I because most of our media that we create will be reproductions of someone else work, like taking a logo and including it into a commercial. Although that client will approve of the use before distribution, we still need to make sure that the rights are transferred in all correct ways including contract in writing. So many things can go wrong but if you have the proper guidance and knowledge you should be fine.

Court vs. Entertainment

The entertainment industry is almost amazing when it comes to how things are done and how much work goes into one project not even thinking about how many people it takes to get some things done in a timely fashion. At the same time in the entertainment industry it is that quick to find yourself in harm way when it comes to legal issues. There’s so many ways to end up in court; just simply creating a piece of artwork and posting on a social media is not that safe anymore.

Looking at three cases that could impact my company really helped in showing me that I always need to double check things, ask questions, and have all contracts written correctly. The first case I looked at was the fact that the Subway footlong subs aren’t really a foot long. They have had many claims against them saying that the footlong is really only eleven inches verses twelve inches, and being fraudulent and deceptive to the public. Which the footlong represents $142M of there sales. This specific case showed me that when it comes to advertising, being creative could really hurt you. Calling one thing something that it is to make revenue will always bite you in the end. Me being right in the middle of creating advertisement I may want to help lookover for things like that in scripts and props, just to better help the client.

The second case that I did a little research on was that TV Networks filed legal claims saying that skipping commercials is copyright infringement. Mainly focusing on the DISH subscribers with the Hopper feature are recording television show and skipping the commercials when they later view the recording. To be honest me personally, I don’t see why even start a case on this subject matter. It’s the same thing as purchasing a DVR and doing the same thing recording your favorite TV shows then when you later watch them you skip the advertisements, many consumers want to watch a show for the show and not the three to four minutes of ads. Reading over this case was a little comedic because there is really no real argument.

There was an company called Areo starting in New York, which provided live cable television to online members and also provided a DVR service, that allowed them to record for later viewing. NBC and some other local stations sued Areo, claiming that the retransmissions of their signals were copyright infringement on public performances of copyrighted work. This shows me that there is always better things that come up, new ways of doing things and if you want to move for ward with the big guys you have to be ready. I should be able to provide services for those online ad holders and move forward with the new generation.

There are legal issues when it comes to any industry or any topic, but as an entrepreneur you have to know what you’re stepping into, and do the research.