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I’m going to get specific about one scenario for performers who have been primarily live trying to make a change-over. You have a potential client who wants to hire you to make a custom video. If you’d like me to give you a guide for a different scenario, you could email me, I’d be glad to help.

I have worked in a lot of different sitches for a bunch of different companies. This is a stripped-down freelancer’s version of how to make a pitch for a video and understand the stages of the production process.

Hopefully, if this world is alien to you, you will see how to give more value to your clients and how to make a smooth process so you can create something everyone’s pumped about!

The main difference is the timing of everything and the scope

When someone’s hiring you for a live show, they are booking you based on your track record, what you provide, and what they think they need. They decide based on past work whether you’ll be right for the job. When the job happens, it’s over. No chance to refine it. It’s not concrete. It was an experience. Although there are definable and objective parts of it, it’s hard to debate whether the job was done. The gig itself happens instantly.

The scope is usually set pretty easily. You will do a 45 minute show on a stage. Although there are a lot of factors that go into that, you probably aren’t defining them before you get booked.

This video is custom

You are not sending this company just another copy of the same thing. When you do a live show, every performance is special because it’s exclusively happening for that one crowd at that place at that time.

Recorded video is made before the viewing and can be shown to as many people as you want. Your client needs you to make it special and exclusive by making it custom to their needs. Every moment they hear about how it’s special to them is poking some value into their brains!

You’re in control of more aspects

In a stage show, you probably aren’t in control of the lights, sound, stage set, pacing, context, branding, fonts, some of the music, etc. These aspects include lots of creative decisions. These aspects are extra value, but also a lot of extra communication and a lot of work.

First contact

Note to yourself: communication about creative works is super hard and you won’t get it 100% right. If people can’t agree on what to call a shade of blue, how do you think they’ll agree on how to describe a brand.

On first contact with the client here are some things to find out.

1. what problem are they trying to solve with this video?
2. have they commissioned videos like this before?
3. try to get an idea of the budget for past projects as similar to this as you can get.
4. how important is it that they get this right?
5. how long of a video?
6. who is the video for?
7. how will they be showing it to them?
8. get examples of what is similar in the look, feel, pacing, objective, and whatever else you can think of.
9. when do they want the video delivered?
10. are they the decision maker, or is there some other process for making the decisions?
11. does the video tie into other parts of their brand, their company, other videos they’ve put out?
12. how do they want the video to affect the audience (get them to buy something, entertain them for 5 minutes during a zoom meeting, get them motivated to take a pay cut)?

Your goal is to understand the scope of the project and start to clearly visualize every single part of the gap this video is filling. You don’t want to completely visualize the video too quickly, but understand what need it’s serving.

You also want to understand the cost of the problems you’re solving. If they don’t really care about whether the video’s good or bad and they are considering just using some video they have lying around instead, it might not be worth it to them to hire you.

Define the scope

When you feel like you know what they want ( it may take more conversations ), you will determine what the scope of the project is (how long will it take, what defines the finished project, etc.)

Then, you can talk to the client about your pricing. Make sure you talk them thru what the scope of the project is and remind them how you’ll solve all their problems and give them more value than they might have already considered. This can be in the form of documents, a video of you talking to camera and showing what kind of thing they can expect, etc.

Get a contract signed or an agreement thru email if you don’t mind.

This seems like a lot of work upfront for free because it is. It’s a lot.

Line Items

It’s tricky to list each part of the process that costs money. The upside is that it can give the client more of an idea how big the project is and how much you provide as well as giving them things they can cut out for negotiation purposes. The downside is that it can bring cost-based pricing into the project instead of value-based and it takes a lot of thoughtfulness up front.

Examples of similar work must get granular

When you and the client talk about examples of similar work, this is a great way to really understand the job. If you have examples of your own work, this is super because you know exactly goes into creating that work. No matter what, you have to be specific about what you’re agreeing is the part of the example that is duplicatable.

The client is a Lexus dealership. They say, “we want it to be kinda like Fight Club.” That means something real to them, but what?

• Subversive?
• Bloody?
• Underground?
• Grungy?
• White male driven?
• 90s?
• Psychological?
• Romantic?

Most of these don’t make sense at all, but who knows?

“Oh, no, I just mean the lighting of the scenes”

Getting closer. Which one of these lighting setups do you like?

The client will likely say, “Oh, I none of these. Just kind of bluish lighting. I don’t know what I was thinking from Fight Club.” Keep asking questions to get specific because this will prevent extra work, disappointed clients and communication headaches later.

Script, Storyboard, Mood board

I’m hoping this part comes after the contract, but it’s possible that sometimes the client will need to get approval on something more complete. Let’s assume this is after the contract is signed, though. People who sell intellectual property like recorded media often do a lot of spec work before getting the job. That’s why your budgets must be higher than you might expect.

Script is the written words describing what happens pretty simply and the words that are said either in type or thru audio. It’s like short story without too many aesthetic descriptions.

Storyboard is a black and white illustration of the video’s different shots, pacing, framing, and camera movement kind of stuff. It’s like a comic strip.

Mood board is some visual specifics about how the video will look and feel. Font choices, color palettes, costuming, set, and hopefully still images that look the way the final product will look. It’s like pinterest.

Seperating all these things is really helpful because you don’t want the client to ever think they’re looking at your best work, and you don’t want them to shoot down an entire concept because they have issue with the color of a shirt.

Timeline

Another crucial part of your conversation includes timeline. Here’s a super basic version. It takes a lot of thinking and talking to your crew to figure out what’s reasonable. Waiting for revisions can be insane and them not knowing when you deliver can be frustrating and lead to a lot of checking in.

Another thing that a timeline does is shows the client that there’s a lot going on and you need their help to complete it.

March 1 (today) I deliver you version 1 of the timeline, mood board, storyboard, and script

March 4 you send me all revisions

March 5 I will send you version 2 of timeline, mood board, storyboard, and script

March 7 You send approval or any small notes. No other version will be sent, but we can agree over the phone to save time

March 15 I will send you version 1 of the video

March 18 you will send me revisions

March 19 phone call to discuss revisions

March 25 I will deliver to you completed video final version

Two shoots

It’s helpful to notice in the above timeline that you may need to reshoot things for the final version of the video. Prepare for that by making sure your video setup is repeatable; that you have enough time and crew to shoot twice, etc.

You will mess up

If you’re a stage performer making this transition, you are bringing awesome stuff to the client that doesn’t have to do with video production. Don’t forget that.

Don’t feel the need to be Universal Pictures. Keep it a human connection with your client. Ask a lot of questions. Mess things up.

You will probably mess up your budget, you’ll forget to ask some important questions up front. You’ll have some hiccups in meeting your timeline. You’ll say something that takes away from a flowing collaborative process. Stay open and forgive yourself. Your client will be happy if you are are honest and playing from your strengths.

Tricky things to remember

When playing out of your depth, imposter syndrome can kick in making you feel perfection is necessary. Fight of your perfectionism at every turn.

Everything is a variable that you’re not ready for. Things will take at least 3 times longer than you expect.

Don’t forget new expenses. Because of all the aspects you’re dealing with, you may need to check prices on lighting rental, video editors, new props, hard drives and more. Be patient with this.

When setting up the timeline, get feedback from people who will be involved and tips from people who are experienced.

All the production materials only have to look good enough so everyone understands what’s up. They’re for communication. Your script doesn’t have to have perfect spelling or line spacing. Your storyboard doesn’t have to be drawn by the guy that worked on Back to the Future.

Money is a measure of what matters.

I’ve been to so many shows where some lady from a committee stands up and says “Thank you for supporting live entertainment.” It makes me squirm.

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It’s non-essential and it’s dangerous.

“Art, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn’t grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts: survival and reproduction.” Scott McCloud

Many creative pros including those in the entertainment industry are lashing back against a Singapore newspaper poll about how artists are ranked #1 as non-essential jobs. I agree with the people polled.

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Audiences need a leader to create a safe space for their entertainment. They need to trust that things are handled so they can dig in, engage, and enjoy.

This trust is not about being smart or even about being benevolent. It’s about ability to navigate the particular entertainment experience consistently and give the audience what is promised.

(more…)

Don’t worry everyone! We’ll be back to normal by July 17.

I know we’re all relieved that the end of this pandemic and its financial, social, and medical fallout will end completely on July 17, 2020. It’s perfect timing for us to start up all our shows again and start celebrating all those late July holidays!

What I want is not that

I can’t seriously guarantee anything will be anything ever, but the three things I don’t want are…

• things staying the way they are
• normal
• the way things were in January

The two most popular normalcy quotes I’m hearing are “When can we get back to normal?” and “This is the new normal.” My answer to both is “NO”

I’m not intimate with “normal”

We had a baby in April, so my 2020 was changing a lot anyhow. Regardless, I have lived joyously for a long time with chaos. It’s part of being a freelancer and a multidisciplinary creative. Not only was my life not steady, or normal, but I rejected being normal as a way to differentiate and offer something interesting to the world.

Plus, I see “normal” as a thing that doesn’t exist. It’s a concept to either shame people into falling in line, or a way to find something concrete in a world with no answers.

I’m not trying to return to anything

I’m not into the past or the MAGA philosophy. I don’t revere history, I revere the advances history has made toward a better society. My part in history is making something better for tomorrow.

If you want to honor history, don’t put it on a pedestal, bury it under a glorious future.

I am working forward + would love others to join me

I have been producing, teaching, consulting, and otherwise assisting show business people for a while because I didn’t like the way things were and I knew they could be better. I’m now working to raise the tide for all entertainment, but my main scope was variety and circus. Here are some of the things I believe need to improve.

We’ve gotta remove racism from entertainment. The privileged are the people who can pursue careers that seem frivolous like hula-hooping or acting. So, we can offer more privilege to more diverse people to counterbalance and hear the voices of the real world.

Let’s fix the frivolity thing too. I don’t think jugglers are essential workers, because they aren’t required immediately, but entertainment is crucial to humanity. When I was questioning whether to go all in on entertainment, a mentor told me, “I don’t know a single juggler who’s really going for it that is not able to make it.” A career in “the arts” is not as unstable as its reputation suggests.

The income mystery and disparity in entertainment would be great to resolve. We see people scraping by with the lowest priced kids shows, and professional athletes making multi-millions. There are people in between. We can educate entertainers that there is a spectrum, and educate them on running a small business.

Let’s dismantle the power of fame. I think it’s already happening. The world is dividing up into bubbles that are ever smaller and more specified. We have people that are famous in our bubbles, but not necessarily global celebs. Thought leaders are important to advancement, but our idea of fame as it is diminishes what’s great about being a human. As we celebrate humanity more, we give more efficacy to cathartic entertainment.

I want more transparency in entertainment. We are hopefully growing away from a world where PT Barnum was the greatest showman. He was a man who was cherished for his ability to lie to everyone — he did a bunch of other horrible things too! Lies are not the only way to escape the harsh realities of life for a moment. We also have great realities!

Can showbiz people have more fulfillment? When entertainers have more of the tools they need, when we are abundant and sharing, we can steer the ship toward doing what’s awesome. We don’t need to be so scrappy and desperate.

Not now, not then

My hope is this right now is not the new normal. I hope we’re building a new growing world where entertainment can really thrive and serve the world in a stronger way. I think we’re going to need it more than “jobs” or an “economy.” I believe in the possibility for us to redefine everything the way we actually want it, not just the way we think it can be.

I wrote this blog thing in 2012 (was I even born then?) and most of it still holds up. It’s about ways that the comedy industry loses value.

I was pretty agressive in there. I was apocalyptic. I don’t feel that way anymore. I feel like there’s value in anything that’s surviving. There might not be enough pie pieces for everyone involved, but there’s always a way.

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In some ways collaboration is a waste of creative time

Gimme a person

People relate to people. What people want from entertainment is people. They want the things they like, the things they don’t like, the flaws, the achievements, the opinions, the fears. People are imperfect, but they feel concrete to us. A person’s opinion could change, but their story doesn’t change.

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It is infinitely valuable and everyone looks in the wrong place for it.

Creativity is what makes everything worth living for. It’s what keeps humans from being outsourced and automated. It’s the future of our economy. I work with the greatest entertainment companies in the world. When I tell people my career, they often tell me “I’m not creative.” They’re wrong and stupid!

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The switch happened before we knew it and tons of people were suddenly making things from home.

Putting a stage show on camera sucks

Doing an IRL show without the live audience reaction, without the communal feel, without the environment, without the grandness, without the exclusivity, without the focus is like… a pizza without the mozzarella, sauce, or crust.

Without the pizza parts, we can have an empty plate or a cheeseburger. If a virtual show (live streamed) is going to have value, very little of it will come from the legacy of a live stage show. We gotta add in ingredients. A burger and a pizza are not very different in value, but only when they’re on the same level.

I talked about how to build that burger in another post, but let’s talk about pricing and value.

Value is an agreement

Value is set by what the buyer will pay for something. It’s based on supply and demand, quality, emotionality, randomness, and whether it has a Colgate logo on it.

There are tons of factors, so if you’re looking for a simple math equation to find value, you’re up a certain kind of creek. Why isn’t the phrase “down” a creek?

Value reducers

Entertainment, like cooking, takes practice. The entertainment we see today took lots of entertainer stage-time to develop as well as all the ancestral stage-time before it. The major loss of value for streaming shows (vs stage shows) is this history.

We can pull experience from live shows, tv shows, video games, and youtubes, facetimes, and other stuff; but we aren’t very good at this yet.

I don’t think I need to list all the things we lose from the in-person experience, I’ll leave that up to you.

Another thing to consider in lowering the value is event planners and show producers don’t know how to make money like they did from gatherings. They might not feel that entertainment has the same ROI as it used to.

Value Adders

In virtual events not just the entertainment changes. Let’s say you’re putting together a Zoom sales meeting… Here are some things (that cost you money) you don’t have anymore.

• a venue rental
• decor
• staff
• water bottles
• lighting
• sound equipment
• setup
• travel
• cleanup

In a way, the benefit of the stuff in bold above is provided by the entertainer. That’s some value added there!

Another major factor to appreciate is that, just as the entertainment side of this stuff is new, the online gatherings themselves are new. Likely, every part of the event will kinda suck. If entertainment can be added, it might be even more crucial to a good event than it would have been traditionally. Even low-quality entertainment will mix things up, and show the attendees that the producer really cares about their experience. This means A LOT in the clinical environment of online whatevers!

It must be new.

“Virtual show” is like “artificial pizza.” Nobody wants that. The entertainment that bursts with value in this environment is a new style of presentation that accepts the strengths and weaknesses of the medium.

Then, this new thing needs to be refined.

The advantage is with the inventors

If you’re looking for the entertainment company that can present real value in this arena, look for folks that are grinding and agile — most likely young people who have done lots of live online stuff. It may feel risky if you see an offering for something all new, but something all new with repetition is actually the lowest-risk sitch you can get right now.

If you’re an entertainment company, do five online shows today. Race to get to 100 experiences as fast as you can. Figure out what you’re doing. Figure out what you could never do before. Don’t offer a show – bookers and audiences never really cared about a show. Offer a transformative, modern thing. If stage-time is your goal, you could have more than anyone else in the world in a month.

Look at the big picture

Online shows are not good right now, but people need them. If there’s a need, there’s a value.

When computers came out, they were not good, they were difficult, they didn’t do a lot, but they did enough to have value in a computer-less world. Companies that understood paid well for them.

This is a time for producers to pay more and get the very best in a burgeoning field. This is a time for bottom-tier entertainment companies to redefine their status.

The number of your fans is not what you want it to be.

The people who are truly dedicated to the entertainment you make probably is a smaller group than you hope, but it is probably also bigger than you might imagine.

You’re not going to serve them, and they’re not going to support you if you don’t know where they are. So, let’s get them all together in one place. Then, you can…

1. measure
2. increase
3. connect
4. serve
5. listen

Gather to impact

You might be working on a great project right now, and that project might end. You gotta have everyone together so they can move over to the next project. You can also set up more services around your current project.

Let’s say you have a TV show about goats for goat owners. You have some fun behind the scenes footage that you don’t want to put on the TV show. You need another way to serve your fans those extras. The TV show ends and you set up a goat food delivery service that saves goat owners tons of money. Wouldn’t you want your fans to be the first to know?

Gathering places

There are pros and cons to different ways to gather fans…

	Pros	Cons
email list	1. you own your list 2. once people are enrolled, they’re more likely to participate 3. no algorithm change is going to disrupt you	1. may cost money for big lists 2. not everyone opens emails
Youtube	1. there’s a social discovery aspect 2. you can form super deep relationships 3. built in monetization platform	1. most of your subscribers might not see what you’re making
Facebook	1. super easy for someone to like your page 2. built in monetization platform 3. you’re where people are anyway 4. you can be aggressive without being too annoying	1. you’ll most likely need to pay to get all your fans to hear you. 2. lots of integrated tools for building audiences and making ads based on audiences
Patreon	1. your fans are committed. you won’t have any lookie-loos or accidental patrons 2. they will all hear you	1. expensive buy-in for your fans 2. you have a major responsibility to provide them lots of entertainment

I like email

I like sending fun emails to fans. With Boobietrap, it costs us $50/mo to have our list of 4000 emails. We sign up people who attend our shows and people unsubscribe if we’re not serving them, but we try to make sure that every email we send out is a service.

This doesn’t mean we have 4000 fans. We have a lot less than that, but we have direct connection with the people who are true fans. We can give them awesome stuff and they can give us awesome feedback about what they want.

Gather thru decisiveness and directness

Make a commitment to one gathering place. Then, direct everything toward that when you make anything for fans. The call to action is always the same thing and you’re always telling them why. “text me to get bad photos of my dog” “all my best jokes come out on twitter first. Follow me there”

Being everywhere equally is an escape

Letting your fans scatter everywhere is an escape. It’s a way for you to not face the facts and not work on doing something important for your people. It’s a great way of letting yourself imagine that you’re more successful than you are. Unless you’re the CEO of Netflix, you probably don’t have the bandwidth or team to maintain true service to your fans in multiple gathering places.

Get them all together, serve the shit out of them, you will get fulfillment and so will they!

If you have less than 50

If your base of true fans ( who will tell others / who will buy $100 worth of stuff from you / however you measure it ) is small, try to make a bigger impact on them. If you have the bandwidth to text them each personally every week, booyah! do it! What if your list grows to 75? Then you’ll change. Right now, make as much individual impact on each fan as you can because they’re the embodiment of the value you put into the world.

Fans are not everything

It can get daunting to look at the actual number of people who are on your side. Remember that even though these are your easiest people, your best people, the people on your mission, they are not the only people who want what you offer.

There are lookie-loos, bargain hunters, buyers, researchers, snobs, community members, all kinds of different people who are available to connect with new entertainment — and possibly be converted into your fans. The easiest way to convert those folks, comes back to gathering and serving your true fans in the first place.

Tickets are part of the solution for every desire for your event.

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There’s serious social change happening right now. I can’t believe it how people are coming together for public health and racial equality at the same time. While I haven’t gone silent about these things, I have 90% been digging in to my expertise (entertainment) even though it may seem stupid / empty / selfish at a time like this.

For the world

I don’t believe what I do to be “essential work” but I do believe entertainment is incredibly important for humans. The IRL stage stuff I’ve created now takes its time in the shadows as digital entertainment (movies / TV / video games / socials) get the spotlight. People are also trying to do virtual stage shows which I mostly see as a crappy patch – not a stand-alone form of good entertainment with value.

We need entertainment. It gives us a break, a connection to humanity, and sometimes a reason to live. Performers who own even the most frivolous of acts have powerful missions behind what they do.

For myself

Up until the age of 30, I was probably depressed 50% of the time. A lot of the depressed thoughts were based on failure at so many things that weren’t really in my wheelhouse.

• feel like a failure for not feeding the hungry
• feel like a failure for not fighting for my country
• feel like a failure for not being a politician and stopping wars
• feel like a failure for not making people happy around me
• feel like a failure for not dressing cool
• feel like a failure for not owning a mobile phone store

… and on and on

was relieved by the serenity meditation

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference

What is my realm of influence? Where do I feel important? Which actions that I take make a potent change?

So, personally, I find flow and influence in entertainment. When I’m flowing, I’m doing more. When I’m working within my wheelhouse, I’m making more of an impact.

This is still a question for me every day.

I am not an impactful activist, I’m not a lobbyist, I’m not a political thought leader. I’m good at making clowns funnier.

You don’t want the surgeon being the one to mop the floor. The surgeon needs to save their energy for surgery. At the same time, sometimes the floor isn’t getting mopped fast enough.

I doubt regularly whether leaning into entertainment more is helpful overall. I’m hopeful that what I do continues to be life-affirming to others. I hope my entertainment is bolstering to the first responders, to the activists, to the politicians, the virologists, and the soup kitchen workers.

I’m also hopeful for the impact of the other people of the world who are so good at entertainment. Hopeful that they’ll keep on making great stuff and letting their lights shine — not denying their most powerful role because they think it’s not crucial anymore.