Busy Season
It sure has been a busy season of late. Not that I have regular followers, but I'm sure that my lack of posting has all but eliminated the rest. That's quite all right.
The holidays are busy for pretty much everyone, though I'm sure just which holidays differ on where you live. Needless to say, in the United States, we go crazy from October until the beginning of January every year. This year was no exception. Maybe even a little more than the past couple of years when more people were suffering because of the economic downturn. We had a very special project at work which has received some attention in the news lately. Yes, we are making a new 3D movie with some very creative talent producing and directing it. In addition we found out that the house that I'm renting is being foreclosed on, though that might not matter as we may be moving out of state in the early part of next year.
So, since I am who I am, I figure that I should tie in the holidays to production values somehow. Sure, I could go on about actual holiday productions that run the gamut from the kids at church re-enacting the nativity to the Rockettes in New York, but that's probably done to death. No, I want to talk about money.
Productions are a lot like shopping for the holidays. You get to pick between cheap, easy, and good. I came to this realization as I was freezing my unmentionables off, waiting outside Target after I got off work on Thanksgiving (joy of theater, we work when others have off). My wife and I decided to move into the digital age of television, since we hadn't purchased a new TV in about 15 years. Black Friday was upon us and we sifted through the adds to find a good deal on a good TV. Sure, there were TVs of the same size for less money, but they weren't the same quality. There were other TVs that were much better, but also cost considerably more. So, I had to go back to the production formula and pick my variables. I chose cheap and good, and decided to forego easy. Las Vegas weather is usually pretty nice in the winter (and so was Phoenix, where I lived for some 16 years before). Needless to say, I don't own a winter coat anymore. So, that night it decides to drop below freezing, but I decide to tough it out since I'll be saving somewhere around $270. I only ended up needing to wait about 3 1/2 hours in line to get the TV, but it was worth it. If I had had a larger budget, I would have gladly chosen good and easy over the cheap variable, but alas, I could not. After that, I went to another store to save another good chunk of change getting my total savings for the day at over $350 (which by my calculations equals about $100/hour which is a lot more than I currently make).
The problem comes in when productions don't realize that you can't have all three variables in your equation. So, maybe the next time a client comes up to you making demands, you can use my black friday success story as a way to enlighten them to their choices.
The holidays are busy for pretty much everyone, though I'm sure just which holidays differ on where you live. Needless to say, in the United States, we go crazy from October until the beginning of January every year. This year was no exception. Maybe even a little more than the past couple of years when more people were suffering because of the economic downturn. We had a very special project at work which has received some attention in the news lately. Yes, we are making a new 3D movie with some very creative talent producing and directing it. In addition we found out that the house that I'm renting is being foreclosed on, though that might not matter as we may be moving out of state in the early part of next year.
So, since I am who I am, I figure that I should tie in the holidays to production values somehow. Sure, I could go on about actual holiday productions that run the gamut from the kids at church re-enacting the nativity to the Rockettes in New York, but that's probably done to death. No, I want to talk about money.
Productions are a lot like shopping for the holidays. You get to pick between cheap, easy, and good. I came to this realization as I was freezing my unmentionables off, waiting outside Target after I got off work on Thanksgiving (joy of theater, we work when others have off). My wife and I decided to move into the digital age of television, since we hadn't purchased a new TV in about 15 years. Black Friday was upon us and we sifted through the adds to find a good deal on a good TV. Sure, there were TVs of the same size for less money, but they weren't the same quality. There were other TVs that were much better, but also cost considerably more. So, I had to go back to the production formula and pick my variables. I chose cheap and good, and decided to forego easy. Las Vegas weather is usually pretty nice in the winter (and so was Phoenix, where I lived for some 16 years before). Needless to say, I don't own a winter coat anymore. So, that night it decides to drop below freezing, but I decide to tough it out since I'll be saving somewhere around $270. I only ended up needing to wait about 3 1/2 hours in line to get the TV, but it was worth it. If I had had a larger budget, I would have gladly chosen good and easy over the cheap variable, but alas, I could not. After that, I went to another store to save another good chunk of change getting my total savings for the day at over $350 (which by my calculations equals about $100/hour which is a lot more than I currently make).
The problem comes in when productions don't realize that you can't have all three variables in your equation. So, maybe the next time a client comes up to you making demands, you can use my black friday success story as a way to enlighten them to their choices.
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