Location Scout Business
Miscellaneous ruminations on different business matters as might apply to a location scout…
Location Scout Business: How To Make Free Worth Something
by Lou Lesko.
Location Scouts / Location Managers or… pretty much anyone running a business of just about any sort could probly take some pointers here? 🙂
The vexing conundrum of how to deal with friends to whom I extend photographic favors has been on my mind a lot lately. Recently, I had to go through years of old notebooks and slide pages. This surfaced the memories of the significant number of free shoots I have done. I regret none of them. From an existentialist perspective; they are in part responsible for making me who I am today. However, in all these years, I have rarely felt that the recipients of the free work appreciated what they got. Most people think that photographic talent is a part of the genetic makeup of the photographer much like arresting beauty is part of the genetic makeup a model. “Oh just point your camera sweetie darling, it’s what you do.”
Lou Lesko
American Photographic Artists (APA)
Lessons From the Music Industry For a Location Scout?
I present, as a location scout and member of the creative world, for your consideration: Seth Godin’s Blog | Music Lessons | …via PhotoMatt
Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)
The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0:
0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.Several points raised:
0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
1. Past performance is no guarantee of future success.
2. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dream
Seth’s Blog Feed
Location Scout Business: Regarding speculative work
Responding to spec work requests | David Airey, graphic designer
I rarely reply to the weekly email requests that ask for spec work. For whatever reason, today I did. Here’s the pitch, and how I responded.
Please do not contact me to provide location submissions or provide other services such as working as a location scout on a speculative basis for the commercial project you have been hired for. While we are usually happy to assist in bidding / estimating and providing ideas for a *proposed* project (assuming we will work together if the project is awarded to you) providing locations / related data requires a considerable investment of my time and resources and doing so is regarded as being fee-based service(s) we offer. –RH
Location Scout Resource: CNN Money – 100 best places to live and launch
Are job worries tempting you to start your own company? We canvassed the country to find towns with the best mix of business advantages and lifestyle appeal. Check out our 100 top picks and find the perfect place to build your dream.
- Entire list on one page
- Methodology: How we pick the 100 Best (CNN)
- #1 Bellevue, WA Map
- Hey, now – Lyndhurst, NJ clocks in at #30 Map
- Plainsboro, NJ #52Map
My own personal opinion is this has to be a pretty absurd report – anyplace can be many things to many or few people – it’s just such a BIG world and “business” and “lifestyle” are such broad, ambiguous subjects! Nonetheless, the author(s) are entitled to opinions as well and certainly seem to have done their research, so it was a fun read 🙂
Burns Auto Parts | Super Premium Blog | Crappy Contracts
Okay folks, times are tough and the smart businesspeople are sending out icky contracts to the creatives of the world, to try and scare them into signing away more than they ought. Please do NOT fall into this trap! This is just a manipulation by the smart, calm business heads to get more for less.
Shoot Online: As Newspaper Internet Traffic Grows And Use Of Video Grows, Advertising Follows
Arlington, VA, January 30, 2008
The Newspaper Association of America reported last week that online newspaper readership reached an all-time high in 2007, with average monthly visitors up six percent, with 62.8 million during the fourth quarter, a nine percent increase over Q4 2006 and the largest quarter ever.
Shoot Online Feed
Location Scout Industry Insight: Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing
Remember outsourcing? Sending jobs to India and China is so 2003. The new pool of cheap labor: everyday people using their spare cycles to create content, solve problems, even do corporate R and D.
Technology and business models are changing daily… one has to play their best game and make wise, sometimes complicated choices to be successful in the world of commercial photography. Ability to adapt, change be flexible and think on one’s feet is a prerequisite in the world of selling imagery for profit… not that that is anything new.
Changes in commercial photography (as well as film, tv and video ) markets directly affect the production (including location services) industries. Articles such as this help provide insight as to marketing and planning for location scouts / location managers as well.
Wired Magazine – Wikipedia
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
PBS – Frontline: The Monster That Ate Hollywood
Have risk-averse MBAs killed Hollywood’s magic? Studio executives, producers, filmmakers, and critics talk about how the movie business, and movies themselves, have changed.
Frontline: The Monster That Ate Hollywood (2001) (IMDB)
Location Scout Stats: Movie Maker Magazine – Top 10 Cities to be a Moviemaker: 2012
by Julie Jacobs | Published January 16, 2012
It’s been more than 10 years since MovieMaker began citing the best cities to be an independent moviemaker—those places that go the extra mile in welcoming lower-budget productions just as much as they do the “big guns.”
Fighting Content Theft for Location Scouts
Lorelle on WordPress | Content Theft and WordPress | by Lorelle VanFossen
If you are a website author, there is nothing more infuriating than finding big chunks or the entirety of your copyrighted content scraped, iframed or cut and pasted somewhere on the internet other than your own site.
More specifically, if you are a location scout publishing content and data online, content theft can be nothing short of maddening.
Lorelle Van Fossen has written an informative article with some potentially effective suggestions for fighting online content infringements. A good portion of her article focuses on WordPress and establishing the various roles WordPress plays in its dual roles as both a blog host and open-source software provider and the differences of each as they might apply to WordPress’s ability / appropriateness (or not) to intervene with regard to content theft claims – all information which is likely of interest and use to many people in light of the fact that WordPress is extremely popular in general; at the same time much of what she has written should be easily translatable and applicable to many other authoring platforms as well.
It is important to know the difference between fair use and plagiarism and inherent vagaries associated with same. Lorrelle touches on these areas and offers related posts from the past from her long running and prolific blog as well as an abundance of helpful external links.
In a perfect world, you or I would not be troubled by content theft annoyances but we do, in fact live in a real world, so with that in mind, Lorelle’s article is a pretty good resource.
There are many sides to Lorelle VanFossen. One is a public speaker, instructor, writer, and consultant on web writing, web design, and blogging, especially working with WordPress.
Lorelle Van Fossen Feed
MovieMaker Magazine | Top 10 Movie Cities | updated for 2008
MM’s eighth annual countdown of the best places to live, work and make movies
by Jennifer M. Wood | Published January 28, 2008
When working on a project as research-intensive as this one, the word you never want to encounter is “unpredictable.” But as entertainment professionals and consumers alike have lately discovered, that’s an appropriate description for the current state of the film industry. From the writers’ strike, still ongoing at press time, to possible actors’ and directors’ strikes in June, it’s definitely not business as usual.
MM’s Top 10 U.S. Cities to be a Moviemaker 2006
MM’s sixth annual survey of America’s best places to live, work and make movies
Jennifer M. Wood with Lily Percy | Published January 21, 2006
If it’s true that we learn something new every day, then since we first began researching the best places to live and work as an independent American moviemaker we’ve learned approximately 2,192 new things (counting two leap years)… which, of course, is an enormous understatement.
MovieMaker Magazine Links
More MovieMaker – Location Scout R. Richard Hobbs website nyc.locationscout.us
Location Scout Resource: 10 Common Mistakes Starting a New Business
These probably apply to any small business owner, new business or not.
Being a location scout can be a diversified occupation – i.e. you might be on staff at a production company, you might have a regular job on a tv show, a temp job on a movie for anywhere from a few days to several years or you might be almost exclusively a “day player”, working on many different shoots for many different clients. In many cases, you need to look at yourself as a business and must market yourself effectively.
10 Common Mistakes Starting a New Business
What are the common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make and how can you avoid making them yourself? Here is our top 10 list of mistakes people make when starting a business:
- Not enough money
- Not thinking survival
- Losing momentum
- Doing it all alone
- Not hiring right away
- Doing it just for the money
- Getting to year 1, past year 2
- Don’t build around a customer
- Don’t seek mentors
- Don’t get involved in the community
10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed – Steve Pavlina
Another list of 10 mistakes commonly made by people
10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed – Steve Pavlina
Having been a non-employee for about 14 years now, I’ve made my share of stupid business mistakes. I’ve also coached a number of people to start their own businesses, and I’ve seen many of them make similar mistakes. This advice is geared towards small business owners, particularly people who are just starting (or about to start) their own business.
Location Scout Resource: PhotoServe
– It is important for a location scout to keep up with industry news; what the clients the location scout works for are currently doing, creatively; business practices and trends (for better or for worse… ;). In addition to the opportunity to examine new creative visual work , one often hears news about how a producer handled various aspects of a notable shoot and since a great location might make or break a shoot, you might even read about a location scout from time to time! 🙂
One of the monthly email newsletters I receive is PDN’s Photoserve Newsletter (subscribe)
Lately Photoserve has been publishing two columns I find interesting and informative:
- Portfolios of The Month
- Editors Choice
(You can find both of the above columns on the Photoserve home page)
Of course, in addition to the portfolio features, PhotoServe, being a product of Photo District News (PDN), which is more or less the industry standard of trade publications for commercial photography, always has other news and information of interest to me as a photo producer and location scout.
Since PDN and PhotoServe are both published out of New York City, even tho the editorial “beat” is world-wide, I often find the content even more relevant to my own personal demographic.
Photo District News produces the annual Photo Plus Expo each fall, which traditionally takes place in New York City at Javits Center serving as a major photo-industry event and includes, along with Photo District News’ own annual awards party and co-sponsored industry party, many other independently-planned parties and events scheduled to take advantage of the many different photographers, vendors and other photo-industry associates normally in town during the Photo Plus Expo.
Start a Business at Amazon
Production Business at Amazon
NO!SPEC | Welcome to NO!SPEC
“The NO!SPEC campaign: Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.
Our mission:
To educate the public about speculative, or “spec” work.
Our target:
Those who use creative services, as well as creative professionals (designers, photographers, illustrators, typographers, writers and those in marketing, branding and advertising).
What you can do:
Read NO!SPEC’s Protocols. Place a "NO!SPEC" logo on your site. Sign the NO!SPEC petition. Distribute the "NO!SPEC" posters. Contact us with your thoughts, comments, articles and insights.
Requirements:
The only requirement for participation is putting the appropriate value on your profession.”
- Featured Image: Business by Petr Kratochvil
