IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi, my name is Rich Harrington, and
welcome to this class on project management.
| | 00:08 | We're going to be taking a look at project
management from a creative's point of view.
| | 00:12 | Now, the examples I'm going to use today are particularly
well suited for both video and photography professionals.
| | 00:17 | However, if you're doing any type of creative
work, you'll probably find the class helpful.
| | 00:22 | I would like to give you a little bit of
perspective of how we're going to be looking at things today.
| | 00:27 | First off, just to give you a little bit of
background on myself, I've held a lot of jobs
| | 00:31 | in the creative industry. I've worked as a reporter,
a director for television, a graphic artist,
| | 00:36 | a video editor, a magazine editor, a producer,
a publisher, and I've also served
| | 00:42 | as a production manager,
writer, blogger, and podcaster.
| | 00:46 | Now, all these jobs are very diverse, and
the one job I didn't list was project manager.
| | 00:51 | However, what I want you to realize is that all of these jobs
actually have something in common. What exactly is in common?
| | 00:59 | Well, they are all about telling stories,
and if you're a photographer or a video pro,
| | 01:04 | that's probably your ultimate goal to either capture a story
or create a story that's compelling and engages others.
| | 01:11 | And you may serve as a communications
consultant, helping people to understand how everything
| | 01:15 | comes together, perhaps as an entertainer,
or serving as a documentarian,
| | 01:22 | capturing a story and sharing it,
preserving it for future generations.
| | 01:26 | I've also served as a journalist and all of
these things are ultimately about capturing
| | 01:31 | stories and educating or informing people.
However, they do have something else in common.
| | 01:37 | I've had to manage people, resources, and assets.
And I've also had to serve as a team leader.
| | 01:44 | What I want you to realize is while you may
think of yourself as a creative, you probably
| | 01:48 | have had to manage projects
in the past, and that's okay.
| | 01:52 | It's important that you understand the essential
skills necessary in order to pull off a proper project.
| | 01:58 | It's important that you understand the
resources you have, the constraints you have to function
| | 02:02 | under, the budget you have to work with, and how
ultimately, make a profit and enjoy yourself while doing it.
| | 02:09 | To balance things out, I'm going to be sharing with
you principles that I've learned as a project manager.
| | 02:14 | While I studied journalism and history as
an undergraduate, and worked in broadcast
| | 02:18 | news and traditional photography and video
production for many years, I forced myself
| | 02:22 | to go back to school and become
certified as a project management professional.
| | 02:27 | This is a certification offered by
the Project Management Institute.
| | 02:30 | I don't want to bore you with lots of details
or really theoretical processes, instead we're
| | 02:36 | going to focus on practical tools, simple
things you could do to get the job done.
| | 02:41 | However, everything I share with you today is
rooted in traditional project management practices.
| | 02:46 | So, think of it as the project management
essentials for creative people who probably
| | 02:51 | don't enjoy project management and would
much rather be doing the act of creation.
| | 02:56 | With that in mind, let's jump in.
| | 03:01 |
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| What you should know before watching this course| 00:00 | There are a couple of things I would like to
get out of the way before we tackle this course.
| | 00:04 | First off, I would like to say that this
class is not about helping you learn photography
| | 00:08 | or video, rather it's to help you be more
profitable and enjoy yourself while doing it.
| | 00:13 | I don't care if you shoot with one of these,
or you use one of these, the end result is
| | 00:19 | that we are going to help you today be
more profitable and have fun doing your work.
| | 00:23 | Now, you might be thinking,
what's fun about organization?
| | 00:27 | But here's the good news, the more
organized you are, the more profitable you are.
| | 00:31 | The more organized you are, the less stressed you are.
The more organized you are, the more time you'll have.
| | 00:37 | So, if you could just accept that it's in
your best interest to learn project management,
| | 00:42 | you should have more time left over for the
things you enjoy and more time to spend with
| | 00:47 | the people you enjoy spending it with.
| | 00:52 |
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1. The "Whats" and "Whys" of Project ManagementThe benefits of project management| 00:00 | For the past several years, I have spoken about
project management to many creative professionals.
| | 00:04 | I've made it a bit of my personal mission.
| | 00:07 | A lot of folks struggle and are frustrated
by their work, especially in a tight economy,
| | 00:11 | they are feeling the downward pressure to
lower their prices or to give more and get less.
| | 00:17 | Well, fortunately, project management can
address a lot of these issues and help you
| | 00:22 | find enjoyment in your work again.
So the question to ask, why project management?
| | 00:28 | Chances are you have heard the term project management
before, but not usually associated with creative work.
| | 00:34 | Well, here are some compelling reasons
why you should use project management.
| | 00:39 | First off, it's going to
give you better control.
| | 00:42 | This means control over the project, the
deliverables, and everything involved with the project itself.
| | 00:48 | A lot of times we rely on creative serendipity, hoping
that things work out, back of napkin, seat of pants.
| | 00:55 | This type of approach doesn't give
confidence to our clients and often makes them worry.
| | 01:00 | There is a reason why
creatives have stereotypes.
| | 01:03 | People look at us and they see people
wearing black, earrings, tattoos, that we could
| | 01:09 | make cool things but can't be trusted with money.
| | 01:11 | Well, the truth is is that we
have both sides of our brain.
| | 01:15 | And while we're often very good at the Creative,
chances are you are pretty good at organizing things too.
| | 01:20 | After all, you have had to learn several technical
programs and how to get the job done through many challenges.
| | 01:26 | If you just formalize that
process, you'll feel more confident.
| | 01:29 | Now, the other thing here is this
leads to better customer relations.
| | 01:34 | Your customers will have
greater confidence in your abilities.
| | 01:37 | They'll choose you over another vendor, because
they are not worried about you getting the job done.
| | 01:42 | You also will have better
communication with your customers.
| | 01:45 | This means that they'll be more willing to
come back, you'll have more opportunities to
| | 01:48 | engage them and they'll really start to see
the value in the services that you are offering.
| | 01:54 | Ultimately, this should lead to higher
quality results, because after all, more effective
| | 01:58 | communication, better feedback from the customer,
and better control lead to a better end product.
| | 02:05 | Now, there are some times when you
don't want to use project management.
| | 02:09 | It's not perfect for every situation.
| | 02:11 | A lot of people try to take something good
and make it good for everything and the truth
| | 02:16 | is things just don't work that way.
| | 02:19 | You shouldn't use project management
in the following scenarios.
| | 02:23 | If you are applying it to
functional organizational tasks, don't.
| | 02:27 | It's not a project to order supplies, it's not
a project to run payroll or pay your vendors,
| | 02:33 | those are things you do every
month, or every few weeks.
| | 02:37 | Those are part of your standard operating
practices and don't need project management.
| | 02:42 | So the tasks like Accounting and
Personnel, all of those are just things you do.
| | 02:48 | If you have extremely immature
employees, this might not be the right tactic.
| | 02:51 | Now, I don't mean they tell bad jokes.
| | 02:53 | What I mean is that they can't handle the
pressures, they need to be told what to do.
| | 02:58 | They can't manage themselves,
track time, make critical decisions.
| | 03:03 | The use of project management often requires
that an organization be very agile, that they
| | 03:08 | can think on there feet, and that
they could react to input as it happens.
| | 03:13 | If your employees lack a lot of experience or
your working with a team that just doesn't
| | 03:17 | have a lot of history, you might need to be a little
bit more controlling than project management offers.
| | 03:23 | So remember, when it comes to routine operations,
leave that to your standard operating practices
| | 03:29 | or rely on traditional business practices.
| | 03:32 | But for project management, you're going to
want to go ahead and apply it in those situations
| | 03:37 | where agility and speed are critical.
| | 03:40 | Ultimately, you're going to use project management
when the budgets are tight, the deadlines
| | 03:46 | are looming, and you need to get results,
particularly, when your team is going to be
| | 03:51 | a mixture of potentially contractors,
trusted vendors, and maybe your own employees.
| | 03:57 | Now, that often describes the work done in
the photo and video industry, and that's why
| | 04:02 | I think project management is a
perfect fit for most of the things we do.
| | 04:07 |
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| Reviewing the golden rules of effective project management| 00:00 | Before we get into the nitty-gritty, the actual details
of project management, I'd like to offer a few golden rules.
| | 00:07 | Some practical principles that will help you as you
watch this class, and as you build a successful business.
| | 00:14 | The following four rules are some of
my own personal business philosophies.
| | 00:18 | These are things I try to teach to my own
employees and regularly share with other folks.
| | 00:23 | You may not agree with all of them, and they
are my strong opinions, but I do think they
| | 00:28 | really come in handy as you
start to think about the project.
| | 00:32 | First off, "Don't Make Them Ask." What we
are saying here is that you want to make sure
| | 00:37 | that your customer or your client
doesn't have to ask you a question.
| | 00:42 | Now, you might be thinking,
don't I want open communication?
| | 00:46 | Absolutely, and questions
are part of that process.
| | 00:50 | However, you want to regularly engage
the customer and prompt them for questions.
| | 00:55 | You also want to have the foresight to think
about what sorts of things they'll be asking.
| | 01:00 | This might mean that you have the answers
prepared or when your communicating with the
| | 01:04 | client, whether it be in-person, on the
phone, or via email, that you're going to address
| | 01:09 | the issues that they are
probably concerned about.
| | 01:12 | What I really mean here is if the customer has to ask
you a question, it likely means that they have a concern.
| | 01:19 | People generally don't raise there voice until
they are starting to be bothered by something.
| | 01:23 | So, the fact that your customer has to ask
you a question about it, doesn't just mean
| | 01:27 | that they are inquisitive, it means
that they are probably bothered or upset.
| | 01:32 | Now, for those of you who are sci-fi geeks,
you might be having a Star Wars moment here,
| | 01:37 | but yes, it's true, "If You Have
a Bad Feeling...Say Something".
| | 01:41 | The truth of the matter is
is that we are creatures.
| | 01:44 | We have a biological sense that
when something is wrong we can feel it.
| | 01:50 | The number of times that something goes
wrong and comes out of the blue is minimal.
| | 01:54 | Sure, there's a freak accidents, traffic
problems, things that you just can't see coming, but
| | 02:00 | usually problems have warning signs.
| | 02:04 | And in fact, those warning signs
were usually there for quite sometime.
| | 02:08 | What happens is that
people choose to ignore them.
| | 02:12 | The ostrich approach, hoping
that bad things just go away.
| | 02:17 | If you feel something is wrong,
chances are something is wrong.
| | 02:21 | If someone on your team has a concern, make sure they
know that the door is open, and you want to hear it.
| | 02:27 | Now, when I'm on set, and I'm shooting, I
don't want every single crew person breaking
| | 02:32 | chain of command and interrupting the shoot.
| | 02:34 | I don't want to break a take or have them
shouting things across the set that the client overhears.
| | 02:40 | But if they do see something and they think
it might impact the shoot, I'd rather hear it.
| | 02:45 | I have two eyes and two ears and
on most days, they work pretty well.
| | 02:49 | However, on my project team there's a lot more eyes and
ears and a lot more opportunities to spot the problems.
| | 02:56 | If people know, you'll want to know
about problems, that's a lot better.
| | 03:01 | Generally speaking, what I say to my team
members is I would rather hear about a potential
| | 03:05 | problem before it happens rather than after.
| | 03:10 | This next one is pretty simple, "Make Sure the
Client Knows That You Care About Their Project".
| | 03:16 | A lot of times we're seen as hucksters or
sales people, creative people pushing our approach.
| | 03:22 | This type of opinion is often fed by the fact
that creatives will have big ideas and they'll
| | 03:27 | try to railroad their client into using them.
| | 03:30 | What we need to be careful of is that the
client feels that we truly understand their
| | 03:34 | project, that we're concerned for the outcome,
and that we're partner, by making sure that
| | 03:40 | they understand that we understand
the chances of success are much higher.
| | 03:46 | Take the time to get to know your client's
objectives as well as the constraints that
| | 03:50 | they have to function under.
When you do, the outcome will be much better.
| | 03:55 | Lastly, "Always try to think about
things from the client's point of view".
| | 04:00 | When you change your
perspective, you could see the problems.
| | 04:04 | A lot of times we get mired in the details,
how hard it was to get that shot, the amount
| | 04:11 | of effort to secure that location, how cool that
graphic was, and that ties into this new hot look.
| | 04:17 | Well, the thing is is that the client may not
care and a lot of times we miss obvious signs.
| | 04:25 | If you could just stop and step back and
take a look at things through different glasses,
| | 04:29 | or from a different angle, what you'll often notice
is that what's important to you is not important to them.
| | 04:37 | And you'll often notice that things might
seem a lot worst than they really are, but
| | 04:41 | that's because the client's perception is the
reality that you need to learn to function under.
| | 04:46 | Now, these four rules are my personal belief.
| | 04:49 | You could choose to follow them or not, but
they've served me well, and I hope that they
| | 04:53 | give you the necessary perspective to understand why project
management is important and how to implement its tenants.
| | 05:04 |
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2. Understanding Services OfferedUnderstanding your capabilities| 00:00 | Here's a simple idea, if you want to manage
something, you need to actually understand it first.
| | 00:06 | Now, you might think you know your
business, but chances are you might not.
| | 00:11 | As you start to dig deeper, you'll realize that there's
large components that you rely on other people for.
| | 00:17 | Maybe you don't understand the editing
process for taking photos and getting them developed
| | 00:22 | and ready for the customer or the printing process when
you submit prints online and then get them back.
| | 00:28 | Maybe you don't edit video, but
you're in full service video production.
| | 00:32 | This doesn't mean that I want you to
become a jack of all trades and master of none.
| | 00:36 | What it does mean is you need to take the
time to understand the services that you sell,
| | 00:41 | and what constraints those
services are offered under.
| | 00:44 | The first thing you do is take a
look at your overall capabilities.
| | 00:48 | I generally start with
the internal capabilities.
| | 00:51 | What are the things that we
could do internally at my company?
| | 00:56 | Internal capabilities are the easiest to manage.
| | 00:58 | They are the easiest to control,
they are easiest to make money on.
| | 01:03 | However, you don't want to bloat the size of
you company by taking on too many resources,
| | 01:07 | particularly if those resources are
not going to be used on a regular basis.
| | 01:12 | This is why we often have external capabilities,
trusted vendors, freelancers, crew that we
| | 01:18 | regularly hire, these are people you know
you can count on and they get the job done,
| | 01:23 | but ideally you still want to understand who they are,
why they charge what they charge and what they are good at.
| | 01:30 | A lot of times your external
vendors will also have additional skills.
| | 01:35 | For example, people regularly
pigeonhole what my capabilities are.
| | 01:40 | They may think of my company
for graphics or using our studio.
| | 01:44 | They may not realize that we offer time-lapse
services, or panoramic photography and interactive tours.
| | 01:50 | Other people see me as the Photoshop guy
and they have no idea that I'm a well-rounded
| | 01:55 | individual with lots of different skills.
| | 01:58 | What you want to be looking at is what your
vendor can do for you and what else they might
| | 02:03 | be able to do that you didn't think of.
This leads to the make-versus-buy decision.
| | 02:09 | You will need to determine what you do
internally, what you create, what you make using other
| | 02:15 | partners, but still ultimately control in-house
versus what you buy by sending it out of house.
| | 02:24 | For example, many people do not
replicate their own DVDs or Blu-ray discs.
| | 02:30 | They'll build it, they'll make one and
then send it off for lots of copies to be made
| | 02:35 | just like a lot of photographers
don't have in-house printing presses.
| | 02:39 | When they need books, or they need prints,
they'll likely send it to a lab or service.
| | 02:45 | Now, choosing the right service, knowing the
timeline, and how to properly work with that
| | 02:50 | vendor is critical, and this is where the
make-versus-buy decision comes into play.
| | 02:56 | Sometimes you'll make decisions about who
is local versus who you know you could trust.
| | 03:01 | It's not always about finding the cheapest price.
Over time, you want to scale.
| | 03:07 | You need to start analyzing what services you could
do internally, so you can go ahead and maximize profitability.
| | 03:15 | The more you do in-house, generally speaking, the
better control you have and the more profitable it is.
| | 03:21 | But you're going to want to make those decisions gradually
and make sure that it's a good investment for your company.
| | 03:27 | Building slowly will ensure this.
| | 03:30 | Ultimately, we want to achieve competitive
advantages, and this is where our skills come into play.
| | 03:36 | You're going to want to make sure that the
services you offer that some of them are unique.
| | 03:42 | You'll also need to be able to describe those services and
how they differ from other people in your competitive market.
| | 03:49 | Remember, perception is important, so some services
you'll need to offer because it's expected of you.
| | 03:56 | For example, if a photographer said, "Oh,
I just don't do prints", many people wouldn't
| | 04:02 | hire that photographer, even though that
photographer has no interest in printing photos,
| | 04:08 | but they do need a good lab to do the printing for them.
| | 04:10 | There are a lot of people who shoot video
and do full-service video who never want to
| | 04:15 | edit or make a motion graphic.
| | 04:18 | But if they turn that part of the job
down, the client may go looking elsewhere.
| | 04:23 | It becomes very important that you have a
complete package, and you understand what's
| | 04:28 | internal, and what's external, and that
all of the tasks along that critical path can
| | 04:34 | be done ultimately by your company or at
least be perceived as being done by your company.
| | 04:41 | This is all about positioning your company
and the team members that you put on your team.
| | 04:46 | Remember, when it comes to
business, perception is very important.
| | 04:51 | And you need the perception of being in control and making
sure that the project is moving towards the end goal.
| | 04:59 | Project management is all about keeping the
eye on the scope of work, the quality of work,
| | 05:04 | the budget, the timeline, all
of these things must be balanced.
| | 05:09 | It's important that you are seen as a
strong leader and someone who can be counted on.
| | 05:14 |
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| Outsourcing| 00:00 | The act of outsourcing is perhaps the
scariest part of managing a project.
| | 00:05 | Nothing can send your project out of control quicker than
having to rely on someone you don't directly manage.
| | 00:11 | For example, the prices could change, the
schedule might be missed, all of these things
| | 00:17 | can really screw with you, your
clients' trust, and the overall profitability.
| | 00:22 | When it comes to outsourcing, there
are a couple of things to think about.
| | 00:26 | First off, I always prefer a local vendor.
| | 00:30 | When I need to rent a lens for a
project, I go to a local company first.
| | 00:34 | While there are a lot of national vendors,
I really like the trust that when I call and
| | 00:39 | say, "Is it in stock?" They can tell me.
| | 00:42 | I also like the fact that I can go over and
pick it up and have it in-hand the night before.
| | 00:47 | I don't have to worry about a shipment
getting lost in transit or something being missed.
| | 00:54 | Local vendors offer a little bit more confidence;
however, realize that sometimes they may not be the best price.
| | 01:01 | Depending upon the market you are in, you
may need to go to a larger city or something
| | 01:05 | might be so specialized that you do need to
turn to a national or even international vendor.
| | 01:11 | However, local vendors are the least risky.
| | 01:14 | And when possible, I always
choose to buy a local first.
| | 01:18 | The additional benefit of local buying is
that you're supporting your local production
| | 01:22 | community, and this will create
goodwill and strengthen your overall market.
| | 01:27 | However, there will be times that you need to go to
a national stage and certain things will be done nationally.
| | 01:34 | For example, when I order prints, I generally
don't care that they are being done in town.
| | 01:40 | I go with the lab I trust
the most, same thing with DVDs.
| | 01:45 | Most of these things have long enough lead
times and people are used to waiting for them,
| | 01:50 | so if it involves lots of manufacturing,
a national vendor may be the best choice.
| | 01:56 | However, you are always going
to want to have more than one.
| | 02:00 | The vendor I used for years to create my
DVDs went out of business, and I didn't have
| | 02:05 | a choice of anybody else, and it
caused a short term pinch on a project.
| | 02:11 | If you don't have a back up plan, a lot of
times you'll incorrectly assume that, that
| | 02:15 | vendor is going to be there, and you pick
up the phone, or you send an email off, and
| | 02:19 | you are ready to do the project just like
last time you've budgeted enough time and
| | 02:24 | then you find out that they have a problem, or they were
hit by a flood or lost electricity or went out of business.
| | 02:31 | It's always good to have more than one
vendor to choose from and occasionally move that
| | 02:36 | work around to test who is better and to
make sure you keep a competitive advantage.
| | 02:42 | There's nothing wrong
with buying internationally.
| | 02:44 | Politics aside, many people will rely on
international business to find the best option.
| | 02:50 | However, international certainly increase the
risk with longer shipping times and potential delays.
| | 02:58 | Make sure if you are using international
vendors, you fully think things through.
| | 03:02 | I'm regularly approached by international animation
vendors as well as people offering to do photo touch up.
| | 03:09 | Things like transcripts,
we regularly ship offshore.
| | 03:12 | Now, generally speaking, I personally
believe in keeping as much work as possible local.
| | 03:19 | I also tend to keep work within my own country.
| | 03:22 | Now that's part of my control belief as
well as slightly my political beliefs, but you
| | 03:27 | are going to need to find the balance
between local, national, and international when you
| | 03:32 | build your client vendor mix.
This all gets strengthen with proper research.
| | 03:38 | make sure from time to time you are looking
at your vendors, their rates, their services,
| | 03:44 | and you continuously spot-check the work that
comes in so that you are getting exactly what
| | 03:49 | you expect and what you paid for.
| | 03:54 |
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| Partnering| 00:00 | One of the most important things you could
do is a successful partnering strategy with
| | 00:04 | other vendors or potential key team members.
| | 00:08 | You see, partnering is the actual
act of formalizing the relationship.
| | 00:12 | You're not just hiring a vendor, you are
working with someone and they are very trusted.
| | 00:18 | You might have a formal relationship.
| | 00:20 | This could include a written
agreement where you have pre-negotiated rates.
| | 00:24 | For example, I regularly work with a few directors
of photography. These are people I trust.
| | 00:30 | When we need to step outside our own
internal capabilities, I can call one of these DPs.
| | 00:36 | They'll join us for things like proposals, we can include
some of their work samples, and it works out nicely.
| | 00:43 | However, we also identify them by
name and the client knows who they are.
| | 00:48 | Generally speaking, I try to not hide our
partners, but rather treat them as part of the process.
| | 00:54 | What's important with your partners is that you do have
a written agreement, and you specify out payment terms.
| | 01:01 | What I mean by this is that it's important
that they understand what's going on with
| | 01:05 | the project, when they'll get
paid, and how they'll get paid.
| | 01:08 | A challenging aspect when working with outsiders
is that you may find yourself in a situation
| | 01:14 | where the project scope has changed.
| | 01:16 | Now, that phrase may not sound
familiar, but think of it this way.
| | 01:20 | You are on a shoot and the client arrived
late, and when they arrived they weren't ready.
| | 01:27 | And then somebody needed to step off for a
conference call and all of the sudden the
| | 01:30 | shoot that was supposed to wrap at 4 o'clock
in the afternoon, wrapped at 8 o'clock at night.
| | 01:36 | You now have 4 hours of overtime
from multiple crew people.
| | 01:40 | Well, the thing here is that, in this case,
if you did your project management right,
| | 01:45 | and you had everything written down, the
client should probably expect a larger bill, and
| | 01:50 | we'll talk about strategies, but what happens
when your team members make the mistakes
| | 01:56 | or an incorrect assumption is made about
how long the work is going to take?
| | 02:00 | Have you negotiated hourly rates or
project-based rates with the vendor?
| | 02:05 | One thing that's extremely important is that you've agreed
to the scope of work and the payment terms for that vendor.
| | 02:12 | So you have their attention and the resources coming
from them, and you know you could depend upon each other.
| | 02:20 | If you don't have a formal agreement, you may have
informal relationships with key freelance talent.
| | 02:27 | Your core team is going to be
people that you regularly hire.
| | 02:30 | For example, maybe there's an assistant that
you hire every time you're in a certain market
| | 02:35 | or every time I need some extra help editing
video, we have a list of about four people we call on.
| | 02:41 | These are proven folks, but we
don't regularly work with each other.
| | 02:45 | However, it is a core team, and we know we could depend
on each other, and we have an ongoing relationship.
| | 02:52 | I know that I can call them and they can call me just
to catch up, and that we have some basic terms outlined.
| | 02:58 | What are the rates, what are the expectations?
Remember, freelance talent is risky.
| | 03:05 | Many freelancers will become unavailable,
are they working on another job, are they
| | 03:10 | working for your competitor,
did they take a staff job?
| | 03:13 | During times of economic uncertainty, the
freelance market is incredibly volatile.
| | 03:19 | People will find themselves
freelancing because they lost a job.
| | 03:22 | Others choose this type of
lifestyle because they enjoy the variety.
| | 03:26 | In any case, your freelance
talent is your riskiest talent.
| | 03:30 | These are generally people that are
temporarily freelancing, perhaps it's on the evenings
| | 03:35 | or the weekends, or they are between staff jobs.
| | 03:39 | If somebody is regularly freelancing, and
you've worked with them for sometime, try
| | 03:44 | to move to a more formal arrangement, where
you've pre-negotiated rates, and you have a written
| | 03:49 | agreement with each other on how you'll
work with each other and what types of projects.
| | 03:54 |
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|
|
3. Project Management Core ConceptsProject management's bottom line| 00:00 | Okay, you understand some of the soft
skills when it comes to project management,
| | 00:05 | the philosophies and the products you're going to be
managing, the people you're going to be working with.
| | 00:11 | Let's jump in to some of the harder concepts, the
straight-up formal practice of project management.
| | 00:17 | As I promised you at the start of the class,
were going to keep things very straightforward.
| | 00:21 | Now, I'm not going to make it harder than
it needs to be but some of the things I ask
| | 00:25 | you to do will involve making
some changes in your behavior.
| | 00:29 | Here's the bottom line, project management is a
collection of business practices, and it really works.
| | 00:37 | You have to realize that you can't just do
a couple of these things and expect to see a difference.
| | 00:41 | For example, you could do all
sorts of changes to tracking the time spent
| | 00:47 | and making sure that you have agreements
with your team members, but if you don't scope
| | 00:52 | out the project, and give the client a clear
written description of the work to be done,
| | 00:58 | you have nothing to measure against when it
comes time to making adjustments in the bill.
| | 01:02 | If you don't time track, well, all you've
got is your gut instinct of if you're working
| | 01:07 | harder or going over what was budgeted.
It's important that you try to do all of these.
| | 01:13 | Some will do well, some will hurt, but
ultimately all of them will make the situation better.
| | 01:20 | Project management is not a fad,
this has been around for decades.
| | 01:25 | It's not new, its just now
starting to get attention.
| | 01:29 | This is largely because the
way that we work is changing.
| | 01:32 | Thanks to technologies like the Internet,
we're seeing a lot of collaboration, a lot
| | 01:38 | of virtual work forces, we're also seeing pressure to
push the prices down and to get more done with less.
| | 01:47 | Because of this, project management becomes important,
essentially the pace is getting faster and faster.
| | 01:54 | Your client's expect more done in less time.
| | 01:58 | And the number of people that work for
you or even with you is probably going down.
| | 02:04 | What you need to accept is that
budgets are only going to get smaller.
| | 02:10 | Clients can always find
somebody to do the work for less.
| | 02:14 | It doesn't mean it's going to be better,
and I'm not telling you to do a bad job,
| | 02:18 | what I am telling you is that pretty
much, prices are going to be fixed.
| | 02:23 | So if you can get more done in
less time, the clients will be happy.
| | 02:29 | If you can figure out how to get the job done
with greater efficiency, so will you because
| | 02:34 | you'll probably have more
money left over to put in the bank.
| | 02:38 | What we are getting at here is that you
need to be smart, and you need to apply project
| | 02:42 | management because things just
aren't going to get better in the economy.
| | 02:46 | So if you employ an organized,
tactical approach you can thrive.
| | 02:50 | There are a lot of changes going in the film,
video, and photo industries, and we need to
| | 02:55 | accept that for the most part for most
people budgets are smaller, competition is fiercer,
| | 03:03 | and technology just keeps making it
easier to get the job done with less skill.
| | 03:09 | These days it's possible to shoot a pretty
good photo with the camera out of the box,
| | 03:14 | and there's a useful software
tool for things like retouching.
| | 03:18 | Without a lot of practice or formal
training or taking on apprenticeship,
| | 03:22 | I can hang a shingle and call myself a photographer.
| | 03:26 | Same thing happens in the video industry all
of the time, cottage industries, people who
| | 03:31 | go out, buy a computer, get an
editing program, and jump in and go for it.
| | 03:37 | Now, a lot of you are in that very situation,
and I'm not attacking you, I am not saying
| | 03:43 | that you are not a
valuable part of the work force.
| | 03:46 | What I am saying is this, the amount of
people who do that and have no idea how to manage
| | 03:52 | a project or what they should
be charging is very, very high.
| | 03:57 | The bulk of the time when I lose a job
bidding on a project to somebody else,
| | 04:02 | that customer chooses somebody based solely on price.
| | 04:06 | And when I go back to look up those
companies a few years later, they are gone,
| | 04:11 | they've gone out of business, they failed,
the people who ran them had to take staff jobs.
| | 04:16 | What you're seeing here is that it's important
that you apply project management principles.
| | 04:23 | If you don't, it's going to be
very difficult to make a profit.
| | 04:26 | I don't care if you have a masters in fine art,
or if your completely self-taught,
| | 04:31 | what I want you to realize is that you need to
be tactical and organized, and if you start
| | 04:37 | treating your business like a business and
your projects like a project, the chance of
| | 04:44 | making more money and succeeding is much higher.
| | 04:48 | The true bottom line is this, you can never
be too busy to manage a project, if your too
| | 04:54 | busy to manage a project, you are too busy
to make money, you are too busy to have a
| | 05:00 | good night sleep, you are too busy too succeed.
| | 05:04 | I'm not going to say that you need to do lots of paperwork
or some of the more formal aspects like Gantt charts.
| | 05:10 | We are not going to use any highly-specialized
software with these approaches, what we're
| | 05:15 | going to do is some common sense and very straightforward
tactics to get the job done efficiently and profitably.
| | 05:23 |
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| Understanding the triple constraint| 00:00 | A core concept in project
management is that of triple constraint.
| | 00:04 | Much like it takes three legs
to make a balanced stool or table,
| | 00:07 | there are three primary aspects to any project.
| | 00:11 | Triple Constraint creates an organized workflow
and all of these things are dependent upon each other.
| | 00:18 | With Triple Constraint, there are three
major areas you have to pay attention to.
| | 00:23 | The first off is the scope of work, what is
it that the client is hiring you to get done>
| | 00:30 | You need to clearly understand the task at hand.
| | 00:33 | The task at hand is not as simple as,
I'm hired to shoot your corporate event.
| | 00:39 | Rather, I'm hired to shoot a corporate event
that happens 600 miles outside of town that
| | 00:46 | requires overnight travel, there will also
be a morning reception the next day, so there
| | 00:52 | will be two total days of shooting.
| | 00:54 | We need to have 3 photography stations set
up in order to capture all of the portraits
| | 00:59 | plus two event photographers roaming around to make sure that
the event is well documented, a big difference there, right?
| | 01:08 | And that's what we're getting at, you need
to be able to accurately describe back to
| | 01:12 | the client exactly the work that's in hand.
| | 01:15 | If you can't then you won't be charging correctly,
and there is no way that you will make a profit.
| | 01:22 | The next major aspect to consider is the schedule,
how much time do you have to get the job done?
| | 01:29 | A lot of times schedule will
be the greatest driver on cost.
| | 01:34 | Will you have overtime?
Are there rush charges?
| | 01:38 | For example, if I need to get prints made
this afternoon, I'm going to pay a lot more
| | 01:42 | for those prints then if I need them next week.
| | 01:45 | Same holds true with my own staff, if we have
to have this job delivered tomorrow morning,
| | 01:51 | and I need to keep everyone in the office
here on overnighter, I'm going to have to
| | 01:54 | feed them, I may have overtime or compensation time to
offer, as well as bad will that needs to be addressed.
| | 02:02 | It's important that you balance out the
schedule and realize how that impacts things.
| | 02:07 | However, you also need to be careful here
just because you have to work hard or there's
| | 02:13 | rush charges, maybe there shouldn't be.
| | 02:17 | If you have too many projects going, or you've
made some mistakes, it may not be the client's fault.
| | 02:22 | Make sure your honest, and that you've properly
allocated resources and time internally to get the job done.
| | 02:30 | However, if the client's schedule is tough
you may need to make sure you budget for this
| | 02:34 | accordingly, which of course leads us to budget.
| | 02:39 | What are the financial
constraints that the client has?
| | 02:42 | Chances are they have a number in mind, and it's
important that you understand what the target budget is.
| | 02:48 | We are not going to tackle budgeting today,
however, I do have a comprehensive class available
| | 02:54 | here on lynda.com all about budgeting video
projects, if you're a photographer you'll still enjoy it.
| | 03:01 | Make sure you check that out we talk lots
of strategies, what I do want to say about
| | 03:05 | budget is that it's very important that you
understand how much money you have, before
| | 03:10 | you start making big ideas and grand plans,
make sure you know exactly how much
| | 03:16 | greenbacks you have to get there.
| | 03:19 | So with the Triple Constraint,
what do you need to think about?
| | 03:23 | First off you have to balance all three areas, the scope,
the budget, and the schedule all must be considered.
| | 03:32 | Each of these will impact the work that you do.
| | 03:36 | Additionally, there's a
fourth force at work Quality.
| | 03:40 | People don't just want the job
done, they want it done right.
| | 03:45 | The reason why I'll be hired again--not the
first time but again--is the quality of your work.
| | 03:52 | Experienced clients may also hire you
the first time because of the quality.
| | 03:57 | But ultimately, people come back because
not only did you get the job done on time, did
| | 04:02 | you give them what they asked for and did
you give it to them at the price they expected?
| | 04:07 | But you did a good job.
| | 04:09 | This is where quality comes into play, part of the
project management process is ensuring a quality project.
| | 04:16 | Things like quality control, looking for
spelling errors, making sure you test things, flipping
| | 04:22 | through to look for bad prints, making sure that everything
that was said to be done was done and done right.
| | 04:29 | All of these things are
critical that you pay attention to.
| | 04:33 | Now, people will often be trite and
say Good, Fast, Cheap... Pick Two.
| | 04:39 | The Internet is filled with variations on this with
cute graphics and snarky comments, long blog post.
| | 04:46 | You could say all you want,
good fast, cheap, pick two.
| | 04:51 | And I'll take the client from you.
| | 04:54 | You see, what you need to realize is
that, clients do not want to choose.
| | 04:58 | Clients expect all of these things, they
expect that you get the job done on time, on budget,
| | 05:06 | and that you give them what you
promised and the work is good.
| | 05:10 | Clients demand all three areas of the
Triple Constraint with quality woven throughout.
| | 05:16 | If you don't give it to
them, someone else will.
| | 05:21 |
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| Defining the objectives of a project| 00:00 | Now that you understand triple constraint,
I would just like to refine the objectives
| | 00:04 | of any project that you undertake.
| | 00:07 | What you need to pay particular attention to is the
schedule, this is going to be the greatest impact on cost.
| | 00:15 | This is also going to be the
greatest source of stress through the work.
| | 00:19 | People will get very concerned about
looming deadlines and missed deadlines.
| | 00:23 | Make sure you and the
client understand the when.
| | 00:28 | When is it supposed to be delivered, when
are they expecting to see the next thing?
| | 00:33 | The next area to pay attention to is the
performance, how are the people on your team doing?
| | 00:39 | Is everyone making there deadline?
Can you catch quality errors while they happen?
| | 00:45 | Or put systems in place to minimize them?
| | 00:47 | With performance you don't want to just
assume that everything is going well, its important
| | 00:53 | that you spot monitor, if you've hire someone
to do graphics for you, or you've outsourced
| | 00:58 | some page layout, make sure your seeing
progress, have them show you interim work along the
| | 01:04 | way so you can review and comment.
Also so you know that the schedule's being met.
| | 01:10 | A lot of people assume that if they give a vendor 2 weeks that,
that vendor is working on the project continuously.
| | 01:17 | Do you know this or did the vendor push
everything off to the night before and then is rushing
| | 01:22 | through it to get the job done making
careless mistakes and putting your project at risk.
| | 01:28 | Lastly, pay attention to cost.
| | 01:31 | Things that affect schedule and performance
will often affect cost, mistakes cost money,
| | 01:38 | rush cost money, slips in
schedule and express shipping cost money.
| | 01:44 | All of these are things that will eat away
at your profitability, if you can keep an
| | 01:48 | eye on these three things, the chances of your project
succeeding, and you making money are much higher.
| | 01:53 |
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| Defining the characteristics of a project| 00:00 | I'd like to take a quick look at some of the
core words you'll hear used in project management
| | 00:05 | and put them in context
with the typical project.
| | 00:09 | Every project you tackle for film or
video will have some things in common.
| | 00:14 | All of them have a purpose is it to deliver a
3-minute video that could be used for marketing
| | 00:20 | by a company or to create a
portrait of a newly engaged couple.
| | 00:26 | In both cases there is a clear purpose and expectation
of what's going to happen at the end of the project.
| | 00:34 | Projects are also temporary, it is not a
project to stay in business, the marketing of your
| | 00:41 | company is generally not a project
rather something that goes on going.
| | 00:46 | However, you may have specific projects that
are short term, each client job may be a project
| | 00:53 | and chances are there is a due
date, and it has a temporary life.
| | 00:59 | Every project is ultimately unique.
| | 01:02 | This isn't to say that projects don't have
lots of things in common and shooting one
| | 01:07 | person's portrait is that much different than another but
chances are there are some things that are different.
| | 01:14 | Different people to interface with,
different people to build, different systems.
| | 01:19 | What you want to be able to do is figure out
what makes a project different because those
| | 01:23 | are the areas that mistakes
are most likely to happen in.
| | 01:28 | Take a look at the resources you have is there
anything that the client is going to be providing to you?
| | 01:34 | For example, maybe a location for the shoot
that you don't have to scout or pay for?
| | 01:40 | What resources do you have internally?
Is there any advancements in technology?
| | 01:46 | Does the latest version of Adobe Photoshop
or Premiere Pro make something much easier
| | 01:51 | that you now want to integrate
into your technical approach?
| | 01:55 | Think about any cause or time constraints,
are there things that have to get done within
| | 02:01 | a certain budget or a certain time?
In almost every case there are.
| | 02:06 | It is very rare that a project has an unlimited
budget, as such, it's important that you know
| | 02:12 | what you have to deal with so
you can make the right decisions.
| | 02:17 | As your looking at all of these things,
there are several interdependencies.
| | 02:22 | For example, I can't edit a video until I shoot the
video, I can't shoot the video until we have a script.
| | 02:30 | Well, sometimes people break that
rule but usually they regret it.
| | 02:34 | And you can't shoot until you have a location>
All of these things have a critical path that
| | 02:39 | has to be followed, and when you understand those
steps you'll understand how to get the job done.
| | 02:45 | Now, sometimes you'll have
to do things out of order.
| | 02:49 | Maybe you have to pick the location even
though you don't know the exact shooting date.
| | 02:53 | So you have spare locations, or you have
an indoor in an outdoor location because you
| | 02:58 | don't know the time of day or the weather.
| | 03:01 | In either case you still understand the general
flow and how that impacts the decision making process.
| | 03:10 | Other things to think about are the tasks
that have to be done, this is where understanding
| | 03:15 | all of the different areas becomes important.
| | 03:18 | Perhaps you don't edit video but you need
to understand the video editing process so
| | 03:23 | you know how much time it should
take to put the project together.
| | 03:27 | Maybe you don't do professional printing, you design the book
but you send it elsewhere for manufacturing and shipping.
| | 03:34 | You need to understand how much time it takes
to get that done, and what are the decisions
| | 03:39 | you could make to impact cost.
| | 03:41 | For example, I learned very early on that certain
size prints or layouts were much cheaper than others.
| | 03:48 | It became important if there were financial
constraints that I chose the right output option.
| | 03:53 | Similarly, its important when it comes to
things like dubs, often times getting three
| | 03:58 | copies made is about the same cost as 50.
| | 04:01 | So, it becomes important that you properly estimate and
look at all of the tasks involved with getting the job done.
| | 04:10 | And another thing to realize
is there is always conflict.
| | 04:14 | You may not like conflict but ultimately your
client's desires and your desires are rarely an exact match.
| | 04:23 | The artistic endeavor that you'd like to
accomplish, your concern for quality and lighting may be
| | 04:29 | of no concern to the client or at
least significantly less concerned.
| | 04:35 | That crazy thing that your client's seems to
be obsessing on, might be tide to the feedback
| | 04:40 | that they got from there
boss or the CEO of the company.
| | 04:45 | What you need to realize is that your objectives
and their objectives are never in perfect alignment.
| | 04:51 | As such, you have to learn when to pick your
battles and how to minimize conflict by being
| | 04:57 | to listening, and making sure that
you really only fight when necessary.
| | 05:04 | Lastly is Risk, It wouldn't be a project if
there wasn't risk, the whole reason you are
| | 05:10 | hired is because the client didn't
think they could do the job themselves.
| | 05:15 | They decided it was too risky and
expensive to bring all of these services in-house.
| | 05:21 | These days, most people could take out
there cell phone and shoot a picture or a video.
| | 05:25 | The reason why they called you is because
it was too risky, they weren't going to get
| | 05:30 | the right results that they needed
and they didn't want to chance it.
| | 05:33 | Now, that's not to say that the video made
on a cell phone is anywhere near the video
| | 05:38 | that you could take, and that Instagram should
be putting many photographers out of business.
| | 05:43 | What it does mean is that you have to
realize that there is some risk and that the client
| | 05:49 | is taking a risk by hiring you.
| | 05:51 | They are often risking their money, their
reputation based on the confidence they have in you.
| | 05:59 | When you learn to embrace these aspects of a
project and recognize that all of them occur
| | 06:04 | every time, it becomes a lot easier to spot
potential problems and make smart decisions.
| | 06:09 |
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| The standard life cycle of a project| 00:00 | So we've been throwing around a lot of concepts,
things that may seem a bit abstract, chances
| | 00:07 | are, you're a little confused, and that's okay.
| | 00:10 | I want to take a moment to look at a simple
flow diagram and then use a real world example.
| | 00:16 | If you're tackling a project,
this is what's going to happen.
| | 00:20 | The project will start, you then set objectives, what has
to be accomplished in order for the project to be done.
| | 00:29 | You start going and along the way, you gather
information. How are things going, what's happening?
| | 00:36 | You look at these results, and you compare
them to the objectives. Is the work satisfactory?
| | 00:42 | In other words, is it high quality?
If not, you fix the problem.
| | 00:48 | If everything is proper quality, and you
are satisfied with the quality of the work
| | 00:53 | and the client is then you simply ask
yourself, did we finish the job?
| | 00:58 | If you didn't, you keep going and along the
way you gather information, you do the work,
| | 01:04 | you measure it against the target and make
sure that you're getting the job done with
| | 01:08 | the schedule and the budget that you have.
| | 01:12 | And at the very end, once you could say you've done everything
you've promised and the work is high quality, you're done.
| | 01:19 | Now, that may sound pretty simple when you
think about it, but the critical thing there
| | 01:24 | was the measurement along the way.
| | 01:26 | I don't mean that you're taking statistician polls
or that you're running surveys around the office.
| | 01:32 | What I do mean is that you have a written
objective that both you and the client agree to.
| | 01:37 | So, let's take a look at this again.
| | 01:40 | Let's say the project is to shoot a wedding,
properly capture the event,
| | 01:49 | deliver a DVD-ROM filled with photos, a collection of images
optimized for social media, and to give them 5 albums.
| | 01:59 | All right, we've clearly set the objectives,
and we start the project, we've gone out,
| | 02:05 | we've shot the event, we showed up with all
the crew that we promised, and the event is over.
| | 02:10 | Okay, we're now going to
say have we done the work?
| | 02:13 | Well, we send the client the
pictures over and they make there selects.
| | 02:17 | And they've asked us to improve the
pictures a bit, we have to do some touch up.
| | 02:22 | Well, if the client doesn't say these pictures are
done, I like these, use these, the work isn't satisfactory.
| | 02:29 | We may have to do some touch up or some
clean up, so we go in, and we fix the images.
| | 02:35 | Once we think that the images are done and the
client has approved them, we look is the project complete?
| | 02:40 | Well, perhaps you've delivered the DVD, and
you've ordered the 5 albums that you've laid
| | 02:47 | out and designed, but until those albums are
in your client's hands and they've accepted
| | 02:52 | them as being good and what they wanted and oh,
you forgot to give them the social media photos.
| | 02:59 | Well, if you don't do those
things, you can't expect to get paid.
| | 03:03 | And ultimately, this is what business is
you get hired to do a job, it is in your best
| | 03:09 | interest to clearly spell out what that job is
how much you'll get paid, and when you'll get paid.
| | 03:15 | I'm a big believer in progress payments,
and we cover that in our budgeting course.
| | 03:20 | But the good news is is that you could type
progress payments to some of these milestones,
| | 03:25 | maybe there's a progress payment after the
shoot, then another one after the images are
| | 03:30 | delivered for the first round of review.
| | 03:33 | And then a final payment once all three items, the DVD, the
albums, and the social media images are in your client's hands.
| | 03:41 | Remember, the client's expected to do the job, to do
it right, and to make sure that everything is properly received.
| | 03:49 | If the client doesn't confirm that the job is right, and
that it's in hand, don't expect your invoice to be paid.
| | 03:56 |
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| Overview of the project management process| 00:00 | All right, now that you understand the
simplified version of the project, let's take a look
| | 00:05 | at all the steps that
typically happen in most projects.
| | 00:09 | The project management process is pretty
straightforward, but it is a bit lengthy at first.
| | 00:16 | The first step is developing the concept.
| | 00:19 | For example, let's take a look at
this in terms of a video project.
| | 00:24 | Once we're hired for a job, we have to
come up with what that job is going to be.
| | 00:29 | While the client may ask us to produce a
marketing video, we often have to develop a script
| | 00:35 | and come up with the big ideas and the
treatment to get them to approve it.
| | 00:39 | We then choose a project manager, someone
who's going to be in charged of the project.
| | 00:44 | This includes the billing, the crews, the
scheduling, often this person is referred
| | 00:49 | to as a producer or more
accurately a project manager.
| | 00:56 | They along with the core team members need
to think about all the resources that are needed.
| | 01:00 | What type of equipment do we need?
How many people do we need to pull this off?
| | 01:07 | What sort of locations do we need to secure?
| | 01:09 | All of these are typical
questions that you have to ask.
| | 01:13 | It then becomes important to accurately
define the goals of the project and then make sure
| | 01:18 | that your goals are in line with the clients.
what must be achieved in order for the project
| | 01:24 | to be considered successful?
A big thing to do is a work breakdown structure.
| | 01:30 | We're going to make work breakdown
structures in a moment but essentially they're like
| | 01:34 | an organizational chart but instead of describing
a company or a website, what you're doing
| | 01:39 | is breaking down all of the
major pieces in a project.
| | 01:43 | For that video shoot, it often means
preproduction, production, and post.
| | 01:47 | What are all the major elements?
| | 01:49 | In preproduction perhaps it's to develop a
script, to cast the actors, to secure the location.
| | 01:56 | On the production side, it might be certain
days of shooting as well as additional B-roll
| | 02:00 | that has to be acquired in different places.
| | 02:03 | On the postproduction side, there's the
editing and the graphics and the final delivery
| | 02:07 | and the companion website that holds everything.
| | 02:10 | All of these things are individual deliverables
or items that need to have resources assigned,
| | 02:16 | plans made, and budgets built for.
| | 02:19 | The work breakdown structure just
helps you keep it all organized.
| | 02:23 | Once you know the work that has to be done,
it becomes possible to match people to that.
| | 02:28 | This is where you can identify how many crew
people you need, what sort of people are needed
| | 02:33 | to get the job done and ideally,
you then choose those people.
| | 02:37 | Sometimes it's based on who you have in house,
other times it's based on what outside skills
| | 02:42 | you need, and if those skills are available.
| | 02:45 | Your first choice for a
vendor may already be booked.
| | 02:49 | This is why you need to have options.
| | 02:52 | You then need to estimate how much time
it's going to take to pull the whole job off.
| | 02:57 | You create a schedule based on the time and
the budget, and you finalize all the details
| | 03:02 | and get the client to sign it off.
| | 03:05 | An important thing to realize is that the
budget you made, the estimate to get the job
| | 03:10 | rarely is going to be the
final budget for the project.
| | 03:14 | Chances are things will change.
| | 03:16 | Maybe the client forgot to tell you that
they needed some out of town footage gathered or
| | 03:20 | that they actually needed a second photographer
to show up to cover the event because it was
| | 03:24 | going to be happening in multiple
rooms and they wanted complete coverage.
| | 03:28 | In any case, you need to finalize the budget
based on the client's input, and you tie that
| | 03:34 | to the schedule and everything else.
| | 03:36 | A very typical scenario is that the
schedule changes and the budget has to go up.
| | 03:42 | There's lots of times I'm awarded a
project and then because of one reason or another
| | 03:46 | the project doesn't get off the ground for
some time, then we suddenly find ourselves
| | 03:50 | rushing, and we have to charge more.
The project manager then makes a plan.
| | 03:57 | This plan should ultimately have some written elements
that gets shared with the customer and the team members.
| | 04:04 | You do the job and along the way,
you make sure that you measure it.
| | 04:08 | The project manager makes sure that the
hand offs are happening, that the footage shot
| | 04:13 | by the crew is getting handed off to post.
| | 04:15 | That postproduction communicated the
technical specs to the crew so things were shot right.
| | 04:22 | That the client is getting rough cuts to review,
and that their input is being mixed into the
| | 04:27 | feedback to make the final video.
| | 04:30 | All of these efforts require coordination
and one of the weaknesses of my own company
| | 04:34 | and many others is that they
underestimate the amount of management time.
| | 04:39 | It's seen as a soft skill.
| | 04:41 | Well, they're not really editing
or shooting or taking the pictures.
| | 04:45 | Well, that scheduling, coordination, and management is
perhaps the glue that holds everything else together.
| | 04:52 | If you don't budget for it,
you're going to fail.
| | 04:56 | We measure the progress along the way
making sure we're getting the job done.
| | 04:59 | If something's wrong, we fix it, and
when we think it's done, you test it.
| | 05:05 | Testing might mean making sure that the image
prints correctly or that the video plays back
| | 05:10 | all the way through, and that no parts of
the script were accidentally dropped, that
| | 05:15 | there's no spelling mistakes in the graphics
on screen, that the volume doesn't suddenly
| | 05:19 | change in the middle of the video or
that it dips to black unexpectedly.
| | 05:25 | Testing is critical, every time I regret
something in a project, it's because somebody rushed
| | 05:30 | it to get it out and didn't check their work.
| | 05:33 | In fact, the people doing the work
shouldn't be the ones checking their work.
| | 05:38 | They should check it first and then a fresh set of eyes
needs to take a look as part of the quality control process.
| | 05:45 | This is why a new person should
review the video before it gets sent out.
| | 05:52 | Once you think something is done, get it signed off on
that the client has received it, and that they're happy.
| | 05:58 | Sign off could just be a simple
email acknowledging the receipt.
| | 06:03 | When it's all done, transfer it to the client.
| | 06:07 | If you're doing work for hire, this may be
when the copyright is transferred as well.
| | 06:12 | When you think the job is done, analyze the work that
occurred and the process that it took to get it done.
| | 06:18 | Is there anything you could do better?
| | 06:21 | Was there anything that was more
stressful than you wanted it to be?
| | 06:25 | What would you do different next time?
| | 06:29 | Archive the resources, make sure you
back up the scripts, the budget, the notes.
| | 06:35 | Take the time to add some comments
and annotation into the project log.
| | 06:39 | Make sure that the next time this project
comes to life or one similar to it, you will
| | 06:44 | learn from the mistakes that were made, and
I'll let you in on a secret: there is always mistakes,
| | 06:50 | and if you could document them and
learn from them as opposed to hide from them,
| | 06:55 | you won't make them the next time,
or at least they won't be as bad.
| | 07:01 | When it's all done, have a debrief.
| | 07:04 | Ideally, you talk to the client, and you
learn from them, and we'll talk more about this
| | 07:07 | process later today, but you can also take
a look internally and sit around with the
| | 07:13 | core team members and discuss how did the
project go and what would you do differently.
| | 07:21 | Document all that material into your notes and properly
archive all of the assets that you're expected to keep.
| | 07:27 | Make sure you back up the finished
video, perhaps the source photos.
| | 07:31 | Make sure that they're backed up in multiple
locations, but don't just back up the project,
| | 07:36 | back up any of the assets you're expected
to keep, as well as the notes and the project
| | 07:40 | files that you used to make them.
| | 07:43 | Okay, that's the project
management process in an overview.
| | 07:48 | Let's dig in to some of the specific areas and see how
to put them into use particularly for photo and video projects.
| | 07:57 |
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4. Scoping the ProjectScoping the project| 00:00 | If you talk to any project manager,
you'll often hear them refer to scope.
| | 00:05 | Scope is the process of actually defining what
has to be done and then living up to that scope.
| | 00:11 | The scope is essentially the work that needs to be
performed, and in any project this often evolves over time.
| | 00:18 | The act of scoping a
project has a few key steps.
| | 00:22 | First off, you need to budget about 2 to 16
hours to figure things out, so depending upon
| | 00:27 | the size and the complexity of the project,
you might spend a couple of hours or a couple
| | 00:32 | of days getting all of the key details
down and working out a functional plan.
| | 00:37 | The document you create will generally be between
2 and 10 pages long. Note I said the document.
| | 00:44 | If you don't actually write
the scope out, it doesn't exist.
| | 00:47 | The key here is you need to create a scoping
document, one that you share with the team
| | 00:52 | and with the client themselves.
| | 00:54 | After all, what good is a plan if it
isn't written down and distributed?
| | 01:00 | This becomes what we often call the charter,
it lays the ground work for the project itself,
| | 01:05 | all the key rules, the constraints, the details.
This is essentially what is being done.
| | 01:12 | Ideally, you'll get any of
the key players to attend.
| | 01:16 | If your project involves multiple people,
you don't need everybody there, but you're
| | 01:21 | going to want a representative
of each major department.
| | 01:24 | For a video project, this probably means
someone from the postproduction side and the producer,
| | 01:29 | maybe someone who is managing the
client if that's a different person.
| | 01:33 | On the photography side you may want to have
somebody there from postproduction as well,
| | 01:37 | so if you're doing the shooting, but
someone else is going to be processing the photos,
| | 01:41 | make sure a representative who could speak to the
time and the work that has to be done is available.
| | 01:47 | Otherwise, you're just guessing, and
you're going to forget to budget for things that
| | 01:51 | need to be done, both making sure you allow
enough time, and that you remember to charge
| | 01:55 | the client for all of the
things that have to get done.
| | 02:00 | Ideally you'll find a quiet
room with no distractions.
| | 02:03 | When you do this, you need to
actually sit down and figure things out.
| | 02:09 | When it's all done, it doesn't
really exist until the client approves it.
| | 02:14 | The scoping document is
something that you have to send out.
| | 02:18 | The client absolutely, positively needs
to see it and they need to agree to it.
| | 02:25 | For example, here is a sample scoping document
for a real world project from a few years back.
| | 02:32 | It clearly spells out what's being
done, the budget, and a total price.
| | 02:40 | In this case we had two options
for the client to choose from.
| | 02:44 | We've also identified the major assumptions
associated with the project, provided any limitations,
| | 02:51 | and asked for the client to sign it off.
| | 02:55 | We'll explore this more in depth in just a
second, but a scoping document is a real written
| | 03:00 | document, and I'll make a few of these available
for those of you who have the premium membership
| | 03:05 | to take a look at some samples.
Remember, put it in writing and get it signed.
| | 03:10 |
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| Giving the project a name| 00:00 | What's so hard about a name?
| | 00:02 | You see, most people think, oh, it's easy. I'll
just call the project something descriptive.
| | 00:08 | But it never is that easy.
| | 00:10 | You're going to need a system for naming your
projects that both lines up with your client's
| | 00:14 | needs and helps you keep things tracked.
| | 00:17 | For example, when you're deciding on names
for a project, make sure you check with the
| | 00:22 | client, you're going to want the name to match what the
client calls the project so that your invoices get approved.
| | 00:29 | You might have a creative naming system, but if doesn't
line up with what the client expects, you won't get paid.
| | 00:36 | Make sure you also check for accurate
things like naming, spelling, capitalization.
| | 00:42 | You're going to want to match their branding
and any project name that they have, so your
| | 00:46 | project sinks up with their
internal tracking on their end.
| | 00:51 | You'll want the name to be descriptive, don't
simply name the project the name of the client.
| | 00:56 | I see this time and time again.
| | 00:58 | Many people will just simply name the job
the name of the client, if you're a portrait
| | 01:02 | photographer, the name of your subject.
| | 01:05 | But what happens when they come back for
more business, or they bring in extra members of
| | 01:09 | the family, or you get another
person with the last name Johnson.
| | 01:14 | You need something more descriptive,
and that's where exact naming comes in.
| | 01:20 | The unique names are important because you're going to want
a name that can't be easily duplicated by your system.
| | 01:27 | I generally recommend some sort of alpha/numeric
combination, where you take the name of the
| | 01:32 | client, some unique aspect of the project,
and you have a number that often ties into
| | 01:39 | the date or the number of
projects you've done for that client.
| | 01:44 | It might be as simple as Johnson003, better
yet though, it would be Johnson_Claire001
| | 01:52 | for the first project and then
continue the enumeration after that.
| | 01:56 | Again, if it doesn't match the purchase order
or what the client is going to easily recognize
| | 02:01 | as being their job, you stay in the chance of not
getting paid or at least getting paid as quickly.
| | 02:08 | Make sure your project
names sync up with your clients.
| | 02:13 |
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| Creating an executive summary| 00:00 | I'm going to be a bit sarcastic and say the
Executive Summary is the most important part
| | 00:06 | in the document because it's the
only part the client will likely read.
| | 00:10 | Now that's not true, a good client will look at
the scoping document because you are accurately
| | 00:14 | describing the work for them and the job
that's going to be undertaken, the schedule,
| | 00:19 | the budget, lots of important details.
| | 00:23 | But your client's client or their
boss probably won't read the whole thing.
| | 00:28 | The Executive Summary is just that.
| | 00:31 | It's a short one page or less description
that describes the project designed for the
| | 00:37 | executive in the company to look at it.
| | 00:39 | Now this isn't only for corporate video jobs,
but it's just a general naming structure for
| | 00:44 | this short summary that goes at
the top of a scoping document.
| | 00:48 | Here you describe what the project is all about.
| | 00:51 | For example, I might describe a project like
this, this video series is being undertaken
| | 00:57 | in order to educate parents about
social media and other related technologies.
| | 01:02 | There is a huge rise in use of social media by teens
and parents need to stay abreast of the top issues.
| | 01:09 | The videos will be an informative but tight
look using less than three minutes of runtime
| | 01:15 | in order to inform parents on the major issues.
| | 01:18 | They'll then tie back to the platform's website for
education through the use of URLs and embedded links.
| | 01:26 | Now that was a pretty descriptive summary,
and it told what the project was all about.
| | 01:31 | That's important because if somebody new comes in
and decides should this project stay or go,
| | 01:35 | they need to understand why it's being done.
What makes the project unique?
| | 01:41 | Make it easy for a decision maker to understand.
| | 01:45 | Decision makers are generally intelligent
but they're often rushed for time, so you
| | 01:49 | need to tell them in no uncertain terms why
the project should be funded and not cancelled.
| | 01:55 | If you don't, you risk your project
being pulled out from underneath you.
| | 01:58 | What happens when your client leaves and
takes a new job or a new manager comes in and has
| | 02:03 | to decide does the project stay or go?
| | 02:06 | It's critical when you're writing up a description
for your video or photo project that you put
| | 02:11 | it in a language that they'll understand.
| | 02:13 | Why is this project being done, why is
it important, why should it continue?
| | 02:19 | It's up to you to advocate for the project, because
after all, if it goes away, you may not get paid.
| | 02:24 |
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| Refining scope| 00:00 | When you think you've got everything down, it's
important that you take a pass and refine things.
| | 00:05 | Sure, it's easy to write the executive
summary and describe the project in general details
| | 00:10 | but the scoping document
needs to be very specific.
| | 00:14 | In order to do this we
recommend refining things.
| | 00:17 | Dig in and spell out exactly what's being done.
| | 00:22 | How many days of shooting, how many people
in the crew, what type of cameras are you
| | 00:27 | using, not the specific brand but the
format or any unique qualifying features?
| | 00:32 | You're going to want to also get more
detailed about the exact deliverables.
| | 00:37 | Are you shooting the event and then selling
individual photos afterwards or are you going
| | 00:42 | to deliver everything to the client?
| | 00:45 | Are you shooting the event and delivering up to
100 selected photos that have been lightly retouched?
| | 00:51 | Be specific so the client knows what it is they're buying,
and you get the arguments out of the way upfront.
| | 00:58 | Generally speaking, avoid adjectives.
A scoping document is not a marketing document.
| | 01:05 | You've already landed the job
theoretically, you don't have to sell the client.
| | 01:10 | What you want to avoid is using language like best,
compelling, motivational, dramatic, exciting.
| | 01:17 | You don't want the client to say, oh, the
video is not actually done, I showed it to
| | 01:21 | seven people and only six of
them thought it was dramatic.
| | 01:24 | I'd like you to knock a
percentage off the final bill.
| | 01:28 | If you use adjectives things that are subjective,
you're creating opportunities for the scope to be confusing.
| | 01:35 | Be precise, this isn't marketing, you aren't
selling things just describe the work that's
| | 01:41 | going to be done in clear terms.
More details, not less.
| | 01:49 | Better to spell things out exactly
than to leave things to assumptions.
| | 01:55 | This includes being as specific
as to how many hours are included.
| | 01:59 | When describing a video project I'll not
only describe the runtime of the video giving it
| | 02:04 | a precise range, I'll go as far as describing
the amount of time budgeted to create that video.
| | 02:10 | For example, maybe we are creating six videos
with a runtime between two and three minutes.
| | 02:16 | Those videos will be presented to
the client with two rounds of review.
| | 02:20 | The initial draft that will lack original
graphics but will have music and all of the
| | 02:25 | footage cut in and then a fine cut that has
all of the feedback incorporated and final
| | 02:31 | graphics inserted at which point a final
copy will be made based on client feedback.
| | 02:38 | Notice I've specified what's going to happen at
each point and the amount of control the client has.
| | 02:44 | I've given some context to the duration and the time,
and I've spelled out how much time has been budgeted.
| | 02:50 | I might even go as far as call out that one to
two hours has been budgeted per video for revision.
| | 02:57 | This way if the client comes back
and makes major changes we're covered.
| | 03:01 | Plus, I've also done things like describe that
the scripts had to be approved before we shot.
| | 03:06 | And if the scripts changed significantly, that there might
be a need for additional shooting which will be billed.
| | 03:13 | And if the script changes significantly
during the editing stage, it might produce
| | 03:17 | a need for additional editing beyond the budget.
You have to spell it out.
| | 03:23 | Don't assume that your client
understands what you do for a living.
| | 03:26 | Spell out what they're going to
get and what the constraints are.
| | 03:30 | Better to do it upfront than have
to have an argument down the road.
| | 03:34 | Essentially, you're building a box,
and you're filling it up.
| | 03:39 | You're going to build that box so it holds
all the information about the project, and
| | 03:43 | you're going to put in as many details as fit.
| | 03:46 | Not just try to stuff it to the brim, but make
sure everything the client needs is included.
| | 03:52 | Take the time to be
detailed, and you won't regret it.
| | 03:57 |
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| Identifying key roles| 00:00 | When you put the scoping document back out
to the client, identify the key roles of who
| | 00:04 | is going to be working on the project.
| | 00:06 | In some organizations the person who sold
the project may not see it all the way through,
| | 00:11 | or the crew that the client
normally works with may not be available.
| | 00:15 | You're going to want to identify who is the
project manager, and if there are any major
| | 00:19 | functional managers, include them.
| | 00:22 | A functional manager can include someone like
a production manager who oversees scheduling
| | 00:27 | shoots, or a postproduction manager who handles the video editing
or the graphics or the photo editing that happens afterwards.
| | 00:35 | If you have some functional managers
within you group, make sure you identify them.
| | 00:40 | If there's only really one person working
on the project, spell that out but be certain
| | 00:45 | to provide alternate contact information.
| | 00:48 | I don't regularly hand out my cell phone number
to people, but I do give it to clients, especially
| | 00:53 | clients that have an active project.
| | 00:55 | I would rather hear at 8 o'clock at night
that there was a problem then find out the
| | 00:59 | next morning after they had a bad night sleep.
Now I'll be practical.
| | 01:04 | I do have family time, and
I do keep some boundaries.
| | 01:07 | If it's dinner time, I don't answer
the phone, I let it go to voice mail.
| | 01:11 | But if it was urgent enough for them to
call and leave a message, you bet I'm going to
| | 01:15 | be listening to it and calling them back.
| | 01:18 | Make sure you establish who the points of contact are,
and that the client knows who's in charge of what.
| | 01:23 | This will make it easier
for them to stay in touch.
| | 01:27 | Don't only put it in the scoping document
though, make sure it's available in things
| | 01:30 | like email signatures and other material that
you give the client such as the online website
| | 01:36 | which we'll discuss a little bit later.
| | 01:41 |
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| Building the scoping document| 00:00 | All right, let's review what goes into the scoping document,
the final thing you're going to show your client.
| | 00:07 | Make sure you put the project name, you're
going to want to describe the project with
| | 00:11 | a name that they'll recognize, and that
will get through their accounting system.
| | 00:17 | Make sure you have the executive summary, generally a one
page overview about what the project is going to accomplish.
| | 00:25 | You'll put in any background information
provided by your client so they know you heard it.
| | 00:30 | Not a complete mind dump but key facts about
why the project is being done, what the objectives
| | 00:36 | are, or anything that needs to be
accounted for in the project itself.
| | 00:43 | You'll then want to put a
high level overview of the scope.
| | 00:45 | This will include things like the objectives,
the deliverables, who is going to be involved
| | 00:52 | on both sides of the project.
| | 00:54 | Is the client going to be
looking at things, if so when?
| | 00:58 | Is the client going to be providing anyone
for the project or a location to shoot at?
| | 01:03 | You'll want to describe any assumptions and any
constraints that are going to affect the project.
| | 01:09 | And you can include things like the risks,
the rewards, so people know what to keep an
| | 01:13 | eye on as well as a general budget and schedule.
| | 01:17 | All of these things won't necessarily make it
into the document, but again more detail not less.
| | 01:23 | You won't regret spelling these things out
because it's better for the client to go,
| | 01:27 | oh wait, I know I told you that I needed
that on the 15th, but actually I'm flying on
| | 01:33 | the 13th to the event, except I'm busy on the 12th
with a softball game, and my boss leaves town
| | 01:39 | on the 10th, and I really want them to look
at it, too, so I guess I need it by the 9th.
| | 01:44 | You see it becomes important that
you clearly spell out the timeline.
| | 01:48 | Otherwise, you're going to find yourself
with surprises--usually at the last minute--and
| | 01:53 | it's going to be too late
to do anything about them.
| | 01:56 | Be sure to spell out the key roles.
Who is going to be involved in the project?
| | 02:01 | This will help the client keep in touch and lastly
have a signature line where both you and they sign off.
| | 02:10 | This will in fact turn this into a legal
document or a charter and gives you a lot of information
| | 02:16 | and legs to stand on when it
comes time to enforcing changes.
| | 02:21 | If you have things written down when the
client makes a change that's going to affect
| | 02:25 | the cost, you've got a lot more leeway when
it comes to actually charging them for it.
| | 02:29 | Spelling out the details will reduce uncertainty
and makes it a lot easier for you to collect
| | 02:35 | because let's face it, with creative
projects things change all the time.
| | 02:39 | The client may come up and say, oh, I need
another day of shooting, so and so wasn't
| | 02:43 | available, or hey can I get an extra copy
of that or oh I know I said I needed it
| | 02:48 | on DVD, but I really meant Blu-ray.
| | 02:50 | All of these things add extra
work and increase the budget.
| | 02:55 | If you don't know the exact quantities upfront, put
in placeholders for things and assign a charge.
| | 03:02 | Then when things change, one way or the other,
you can adjust the budget up or down as needed.
| | 03:07 |
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5. Estimating TimeUsing historical data| 00:00 | As you've been watching, you might have felt
some pressure to be a mind reader or clairvoyant.
| | 00:05 | The truth is you don't have to know
everything or even be able to guess.
| | 00:09 | Ideally, though, you can look back on the past mistakes you've
made and learn from them. We call this historical data.
| | 00:17 | If you keep project logs for the work
you've done, you can draw upon historical data.
| | 00:23 | Ideally, you and your employees,
your contractors do time logs.
| | 00:27 | Nobody likes to do time logs.
| | 00:29 | I always have to fight to get our own staff
to keep them, but the producer or the project
| | 00:34 | manager should be tracking how
long it takes to get a project done.
| | 00:38 | This way when you get an opportunity to
bid again, you'll have some context, and you
| | 00:42 | could adjust the budget up or
down so it's more realistic.
| | 00:47 | Past budgets also help because you could look at budgets
from other projects and see what you thought before.
| | 00:53 | A lot of times projects are very
similar even though the clients may change.
| | 00:57 | By looking at past budgets and proposals, you don't
necessarily have to figure things out each and every time.
| | 01:04 | If you have employees who've been with you a
while, you could draw upon their knowledge.
| | 01:09 | Additionally, some of them may have experience
from working at other companies and can offer
| | 01:13 | insight about a particular
job or how to approach it.
| | 01:18 | Draw upon the human knowledge
and resources that you have.
| | 01:22 | If you're using somebody highly specialized,
consider consulting a subject matter expert.
| | 01:27 | For example, perhaps you're a very experienced
photographer but you've been asked to do
| | 01:32 | a time-lapse job for one of your clients.
| | 01:35 | You've dabbled in time-lapse before, and
you've done a few projects but you've never had to
| | 01:39 | assemble the files together other than
for a tutorial or a personal project.
| | 01:45 | Find the editor you're going to
use or the subject matter expert.
| | 01:48 | Talk to them and get some idea on how much time they're going
to need to do their part of the job. Instead of guessing, ask.
| | 01:56 | When I'm doing a video project, and I ask
a 3D animator to give me a time estimate,
| | 02:00 | not only is that useful,
because I would guess wrong.
| | 02:03 | I also know enough to generally double or
even triple the number they give me because
| | 02:07 | 3D animators are generally very
inaccurate with their time estimates.
| | 02:13 | On the hand, if you ask a crew person
who's out there shooting everyday, they tend to
| | 02:17 | have pretty good ideas about how long it's going to
take and what they need to get the job done.
| | 02:22 |
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| Using a time-estimation formula| 00:00 | Okay, let's say you have no historical
data to draw upon, or you don't trust it.
| | 00:06 | Well, there is a mathematical
formula that you could use.
| | 00:10 | Now, before you get worried it's a really
simple formula, but it's one that gets used
| | 00:14 | by everyone from the federal government
to film agencies. It looks like this.
| | 00:20 | 1 Optimistic + 4 Most Likely + 1 Pessimistic divided by 6.
| | 00:25 | Well, what we're doing here is
we're accounting for human nature.
| | 00:29 | We're going to survey subject matter experts
or employees how long the job is going to take.
| | 00:35 | For example, let's say I'm talking to a production artist,
and we've got about 100 photos that need cleaning up.
| | 00:41 | I say to him, "How long is that going to take?"
Now, they're really experienced.
| | 00:46 | They've done work with me before, and they come back
and say, oh, 100 photos, 15 minutes a photo, 25 hours.
| | 00:52 | Okay, that's not the most likely number.
| | 00:57 | That's the optimistic number
because people naturally underestimate.
| | 01:02 | Every creative person I know--
myself included--underestimates time.
| | 01:07 | If you think this isn't true just ask
yourself how often have you called your significant
| | 01:11 | other and said, "Oh, I've already left the
office traffic's terrible," and you're making
| | 01:16 | traffic sounds as you're walking down
the stairwell. We underestimate time.
| | 01:23 | It's a matter of personal pride how well we
get things done and how fast we are, and when
| | 01:27 | left to our own devices, we always loose
track of time, and we underestimate it.
| | 01:32 | That first number you come up
with is the optimistic number.
| | 01:36 | If you ask that same person how long will
it take somebody else if I gave that to Susan
| | 01:40 | or John in the office and let them tackle it?
| | 01:42 | Oh, well you know they're a newer
person, they haven't been with us as much,
| | 01:46 | they're not as fast as me.
| | 01:48 | They probably wouldn't say those
things but that's what they thought.
| | 01:50 | They'd come back and say, "Oh, 30 hours." Okay.
| | 01:54 | Well, how about if those photos really have
some issues, for example, there's a lot of
| | 01:58 | acne or there's some problems and they think,
"Oh, I have to do a lot of touchup, maybe 40 hours."
| | 02:05 | So we have a 25 number, a 30 number,
and a 40 hours number.
| | 02:10 | How long is it going to likely take for real?
| | 02:12 | Well, 1 times optimistic is 25, plus 4 times 30 is 120, so
we're up to 145, plus the pessimistic number was 40, so 185.
| | 02:26 | 185 divided by 6 is about 31 hours, and the
realistic thing here is even though it was
| | 02:35 | supposedly only going to take the person 25,
and would take everyone else about 30, it's
| | 02:41 | probably going to take about 31 hours.
| | 02:43 | Now, this is not exact science but this formula naturally
accommodates for human nature and the fact that we underestimate.
| | 02:52 | I think you'll find that you get some pretty
accurate numbers, and if you want to improve
| | 02:56 | the accuracy, ask a few
people for their time estimates.
| | 03:00 | Don't just ask the person, ask someone who works with
them or ask a producer or ask a colleague for their estimate.
| | 03:07 | Just make sure you give everyone the same information
before they give you a time estimate back.
| | 03:12 |
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| Getting peer review for time estimation| 00:01 | I am going to let you in on a
secret, it's okay to ask for help.
| | 00:04 | What I mean by this is that when you put your
project plan together, and you start to estimate
| | 00:10 | time, don't be afraid to turn to
others, particularly external review.
| | 00:15 | Chances are you have friends or colleagues
that are in another market, a different city.
| | 00:20 | They don't compete directly
with you for the same jobs.
| | 00:24 | Don't be afraid to help each other out.
| | 00:26 | On occasion, I've been asked by friends and
colleagues to take a look at their proposals
| | 00:30 | or their project plans, and I give them
feedback, and in turn I ask them to look at mine.
| | 00:35 | Sometimes they'll look at the whole thing,
other times they might be a subject matter
| | 00:38 | expert and they just look at
the part that they know best.
| | 00:41 | In any case, turning to others and
giving them a chance to review is a good idea.
| | 00:47 | You don't have to do it all yourself.
| | 00:50 | Things like LinkedIn are a great
way to connect with colleagues.
| | 00:54 | If you're truly concerned, you can always
hide certain details like the client name
| | 00:58 | or any unique identifying information.
But remember, it's okay to ask for help.
| | 01:05 | From time to time ask a friend or
a colleague to take a look at it.
| | 01:10 | Just like on the game show when they phone a friend,
it's okay to do that in the business world too.
| | 01:15 |
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| Getting external review for time estimation| 00:00 | Okay, let's take a look at one of those document types that's
really important to project management, especially creative projects.
| | 00:07 | Now many of you have done things like site
maps before for a website or have created
| | 00:12 | a visual plan to identify things.
| | 00:15 | That's exactly what the
work breakdown structure is.
| | 00:18 | It's a simple hierarchy document like a tree
that shows you all of the major elements of
| | 00:23 | a project that need to be planned for.
| | 00:26 | When you build one of these all you're doing
is breaking it down, and this is incredibly
| | 00:30 | important when you want to do a budget.
| | 00:33 | If you cut something down to a small enough piece, it's
easy to budget for, both figuring out the time and the cost.
| | 00:40 | Essentially you're thinking of the
major tasks that need to be completed.
| | 00:45 | Another way of thinking at this is
like catering a party for friends.
| | 00:48 | Now, you might say to yourself, oh I'm
going to have a dinner party, what do I do?
| | 00:53 | How much does it cost?
What do I need to do? How much time?
| | 00:56 | Well, it's not so hard when you break it
down you say well, how much do I want to spend
| | 01:00 | and how much time do I have to get ready?
| | 01:04 | Then you start to pick the dishes you're
going to serve and the beverages you're going to
| | 01:07 | offer and all of a sudden you have a
shopping list for the ingredients you need.
| | 01:12 | And you can go and find recipes for those
individual pieces and pretty quickly, you
| | 01:16 | could build the plan, one that draws upon
your personal taste and expertise as well
| | 01:21 | as the experience and knowledge of others.
The exact same thing holds true for a project.
| | 01:27 | By making the work breakdown structure, you can
identify all the pieces that need to be performed.
| | 01:33 | You're going just to keep breaking the job
down into smaller and smaller pieces until
| | 01:36 | you can accurately figure out what's going
to take to pull it off, and then get input
| | 01:42 | from your client or the team.
| | 01:44 | Now, here's an example of what that could
look like, and this is from a real world project.
| | 01:51 | The client asked us to build a trade show
demo real that they were going to play at
| | 01:56 | an event and they wanted it on DVD to hand out.
| | 02:00 | Now this was a few years back but DVD is still
widely used, and what we did here is we broke
| | 02:05 | it down into the major pieces.
| | 02:08 | I identified that there was four major parts
in this project, the video assets themselves,
| | 02:14 | the actual DVD with menus, the act of
getting everything packaged up after manufacturing,
| | 02:21 | and then the project
management to hold it all together.
| | 02:24 | The piece that most people forget is the
management component, so when you're splitting things
| | 02:28 | up, make sure you put that into the
chart, and that you allow some time for it.
| | 02:33 | With the video, we were working
with assets that already existed.
| | 02:36 | They were coming from a bunch of
different places, they wanted a highlight real.
| | 02:40 | Some were videos we did, some
were videos that other people did.
| | 02:43 | So all those videos had to be captured, some
were coming off of tape, others were coming
| | 02:48 | from digital sources, but we
needed to get them all in hand.
| | 02:51 | This meant they had to get tracked down, they
had to get transferred and captured digitally,
| | 02:56 | they had to get put on the drive ready to use.
| | 02:59 | Additionally, the color and the audio was
very different from one clip to the next,
| | 03:04 | so we took the time to adjust the volume as well as
apply some global color correction to even things out.
| | 03:11 | And then everything needed to be encoded.
| | 03:14 | This is the part in video where you take the
files and you compress them for the end use.
| | 03:19 | In this case we made MPEG 2 files for a DVD.
| | 03:23 | Now the next component once we had all the
video pieces was to design the DVD itself.
| | 03:28 | We needed to go ahead and build this out,
and it had a couple of major components.
| | 03:32 | What we did is first we made some story boards to
identify what was going to go on to each DVD menu page.
| | 03:39 | We sketched out the position of the buttons
and how many button choices would be there,
| | 03:43 | if you had to click next to jump to
another menu and then we designed those menus.
| | 03:48 | In this case we used Adobe Photoshop as opposed to an
animation tool, because the budget was a bit tighter.
| | 03:54 | I was able to count up that we needed seven
menus and assign a design time for that,
| | 04:00 | 6 hours to build them and another fours hours
for the initial design for the first one.
| | 04:05 | And then there was the DVD authoring stage of
taking this into Adobe Encore and connecting
| | 04:10 | all of the pieces and creating
the final disc, plus testing it.
| | 04:15 | Now the DVD is done, but it doesn't mean
that I had it ready to give to the client.
| | 04:19 | We had to get it manufactured as well as packaged up,
and this involved both some design and some actual labor.
| | 04:25 | So first we design the packaging, the box art.
| | 04:28 | Then we had to choose an external
vendor for the disc duplication.
| | 04:33 | The disc had to be assembled, and we
needed to budget time, because it was a rush job
| | 04:37 | there was premium, so this is an instance
where the schedule impacted the cost because
| | 04:42 | I only had one week to get them manufactured as
opposed to the normal three that our vendor preferred.
| | 04:49 | Which of course also impacted shipping
because we couldn't do ground shipping,
| | 04:53 | we had to do two-day shipping, which
significantly drove up the cost.
| | 04:57 | Remember, schedule always affects price, especially
when you have thing like manufacturing or shipping.
| | 05:05 | Make sure you get the key details from the client,
and that you're not rushing if you don't need to.
| | 05:11 | Significant changes in cost will
happen when the schedule changes.
| | 05:15 | The last component was the project management.
| | 05:18 | Somebody had to track down all of the pieces and deal with
all of the different departments that had their own videos.
| | 05:24 | There was client communication back and forth
making sure the feedback was gathered on the
| | 05:28 | initial designs, writing for the missing items,
making sure that any changes were captured
| | 05:35 | and made and then this person also needed to
do quality control, testing the disc, making
| | 05:41 | sure that the vendors had received the files
when we shipped them, that everything worked
| | 05:45 | and passed all the quality tests, and that the
discs were correct and shipped to deliver on time.
| | 05:52 | Now this is just a sample document, and I'm sure you
could see that you could do this for just about any project.
| | 05:57 | What I'd like to show you is one way of
building it but there's many different ways.
| | 06:03 | Now I use an application called
OmniGraffle, which is available just for Mac.
| | 06:09 | Another tool that you could use is
PowerPoint which has an organization chart maker.
| | 06:13 | For example, with OmniGraffle, I could choose a
hierarchal document or better yet an organizational
| | 06:19 | chart, and you'll see lots of different
styles, including ones that allow the addition
| | 06:24 | of graphics or headshots if necessary.
| | 06:27 | When I select this, and I choose to make a new diagram,
you'll see that you could start to add individual elements.
| | 06:35 | So as I start to place things for the project
and then I add additional elements here, you'll
| | 06:41 | see that it becomes very easy
to connect those with lines.
| | 06:46 | And as you start to build and add additional
pieces, you can use the lines to define some
| | 06:54 | of the relationships.
And notice how everything reflows.
| | 07:00 | If steps were depended upon each other, I
could go ahead and place additional boxes
| | 07:05 | down below, and I can indicate
the dependencies by drawing lines.
| | 07:11 | Sometimes something will be dependent on
two steps, so you might find yourself needing
| | 07:16 | to connect it to two different previous objects.
| | 07:20 | And notice as you draw, you might need
to reflow. That works pretty well.
| | 07:26 | Similar to OmniGraffle, if you already have
PowerPoint just take a look at the organizational chart maker.
| | 07:32 | This isn't hard, and you'll find lots of training available
here on lynda.com on how to use these individual tools.
| | 07:41 |
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|
|
6. Client CommunicationUsing in-progress reports to communicate with clients| 00:01 | It's all about communication. If your client
is in the dark, they'll start to freak out.
| | 00:06 | One of the best things you could do in order
to successfully manage a project is provide
| | 00:11 | in progress reports.
Note I said reports, plural.
| | 00:15 | You're going to want to agree
upon how often you update the client.
| | 00:19 | Not multiple times a day, but useful summary emails
or written reports that describe where things are at.
| | 00:26 | The in progress reports serves a lot of
purposes to really help the client measure progress.
| | 00:31 | Ideally, you're going to effectively
communicate where the project is at.
| | 00:36 | If you can, you're going
to want to be proactive.
| | 00:39 | Delaying bad news
generally only makes things worse.
| | 00:43 | This doesn't mean call the client when
everything goes wrong, but if something happens that's
| | 00:47 | going to throw you off schedule, or if the client is doing
something that's jeopardizing their project, tell them.
| | 00:54 | Something I regularly have to do is point out to clients
that delays in feedback are jeopardizing the delivery date.
| | 01:00 | There's lot of times when we built in some
pad for a script, but it takes a long time
| | 01:05 | to get the client to approve it.
| | 01:07 | If they take too long, we might have to cancel or
postpone the shoot, which then ripples everything down.
| | 01:13 | Similarly, if I was doing a layout or a
website, and I needed the photos done, I'd need
| | 01:19 | the selects and before I can edit those pictures,
I'd have to actually have the client review
| | 01:24 | them and pick the ones
they wanted us to process.
| | 01:27 | So you often need to point out to clients
when things are due and remind them that changes
| | 01:33 | in deadlines could have
effects to both schedule and cost.
| | 01:38 | Routinely you're going to have to point out
to the client what you need them to do next,
| | 01:42 | and that's one of the major
benefits of the in progress report.
| | 01:46 | When you give the in progress report, you
don't want to be overly-optimistic or pessimistic,
| | 01:52 | instead you need to be realistic.
| | 01:55 | Make sure you address what's
happening and the likely impact.
| | 01:59 | Don't play it up for effect and don't
just sort of blow it off as no big deal.
| | 02:04 | If something is happening that's putting the
project at risk or will change the schedule
| | 02:09 | or the budget, tell the
client that plainly, but clearly.
| | 02:15 | Additionally, you're going to want to make sure
you identify the milestones that are complete.
| | 02:20 | Let them know that progress is happening.
| | 02:22 | This will help them relax and have
greater confidence in you and your abilities.
| | 02:26 | Additionally, if something is in progress,
you can let them know how far along you are.
| | 02:32 | For example, maybe you haven't finished all
the post processing on the selected images,
| | 02:37 | but you can let them know that you're 80% through,
and you expect to deliver the files early tomorrow.
| | 02:43 | That's a lot better than
saying, oh, it's not done yet.
| | 02:47 | Taking the time to try to provide a detailed
estimation on where things stand, gives the
| | 02:52 | customer a lot more confidence in your abilities, and it's
that confidence that's going to bring them back in the future.
| | 02:59 | Other things to think about is identifying the tasks that
have not yet started, the known things that come up next.
| | 03:06 | This way the client knows
what to be thinking about.
| | 03:09 | Are you expecting to send them music selects
tomorrow that you need their feedback on overnight,
| | 03:15 | or are you expecting that you need the
confirmation that the location is available or that you
| | 03:21 | need them to pick where you're going to shoot?
| | 03:23 | Making sure you tell them what comes next and what you need
them to do will keep the project moving at a brisk pace.
| | 03:31 | Lastly, agree upon the
regularity of the reports.
| | 03:36 | How often are you going to provide
these is it daily, weekly, twice a month?
| | 03:43 | Be prepared that the client may ask for an
update at any point in time but by establishing
| | 03:48 | a regular schedule for communications, you'll cut down
on the constant back and forth and incessant email updates.
| | 03:55 | Now I say that with absolute certainty but
just like you, I have some clients that really
| | 04:00 | need their hands held and
those emails are still going to come.
| | 04:04 | But ideally, if you agree upon a schedule,
you and the client can spend more time doing
| | 04:09 | work and less time socializing
and going back and forth on email.
| | 04:14 | You could do the work and
then give them a detailed update.
| | 04:17 | I like to do at the end of each week or the
start of each week, giving him that report
| | 04:21 | on Friday afternoon or first thing
Monday if there's a lot of moving parts.
| | 04:26 | In this way it's very clear, and we can
easily measure progress from week to week.
| | 04:32 | The last thing, don't make them ask.
| | 04:36 | If you're going to miss the deadline that
you agreed upon on the report, send a note
| | 04:40 | in advance and let them know that there's a delay
because there's some information you're still gathering.
| | 04:46 | If possible, give them a partial report or tell
them when they could expect the updated information.
| | 04:52 | But again, don't make the client ask.
| | 04:55 | If they have, it means that
you have lost their confidence.
| | 05:00 |
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| What information can you share with your client?| 00:00 | So, what information do you give your client?
| | 00:03 | Too much is a problem, not
enough is also a problem.
| | 00:07 | Things are going to vary, but I want to offer
you some tips based upon the different major
| | 00:11 | stages of video and photo projects.
| | 00:14 | For pre-production, as we've discussed,
always make sure you name the project so that you
| | 00:19 | and the client are calling it the same things.
| | 00:22 | Be sure to make sure that they know the project
team and the manager, and if you've got anything
| | 00:28 | like scoping documents, schedules, or milestones,
give them those as well, hopefully in writing.
| | 00:36 | If you could post the budget
for them to download, do that too.
| | 00:40 | Now, some people aren't comfortable putting the
budget up for everyone to see, this is up to you.
| | 00:46 | Sometimes I'll do a redacted version of the
budget where I take out the individual line
| | 00:50 | item cost, but I still have the
detailed list and what's involved.
| | 00:55 | Other times I put the whole thing up.
| | 00:56 | It really depends upon the client and the
maturity of the team, but it's good to spell
| | 01:01 | things out precisely, and if you're tracking
against the budget, make sure you communicate
| | 01:06 | the updates to the clients as things change.
| | 01:10 | If there's a tech brief, make sure that goes
up for the project team as well as the client.
| | 01:14 | A tech brief is going to describe the delivery.
How are you acquiring things?
| | 01:19 | What is the shooting format?
What's the file type?
| | 01:22 | What are the lenses or the camera
bodies that are going to be used?
| | 01:26 | What's the end deliverable? What file format?
What compression specs?
| | 01:30 | These are the technical decisions
that'll impact the whole project.
| | 01:35 | If you're doing scriptwriting, a lot of
times the clients can collaborate using features
| | 01:39 | like change tracking or if you're
doing creative briefs, same thing.
| | 01:44 | Using a standard word processor
becomes pretty easy to track changes.
| | 01:49 | On the production stage, you're going to want
to think about things like shot list, location
| | 01:54 | photos, any notes from the crew.
| | 01:57 | Gather up any graphic assets, reference
materials, style guides, logos, things that you need,
| | 02:04 | and if there's anything that needs to be handed off
for post production, make sure it's included here.
| | 02:10 | Notes on scripts, reference photos,
set location, continuity notes.
| | 02:16 | During the postproduction stage, you'll post up graphics
and video rough cuts for people to look at and comment.
| | 02:23 | You'll want to track the changes in
writing, making sure that you resolve them.
| | 02:29 | One of the biggest things I frequently notice is the
need to make sure that somebody resolves the changes.
| | 02:35 | What I mean by this is that there might be
five people at the client's end looking at
| | 02:39 | everything, all of them providing feedback
except when you take all that feedback, and
| | 02:44 | you collate it into one list,
sometimes it contradicts itself.
| | 02:48 | Somebody needs to decide which changes get made.
| | 02:51 | So if the client is going to have multiple
people review, make sure the client appoints
| | 02:56 | somebody on their end to have the final say
and to collate the feedback into a single list.
| | 03:02 | Otherwise, you're like a dog chasing its tail and
chances are you'll get dizzy and waste a lot of time.
| | 03:10 | You also may have some exchange files to
help them out, compressions or JPEGs,
| | 03:15 | files that are easy to transport over the web.
| | 03:19 | At the very end of the project, think about
posting some informational things like all
| | 03:23 | the changes that were required, and you can
go through and reconcile these both for billing
| | 03:28 | and to make sure that everything the client
asked for was done. Try to do time tracking.
| | 03:34 | If your employees can track time, a lot of
the software tools make this easy and track
| | 03:40 | the assets used in the project, so you can
make sure that they get returned to the client.
| | 03:45 | If they've provided you things like historical
photos or props, make sure those get returned.
| | 03:53 | And if you are using stock music, you might need to
report what you've done, same holds true for photos.
| | 03:59 | If anything involves licenses, make
sure you keep track of what's been used.
| | 04:04 | Lastly, when you hold the project debrief, get
those notes posted and let everyone who attended review.
| | 04:11 | Perhaps somebody remembers something differently or your
client has some feedback that they thought of after the meeting.
| | 04:19 |
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| Using online tools| 00:00 | Like most things these days,
project management has gone online.
| | 00:05 | Using a website to track a project is great because it
makes it easy to collaborate people in different locations.
| | 00:12 | Some of the benefits include
that you'll save time and money.
| | 00:15 | Dramatically cutting down on shipping and
speeding up the review and approval process,
| | 00:20 | this could dramatically reduce stress because
you get feedback quicker, and you're not sitting
| | 00:24 | around wasting time waiting
for the client to respond.
| | 00:28 | It will also cut down on the risk because if an important
decision needs to be made, it can happen right away.
| | 00:34 | These days, it's very easy to post photos
and video and documents with just a click
| | 00:38 | or two and your client can review them on
their Smartphone while they're on the go,
| | 00:43 | making sure that the flow of information goes
quickly, but is still tracked is very important.
| | 00:50 | This also can help meet contractual obligations.
| | 00:53 | Perhaps, you need to provide time tracking
logs of the project to justify your costs,
| | 00:58 | or you need to provide a list
of all changes that were made.
| | 01:02 | Using an online software
system can make this easier.
| | 01:05 | And it will make sure that your billing is
more accurate because you can go back through
| | 01:09 | and check off the changes or the requests.
Did that client ask for extra prints?
| | 01:14 | Do they want a couple of
more dubs of the final tape?
| | 01:17 | Did they add an extra day of shooting?
| | 01:19 | All of these are things that you could have in
writing with the calendar and other related notes.
| | 01:24 | So, if there are any issues or discrepancies
with the bill, you can easily resolve it because
| | 01:29 | you have both proof and their
written request for the change.
| | 01:33 | Ideally, you're creating some historical
data that you could reference for future jobs.
| | 01:39 | The speed is going to go way up with
less courier cost and less down time.
| | 01:44 | You also could deliver to
multiple people simultaneously.
| | 01:48 | Instead of having to wait for one person to
pass a print to another or for people to find
| | 01:53 | a television set to put the video on, now
people can review on their portable electronic
| | 01:58 | devices and give you instant feedbacks.
| | 02:02 | It makes it very easy to scale for many projects at once,
and you can even go ahead and scale up for those reviews.
| | 02:11 | Another thing that's nice is that comments
could be tracked, so everyone involved in
| | 02:15 | the process cannot just see what they're thinking,
but can look at other people's feedback and comments.
| | 02:21 | This way, meaningful discussion
about your Creative project happens.
| | 02:26 | Instead of everything happening at the very
end when you happen to get everyone in the
| | 02:29 | same room, if you're lucky, now,
you can get feedback as you need it.
| | 02:34 | So, as you approach a major creative point like
casting, everybody can have their say that needs to.
| | 02:41 | When it comes time to picking wardrobe or
locations, you can get that decision upfront.
| | 02:48 | This is highly desirable as opposed to
getting all the way to the end and then having one
| | 02:52 | of the decision makers say, "I don't really like that actress."
Or "Why did you shoot there? I don't like that location."
| | 02:59 | It's a lot better to get the feedback
early, and it will make better decisions.
| | 03:04 | However, there are a few drawbacks to
how all of this comes together as well.
| | 03:09 | Essentially, there is some language to learn.
| | 03:12 | Your customers are going to need to learn
how to communicate with you and each other
| | 03:16 | and they might have to
learn to use the software.
| | 03:19 | Potentially, there could be a small investment on
your part in order to have the software tools needed.
| | 03:26 | And it's quite possible that things fail.
| | 03:29 | What I mean by that is this, maybe the
client doesn't have the plug-in loaded, or they're
| | 03:34 | not really looking at the picture on a
computer monitor, they're pulling out their iPhone
| | 03:38 | and they're making a critical
proofing decision on a really small screen.
| | 03:43 | It's easy for things to go wrong, but
generally speaking, the risks involved are outweighed
| | 03:49 | by the benefits because the whole process
happens a lot faster with higher quality feedback.
| | 03:56 | Make sure you accommodate for
variations in operating systems.
| | 03:59 | Don't assume that all your clients are on
PC if you're a Mac user, or that just because
| | 04:04 | it works on your Windows Desktop,
then it'll load on an iPhone.
| | 04:08 | You're going to want to find out how your
clients access technology and make sure
| | 04:13 | that you do some tests early on.
| | 04:15 | Additionally, people can become annoyed at download
times, so make sure you're optimizing the content.
| | 04:22 | This means saving web
optimized JPEGs or compressed video.
| | 04:26 | If you've got a lot of images for someone
to look at, consider using a tool like Adobe
| | 04:30 | Bridge to bundle it up into a PDF presentation or perhaps
set up a review page with multiple videos all at one spot.
| | 04:39 | Taking the time to make it easier for
people to get to things with less download times
| | 04:44 | is becoming increasingly important as more
and more people switch to portable electronic
| | 04:49 | devices like tablets and mobile phones.
| | 04:54 |
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| Understanding the core features needed for online systems| 00:00 | So, you're ready to pick a software tool.
What should you be looking for?
| | 00:05 | There are some essential features.
These are the things I look for.
| | 00:08 | Let me just go through the list very quickly.
| | 00:11 | Time tracking and change tracking helps
you keep track of the details, especially
| | 00:15 | the things that will affect the end price.
| | 00:18 | You want something that's cross platform,
that works on MAC and PC, ideally also portable
| | 00:23 | electronic devices without
having to install an app.
| | 00:26 | Hopefully, it will respect permissions so
your clients can only see their projects and
| | 00:32 | team members can only see the
projects that they're working on.
| | 00:35 | Often times, you'll find yourself with the need for
privacy between team members and certainly between clients.
| | 00:42 | You'll want to have the ability to do some
scheduling and hopefully write boards, where
| | 00:46 | people could do Creative document writing
or collaborative documents. You'll track the
| | 00:51 | advance of milestones and make sure that you
could files up like video and photos for people
| | 00:56 | to see, and hopefully, it will generate email
messages that people could see and respond to.
| | 01:02 | Those messages should get threaded like a forum,
so it's easy to see whose message came first,
| | 01:07 | even if people are logging in
from different time zones.
| | 01:11 | Hopefully, you can get private messages as
well, so you don't have to always communicate
| | 01:15 | with the client and your team at the same time.
| | 01:18 | You'll want to have the roster up there so
it's easier for people to get in touch and
| | 01:22 | perhaps a real time system for chat or messages.
| | 01:25 | Now, there are a couple of other things to
think about. The Rights management is critical.
| | 01:31 | You want to make sure that you control the content, and
that you're not assigning any copyright over by posting it.
| | 01:39 | You'll also want some security tied to this so that
you feel confident that others can't see the material.
| | 01:45 | Think about if the system can scale up
if you get busy with lots of projects.
| | 01:50 | Can you add more team members?
| | 01:52 | Is it going to be easy for them to access it from a
bunch of different devices and what is the shutdown policy?
| | 02:00 | What I mean here is what
happens if your credit card gets lost?
| | 02:03 | For example, maybe your card expired, and
you forgot to update it, are they going to
| | 02:07 | shut down all your projects and lock you out,
erasing your data or are they going to freeze
| | 02:13 | things, or call you and prompt you
to log in to make the arrangements?
| | 02:17 | You have to be very careful
what happens when things go wrong.
| | 02:20 | You don't want all that
data to get blown up and lost.
| | 02:24 | Particularly look if you have the option to back up
the data locally as well, which is a very good idea.
| | 02:29 |
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| Managing a project with Basecamp| 00:00 | An extremely popular system that we use in my
office to manage projects is called Basecamp.
| | 00:06 | It originated with the software industry, but it's
incredibly applicable to both photo and video projects.
| | 00:12 | Basecamp gives you everything, time
tracking, scheduling, document sharing, chat.
| | 00:17 | It works great to keep
people on track and organized.
| | 00:21 | When you visit Basecamp, you could sign
up for a 45 day trial to give it a shot.
| | 00:26 | The plans themselves are
very useful and reasonable.
| | 00:31 | You'll find that you could manage
projects based on how many projects you have.
| | 00:35 | So, if you just have a smaller shop and have ten
projects going at once, it's about 20 bucks a month.
| | 00:40 | Forty projects, fifty a month, et cetera.
| | 00:44 | And while prices will change, the ability
to keep a project organized for one to two
| | 00:48 | dollars a month is just essential.
Remember, a fully functional 45 day trial bill.
| | 00:55 | Other things to think about as you take a look at
their site is you can tour and see what Basecamp does.
| | 01:01 | And they have a nice overview of
the key features on their site.
| | 01:05 | I don't need to walk you through it here.
| | 01:07 | What I do want to show you is I will log in
to a project real quick and what you're seeing
| | 01:12 | here is that I have several different
base camps, some for my clients, some for me.
| | 01:17 | Let's log in here, and I'll go down to one
for lynda.com, and I'll actually show you
| | 01:22 | some of the material that
we had for this project.
| | 01:26 | Notice we had messages and
back and forth communication.
| | 01:30 | We had feedback from different people who
work at lynda helping me make this class better.
| | 01:35 | As we worked, we were able to
create a document with the outline.
| | 01:40 | If I take a look a look at that, I could see
everything that's happened, and this is the
| | 01:44 | outline we've been teaching you today.
| | 01:46 | However, as we worked, and we had back and
forth comments, there were different versions
| | 01:51 | that were made, and I can actually click through and
see earlier versions and they are automatically backed up.
| | 01:58 | This is incredibly useful. I do have the ability as well to
see a schedule or a calendar, and we could track the progress
| | 02:06 | of multiple projects within my company.
| | 02:09 | However, if the client logs in, they're
only able to see their materials posted.
| | 02:15 | This makes it really easy to see what's happening plus
they get the ability to search through the whole project.
| | 02:21 | Within the project, they can
also see things like files.
| | 02:25 | For example, as content has been posted
related to this, they could see things,
| | 02:31 | we've got Zip archives, video files, spreadsheets,
still photos for review, and all of this content
| | 02:38 | is backed up and kept organized.
| | 02:41 | Additionally, milestones could be set so you
could track your activity as well as any open
| | 02:46 | To Do items and see items that
are assigned to other people.
| | 02:51 | You can also easily go and locate people
that you're working with and jump right to them,
| | 02:56 | so you can give them feedback or get in touch.
Basecamp is an incredibly useful system.
| | 03:03 | It has its own built-in help and support.
It's very easy for clients to jump in.
| | 03:07 | And what I like best about is
that it fully works with email.
| | 03:11 | So, the client never actually has to log in,
they could simply reply to email messages
| | 03:17 | that come to them, but all of that
feedback is captured and organized.
| | 03:21 | Instead of having to scour through my inbox
and folders, trying to find messages for clients,
| | 03:26 | I could log exactly into that website and see
every piece of communication that's happened.
| | 03:32 | As long as the client replies to the messages
you've sent or includes Basecamp in the address,
| | 03:37 | new threads will be started or maintained.
| | 03:42 |
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| Managing a project with Facebook| 00:00 | There is another free alternative,
and that's Facebook.
| | 00:04 | Yes, the popular social media platform
can be used as a project management tool.
| | 00:10 | Now, those of you under the age of 30 are
probably rejoicing because you're now going
| | 00:14 | to go tell your boss that you officially
learned you needed to use Facebook at work.
| | 00:19 | But the truth is it can be genuinely useful.
| | 00:22 | Facebook has been around for a long time,
and it allows people to collaborate, sharing
| | 00:27 | photos, documents, commenting, videos,
thready communication, instant messaging.
| | 00:33 | In fact, while Facebook was originally solely for
socialization, a lot of business gets done on Facebook.
| | 00:41 | When you go to Facebook, you'll probably be
overwhelmed by everything happening on the
| | 00:45 | sidebars and all the info.
However, what I want to point out is this.
| | 00:51 | Under groups, you can
create a new group for a project.
| | 00:58 | You could choose who belongs to the group.
| | 01:01 | Note, it might also suggest other people that you
have frequently worked with as suggested members.
| | 01:08 | You could then choose how to list the group.
| | 01:12 | An Open Group is public for anyone to join,
and you definitely don't want that for a project.
| | 01:18 | A Closed Group can be searched for and can
be seen, however, you probably want to set
| | 01:24 | it to Secret and what Secret does is makes
it extremely difficult for people to find it.
| | 01:30 | Now, you can click here to learn more about
the secrecy. When ready, I'll click Create.
| | 01:39 | You now have to choose an Icon, and this
is probably the most social aspect of it.
| | 01:44 | If you don't want to use any of the icons, you
could just skip that step. You then have a group.
| | 01:52 | Notice that you could write a post and
a post is a simple quick thing added.
| | 01:59 | More importantly though is the ability to
add files that people could then access.
| | 02:04 | Now, you could choose from your local computer or
even use a Dropbox account to keep things in sync.
| | 02:11 | This makes it easy for people to
collaborate and share documents.
| | 02:16 | You could post photos and video for people
to see, you can ask open questions and get
| | 02:22 | people to comment, and as you're working,
all of the communication will be threaded.
| | 02:29 | Additionally, if you like,
you have the option for chat.
| | 02:33 | And if somebody is online, and you need to
communicate with them, you could select them and chat.
| | 02:39 | Note, both their mobile phone will show up
if they have the Facebook App installed with
| | 02:43 | push messages or a green dot for
people who are online on a computer.
| | 02:49 | This makes it very easy to communicate.
| | 02:52 | Additionally, for many team members, you can click and
find out their contact information and they've likely added you.
| | 03:01 | As you do this, you can customize this, note you
could put descriptive information about the project.
| | 03:08 | You could add events like meetings or calling
information for conference calls and all of
| | 03:13 | the photos and the files that you share
as well as the video will become available.
| | 03:20 | You probably didn't think of Facebook as a
project management tool, but it actually has
| | 03:24 | almost all of the features you need, the
ability for people to respond, email notifications,
| | 03:30 | chat, photo sharing, video sharing,
privacy settings, documents, and file sharing.
| | 03:36 | The only thing that I don't like about it is
that the terms of service often grant Facebook
| | 03:41 | a lot of rights to the contents you post.
| | 03:43 | In a practical sense, this really isn't an issue
because these days, most things end up online anyways.
| | 03:50 | But if terms of service or copyright are a big deal to you,
take a look at the solution Basecamp we mentioned earlier.
| | 03:57 | Otherwise, Facebook may be a perfectly
viable choice for you to collaborate on a project.
| | 04:02 |
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|
|
7. Project Control CycleWhat is a control cycle?| 00:00 | When you're tackling a project, everything
can seem to be swirling around, lots of pieces,
| | 00:05 | multiple people, tons of details.
Management may soon seem like a full-time job.
| | 00:12 | What you need to learn to do
is not sweat all the details.
| | 00:15 | Simply make sure that you're going down the right road,
and that things are moving in the right direction.
| | 00:22 | In the case of what you're looking at here,
it's pretty easy to tell which cars are coming
| | 00:26 | and which cars are going, and if you learn
how to read the signs on the road, you could
| | 00:31 | tell if you're going the right direction.
| | 00:33 | You could tell how far it
is to the next destination.
| | 00:37 | You don't have to be psychic
or clairvoyant to be a manager.
| | 00:41 | Ideally though, you'll learn how
to see lots of details at once.
| | 00:47 | You want the ability to track a lot of
material being able to see the start details
| | 00:53 | and the beautiful things that make you
an artistic talented individual.
| | 00:56 | There's nothing wrong with using both sides
of your brain, in fact, if you learn to, you'll
| | 01:01 | make more money, or you'll be paid better.
| | 01:04 | If you could balance out your creative side
with your business sense, people will have
| | 01:09 | greater confidence in your abilities
and they'll let you do cooler projects.
| | 01:14 | You'll start winning bigger projects with
greater complexity and bigger budgets because
| | 01:18 | people know that you and
your company can handle it.
| | 01:23 |
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| Building a control cycle| 00:00 | You know you're in control when you have
a control cycle, essentially a document
| | 00:06 | or a process that you could follow.
| | 00:08 | While we said earlier, every project is unique,
the system you use to control projects is not.
| | 00:16 | Chances are the way you work is very
similar from one project to another.
| | 00:20 | Let's take a look at a photo, for example.
| | 00:23 | On a photo shoot chances are
you need to secure the location.
| | 00:28 | You need to identify which gear needs to
go to that location and what crew you need.
| | 00:33 | When you're on location, you have on site
management for how those images are being
| | 00:37 | captured and processed,
are you shooting tethered.
| | 00:41 | How many times do they get
backed up before you ship them back?
| | 00:44 | Once they get back to the office are they
getting archived, what types of archives,
| | 00:48 | who is doing the post-production, when are
things going to be posted, what gets handed
| | 00:53 | off to the client with the
watermark, what's the final deliverable?
| | 00:57 | All of these things are repeatable
even though the details may change.
| | 01:01 | Let's take a look at a sample control cycle.
| | 01:04 | In my office we've built a control cycle based
around the three major stages of video production.
| | 01:11 | These same things could be held for others.
| | 01:14 | I don't want to go into every single detail,
but note that some things are clearly spelled
| | 01:18 | out like, the client starts the
projects, and we assign a project manager.
| | 01:23 | All of the major paperwork is done, such as the
scoping document, the treatment that describes
| | 01:29 | the creative approach and the budget. And then what
happens is that the management needs to review it.
| | 01:37 | My office has multiple project managers and before
the stuff goes to the client, it needs to get looked at.
| | 01:42 | Once it's blessed a schedule and a technical document
could be put together and the project could be set up.
| | 01:50 | People get staffed and assigned and
everything looks pretty good and then what happens is
| | 01:54 | that the production department and the
post department should meet and talk about the
| | 01:58 | key details, making sure
that everything is scheduled.
| | 02:02 | Internally we have a kick off meeting, we
do any story boarding, we do the scripts and
| | 02:07 | all of these things describe pre-production.
| | 02:09 | Note, it actually gets checked off when
done and any notes or details get added.
| | 02:15 | On the production side things happen like
Shot List and a Crew Meeting prior to shooting.
| | 02:22 | People look it over and the shoot happens
and then early on the shoot hopefully someone
| | 02:26 | form the post-department does a review.
| | 02:28 | If it's things like green screen or a multi
camera shoot, and we're shooting in our studio,
| | 02:33 | someone will come over to check the
specks and make sure that things are proper.
| | 02:37 | Ideally, anytime you make a change, if
it's going to effect the next department,
| | 02:42 | they should take a look at it and make
sure that everything is going to work.
| | 02:45 | Things are captured B-Roll, Footage, Music,
things then get transferred to drives and backed up.
| | 02:51 | And then voice over is acquired if necessary.
| | 02:55 | The things then get edited and all of the pieces are put
together, and as you see here, some simple structures happen.
| | 03:02 | We get the project files set up, we start to build
the graphics and along the way, there are reviews.
| | 03:09 | Sometimes the reviews are done by
peers just for a fresh set of eyes.
| | 03:13 | Sometimes it has to be an executive manager
who takes a look at it, or what happens is
| | 03:18 | that fresh eyes from the department look at it.
| | 03:21 | In any case, we want people to take a look
at things periodically to ensure quality,
| | 03:28 | and that quality carry is all the way over.
| | 03:31 | At the very end all the change orders are
reconciled and the final bill is put together.
| | 03:36 | It gets reviewed by the president of the company, in
this case, and then the final invoice is generated.
| | 03:42 | All of the other things like Music Reporting
and Closeout, Return of Client Assets, a Debrief,
| | 03:49 | all of these should happen.
Now, by writing these down, it helps.
| | 03:54 | I freely admit that even in my own
company, people forget to do steps.
| | 03:59 | And sometimes people will get
confident and stop using checklists.
| | 04:03 | But there is an excellent book out there called the
Checklist Manifesto, and I am a firm believer in checklists.
| | 04:10 | Early on it was found at hospitals that
mistakes were happening, malpractice, and when some
| | 04:15 | hospitals started implementing checklists,
things to do before surgery, wash your hands,
| | 04:21 | sterilize, after surgery, count the number of towels
that were in the room before and after, things like that.
| | 04:29 | Make sure that every piece of
equipment was accounted for.
| | 04:32 | While it sounds strange, malpractice went down.
| | 04:36 | Even jet pilots run through a
checklist before they take that plane up.
| | 04:41 | They check every single critical detail before
taking off and they do periodic checks while in the air.
| | 04:48 | There is nothing wrong with a checklist,
particularly if this is a checklist that you helped create.
| | 04:54 | This document that you saw was generated
by my employees under my supervision, and we
| | 04:59 | worked together to create a major plan.
| | 05:02 | We're totally due to update it
because this one is a couple years old.
| | 05:05 | So, I am highly motivated after this class to
do it myself, and I encourage you to do the same.
| | 05:11 | Sit down with some of your core team
members and map out your standard workflow,
| | 05:16 | how do you like to work in your office,
and when should reviews happen.
| | 05:21 | What you want to make sure is that the quality controls
are happening, and that things are getting looked at.
| | 05:26 |
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| Balancing control with speed| 00:00 | Something to think about is balance.
| | 00:03 | You don't want to get so tied up into project
management that you don't get your work done.
| | 00:08 | Notice we haven't been talking about tons of
software tools and fire up Microsoft project
| | 00:13 | and do this Gantt chart
and generate this report.
| | 00:16 | What we've been talking about is simple
routine communication on a regular basis and taking
| | 00:22 | a little bit more time to think things through.
| | 00:25 | Remember, you need to take the time to manage your projects,
but you don't want to suffer from analysis paralysis.
| | 00:32 | As you balance things out,
think about control versus speed.
| | 00:37 | Remember, by being organized and making
tactical decisions, you can thrive as things rapidly
| | 00:45 | change in the film, video, and photo industries.
| | 00:49 | Additionally, you have to accept that you
can not be too busy to manage a project.
| | 00:55 | This doesn't mean you get so tied up on
all the little details, but it does mean make
| | 00:59 | your decisions and stick with them.
| | 01:02 | Make sure those decisions aren't just gut instincts,
but are based upon facts and information that you gather.
| | 01:09 | Project management is really a combination
of personal skills and business sense.
| | 01:14 | The more you do it, the easier it gets.
| | 01:18 | And what I like to say is
only manage as much as you need.
| | 01:22 | Proper use of project management will
improve the effectiveness, the relationships with
| | 01:27 | your client, and the profitability.
But make sure you find a balance.
| | 01:33 | Don't get so tied up on the little details
that you're not getting the big things done.
| | 01:38 |
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|
|
8. Managing Employees and ContractorsTime tracking| 00:00 | You've heard the phrase time
tracking come up a few times.
| | 00:04 | It's really, really, really important.
It's also hard.
| | 00:08 | I am just as guilty of not tracking my time, and
it's almost impossible to get my employees to do it.
| | 00:15 | I've chosen to make it
something that we do some of the time.
| | 00:18 | In a perfect world, we do it all of the time.
| | 00:22 | But we tend to time track when it's most critical to
the success of the job, and there is a lot to learn.
| | 00:28 | With time tracking, try to make it easy.
| | 00:31 | It's going to be essential when you're doing
things that are time and materials work, where
| | 00:35 | you get paid for the amount of work done.
| | 00:38 | It's also often very important when the project starts
going out of scope, and you need to track those changes.
| | 00:46 | One useful thing for time tracking is it gives
you information to evaluate fixed price jobs.
| | 00:51 | Remember, a job price can be fixed
if the scope of work doesn't change.
| | 00:57 | If you've decided it's going to take you
thirty hours to process all of the photos from the
| | 01:01 | three days of shooting, but it actually
takes you six, well you can't charge the client
| | 01:06 | for that because you told them it's going
to take three days, they didn't change the
| | 01:10 | number of shooting, they didn't do anything
different on their end, you made a mistake.
| | 01:15 | Well, you're going to keep making that
mistake if you don't start time tracking because
| | 01:19 | a lot of times we're not
working on it six days in a row.
| | 01:23 | That's a little bit here, a little bit there,
oh we brought some at night, we're working
| | 01:26 | on our laptop on the go, and pretty quickly you figure out
if you take the time to time track, wow, I underestimated.
| | 01:35 | If you don't time track, you
just go, why am I always working?
| | 01:38 | Time tracking helps you learn and by time tracking, you
and your team members will learn from past mistakes.
| | 01:45 | It also helps you get more
accurate when it comes time to budgeting.
| | 01:49 | Ideally, use a software system.
| | 01:52 | There are ton of apps that you can get for
smart phones or iPads or tablets so you could
| | 01:56 | just track what's there, or
tools like Basecamp have it built in.
| | 02:01 | You don't need a detail breakdown second by second but logging
in fifteen minutes or half hour increments is a good idea.
| | 02:09 | I try to get people to do it at the end of
the day but if they don't have super good
| | 02:13 | memories, time track in half day periods.
| | 02:17 | Before you break for lunch, break down what
you did that morning in 15-minute chunks.
| | 02:21 | Before you go home for the day, do the same.
| | 02:25 | If you wait till a couple of days later, you will
not remember the details and at best, you're guessing.
| | 02:32 |
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| Recruiting contractors| 00:00 | One reason to make sure you have extra help is that you
want to make sure the project moves at the necessary pace.
| | 00:07 | It's possible to over-work your staff or to just
simply make mistakes because people are feeling burnt out.
| | 00:13 | I like to say that extra
hands can go a long way.
| | 00:17 | Ideally, you're going to add crew members
when it means that it's going to help you
| | 00:21 | get more footage or more coverage.
| | 00:24 | If you're shooting video, it's
very common to have to crew up.
| | 00:29 | Even a two-person video crew
can get spread pretty thin.
| | 00:32 | A two-person crew can shoot more than twice
as much as the single person, because remember
| | 00:37 | without an assistant, you're constantly running around
having to put the camera down to go find somebody to help.
| | 00:44 | A second person or a photographic
assistant can make all of the difference.
| | 00:47 | And then if it's a complex
shoot, consider adding more.
| | 00:52 | Ultimately, you want to minimize the delays in shooting
caused by changes in location or needing to reconfigure equipment.
| | 01:00 | Having someone on hand to help with lighting
or to make sure that the crew is fed
| | 01:04 | or to do make up will be of much
better use of your time.
| | 01:10 | You will hire different people for different
projects because every project will have different needs.
| | 01:15 | However, these days it's a good idea to look
for multi-talented crew who could fill a few
| | 01:20 | roles, this makes it easier to use the same
crew repeatedly and to make sure that you're
| | 01:26 | not spending more money than you need to.
| | 01:29 | When it comes time to recruiting contractors
there are a couple of things to think about.
| | 01:34 | You could join local professional groups in
your area, perhaps the chapter of the American
| | 01:39 | Society for Media Photographers or TIVA, Women in Film
and Video, the local Final Cut or Pro Premiere Pro users group.
| | 01:48 | You can also ask peers or existing vendors
for recommendations, maybe they are booked
| | 01:53 | but they have a friend or a
colleague that they'd like to recommend.
| | 01:57 | Joining the local user groups go a long way,
so not only are there user groups for software
| | 02:02 | but there are camera groups and other meet ups.
| | 02:05 | DSLR meet ups are very common, things like
photo walks are a great way to meet other
| | 02:10 | peers where you could find others who might be willing to
assist you on a shoot or rent you equipment as needed.
| | 02:17 | Meetup.com is also a great way to find events
in your area and start to build your professional
| | 02:23 | network with those that share similar interests.
| | 02:27 | The people you'll encounter in user groups
and other professional groups, generally are
| | 02:31 | not your competition, they are your peers.
Chances are they price their services fairly.
| | 02:38 | They may even hire you when
they get busy and vice-versa.
| | 02:42 | By keeping your connections out there, you
could build your networks so if we need to
| | 02:46 | scale your company up for a project, you
could add trusted people to help you out.
| | 02:51 | It's important that you keep track of these
details, and that you have additional people
| | 02:55 | that you know you can trust and count on.
| | 02:58 | There are several crewing
website out there to look at.
| | 03:02 | Places like mandy.com, productionhub, Craigslist--
although be very specific on Craigslist.
| | 03:09 | Creative Cow has a services
area, cinematography.net.
| | 03:14 | Lots of different places to look, but
it's always a good idea to build your network.
| | 03:19 | While websites are great, remember, it's the local groups
that you join that will help you find people in your area.
| | 03:26 | Take the time to become a member of your local
production community, and it's going to benefit
| | 03:31 | you both with connections and with options.
| | 03:36 |
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| Managing contractors| 00:00 | As you start to hire freelancers or contractors,
there are some important things to keep in mind.
| | 00:06 | First off, make sure you
have very clear expectations.
| | 00:10 | They need to know the job that they're being
hired for and what you need, and when you need it by.
| | 00:16 | However, you have to be careful that you
don't give them too many details, because they're
| | 00:21 | not employees so you don't have
total control over their schedule.
| | 00:26 | Additionally, you'll want to specify
if it's a job rate or an hourly rate.
| | 00:32 | Hourly rates for contractors work
for certain positions like crew.
| | 00:36 | However, when dealing with folks like
animators or retouching services, you might be better
| | 00:41 | off pushing for a contract rate or a job rate.
| | 00:44 | Ideally, you want to give that person enough
information as well as let them look at the job ahead of time.
| | 00:51 | Maybe you could show them some of the pictures
that need touch up and get them to give you a quote.
| | 00:56 | Going for that job rate will cut down on your
project risk and make it easier for you to budget.
| | 01:02 | If at all possible you could do this with
historical data, but you're going to need
| | 01:06 | some open communication.
How often do they need to check in?
| | 01:12 | Remember, when you're getting reports from
contractors or freelancers, you're not their only customer.
| | 01:17 | They may have other jobs
or things they need to do.
| | 01:20 | So don't expect that every time you
call them, they can answer or talk.
| | 01:25 | You need to make sure that you've clearly
laid out when you want to have talks, scheduled
| | 01:29 | calls as needed that works around their
schedule, and that you have a agreed upon frequency
| | 01:35 | in which they'll provide written reports
or updates. What's the supervision?
| | 01:40 | Are they going to be
working off site or on site?
| | 01:44 | Some positions require people to work
remotely or at their own facilities.
| | 01:49 | Other times you might need to
bring people into your studio.
| | 01:53 | Make sure they understand when they're working in a supervised
environment, and when they're going to working independently.
| | 01:58 |
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| When to hire staff| 00:00 | The decision when to hire someone
on your staff could be pretty scary.
| | 00:04 | There are lots of issues to address but
I see a lot of people making bad choices.
| | 00:10 | If you're routinely hiring freelancers for
the same jobs over and over again, you might
| | 00:15 | want to consider hiring a staff job.
| | 00:17 | Sure there could be people you like working
with, but just because you like having all
| | 00:21 | these different people in your office at different times,
doesn't mean that you're spending your money wisely.
| | 00:27 | At the end of each year, look at
your budget spent on outside sources.
| | 00:31 | How many people did you hire freelance to shoot?
| | 00:34 | Do you need to just pull the
trigger and finally hire an assistant?
| | 00:38 | Remember that freelancers have to charge you
more because they're paying their own benefits
| | 00:42 | and they may not be working everyday.
| | 00:45 | This isn't a deep look here at when to
hire staff, but what I want you to consider is
| | 00:49 | just a simple fact that having
someone on staff adds greater control.
| | 00:55 | You need to evaluate how often you're
working with that person, and if it makes sense.
| | 01:00 | Now, not everybody you offer a staff job too
will take it, maybe they want more freedom.
| | 01:05 | But these days it's a good idea to have
that conversation and make sure you're looking
| | 01:10 | at what you're spending
out of house versus in house.
| | 01:14 | The more dollars you can keep internal, the easier
it is to control the project and reduce risk.
| | 01:20 |
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| Exploring the independent contractor status| 00:00 | What I'm about to describe may not affect you depending
upon the country you live in, or the rules may be stricter.
| | 00:07 | I am not your accountant, and you need to
talk to your accountant or your lawyer about
| | 00:12 | the tax status of the people that work for you.
You need to be careful to follow the rules.
| | 00:18 | Typically speaking, this includes that you
need to make sure that the independent contractor
| | 00:23 | has some control over their schedule.
| | 00:26 | You can request when they work, and when
they show up as well as share information about
| | 00:31 | things like call times and everything else.
But ultimately, you are hiring a consultant.
| | 00:37 | Now, if you are hiring a plumber, and you
scheduled them to be there at three in the
| | 00:42 | afternoon and they showed up at eight at night,
you'd probably never hire that plumber again.
| | 00:47 | The same holds true with
independent contractors.
| | 00:49 | Generally speaking, they're going to show
up when you need them to, but you're going
| | 00:54 | to have to be accommodating
of things like outside issues.
| | 00:57 | Things like maybe they need to return other
clients' phone calls so while they might be
| | 01:01 | on set working with you, acknowledge that
they may need to step away for a break or
| | 01:06 | other communication just like
you'd want them to answer your call.
| | 01:10 | If this contractor is only working for your
company, you need to make sure that you track
| | 01:14 | the number of hours, and that
you keep them to a legal limit.
| | 01:18 | You're going to also want to make sure you
have a discussion with your attorney or your
| | 01:23 | tax accountant to review some
of the policies that the IRS has.
| | 01:28 | Simply put, independent contractors are expected to
maintain their own taxes and keep track of details.
| | 01:35 | Where the challenge arises is that the IRS finds it a lot
easier to go after companies than they do individuals.
| | 01:42 | So even though the person you're working
with may want to be classified as an independent
| | 01:47 | contractor, you may find yourself in a
situation where you need to do withholding,
| | 01:52 | or you need to change some of your practices to
make sure your compliant with the law.
| | 01:57 |
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|
9. Effective TeamsReviewing the elements of a successful team startup| 00:00 | Okay, you've got the job, you've got the client, you've got a plan.
You're ready to go, right? Well, almost.
| | 00:07 | You need to get the other team members briefed and ready
to go and for this you need a successful team start up.
| | 00:14 | What needs to be accomplished?
Well, it's pretty straightforward.
| | 00:18 | First off when you get everybody together, make
sure everybody understands and agrees on the purpose.
| | 00:23 | You're going to want to go ahead and
review the scoping document with them.
| | 00:27 | Talk about the client, give them
background information, let them know enough details
| | 00:32 | so they understand the project at hand.
| | 00:36 | Talk to about who is involved in the project,
who is the client, what are their decision
| | 00:41 | makers, what do the clients care about?
| | 00:43 | Make sure that everybody working on the
project feels confident that they understand
| | 00:48 | what's being done and who it's being done for.
| | 00:53 | You'll want to make sure that
everyone on the team understands the roles.
| | 00:56 | Don't assume it's the same
from one job to the next.
| | 01:00 | For example, maybe on this job you're
serving as the art director and the photographer,
| | 01:05 | but on another job maybe you're just the
photographer or not even involved in the shooting,
| | 01:10 | you're so busy that you had to hire an outside photographer to help
shoot it, but you're going to remotely review things and comment.
| | 01:17 | In any case, people on the team need to
understand your role and other people's roles so they
| | 01:23 | know who to talk to when they have questions.
| | 01:27 | Other things to think about
are some basic ground rules.
| | 01:30 | How often should the project team meet?
When do you want to hear about a problem?
| | 01:35 | What type of time tracking is needed
and what sort of reports need to be filed?
| | 01:41 | Think about any logistics as well.
| | 01:43 | Make sure that team knows how to reach each other, and if
necessary exchange contact information or social media info.
| | 01:50 | Perhaps, you need to share a cell phone or a personal number
because some details might require out of office communication.
| | 01:56 | In any case, make sure you and the team know
each other, know the objectives, understand
| | 02:03 | the client, and understand the ground rules.
| | 02:06 | If you do this, your project stands
a much better chance of succeeding.
| | 02:11 |
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| Outlining effective team membership| 00:00 | You're not always going to be in charge.
| | 00:02 | Sometimes you'll be a team member, or perhaps
you'll want to show this movie to others on the team.
| | 00:07 | What I would like to talk about is some of
the effective steps necessary if you want
| | 00:13 | people to be a valuable team member.
| | 00:15 | So, what's it take to have
effective team membership?
| | 00:19 | First off, everyone on the team
needs to be able to take responsibility.
| | 00:24 | You need to empower people for what they need to do and
they need to understand and accept the responsibility.
| | 00:31 | If they screw up, this might mean working late.
If they make a mistake, it means fixing it.
| | 00:38 | What you want to create is a culture where
people realize that mistakes happen and problems
| | 00:43 | do arise, and that they're not going to be
unfairly punished for those but rather as
| | 00:49 | long as they're willing to be held accountable, and
make sure that things are fixed, things will move forward.
| | 00:56 | This doesn't mean you create
utopia but here's a practical example.
| | 01:00 | We once had a mistake made where a video
editor didn't watch a tape before it went out.
| | 01:05 | In fact, the producer didn't watch it
either and the tape got sent to a dub-house where
| | 01:10 | 180 copies of a public service
announcement were made and shipped around the country.
| | 01:15 | Of course, the audio dropped out halfway
through the spot. Now, who failed?
| | 01:22 | Well, almost everyone, and it
became everyone's job to fix it.
| | 01:28 | The editor, the project manager, and the
post-production manager all stayed to fix it.
| | 01:34 | We got the tapes back, they had to make
all the dubs themselves in house, and it took
| | 01:39 | four days because we're not a dubbing
facility, normally we send that out.
| | 01:45 | However, the company itself still ate several
thousand dollars worth of postage, and we lost tons of time.
| | 01:52 | But people worked evenings and weekends to fix it.
Had they not, they probably wouldn't have worked for me again.
| | 01:59 | However, you need to realize
that those mistakes happen.
| | 02:02 | Ideally, you have quality control along the way and
mistakes get caught, this is why we have the control cycle.
| | 02:09 | But mistakes arise, problems do pop up, and
you need to make sure that people understand
| | 02:15 | that they are accountable as is everyone else.
| | 02:19 | If someone shirks their responsibility for
quality control, they will be on the hook.
| | 02:24 | If the producer doesn't look at something
before it goes out the door, they're responsible.
| | 02:29 | This is hard, and it routinely causes conflict,
but you need to make sure that people understand
| | 02:34 | their responsibilities.
Other things are Follow Through.
| | 02:39 | You have to be confident that somebody who
says they're going to do something does it.
| | 02:43 | This means they'll show up on time, that
they'll get the job done, and that they'll make sure
| | 02:48 | that not only is it done but that the next
person he needs to know has a clean hand off.
| | 02:53 | So, if the client needs the file,
it's not just "Oh, I posted it",
| | 02:57 | it's "Oh, I posted it, I logged in, I downloaded it
myself and saw that it worked, and I called the customer
| | 03:04 | and reached them, or I left a message, and I will
write them back to make sure that they did indeed get it."
| | 03:11 | Other things to think
about is very active listening.
| | 03:14 | Making sure that they're being aware of
what you're saying, what others on the project
| | 03:18 | are saying and what the
client is thinking or saying.
| | 03:22 | You need to make sure that you are addressing the issues
as they arise not just when someone starts to wave their hands.
| | 03:28 | Now, it's very easy to react to
problems when someone is yelling at you.
| | 03:33 | What you want to have happen is that people
notice problems and pick up on things before
| | 03:37 | they become problems, that's
what active listening can do.
| | 03:42 | It's also important that everyone communicates clearly,
excellent written communication, excellent spoken communication.
| | 03:49 | We're all guilty of this, I screw
it up just as bad as the next person.
| | 03:53 | But you want to make sure that people understand
what's expected of them and get the information
| | 03:59 | that they need in order to do their job.
Additionally, provide feedback.
| | 04:04 | Be responsible and respectful but let
other people know what they need to.
| | 04:09 | If someone is doing a bad
job, politely let them know.
| | 04:14 | If something is going wrong, tell someone.
| | 04:17 | If you see a spelling mistake or if the color is
off on an image or the print was bad, say something.
| | 04:24 | There are ways to do it respectfully, but every
team member is responsible for maintaining quality.
| | 04:30 | If quality is only one person's job, the
project will fail, and you will lose the client.
| | 04:37 | Lastly, be willing to accept feedback.
| | 04:40 | It's very easy to give it
but much harder to take it.
| | 04:44 | I routinely make mistakes so does
everyone in my office, so does everyone I know.
| | 04:50 | It's very important that you're willing to
listen, not just give feedback but take it.
| | 04:56 | And lastly, if I haven't
said it enough, time track.
| | 05:00 | Every employee when prompted, needs to track
their time so you have historical data, and
| | 05:06 | you can accurately bill
when the scope of work changes.
| | 05:10 | We don't time track because we mistrust our employees,
or we're worried that they're not doing their jobs.
| | 05:16 | We time track so we can make sure that
everything they do gets billed for and that we learn
| | 05:21 | from mistakes or find new
opportunities to increase efficiency.
| | 05:26 |
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10. Keeping Clients HappyFostering open and frequent communication| 00:00 | You've probably picked up that if you're
going to be a professional storyteller, someone
| | 00:05 | who captures images, creates messages,
you need to be an effective communicator.
| | 00:11 | Unfortunately, some of the worst
communicators I know are professional communicators.
| | 00:16 | Here's a couple of goals to keep in mind as
you start to build the relationship with your
| | 00:20 | team and your clients.
Open communication is key.
| | 00:25 | Make sure people know that it's okay to
reach out or to call, and when they should do so.
| | 00:31 | Frequent communication is also important.
| | 00:34 | This is why we regularly schedule things like the in progress
report or schedule a routine team meeting to check in.
| | 00:42 | Electronic communication has greatly reduced
the need for this, but there's still something
| | 00:47 | to be said for routine information that's exchanged either face
to face or over a conference call. Remember, perception is reality.
| | 00:58 | If your client thinks something is true or fears
that something is happening, it might as well be.
| | 01:05 | What they think is the reality that you deal
with and how they feel about you and the project
| | 01:10 | will determine if they work
with you again in the future.
| | 01:15 | Always try to think about things
from the point of view of the client.
| | 01:20 | When you think about things from the client's point of view,
you will start to see problems that you might have missed.
| | 01:25 | Sure, you've seen that graphic 20 times,
but when you look at it with fresh eyes,
| | 01:30 | you realize it wasn't on screen long enough.
| | 01:33 | Or you know what, now, that you understand
that the CEO is feeling a little bit old,
| | 01:38 | and that they're sensitive to her appearance,
maybe you'll take the time to do some light
| | 01:43 | touch up and remove a few extra wrinkles.
| | 01:46 | You're going to want to make sure you understand what
the client thinks so you can make the right decisions.
| | 01:52 | For example, make sure your client's
don't see you as a used car salesman.
| | 01:58 | Pushing the solution that you think
is best simply trying to make a buck.
| | 02:02 | Now, hopefully, this is not the way you want to be perceived
but even if we don't intend it, it does sometimes happen.
| | 02:10 | We can be slick, we could be persuasive, and we have
our own agenda's when it comes to creative projects.
| | 02:17 | Don't push your opinion too strongly.
| | 02:19 | Ultimately, the client did hire you for
your artistic vision and capabilities.
| | 02:24 | But you have to realize that ultimately it
is their right to accept or reject those.
| | 02:30 | With that said, you will have
to do this from time to time.
| | 02:34 | Making sure that you keep the project moving,
pulling strings where unnecessary so action happens.
| | 02:41 | Prompting the client to do what's
necessary to keep the job moving forward.
| | 02:45 | So, you might have to nudge them
from time to time for a reaction.
| | 02:49 | You might have to point out things
that they're asking for just don't work.
| | 02:53 | For example, is that music choice that lines up with
the client's personal taste really the right piece?
| | 03:00 | Make sure you line up the
actions with the objectives.
| | 03:04 | And that your client doesn't
see you as being confrontational.
| | 03:07 | You can be professional without being combative.
And clients often think very little of us.
| | 03:15 | As creatives, we're seen as artistic but
not necessarily having a brain in our head.
| | 03:21 | Remember, you need to show them both things and in fact,
as a creative person, you have to work even harder.
| | 03:28 | Your client's are going to be
naturally predisposed to think of you as flaky.
| | 03:32 | To think of you as well, yeah, they're really
creative but don't trust them with the budget,
| | 03:38 | or we have to micro manage them.
| | 03:40 | They think that they have to give us, oh,
well, we better tell them it's due a week
| | 03:44 | early so that they don't miss the deadline.
| | 03:48 | It's really important you create a culture
of trust and your clients understand that
| | 03:52 | you get them and understand all
the details and the constraints.
| | 03:57 | Remember, the triple constraint is very real.
| | 04:00 | You have to understand the
schedule, the budget, and the scope.
| | 04:04 | So, make sure your clients
know that they can call you.
| | 04:07 | That they have a direct
line when something is urgent.
| | 04:11 | If they need to ask a question, make sure they
know where to go to get that questions asked.
| | 04:16 | If you can't be reached,
who else should they call?
| | 04:20 | If it's about the location
scout, who do they reach out to?
| | 04:23 | If it's about the video
editing, who do they talk to?
| | 04:26 | Clearly identifying the team members and how
they could be reached, will cut down on stress.
| | 04:32 | After all, you want to have a clear path that
the client is on so the project runs smoothly,
| | 04:38 | profitably, and the customer
comes back for future jobs.
| | 04:43 |
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| Performing the project debrief| 00:01 | Okay, the project is over, it's time to debrief,
time to learn, a little bit of reflection.
| | 00:08 | Hopefully, you'll do one
internally and with the client.
| | 00:10 | But in any case, a proper debrief
will provide a lot of important lessons.
| | 00:16 | When you do your debrief,
there's a few things to think about.
| | 00:19 | First off, the debrief will
indentify any issues that are still open.
| | 00:24 | Maybe you forgot to deliver something or maybe the client has
something they're deeply concerned about but haven't raised yet.
| | 00:30 | This is an opportunity to make sure that you have a nice
clean ending to the project, and that you will get paid.
| | 00:37 | Clearing the air will ensure that if
there is any attention, it's resolved.
| | 00:42 | The last thing you want to do is
just have the project abruptly end.
| | 00:46 | Be sure to also document any lessons
learned and ask the client for input here as well.
| | 00:52 | This will help you do a better job in the
future, both for that client and others.
| | 00:58 | You want to create an environment of trust
and confidence and in doing this, the debrief
| | 01:02 | shows the client that you
want to work with them again.
| | 01:06 | Taking the time to do the debrief will show
the client that you're concerned about their
| | 01:11 | happiness, and you want to be a long-term
partner on their creative projects.
| | 01:16 | This is also a great time to return the assets to
them if they gave you anything to use in the project.
| | 01:23 | Make sure those historical photos get
returned or any props you borrowed come back.
| | 01:28 |
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| Being seen as a resource| 00:00 | Project management could happen even
when there's not a project to manage.
| | 00:03 | What I mean by this is early
relationships with the client.
| | 00:08 | If you maintain an ongoing relationship and keep the
communication open, you're going to hear about new opportunities.
| | 00:14 | One of the things I try to do is keep in
touch with clients through social media, and when
| | 00:19 | they have a question, they'll ask.
| | 00:21 | Sometimes, people will reach out really early.
Months, even years before a project happens.
| | 00:28 | Because they feel like they can contact you
and ask something, you're going to stand
| | 00:32 | a better chance of winning the job.
| | 00:34 | I like to say that you want the
client to feel like you're on their team.
| | 00:39 | If you do this, they're more likely to forgive
mistakes and want to work with you again in the future.
| | 00:45 | Being seen as a resource will dramatically
increase the chances that the client talks to you.
| | 00:51 | So, if they have questions related to the project or
just the industry that you work in, in general, take them.
| | 00:58 | If the client wants to know what camera to
buy because they are photography bug, answer it.
| | 01:03 | If they want to know how to post a video
because they have some video footage from a birthday
| | 01:07 | party that they want to
share with Grandma, do it.
| | 01:11 | You are an expert on many things and sometimes
your client will have questions that are very
| | 01:16 | personal in nature where they want to
tap your expertise to help them out.
| | 01:21 | By taking the time to be an expert as well
as a friendly colleague, you're more likely
| | 01:26 | to keep them as a client
and have better relations.
| | 01:31 |
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | When you look at project management as a whole,
it could seem a bit intimidating at first.
| | 00:05 | Throughout our lessons today, you've
learned lots of techniques, lots of practices, and
| | 00:10 | maybe heard a few words that seem unfamiliar.
| | 00:13 | I'd like to remind you that
it's really about common sense.
| | 00:17 | Projects are going to get busy, lots of
people, things moving fast, decisions to be made,
| | 00:22 | problems to be solved, and that's okay.
| | 00:26 | Here is a couple of things to think about
that will help you make the right decision
| | 00:29 | when it comes time to manage the project.
| | 00:33 | First off, realize that there is always
somebody out there willing to work for less money.
| | 00:39 | Keeping clients happy and keeping yourself
and your employees employed has very little
| | 00:45 | to do about being the cheapest.
| | 00:47 | It does have a lot to do about being
efficient, however, so make sure that the clients feel
| | 00:52 | that their money is being well spent.
| | 00:54 | However, if you're always chasing
the lowest price, you will fail.
| | 01:00 | Remember, there is always
somebody out there who has more talent.
| | 01:05 | Someone will make a better
graphic or a better photo.
| | 01:09 | Thanks to the Internet these days, you could
regularly be reminded about how younger people
| | 01:14 | have more talent and more opportunity than you.
| | 01:17 | And how somebody in some country you've never even heard
of blew your mind away with a beautiful piece of work.
| | 01:23 | You need to realize, though, that doing the
job and doing it for the client isn't always
| | 01:28 | tied to having the best
work or the most creative work.
| | 01:32 | It's tied to giving the client
what they want and what they need.
| | 01:36 | There's always going to be somebody who's
smarter than you, and if you learn to listen
| | 01:40 | and put good people on your team and don't
let your ego get in the way, you can learn too.
| | 01:45 | I am far wiser than when I graduated school,
and I've learned a lot by being a parent.
| | 01:53 | Every new employee that comes
into my door teaches me something.
| | 01:56 | Every person I get to work with on a project
teaches me something, and if your ego is too
| | 02:02 | big to hear it, you're going to miss out.
| | 02:05 | The project manager has to be constantly learning
and willing to take on risks and new opportunities.
| | 02:12 | Realize that nobody out
there is exactly like you.
| | 02:15 | You are unique, your approach to solving
the project, your approach to how you're going
| | 02:20 | to execute that photo or video is going
to be different than somebody else's.
| | 02:25 | And that's one of the distinguishing
factors that the client chose you for.
| | 02:29 | Remember, when they can, people choose to work with
people that they like and respect. Talent is part of it,
| | 02:38 | skill is part of it, but if they respect you and they have
confidence in you, and hopefully they like you, they will work with you.
| | 02:46 | What this means is this: be organized,
be real, be nice, and be yourself.
| | 02:58 | If you could take these principles and apply
them to what you have learned today, you'll
| | 03:02 | find that project management really is common sense.
| | 03:06 | Learning to listen, learning to think,
and spot problems before they happen.
| | 03:11 | With a little bit of control and a little bit
of planning, you absolutely can pull this off.
| | 03:16 |
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