Saturday, December 19, 2009

Missing my producers

In Chicago, we had awesome producers. And I took them for granted, they were so good. Anything we needed, they'd find a way to come through. In Geneva, we have no producers, so I end up doing the production work when necessary.


We currently have a US-based client, who wants to conduct interviews around the globe for a corporate video. They want to do an interview in Stuttgart, Germany, and asked me to find someone who could film it.


1st attempt: Gauged the distance between Stuttgart and Geneva on Google Maps to see if was something I could do myself. But the client won't pay for me to make the 5-hour drive.


2nd attempt: Contacted our office in Frankfurt to see if they had any recommendations. They don't.


3rd attempt: Googled "videographer Stuttgart." The top hit is for videographers in Stuttgart, Arkansas. I realized this isn't going to work.



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4th attempt: Contacted a producer in England to see if he knew anyone. He put me in contact with the Deutsch Film Commission. I found a list of 27 cameramen and carpet bombed them all with emails. I have spent the rest of the day answering emails and taking quotes from German cameramen who are asking questions about studio booking, camera angles, wardrobe and make-up, when I just need someone with a guy who does weddings to show up with his Sony digicam and a light kit. In the end, we got someone at a decent price.


What would you have done different, dear producer friends?

1 comment:

Bukes said...

Yes, producers are super heros.