Pricing & Negotiating: Public Service Announcement

by Jess Dudley Wonderful Machine Producer

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are advertisements intended to raise awareness of a topic and to change public attitudes (rather than sell a product), often advocating better health practices or safety. The typical patron of a PSA is a government agency or non-profit aimed at improving public welfare.

Recently, one of our photographers was asked to submit a cost estimate to produce some photographs for a PSA. Though the concept was simple and straight forward, the details were still a bit vague when the photographer contacted me for pricing help. Here’s what he knew:

  • He’d been contacted by the creative director of a mid-size East Coast ad agency.
  • The client was a large non-profit organization whose primary interest was in public education and health policy.
  • The PSA concept featured a close-up portrait of a woman in a light filled, airy environment. About half the frame was negative space for copy, and there was a “gritty” treatment layer overlaying the image.
  • The talent would be a real patient who had realized the benefits of the non-profit through improvements in health care practices.
  • The use was described as a PSA that will be distributed on the non-profit’s website, possibly in print publications and in the form of posters hung in airports and train stations.

After reviewing the details and discussing possible production approaches, the photographer and I developed a list of questions to ask the creative director and got the following responses:

Wonderful Machine: Would you like us to cast the talent or will the talent be provided?
Creative Director: We’ve already selected the talent and determined availability.

WM: The comp hints at more environment than a studio sweep, would a white daylight studio work as a background?
CD: We’re open to shooting at a daylight studio. We just don’t want flat seamless. We want some texture to the background. A window, horizon, clouds. Something to subtly break up the negative space.

WM: What duration of use will you need?
CD: 3 years.

WM: What is the geographic distribution?
CD: Southwestern United States.

WM: Do you have a budget in mind?
CD: Nothing set in stone, but we need to mind our “Ps and Qs.”

WM: We think this can be accomplished at a studio in a few hours, are you expecting to shoot for more than about half a day?
CD: We only have the talent for 3 hours in the early afternoon. So it will have to happen in half a day.

WM: Will anyone from the Agency and Client be attending the shoot?
CD: Yes. Two people from the agency and one from the client.

Although the PSA would be displayed like a typical commercial ad, it’s purpose was not to generate revenue, but rather to promote public awareness. So it’s not worth nearly as much as a regular ad shoot. Additionally, the concept was straight forward, the talent would be provided and the shoot wouldn’t take more than 6 hours including set-up and break down, which is a consideration. BlinkBid shows the fee for regional Collateral, Out Of Home and Print Use at 2800.00 – 4000.00/year. Additional years aren’t discounted in BlinkBid’s Bid Consultant. So for 3 years they price this use between 8400.00 and 12000.00. Also, there’s no specific selection for PSA use in BlinkBid. Corbis doesn’t provide regional pricing, only national. They price the OOH Use at 1170.00 for the first year, Print Use at 7815.00 and Collateral Use 2550.00. To extend the use to 3 years, Corbis multiplies each of those numbers by about 1.66 bringing the total for this use to 18,456.00. They also don’t have a specific selection for PSA use. Adjusting for regional rather than national use might bring it down to around $10k which is in line with BlinkBid. This is really the kind of project where the fee could be anything, depending on the cause and how the photographer felt about it. After discussing it with the photographer, we decided that we wanted to come in at about 1/2 of the normal advertising rate, so we settled on 4500.00 for the fee.

Since the lighting would consist entirely of natural light, the photographer only needed one assistant on set during the shoot. The digital tech would provide an extra set of hands to help load in, set up and break down. During the shoot, s/he would man the laptop, wrangle images and process galleries.

The photographer owned all of the equipment he needed for the shoot. He’d be using a camera body (@250.00/day), two fast lenses (2@75.00/day), and some miscellaneous items like a reflectors, flags, silks and stands (@200.00/day).

The photographer also had his own shooting space. He charges 500.00/day to rent the small studio which would be ideal for this shoot; white, with a couple nice big windows.

Since we were only shooting one subject from the shoulders up, we were comfortable working with a stylist capable of light wardrobe styling and hair & make-up. We budgeted a half day to buy 200.00 worth of wardrobe. We would ask the subject to bring some of her own clothes as well.

Since the crew and agency would be setting up for the shoot around lunchtime we included catering for the crew, talent, agency and client. Generally we’ll budget 35.00 per person for light breakfast and lunch but were able to trim it down to 25.00 per person since we wouldn’t be providing any breakfast.

Indexing is what that photographer likes to call it, but we normally call it Digital Capture and Delivery by Web Gallery for Editing.

Retouching hours to apply the gritty treatment layer to the image after basic processing.

Miles, parking, shipping, insurance and miscellaneous was pretty low since the shoot would take place at the photographer’s own studio.

Lastly, we made sure to clarify that the talent would be provided by the client or agency and that a 50% advance is required to initiate production. After attaching our standard terms and conditions we sent the estimate to the client.

Wouldn’t you know it, a budget materialized 10 minutes later.

WM: Just calling to follow-up on the estimate. Do you have any questions?
CD: What can we do to get this down to 7600.00?

WM: Right off the bat, one thing we might be able to do without is the additional wardrobe. Would you be comfortable relying entirely on the subject’s own wardrobe? (That would knock of 200.00 for the wardrobe and 325.00 for the stylist time.)
CD: Absolutely. I’ll ask her to bring a dozen tops.

WM: Are you comfortable reviewing images straight of the camera or do you need a separate display? (That would be 300.00 for a second assistant rather than 500.00 for a digital tech.)
CD: If it gets me closer to 7k, I’m cool with it.

WM: Aside from the licensing, there’s not much else than can be easily trimmed. Let me check in with the photographer to figure out a way to come shave off another 600.00.
CD: Great. Let me know what you can do. This is a hard 7600.00.

After contemplating the peculiar budget, we dialed down the use from 3 years to 30 months, reducing the fee and bottom line by an additional 500.00. The last hundred came out of the equipment rental line. Since he’d be using his own equipment he could bend a bit on the rates, particularly for the miscellaneous stands, reflectors, etc.

We submitted the revision, the creative director quickly approved it and the shoot went off without a hitch.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing one of your projects, contact Wonderful Machine.

Watch An Assignment Unfold Live – Magnum’s House of Pictures

I’m a big fan of Magnum’s Postcards from America effort, whose latest project House of Pictures has ten Magnum photographers working in Rochester. The tumblr feed from Rochester  is fascinating and not unlike the experience of sending someone out on assignment and unpacking the results in your office after it’s over… only this one is live. They’re half way through the event which is taking place from April 15 – 29, so now is the perfect time to jump in and look at the images already created and follow what’s to come. They’ve got updates on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook plus a Flickr group where the public can participate by tagging images “Rochester”.

With events like this Magnum is clearly taking a leadership role in defining the future of photographers on assignment. Not only expanding the minds of their members but also experimenting with social media, photographers working in groups and projects without boundaries. There’s a saying in silicon valley startup culture: “fail fast and fail often” that would be an appropriate manta for this effort and for anyone else who’s looking for answers to the future of media and professional photography. “Fear of failure stifles creativity and progress, so if you are not failing you not going to innovate.” (source). That’s not to say House of Pictures is a massive failure but rather that some of the things they are doing may not represent a way forward, but by experimenting they can see what works, measure the results and apply what they’ve learned.

There are similar efforts underway with other groups, most notably Luceo’s “Few and Far Between” and the ILCP’s RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition). I would advise everyone to pay attention and see what develops. Not only is the photography awesome to look at, it will get the gears turning in your head on where the future lies.

 

Still Images In Great Advertising – Joshua Dalsimer

Still Images In Great Advertising, is a column where Suzanne Sease discovers great advertising images and then speaks with the photographers about it.

Great advertising takes on many different venues and in this ever-changing world, it means web as well.  This campaign was commissioned for web only, but I personally think it would be effective in conventional print.  I reached out to Joshua Dalsimer and his agent Kristina Snyder at Redux Reps to find out more about this campaign.

Suzanne:  This is an interesting campaign but when I go the actual site ruelala.com I only get to see one image- how are the others being see, are they changing them periodically? And it is an interesting concept, but being so vague, are they getting people to sign up?  Do they have plans to roll out to more mass marketing?

Joshua: Right now it is just images for the login page.  We did not want to force it down every avenue and let it be unique visual that separates it from the other private sale sites.  Rue La La is a web based business that is not only a retailer, but has also become social experience.  We want the members to tweet about the login and let it grow in an organic way.  Give the costumers the feeling of discovery with out jamming it through other media.  The customers look forward to the change and I am constantly getting suggestions of new ideas from customers, friends, and creative people.  There is a part of their site called “the artists of rue” where they blog about our crew and have behind the scenes shots.  People are always curious about the making of and are surprised to see all the work that goes into these.

Suzanne: The scenarios are all very different, what creative input did you have in the process?

Joshua: I came up with the concept of their logo in unexpected places and wrote a bunch of scenarios for the client’s consideration.  I also worked with other creatives to brainstorm as well as find ideas from all over.  Rue La La employees came up with a couple, as well as my brother in law.  Once the ideas are conceived, I work closely with my producer, model maker, retouchers, CGI artists, stylists, etc.  I include everyone in the creation process and rely on everyone’s input to come to the best solution.  These images are a real team effort and I enjoy seeing people utilize their expertise.

Suzanne:  These images can be either elaborate props or extensive retouching- which direction was it?  or a combination of both?

Joshua: A combination of both.  We do a lot of planning and review the best choices possible for each scenario.  Obviously there is a limit to the budget, so we need to factor that in and be efficient as possible.  The one thing, that might be obvious, is no matter how great a prop is or how fabulous your retoucher is, if we don’t provide great elements in the beginning we do not end up with a great piece.  There is a limit to how much you can fake and the less faking you do the better.

Note: Content for Still Images In Great Advertising is found. Submissions are not accepted.

Joshua Dalsimer’s professional career started at age 16, not with a camera in his hands but with a pair of drum sticks.  When some of us were lucky to hold down a job at dairy queen, Joshua was off touring as the drummer for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. After several years with the Bosstones, Josh played with a few other bands landing record deals with both major and independent labels. After several tours and albums he realized there were other creative outlets he wanted to explore. “I always looked at drums and photography as very similar disciplines.” He says, both take place behind the scene. However, both lay down a foundation that helps create a look or sound.” Joshua adds, “collaboration is also very important for both. music helped me learn how to communicate clearly about ideas with other creative people.” Joshua currently lives in New York with his wife Lisa and his kids, Adele, Noah and Sam.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies.

You Can’t Recreate The Past

No matter how fast you shovel digital dirt into the chasm of print loss, you can’t recreate the past; you can’t fill the hole. Now, though, we see new foundations being set and fresher building — with more realistic expectations — begun. The change is a huge one. Where once top newspaper company execs eschewed new initiatives as too small with which to bother, the awareness that the old business simply is never coming back has almost sunk in.

via Nieman Journalism Lab.

Influenced By The Way Computers See The World

I stumbled upon this idea called “The New Aesthetic” yesterday while I was thinking about photographers harnessing and making sense of the photographic noise online. When I think about people tackling projects that are important and ambitious they almost always include writing, photography and video. What I see as the elephant in the room is ignoring the millions of images already available and sitting online in social applications and the images being churned out by the second as you work on your project.

But, when I mention curation the immediate thought is to see yourself sifting thorough piles of crappy images looking for gems to add to your project. So, when JB sent me a link to hyperallergic.com and I discovered a story titled “Is the New Aesthetic a Thing? ” I had a Eureka moment. New Aesthetic is “an aesthetic influenced by the way computers see the world” which is being interpreted in many ways (including annoying 8-bit despite the fact that everyone is raving about retina displays), but what makes sense to me is that what’s online is presented in ways that only computers can. Mostly I think of algorithmic interpretations where programs do the sifting, but there are other examples of people using the resources to create interesting works:

Michael Wolf’s street view.

Pep Ventosa’s collective snapshot.

So, after reading lots of articles on “The New Aesthetic” (new-aesthetic.tumblr.com, An Essay on the New Aesthetic, Noisy Decent Graphics,Why the New Aesthetic isn’t about 8bit retro, Responding To Bruce Sterling’s “Essay On The New Aesthetic, Report from Austin, Texas, on the New Aesthetic panel at SXSW. ) I honestly don’t know what it will look like when people apply the idea to their projects, but I do see an elephant in the room, so instead of reacting with fear I think everyone should be thinking of ways to own and incorporate “The New Aesthetic” into projects.

I had to abandon traditional notions of photographic documentation, truth and representation

…people hold onto the creaky, dusty notion of photographs as some sort of reality; this only increases the potential for complexity through the many different possible readings of work that challenges or contradicts this restrictive perception of what a photograph is or what it can do. I consider this a wonderful gift to me as an artist, or any artist making work that disregards this concern with the real.

Read more on Conscientious Extended | A Conversation with Christian Patterson.

Harness And Make Sense Of The Noise

If anything is the antithesis of Instagram it’s Mary Ellen Mark carrying a 400 pound Polaroid 20×24 Land Camera into your prom to make a picture. And, if anything separates professional photographers from the pack it’s a book like Prom: a collection of 137 portraits from 13 schools across the country, shot between 2006 and 2009 that includes a documentary produced by Mark’s husband, Martin Bell (story on NPR: Not Your Average Prom Portraits).

But, I think professionals are doing their audience a disservice by not figuring out a way to incorporate the millions of images available online into projects of this scope. Whether it’s some kind of curation, software automated mining or public participation, ignoring that resource is a mistake. This is a wonderful and unknown time for photography, everyone should consider ways to harness and make sense of all that noise.

Tim Held The Door Open

Like all artists, Tim Hetherington’s work outlives him. For that I am grateful, but the loss is even more keen because of the unique way in which he viewed the world, and because of his fierce desire to peel back the obvious to show us the base from which the actions and emotions sprang.

Read more at Stellazine: Tim Hetherington at Yossi Milo.

Instagram Joins The Brownie As The Next Great Photography Disruptor

In an article on La Letter De La Photograpie, Paul Melcher says Instagram just showed the world that “there is no limit to what photography can earn.” That is of course in reaction to the 1 billion dollars Facebook paid to acquire the company last week. Paul goes on to describe the leaps that evolve photography from the massive camera to the instamatic, from manual to automatic (focus, metering and imaging) and how a company that figured out how to make crappy phone camera images look interesting and easy to share, can suddenly be worth a billion dollars without a dime of profits on the income statement (read the whole article here).

This, my friends, is a trend in business called “Software Will Eat The World” coined in an article for the Wall Street Journal by Marc Andreessen (here):

we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy.

More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.

Why is this happening now?

Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.

Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago, when I was at Netscape, the company I co-founded. In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day.

On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new employees.

Which explains how a company with 13 employees and no profits can replace a now bankrupt company that once employed over 120,000 people with annual sales of $10 billion as the “manufacturer” of a device to bring photography to the masses.

 

Thanks To Santa Fe Photographic Workshops

A big thank you to Santa Fe Photographic Workshops for sponsoring the blog this week.

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops offers state-of-the-art photographic education that supports participants of all levels.

•    We share our passion for photography, offering world-renowned instructors, cutting-edge technology, and dedicated staff.

•    We are committed to excellence, teaching both the technical and creative aspects of photography.

•    We provide a supportive, inspirational community where our participants build confidence in achieving their photographic goals both personally and professionally.

YES, I still have a printed portfolio

All technology has done for me is allowed me to adapt my portfolio to more platforms, i.e. web, iPad, etc.  I used to have 12 printed portfolios, now I use less than half that.  A magazine hasn’t called in a “book” in over three years now, but agencies sometimes still want them.  And my agent, Big Leo, takes them to portfolio meetings where having a tangible thing to touch still has value.  And to be honest, printed portfolios are really nice when done well.

read the whole post on Less Is More.

Magazines Fumble the iPad Opportunity

“I don’t think there’s anything magazine-like out there that’s really resonating or working,” said Khoi Vinh, former design director for The New York Times. “Ultimately, the concept of a magazine feels like an uncomfortable fit for this platform. It shouldn’t be a packaged slate of content; it’s an awkward fit for a connected device that can be up to the minute.”

via, RexBlog, and Digiday.

Still Images in Great Advertising- Marc Philbert

Still Images In Great Advertising, is a column where Suzanne Sease discovers great advertising images and then speaks with the photographers about it.

I came across Marc Philbert’s campaign for The Harvey Nichols Sale on Ads of the World and loved the vibrant look of the images mixed with the funny positioning of the talent. I reached out to his agent, Cailtyn Boucher of Made in Paris. She was wonderful in getting my questions to Marc. Thank you Caitlyn.

Suzanne:  I can see from your website the palette in some of your fashion shoots? But the humor from ads from Bourjois and AXE.  But these ads pushed it even further.  How much did the agency allow you to take this campaign?

Marc: Well it was the client’s request to go that far, then it had to be done sharply…so that it wouldn’t look ridiculous

Suzanne:  Models always want to look beautiful.  How did you get the models to distort their faces so perfectly?

Marc: They were aware of the concept and chosen for that. Plus they’ve got a good sense of humour and it’s not necessarily that they all want look beautiful… they are clever and most of them understand that it’s a job to be able to act differently

Suzanne:  Since this campaign is so brilliant, how has it changed your commercial career?

Marc: Not so much I confess and it’s difficult to know sometimes why you are chosen.

Paris-based photographer Marc Philbert is a graduate of Louis Lumière University, France, clients include ELLE, GQ, Marie Claire, Glamour, and Vogue.

Note: Content for Still Images In Great Advertising is found. Submissions are not accepted.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies.