Congats to them for having happy clients. Their model obviously works for the businesses they're pitching. But I'll bet they don't show THAT clip to prospective clients. My head scratching is about why in the world when you're doing ANY kind of self-promotion you wouldn't make it the best piece you have on your reel! No client interference. No creative constraints. No time limits. Jeez. Maybe this was a project they handed off to the new guy.

..." My head scratching is about why in the world when you're doing ANY kind of self-promotion you wouldn't make it the best piece you have on your reel! No client interference. No creative constraints. No time limits. Jeez"

I would think it make sense if you are in a small town to run something like this.
Gets praise from local biz owners - gives his clients some minor exposure.

To answer the question: No, I would not hire..talk is cheap. Then again... I'm skeptical of most demo reels as well.


90% of my business is word of mouth referrals. It just would not fly, if I built a video of people giving the "word of mouth" of how great my production company is.

Rob put the discussion in perspective.

You need to add VALUE to your CLIENT without adding preventable cost and avoidable effort. Does the mentioned clip do that? …..NO

Rory, Great commercial. Made me want to order one of those bowls! ((;

Got us all looking at their video & talking about their work - they're advertising geniuses & worth every cent

I would NOT hire them simply because I know others that, IMHO, produce better video for my needs.

If I was a business organization that did not have connections or a big budget but a want for video, I'd probably give them a go. After all, I've bought other products that were inferior but suited my needs.

Also, I look at the region... I used to live in Grand Forks, ND. I've also lived & worked in L.A. & Hollywood. Comparing the two locations is like comparing apples and oranges. Same is to be said for the quality of production.

When I look at my productions, I can see a distinct difference in budget as I'm sure others can as well. This is intentional as no one is willing to pay for the cow and the milk knowing that they can get one or the other for free. Maybe these guys are offering low-budget productions and it shows. Now, if these were multi-thousand dollar productions... well, that would be a different story. Clearly they are not. I would challenge someone to call them and get a quote to see what range they are charging. Maybe even specify a video and see the cost breakdown.

In all honesty, I wish I had so much work that I had the liberty of turning some of it away. Unfortunately, due to people such as these guys, if I am not willing to deliver the inferior product at a lower price, they will simply find someone else that will. Since my family has to eat, I'd rather deliver inferiority and receive payment over not getting paid. I simply don't show off the inferior product.

Clearly, iMovie (FCPx) is written all over their default fonts & effects used.

______________
- Sounds to me like a touch of jealousy that these guys are getting business that the OP wish he had.

You guys keep missing the point. He has found a niche that pays his bills. Nothing else matters!

"- Sounds to me like a touch of jealousy that these guys are getting business that the OP wish he had."

Just to clarify, not jealous, I literally found it funny and thought I'd share a laugh, and I was a bit surprised that people would promote themselves with such poor production quality (at least seriously). ND has the best economy in the nation right now, and I'm doing well enough (I sure wouldn't mind more money, don't get me wrong :), but I'm not sure where I'd find much more time to do the work ).

If I had one complaint, it's that guys like these make it hard for small studios like mine to get taken seriously. We've got a few bigger groups here in town that produce for Discovery and get much of the big budget work (VideoArts and MediaProductions are both pretty good sized production studios in town here). And then guys like this give everyone the impression that this is all you can get from small studios. So I just correct the impression one customer at a time :). I am surprised that so few people found this funny honestly.

Dave

I was a bit surprised that people would promote themselves with such poor production quality
- Their quality is low for you but high for their clients. All of our quality is low for Scorsese but hopefully high for our clients.

If I had one complaint, it's that guys like these make it hard for small studios like mine to get taken seriously.
- I fully understand this. It's the same here where you have to compete with the iMac/Student/Wannabe/Hobbyist/$100 video guys. It can be extremely hard & frustrating to try and get potential clients to understand the difference even though it's readily available as in the promo video you referenced.

I am surprised that so few people found this funny honestly.
- Because most of us that make our living via video production have seen this a million times over. Many of us on these boards laugh at others projects when they post them here. It's just a different take on the same thing. You've got to give these guys props for being able to show what you consider sub-standard work yet stay in business. I've seen many that produce above and beyond, go under for whatever reason.

I would love to find a niche wherein I didn't have to worry about when/where the next job was coming from. It was so much easier when I worked a M-F 9-5 on someone Else's dime.

Their site says they charge $250 per video. Their site also says they have "produced over 50 videos," which probably translates to 51 videos.

My question would be how do three guys live off $12,750 dollars?