My mum's employer wants me to compose a video for them out of about 60 still shots (with TWEENING, no less) in less than 24 hours. For this job, I would demand at least a week, but they are adamant in their claims, so i'm not taking the job b/c I'm a designer, not a sodding miracle worker. They want a dvd that can play as a self-advancing presentation on autorun on a computer and is also a movie that can be played on a tv, all on the same disc. These people don't know what the hell they are talking about when it comes to the technology, and they are too damn stupid to listen to me when i tell them that it will take at least a few days for me to PLAN on how I will tackle the project before I even start on it, so there is no way in hell I could have it for them in less than 24 hours, unless a finished dvd disc that has what they want magically appears from heaven and falls in my lap.


To add insult to injury, my parents are asking that I do it for free, and now they're all pissed at me when I told them that I normally wouldn't even touch a job like this unless I was making at least $250 minimum and I had all the time I requested on top of that.

These people are asking the impossible, and they just don't understand/care when I tell them that no one can do this for them in the time they want, and if they could, they wouldn't be stupid enough to take the job.


------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited April 19, 2004).]

24 hours....that's bull****. Family or not, you need to slap them.

------------------
Cantina Cloud | BCF | The Massassian 1, 2 & 3 | Gonkmeg
Corrupting the kiddies since '97

Yeah, I hear that. Ive lost count how many times promises for miracles have been made in my name, usually without pay...

------------------
I used to believe that we must fight the future, lest change come without our consent. I was wrong. The truth is that we must embrace the future, for only with change can we remain the same.

I learned long ago not to work for family, (don't know if this counts). I worked for my sister and her husband in his yard care business, and got royally ripped off. Funny thing is, that was 6 or 7 years ago, and he's asking me to do some more work right now. I think I'll tell him to buzz off.

------------------
Have a good one,
Freelancer

After thinking about it, I would ideally ask for 3 weeks (more if I had other clients at the time, in which case I would want a month and a half. If I couldn't get that, I would sure as hell spike the fee way up b/c I would consider that to be express work), with a pay rate of $900 under normal no-rush conditions (half up front) and a clause in the contract that makes me immune to penalties for unexpected problems, and also grants me deadline extensions if needed for the sake of quality assurance.

What are the odds of getting that out of a school district in the cali educational system? (which is who my mum works for)

------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited April 19, 2004).]

Some parents are flat out ignorant.

------------------
Prowling out of the tundra, swinging a jeweled meat hammer, cometh Outlaw Torn! And he gives a gutteral bellow:

"I'm seriously going to hump you until you scream like a banshee!"

Tell them you can't afford to do it for free.

------------------
"So there I was completely naked and covered in tartar sauce..."

My mom's boss is the same way, he's always telling her "well your son knows about computers have him do it for us." I got sick of it and told him to check the prices on that kinda stuff. After the shock wore off he was ready to talk money.

------------------
http://www.sporkaudio.com

Now that you've mentioned it's a California school district it makes a little more sense. As to why they're so unrealistic, that is.

Anyway, I find it incredible they would want a finished project in one day. Especially one with the specs you described. Doing it for free might not be too bad if you were able to use it as an advertisement. IE "Courtesy of ..." and things like that in the DVD but I have no idea what the target audience is so that might not be productive. In short, if you were to do it for free you should be able to expect that it would generate more funds than you would have charged to do it.

------------------
Have you forgotten ...

Continue your refusal. Let the job go. More will come. If you build it. oops

------------------
EvilMagic.net: Brian's Web Log

I don't get what you are saying. Generate funds for who? The school? Me? What?

The project itself isn't impossible (I could probably find a way to do it, but it would be far from easy) but what makes it impossible is the ammount of time that I had to do it in. No one would work under those conditions.

If they had come to me about it a month ago, I would have been more than happy to do it at my usual fee, but asking to have it done in 24 hours isn't an express job, its simply ludacris.



------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

I did a 20 minute SVCD for a friends wedding with video from the wedding and photo's from the bride and groom's childhood. It took me 3 weeks to plan and cut it. And I still wanted another 2 days. I just wasn't happy with the sound. Everyone said it was good, but you know how when you make something you know it could be better sometimes... :/

My wife's boss called me and asked about sending form mail to customers. "With pictures and links and stuff." I told him that he may be able to find someone to do that for $500 or $600 if the original web designer for thier site wasn't going to do it.
I think he wanted me to say, "Yeah, I'll do it for you. After all you do employ my wife."
I haven't heard back from him.

------------------
To artificial life, all reality is virtual.
HTP
babble, babble, b!tch, b!tch, rebel, rebel, party, party.

What wookiee is saying is that doing it for free wouldn't be ludacris if you were still to recieve benefits from it. EG: (keep in mind I'm thinking as though Recon DIDN'T suck). Recon hosts Massassi for free. Massassi gets hosted = YAY recon gets noticed advertisements = YAY. Everybody wins. So if the audience that the dvd was shown to would be lucrative customers, then doing it for free would possibly be a smart move. Because potentially there is alot more money to be had from those in the audience. However, it would still be a moot point because 24 hours for a decent project is insane. I could whip up some tweens between 60 images and have them shoot across the screen really fast and have no prettyness in about an hour, but if they want it to look good then it's not really all that feasible.

------------------
-=I'm the wang of this here site, and it's HUGE! So just imagine how big I am.=-
1337Yectiwan
OSC Returns!!
10 of 14 -- 27 Lives On