Video Clients from Hell: our 2013 winner!

kpmedia · #1 12-10-2013, 02:26 AM

I was telling "clients from hell" stories long before clientsfromhell.net existed. I could (and probably should!) write a book on all the things we've seen since the late 70s in the media business. The 80s had lots of stupid floppy disk issues, the 90s had the internet, and the 2000s had CD vs. DVD. Almost every year, an incident always sticks out in my mind.

Thankfully it was only a potential video client this year (2013). Dodged a bullet there!

And the further you go, the better it gets...

November 2012:

And no, not a typo -- 2-0-1-2, more than a year ago.

Her: "I have two tapes that need to be restored. The color and clarity is bad."

Me: "It depends on what's caused the errors. Most can indeed be fixed. Send the tapes in, and we'll look at them."

Her: "I'll send it via registered mail, with notes on what needs to be restored. And I'll need assurances that it will only take X amount of time."

Okay, not happening. Video is chaos, and projects can be fast, or projects can be slow. The tapes decide what that is -- not us. Some need hours of processing, while others queue up behind a specific piece of equipment that's needed (after failing in the more common workflows). For example, the ES10.

Registered mail?

Notes?

That sounds like an editing project, to compensate for poor camera work. Not a whole-tape restoration.

Trying to still be optimistic, rather than assuming the worst, I questioned nothing, and reiterate the last email.

Me: "Send the tapes."

January 2013:

Me: "We're following up, and wanted to see if you were still interested in this project."

No reply. <crickets chirping>

And I delete the emails. About 25% of potential customers go MIA.

August 2013:

Her: "We'd still like to get the tapes refurbished. Kindly reply with a phone number."

Telephone number? Nope, not happening. We're not going to invest phone time for a two-tape project, especially when we haven't even seen the tapes yet. We don't have secretaries, and operators are not standing by. Our time is limited, and needs to be spent assisting paying clients, or even helping folks on this forum. When people call, they (A) ask things already written on the site, (B) ask things already answered in email, (C) like to hear themselves talk, and conversations can drag on for 30, 60, even 120 minutes!

... unless you want to spend $99/hour for my consulting fee.

(And some do!)

Refurbished?

She also wrote us during a week-long vacation during late summer.

Me: "I'll get back to you in several days. We're out of the office this week."

Her: "I need to move on this project!"

Week passes.

Me: "Send the tapes."

Her: "I require a formal email detailing costs. Also, the delay since first sending this to you has raised some concerns."

A formal email?

Delay? Concern? Okay, now I'm pissed.

And anybody that knows me, online or offline, knows that rarely happens.

Me: "If you recall, you wrote us in 2012, and then replied 9 months later. Is that the delay you're concerned about?"

No reply.

November 2013

Me: "We're following up again. Are you still interested in this project?"

No response.

So I delete all the emails. Again. (Note: We keep "deleted" emails in a trash folder. They're not actually purged.)

December 2013

Her: "Can you review the tapes, correct them, and have them back to me in 2 weeks?"

Two weeks total for a restoration project?

And at Christmas time? a.k.a. The busiest time of year for video work? Yeah, right!

Me: "Not this time of year, no. You waited too long. At this point, anything sent in has a January completion ETA at earliest."

No reply. Again.

So I deleted the emails. And this time, I'm not undeleting them.

I'm not dealing with this anymore. As I mentioned in another thread some weeks back, 90%+ of the video work we do these days is for studios and B2B. But we enjoy helping individuals with their family memories, and try to make ourselves available and affordable to that demographic -- the other 5-10% of our clients. Getting tapes restored -- and restored well! -- is not an easy service to find. It's where we started 10+ year ago with digital video work. Studios just give us money, while individuals also give us praise for a job well done. (Their stories are always interesting, too! We have an amazing story to share in the next few months. The client gave us permission!)

But sometimes you've got to draw the line.

I'm just thankful this was pre-work emails. Can you imagine if she was a client.

Winsordawson · #2 08-22-2014, 08:54 AM

I hope there are more stories like this

I'm just glad I missed the cut!

kpmedia · #3 08-22-2014, 09:29 AM

Thankfully, we've not really had one in 2014. Of course, the year's not over yet.

At most, a few folks have been impatient because something took and extra week or two. But again, when it comes to video, some of that is not anything we can control. Quality video work takes time -- sometimes months. (Think of movies. Those often take a year or two just to edit! Not including the acting/shooting!)

Winsordawson · #4 08-22-2014, 10:02 AM

A lot of people do not consider quality in relation to time. That's why the timelines of programmers/engineers often don't jive with management. They simply have no concept of the work involved! It can only be good and cheap, not also quick!

There is really no rush to see a 15-year-old home video unless it details the path to a treasure chest.

kpmedia · #5 08-22-2014, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winsordawson

There is really no rush to see a 15-year-old home video unless it details the path to a treasure chest.

Exactly!!!

"I have a video that:
- I shot 20 years ago
- forgot I had
- won't play in my VCR, or the VCR started to eat it, or I don't have a VCR anymore
- kept it in my murky damp dungeon
- and my dog tried to eat it once

Can you do 1-day turn around?"

No.

sanlyn · #6 08-22-2014, 03:05 PM

Hm. If the tape only plays for a couple of hours, can't you do it in less than a day?
Can I email the tape? That'll save some time.

(I wouldn't be at all surprised if you said it happened that way).

premiumcapture · #7 08-22-2014, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanlyn

Hm. If the tape only plays for a couple of hours, can't you do it in less than a day?
Can I email the tape? That'll save some time.

(I wouldn't be at all surprised if you said it happened that way).

Are we talking about restoration or capture? Perhaps its because I'm newer here, but I always figured it takes one hour to capture a one hour tape. Is this flawed thinking?

lordsmurf · #8 08-24-2014, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by premiumcapture

but I always figured it takes one hour to capture a one hour tape.

No.

No, no, no, no, no!

Even a rough DVD recorder transfer takes about 15 minutes total, beyond that hour, to make the full disc. When you do any work on the computer, it can take, at minimum, 2x-3x longer for tape. Many can be up to 5x-10x as long to fully process and transfer to the final output media.

I have some Avisynth scripts running this week which take 30 minutes to process 2 minutes of footage. The original footage is completely screwed. But after several passes, it's excellent and enjoyably watchable. But that, it was unwatchable. Even after just 1-2 of the steps, it still was not yet watchable.

And when the original tape is physically damaged (

), it can take even longer.

Quote:

Is this flawed thinking?

Yes, very flawed thinking.

premiumcapture · #9 08-24-2014, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

No.

No, no, no, no, no!

Even a rough DVD recorder transfer takes about 15 minutes total, beyond that hour, to make the full disc. When you do any work on the computer, it can take, at minimum, 2x-3x longer for tape. Many can be up to 5x-10x as long to fully process and transfer to the final output media.

I have some Avisynth scripts running this week which take 30 minutes to process 2 minutes of footage. The original footage is completely screwed. But after several passes, it's excellent and enjoyably watchable. But that, it was unwatchable. Even after just 1-2 of the steps, it still was not yet watchable.

And when the original tape is physically damaged (

), it can take even longer.

Yes, very flawed thinking.

Got it

Are we talking about capturing only or restoration time-wise, or are there some scripts you run on every capture and consider it part of the process?

The way I always figured: 10 min hardware setup -> capture to drive -> review capture -> done.

Not done with the video, done with the tape dump to the computer, for lack of a better phrase.

lordsmurf · #10 08-24-2014, 01:42 PM

For the 2x-3x, no, not restoration. That's raw capturing, but with cleaning them up some. (No, not restoring the video, just cleaning up the large files.) And verifying all the footage is fine by scrubbing in an editor. It's only 1:1 if you leave all footage boogers, leave lead-in/out errors, and skip the verification auditing. (Even then, it still takes time to transfer to final media, so not really 1:1 times.)

Longer is for restoration.

It's one of those things that you don't know that you don't know. It takes more effort than play on a VCR, and record on a computer (or DVD recorder).

We've not ever talked about initial tape testing, to see which hardware chain is best. Some flat out will not work, so you keep having to test it. Sometimes you have to run multiple capture tests of several minutes each, until a perfect workflow is found. This all adds up.

It's only easy if you're doing a crappy job. Not easy if you're doing a good job.

Studios are NOT forgiving of errors, which is part of my background. You must be VERY detail oriented!