Well I fumbled my first storyboard job

[FlipMcgee]

sad

Turnaround was one day. The agency's usual format was something between 6-9 frames. Since they agreed to my three figure fee I thought I'd gave them the full flipcmee deal which ended up totalling a whopping 50 frames (it was almost animated if you press the pdf reader's arrow key fast enough).

Lesson learned: don't over-art-estimate client. :(

Like how Porky Pig said in his "Blue Christmas" version: Mewwy Chwismas folks!:vodkamachine:

[aesir]

So you did extra work and they didnt like it? Or you made too much work for yourself and couldnt finish in time?

[FlipMcgee]

So you did extra work and they didnt like it? Or you made too much work for yourself and couldnt finish in time?

Delivered way ahead of time. I told them it was a draft and I'd whittle it down today after their feedbacks.

Now it's just a gig that went south. Not enough time it seems to adapt to each others style.

I'm counting on their rep for making their payments to freelancers though, so I'm not about to poison their name.

[squidmonk3j]

if the client says, "go crazy", go crazy....if the client says, "do it like this", do it like that. it's good to be enthusiastic about a job, but it's even better to get it done right. at least from an employer's point of view.

the right thing to do would've perhaps been to let them know you understood their specific demands, were ready to meet them on time and within the given parametres...and -then- pitched the possibility of this extended version, thereby showing good communicative skills, a creative mindset and efficiency - all are equally important in the commercial field, imho.

hope you don't fret too much, tho:)

[central]

Sorry, I don't really have much advice to give, but don't worry, with the talent you've got, another job shouldn't be too hard to find. In the meantime there's always good music to help you keep your head up, if all else fails. :) Cheers.

[Favila]

the full flipcmee deal
Now it's just a gig that went south.

Sorry, I'm spanish and I don't understand what does this mean. Could someone explain please? :p

[Jason Manley]

it means he completely overworked himself for a few pennies and lost the job because of it. he should have focused on doing the job right instead of NOT doing what the client asked. if you did that for mb you would be dropped too.

some of you guys need to quit underselling yourselves.

[FlipMcgee]

Nope, wasn't a few pennies. It was the opposite situation Jason. The house style was like from the Flinstones age. Anybody could easily do their max 6-9 frames in 15 minutes - the tv commercial script was only like 10 lines long.

It was too easy I felt I was shortchanging the ad agency if I just robotically followed the director's crappy pencil layout on graph paper. My boards followed the script and I just added my creative bit like in the transitions where I was given the impression it was my job to do. I didn't see it coming but it ended up being a hit or miss situation. The agency already didn't like me from the beginning or they're just stuck doing boards the 80s way.

But you're right about losing something. I probably lose my chance of doing more board$$$ for an ongoing national campaign ("except in Quebec" - says so on the script).

[Elwell]

They asked you to do a job a certain way. You didn't. It's their nickel, and they weren't happy.
End of story.

Oh, and in the future, be VERY careful about turning anything in early. All this tells a client is that either you're inexperienced and overeager, you don't have anything else to do, or next time they don't have to give you as much time.

[DavePalumbo]

be VERY careful about turning anything in early. All this tells a client is that either you're inexperienced and overeager, you don't have anything else to do, or next time they don't have to give you as much time.

generally speaking I agree, though it's one of those things that varies from client to client. In a field as competitive as ours, I personally believe in going beyond expectations as much as possible so long as you can trust your client to not take advantage of it or abuse it in the future.

I used to try and be super businesslike in all my client relations for this same reason (fear of appearing inexperienced and overeager) and have since learned that the process is much nicer for everyone if you allow yourself to show some enthusiasm

[Elwell]

I used to try and be super businesslike in all my client relations for this same reason (fear of appearing inexperienced and overeager) and have since learned that the process is much nicer for everyone if you allow yourself to show some enthusiasm
Oh, I agree completely. Although I don't think businesslike and enthusiastic are mutually exclusive.

[FlipMcgee]

.....

[BlondieUK]

In my opinion I think you should have spoken to the company prior to making these decisions.. as the other guy said, maybe do what it is they wanted, and then called and explained that you've done it, but you could do alot more with it and you'd like to show them your ideas.

I'm in the music business and it seems to work very much the same way, from what I can tell.

Hope that helped =)

B.

[Puck]

Yeah, clients generally prefer predictability over artyness.

I've learnt a similar lesson:

I was doing some designs - they gave a brief and asked for a few variations. Instead of giving them 3 quick sketches to start the ball rolling I got really enthusiastic and churned out 50 nearly finished peices (all variations on the same theme though). I've since learnt that if you give a client too much choice they will hate you for it and end up not liking the choice they ended up with.

You have to give them only a few choices and only deliver what they asked for - sure, make it kick-arse and exceed their expectations, but don't risk surprising and making them feel like they are paying you for something they don't want.

Having been on both sides of this; there is nothing worse that asking a freelancer for some work, and then they completely misunderstand what you asked for (even if it is typed very clearly in an email with included reference images) and deliver something completely unusable - you are left in the awkward position of having to say "I can't pay for that because it's not what we asked for" and not only that, but you often have to find someone else who can deliver the asset in the short about of time left before the deadline. Communication is very important (duh).

[BlondieUK]

Expanding on what I said earlier, generally they are employing you to do some art "their" way.. unless you are a very well established artist with a definative style etc, in which case they are employing you for who you are as an artist, and they want your style..

It's the difference between hiring a session musician, or hiring Slash. You wouldn't ask a session musician to bust his creative visions all over your material.

Apologies for the musical references but it seems a good way of explaining.

Again, I hope this helps, and either way, well done on getting the contract in the first place, that's by the far the hardest thing (IMO)

B.

[Aly Fell]

Hey Flip, you may feel you've done some things wrong, but we learn from mistakes. That's what life is about. If it's any consolation my first job in the industry was a storyboard I screwed up as well.

I applied to Cosgrove Hall in Manchester UK as an 'artist' in 1986. I went along to the interview which was very informal, perhaps too much so. The guy who interviewed me was the director of a new series they were putting into production called Count Duckula. As a test piece he asked me to work on a storyboard for the show. I was kind of on cloud 9, all excitement at being in a real animation studio, surrounded by people who worked in TV! I don't think I was listening quite as well as I should have. I went away and in a few days, working nights and the weekend, I did a whole show, as they had given me a complete script to work from. I'd never done a storyboard before. Didn't understand about camera angles, panning, tracking, lines of action; none of that. So I drew the whole thing like a comic book.

I came back the following week with the completed storyboard, and they were pretty impressed with the drawing work, the timescale and the sheer volume of work. However, I'd misheard the fact they had only wanted a single scene from the show storyboarded on a couple of pages as a test! I'd worked like a dog to produce something that was totally unessesary. Chris, the director, judged me on what I'd done, quite understandably, and recommended me to the animation director. I did a much more realistic test, where I listened VERY carefully to what I was being asked to do. Completed the test and got the job as 'newcomer to grade inbetweener' on the first movie they were making; 'The BFG'. What I learnt from this was to pay attention to what is required by the client/employer, and do what they ask. Sometimes the situation requires you to go the extra mile, but usually if they want bells on it, it'll be very clear from the beginning.

Good luck to you! :)

[FlipMcgee]

Thanks guys.

[kev ferrara]

Flip, post your storyboards...

[FlipMcgee]

No can do man. I don't have the money yet.

[otis]

It was too easy I felt I was shortchanging the ad agency if I just robotically followed the director's crappy pencil layout on graph paper.

It's that kind of attitude that makes you an amature.
Listen to Jason... or at least live and learn.

[Chris Bennett]

Hey Flip, you may feel you've done some things wrong, but we learn from mistakes. That's what life is about. If it's any consolation my first job in the industry was a storyboard I screwed up as well.

I applied to Cosgrove Hall in Manchester UK as an 'artist' in 1986. I went along to the interview which was very informal, perhaps too much so. The guy who interviewed me was the director of a new series they were putting into production called Count Duckula. As a test piece he asked me to work on a storyboard for the show. I was kind of on cloud 9, all excitement at being in a real animation studio, surrounded by people who worked in TV! I don't think I was listening quite as well as I should have. I went away and in a few days, working nights and the weekend, I did a whole show, as they had given me a complete script to work from. I'd never done a storyboard before. Didn't understand about camera angles, panning, tracking, lines of action; none of that. So I drew the whole thing like a comic book.

I came back the following week with the completed storyboard, and they were pretty impressed with the drawing work, the timescale and the sheer volume of work. However, I'd misheard the fact they had only wanted a single scene from the show storyboarded on a couple of pages as a test! I'd worked like a dog to produce something that was totally unessesary. Chris, the director, judged me on what I'd done, quite understandably, and recommended me to the animation director. I did a much more realistic test, where I listened VERY carefully to what I was being asked to do. Completed the test and got the job as 'newcomer to grade inbetweener' on the first movie they were making; 'The BFG'. What I learnt from this was to pay attention to what is required by the client/employer, and do what they ask. Sometimes the situation requires you to go the extra mile, but usually if they want bells on it, it'll be very clear from the beginning.

Good luck to you! :)

I see you are a Count Arthur Strong fan!!
Thinking of FlipMcgee's experience, it will do you nothing but good.
Many moons ago I got a christmas magazine cover gig for a national TV magazine doing a portrait of Bob Geldorf. Smarty pants tells them he can deliver in a couple of days and rather than a straight portrait promises them Geldorf dressed as Good King Wensleslas striding through the snow at night beckoning to a third world child to follow in his footsteps.......
You all know what happens next: 56 hours later and no sleep AT ALL finds me in the middle of the studio at 3am on the night before delivery, sobbing in a crumpled heap on the floor. I had blown my big chance.
The art editor was lovely to me (which kinda made it worse) - she couldn't use the work I provided but paid me half my fee.
I never, ever, ever made that mistake again.

[Barts]

whats that white stuff on your face???

[Idiot Apathy]

You know I was reading an interesting article the other day - actually the topic seems to be all over the place. In short it talked about employers and prospective employers researching their prospective employees (even freelance) via the internet. Just a note, everyone with internet access can see this thread ;)

[silver900]

.
...You all know what happens next: 56 hours later and no sleep AT ALL finds me in the middle of the studio at 3am on the night before delivery, sobbing in a crumpled heap on the floor.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Oh my gosh - I wish I had that experience only once. I'm a slow learner and have made that mistake many times! How sad for me....

Chris - I love your work - absolutely beautiful.

Cheers!

Lori Kiplinger Pandy
www.kiplingerpandy.com
www.silverliningsculptures.com

[Professor Az]

They asked you to do a job a certain way. You didn't. It's their nickel, and they weren't happy.
End of story.

I Agree 100%.

Employers know what they want, and if you aren't willing to produce exactly what they want, they will look for someone else who is willing to do so. I found this out the hard way during my first year at this job. I had to create an online video training course, and they wanted what boiled down to a narrated slide show. I thought to myself, how boring! I can do better than that! So, I came up with a moving background with my awesome talking head and title graphics so that it would be more like watching a TV newscast, instead of a boring old slide show with just a voice behind it. My boss liked my idea, so we went with it, and the client absolutely HATED it. Where did the face come from? Who authorized the change? Who is your supervisor??? Yikes. Long story short, they went with what we had created because the deadline was already upon us, but were sternly talked to about not doing what we were asked to do, after all, we were on their nickel, plain and simple. So now I come up with narrated slide shows, but with awesome graphics, as opposed to the cut and paste from the technical manual stuff we had been using. Kudos to the folks here for the PhotoShop Forum. Well OK... they're not awesome, I mean, how much can you dress up an image of an equipment rack? But you get the general idea.

On a side note, I became a tad famous as a result within our little government community, and now when I go to their conferences each year, I get almost instant recognition, so it wasn't all bad.

Best advice for the future... wait at least a little while until trying to change existing expectations. Give your employers a chance to get used to you before you do something they don't expect.

Better luck next time. Given your abilities, I'm sure that won't take too long. :yayca: