Back in the good old days of advertising, we had this person who's called a visualizer. Now, a visualizer is a gifted person. He's artistic, very good in drawing and have that uncanny ability to visualize whatever you want (Hence their title). You can go up and tell him, "I want a 20 year old pan asian girl, carrying a stack of books walking towards a banana peel. Her expression is of joy but not overtly ecstatic. Just a small little smirk that goes to the right." and you'll get that exactly on paper. In the process, the visualizer will probably add a ribbon to the head, give titles to all the books and brand the sneakers. Not one stroke wrong and all colours neatly rendered in. They are that good.
A good freelance visualizer can demand anything from RM400 for a piece of work on an A4-sized paper. Standard rate for a TV commercial storyboard was RM40 (B/W) and RM60 onwards (Colored) for a frame. A storyboard normally consists of no less than 6 frames. There was big money in being a freelance visualizer. The top ones were booked almost everyday of the month. They were raking in good money.
Then came along the internet. Now the internet, as we know, is an abyss loaded with pictures and the likes. Combine this with some photoshop skills, you can create almost anything you can think of. In the beginning, some visualizers scoffs the new wave way of doing things while others, threatened, begin to learn how to use the computer. To them, being able to draw wasn't good enough anymore.
As time went on, clients began to expect to see visuals with real images in it and as close as the final work would be. They no longer could accept drawn visuals. This spelt the demise of the terribly gifted visualizers who refused to deal with the problem earlier. The rest who dealt with it, are still visualizers today. But they work with a very different tool - the computer. But they still bring their alien-like ability to read people's mind to come up with a mind-blowing visual. These visualizers lived to see another day.
Then, there are photographers - well, commercial photographers, in this case of my gripe.
Back in the days, photographers uses film. They are expensive, and have no room for mistakes. Under exposed, and you are screwed. Over-exposed, and there goes your career. Accidently opening the camera with film in it - instant harakiri. So before going into the actual shoot, photographers takes loads of polaroid to get the lighting right and the position of the set-up all in place. Even the talents are trained and rehearsed a kazillion times. After all that, the film begin to roll.
The more rolls you shoot, the more you pay. It was an understanding between client, agency and photographer. They charged by the rolls, hour and complexity of the job.
Then came along the digital revolution. At the early stage, commercial photographers were hesitant to move to digital. The resolution was not up to par and they were slow. Fine. Digital cameras have since improved by leaps and bounds. Photographers who kept on to their film began to notice something. They are getting less business. Clients now wants to see the pictures on the spot. They don't want surprises anymore. Everything must be right -the smile, the angle of the hand and every strand of hair.
Now you can say that clients are getting spoilt. It may be true, but we gotta deal with it. The advancement of the equipments we use have made what we are today. It has become the norm and we can't hold on to the good old days forever. Try going about without a cell phone today. You can't! You'll feel naked.
So here's the part that got me furious. I recently just finish a shoot for a client. We booked the photographer for 8 hours. It was a fairly simple shoot. White backdrop and 3 light set up. 2 talents and loads of poses. We got the talent into position and got them to start posing. Simple huh? Yeah.
We wrapped earlier than the stated time. We got our shots. Everyone was pleased. Everyone except the photographer.
Now, I would be cool if he spoke to me about it but he didn't. Few days later, the issue was brought up. The client has shot well over 500 shots that day. According to him, if he was shooting with film he would make a lot of money. Well - reality alert! - you are no longer using film! DEAL WITH IT! Stop talking about your good old days. No one wants to hear about it. Save it when you have coffee with your friends at the corner coffee shop. Or a bar if that's your thing.
The thing is, you are paid by the hour now. Forget complexity of the job, you were chosen because you can't handle complex shots - because for the longest time, you were stagnant in your field of expertise. Deal with that as well. So if we have 8 hours, we'll squeeze every possible minute out of it. Do I really care how many shots we made you shoot? It was a business deal. 8 hours of studio time. 8 hours worth of shots. Deal with it.
That's how it works now. Your megabytes in your memory card accounts to nothing. It's your time and expertise that we are paying you for now. Commercial photographers nowadays are no longer just a photographer. They have to be like what a visualizer is. Take a vision and make them a reality. By that, they'll need to employ every single knowledge they have and more. If it requires 30 hours of photoshop work, then so be it. Can't photoshop, employ an artist! If not, then you'll no longer be sought after. Nobody wants that to happen. So move with the times. It's the only possible way if we want to stay competitive in this world. Stop bickering and embrace change... and the key to change, is to let go of fear.
Oh, and if you are wondering what's gonna happen to that photographer, well don't worry.
I'll deal with it.
A good freelance visualizer can demand anything from RM400 for a piece of work on an A4-sized paper. Standard rate for a TV commercial storyboard was RM40 (B/W) and RM60 onwards (Colored) for a frame. A storyboard normally consists of no less than 6 frames. There was big money in being a freelance visualizer. The top ones were booked almost everyday of the month. They were raking in good money.
Then came along the internet. Now the internet, as we know, is an abyss loaded with pictures and the likes. Combine this with some photoshop skills, you can create almost anything you can think of. In the beginning, some visualizers scoffs the new wave way of doing things while others, threatened, begin to learn how to use the computer. To them, being able to draw wasn't good enough anymore.
As time went on, clients began to expect to see visuals with real images in it and as close as the final work would be. They no longer could accept drawn visuals. This spelt the demise of the terribly gifted visualizers who refused to deal with the problem earlier. The rest who dealt with it, are still visualizers today. But they work with a very different tool - the computer. But they still bring their alien-like ability to read people's mind to come up with a mind-blowing visual. These visualizers lived to see another day.
Then, there are photographers - well, commercial photographers, in this case of my gripe.
Back in the days, photographers uses film. They are expensive, and have no room for mistakes. Under exposed, and you are screwed. Over-exposed, and there goes your career. Accidently opening the camera with film in it - instant harakiri. So before going into the actual shoot, photographers takes loads of polaroid to get the lighting right and the position of the set-up all in place. Even the talents are trained and rehearsed a kazillion times. After all that, the film begin to roll.
The more rolls you shoot, the more you pay. It was an understanding between client, agency and photographer. They charged by the rolls, hour and complexity of the job.
Then came along the digital revolution. At the early stage, commercial photographers were hesitant to move to digital. The resolution was not up to par and they were slow. Fine. Digital cameras have since improved by leaps and bounds. Photographers who kept on to their film began to notice something. They are getting less business. Clients now wants to see the pictures on the spot. They don't want surprises anymore. Everything must be right -the smile, the angle of the hand and every strand of hair.
Now you can say that clients are getting spoilt. It may be true, but we gotta deal with it. The advancement of the equipments we use have made what we are today. It has become the norm and we can't hold on to the good old days forever. Try going about without a cell phone today. You can't! You'll feel naked.
So here's the part that got me furious. I recently just finish a shoot for a client. We booked the photographer for 8 hours. It was a fairly simple shoot. White backdrop and 3 light set up. 2 talents and loads of poses. We got the talent into position and got them to start posing. Simple huh? Yeah.
We wrapped earlier than the stated time. We got our shots. Everyone was pleased. Everyone except the photographer.
Now, I would be cool if he spoke to me about it but he didn't. Few days later, the issue was brought up. The client has shot well over 500 shots that day. According to him, if he was shooting with film he would make a lot of money. Well - reality alert! - you are no longer using film! DEAL WITH IT! Stop talking about your good old days. No one wants to hear about it. Save it when you have coffee with your friends at the corner coffee shop. Or a bar if that's your thing.
The thing is, you are paid by the hour now. Forget complexity of the job, you were chosen because you can't handle complex shots - because for the longest time, you were stagnant in your field of expertise. Deal with that as well. So if we have 8 hours, we'll squeeze every possible minute out of it. Do I really care how many shots we made you shoot? It was a business deal. 8 hours of studio time. 8 hours worth of shots. Deal with it.
That's how it works now. Your megabytes in your memory card accounts to nothing. It's your time and expertise that we are paying you for now. Commercial photographers nowadays are no longer just a photographer. They have to be like what a visualizer is. Take a vision and make them a reality. By that, they'll need to employ every single knowledge they have and more. If it requires 30 hours of photoshop work, then so be it. Can't photoshop, employ an artist! If not, then you'll no longer be sought after. Nobody wants that to happen. So move with the times. It's the only possible way if we want to stay competitive in this world. Stop bickering and embrace change... and the key to change, is to let go of fear.
Oh, and if you are wondering what's gonna happen to that photographer, well don't worry.
I'll deal with it.
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