Yes, you guessed it. Today, Friday September 24 is National Punctuation Day in the USA. Someday, maybe Canada will realize the importance of punctuation and adopt this as a new national holiday.
Here are some official tips on how to celebrate.
Pick Any Two
Remember the consumer saying: “Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two.”
A similar saying is: “High quality, low price, good customer service. Pick any two.”
Of course, we want all three. But that elusive combination doesn’t seem to exist.
When a customer tells a photographer that their photo fees are too expensive, the photographer should then ask: “Okay, I can can give you a lower price but what do you want to give up, quality or service?”
Customers who only shop price are customers that a photographer can live without. These people don’t value a photographer’s work.
Bargain hunters don’t understand that a cheaper price only guarantees them of getting less for less.
What a photography assignment might cost is always less than what it will cost from not having that photography done at all.
Many businesses don’t realize that most commercial photography doesn’t really cost anything. If $1500 worth of photography helps generate $20,000 worth of business, then there was no cost for the photography. The photography was a business investment where the company put money into itself.
Film Festival Finale
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has ended and, as expected, its idiocy continued right to the last event.
On the final night, the last celebrity event started about 30 minutes sooner than expected which caught a handful of photographers off-guard. These photographers arrived, perhaps, 10 – 15 minutes after the red carpet area was “locked down.” (Yes, it actually uses that term for its oh-so-high security efforts).
When this group of photographers arrived, the actors were about 150 to 200 feet away signing autographs for the fans. Possible film festival options:
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Film Festival Questions
And the hits keep coming.
• Internet access was dead again today. Film festival people had no idea what to do about it.
• A TV videographer wanted to shoot B-roll of still photographers working a red carpet, (i.e. video of cameras clicking, flashes popping, photographers calling to celebrities). He wanted to shoot from an open area behind photographers. Sorry, not allowed.
• Another TV videographer wanted to shoot B-roll of celebrities arriving at a press conference with all the flashing cameras. He wanted to shoot from a far corner completely out of everyone’s way. Sorry, not allowed.
• I wanted to shoot an actor being interviewed by TV, (i.e. a photo of actor surrounded by cameras and microphones), by standing in an open area behind TV. Sorry, not allowed.
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Film Festival Strikes Again
It never ends.
• The Toronto Film Festival has large backgrounds covered in sponsor logos. Two days ago, film festival folks told photographers that they *must* get the logo-covered background in all their pictures.
• Film Festival said photographers cannot shoot from any public areas. Photographers must shoot only from designated film festival photo areas. If a photographer shoots from a public area, like the public sidewalk, that photographer will be kicked out of the festival.
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Film Festival Foto Frolics
Entertainment reporter to photographer: “I wish I was a photographer. You don’t have to talk to [the actors].”
During the film festival:
• There were two near fist fights between photographers in the photo areas.
• As macho film star Josh Brolin arrived, a photographer yelled, “Give us a wave!” Brolin stopped and stared, “Are you crazy?”
• When a photographer called actress Eva Mendes “baby”, she stopped and yelled back, “Don’t ever call me ‘baby’!” :
Film Festival Frolics
For those of you playing along at home, here are a few more missteps, mistakes and outright idiocy at this year’s Toronto Film Festival:
• Internet service still not reliable and many times, it’s just dead. The wifi at a nearby Starbucks today was about 45 times faster than the film festival set-up.
• For some unknown reason, the festival doesn’t do printed call sheets (a list of people attending each movie premiere). Instead, it does e-mail call sheets. But the festival doesn’t e-mail sheets to everyone and it forgets some movies entirely. Some call sheets are being sent to newspaper or agency editors, some of whom are located in other countries, rather than being sent to the photographer at the festival.
At one premiere, a publicist from a US movie distributor expressed her surprise at the lack of call sheets and then opened her bag to pull out her studio’s own call sheets complete with names, bios and even small photos to help with IDs. Perfect.
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