Film Festival Madness

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If nothing else, the Toronto Film festival serves as an example of how not to run an event. You might think that going into its 35th year, the film festival would know how to properly run a media event. But you’d be wrong.

Make no mistake, the primary function of the festival is for movie producers, actors and directors to get publicity for their projects, and for distributors to find buyers for their movies. To help do this, they need media exposure. The reason they come to Toronto is the huge media coverage. The film festival itself acknowledges the importance of this media coverage when it says the festival wouldn’t happen without media attendance.

Where to start?
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From photojournalism to corporate photographer

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“We don’t hire you because of your beautiful, wonderful, terrific photographs,” says corporate communications director Greg Thompson. He goes on to explain that a company hires a corporate photographer to be the “solution to their business problem.”

In a video interview (and shown below) by journalist Stanley Leary, Thompson offers some advice for photographers who are trying to transition from photojournalism to corporate photography.

“It’s about how you do the job, not the job you do.”

 

Defining Professional

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We’re all amateurs. It’s just that some of us are more professional about it than others.

– George Carlin, comedian

 

Professional photographer: Earns a living from photography. Consistently produces quality pictures to suit their customers’ needs. Stands behind their work and takes responsibility for their actions.

Amateur photographer: Has another day job. Produces pictures to please themselves. Has nothing at stake and nothing to lose.

 

Professionals are predictable. Amateurs are not.

An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they can’t get it wrong.

An amateur might know how to fix mistakes. A professional knows how to avoid them.

An amateur has to be good once-in-a-while. A professional has to be good every time.

An amateur is judged by their best photo. A professional is judged by their worst.

People don’t expect much from an amateur but they expect everything from a professional.

 

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.

– Nathan Gilkarov, economist and philosopher

 

Media handout photo quality

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Earlier today, I was looking at some media handout pictures from a movie distributor which is looking to get publicity for an upcoming release:

• The pictures had no captions, no names and no IPTC data. You have to guess who the people are and what/where/when is happening.

• Photos were overexposed by about two stops and had far too much contrast. (EXIF data showed that the pictures were shot on an amateur camera using an auto-exposure mode).

• Pictures were out-of-focus.

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Riding along a new path

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If a customer needs a package to be delivered from point A to point B, they don’t care whether the courier* is talented enough to ride an odd-looking bicycle or not. The only value to the customer is the ability to deliver the package on time. The customer won’t pay more for a fancy set of wheels or any extra cycling skills because these have no value to the customer.

No matter how talented a photographer thinks they are or how many awards they may have won, it’s the customer who determines the value of the photography. The customer’s perception is the photographer’s reality. Unwanted value isn’t any value at all.
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A sporting chance

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One type of photography I do is shooting sports events for the corporate sponsors. These sponsors usually want good action pictures with their logo visible in the photo. These pictures are often used in corporate literature, corporate web sites and media handouts.
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