Do More, or Less Better?
Posted on | July 9, 2009 |
I knew I liked Ron Dawson the moment I first read one of his blog posts. Now that I’ve been exposed to more of his writing and thoughts over a period of time, I find myself liking him even more. A great example of why is his post from today titled, “Does Content Trump Quality in Video Production?” Take a read and C’mon back.
Check this quote:
We’ve all seen $100 million+ blockbusters with state of the art effects and killer cinematography that absolutely suck! You feel like you wasted 2 hours of your life. Then we’ve seen those $100,000 independent films that make you laugh and cry that you watch over and over and over. In the grand scheme of things, if you HAD to pick one over the other, I’d say content trumps quality every time.
This resonates deeply with me. My day job at MAC Group requires that I take to fruition a huge variety of content, including video. I’ve done it all - from camera, lights and sound, to writing, directing, starring in, producing and editing. And sometimes all at once. On top of that, I am the Editor for an indie film production that is wrapping up post right now as I write this - and its budget versus the one quoted above is but a fraction.
All that being said, I completely agree - having quality and quantity is the ultimate goal, but if something has to sacrifice it should be quality. Why? I’ll give you the math side.
More relevant quality information = more useful information by which people will remember you.
Just think of the math + my opening paragraph. My positive opinion of Ron developed over time and exposure to more of him. Fortunately, he’s got quality in the bag, too - a real class act. But most important is to set a schedule of production and a sustainable level of quality to match that and go to town (and enjoy doing it!).
How do you figure that out? Just get out there and do it. Don’t overthink it or you’ll never learn the lessons that experience brings to your front door. I’ve probably logged about 250 hours of camera time on video and the lessons learned about what it takes to get from concept to delivery couldn’t have been learned from a book.
While you’re at it, check out the rest of his blog to see what I’m talking about. By comparison, it’s obvious that this blog (by open admission) is less focused on the business of photography and more about my observations from life. But that’s why I started it :)
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July 10th, 2009 @ 9:46 am
If my skin wasn’t so dark, you’d see me blushing now. Thanks for the kind words Matt. I look forward to getting to know you even more at Skip’s Summer School. C ya in Vegas.