Elevation Photos Blog

Sarasota Film Festival Selects Elevation Photos

March 26th, 2009

Elevation Photos Selected As The Official Photo Agency For 11^th Annual Regal Entertainment Group Sarasota Film Festival Held in Sarasota, FL Beginning March 27^th thru April 5^th, 2009

Elevation Photos, in its second year with the Sarasota Film Festival (SFF), has been selected to be the official photo agency on record for this year’s exciting film festival. SFF 2009 is in its 11^th year of showcasing independent movies and is being proudly sponsored by the Regal Entertainment Group.

Santa Monica, CA  March 26th, 2009 – Entertainment photography agency Elevation Photos (www.ElevationPhotos.com) will be present at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival held in Sarasota, Florida to offer quality, professional event photography for all the main events surrounding this well established and respected film festival beginning March 27^th and concluding April 5^th with a special closing night tribute at the Sarasota Opera House.

Elevation Photos, launched in January 2008, has already been selected by top PR firms, fashion houses fortune 1000 companies and major editorial publications across the country to handle their event, portrait, corporate photography and media distribution needs. With a string of successful accomplishments ranging from events surrounding the Super Bowl, Fashion Week, MTV VMA’s and The Oscars, Elevation Photos has proven it can deliver quality images and placements in major publications around the world.

About Sarasota Film Festival

In July, 1998, international and independent film enthusiasts founded the Sarasota Film Festival, Inc. (SFF). They sought to create a balanced festival of foreign and domestic film complemented by the participation of the film and entertainment industry. The following January, SFF launched its first festival. The “mini-festival” featured eight independent films, two premiere screenings, two educational symposiums and a gala fundraiser. Since then, SFF has grown in length, (from three to ten days), attendance (from 2,300 to over 45,000) and scope (from 10 screenings to over 200 films, and adding nationally-recognized education programs, over a dozen special events, and talkbacks and panels with some of the leading voices in film today. For more information visit http://www.sarasotafilmfestival.com/2009

Timing The Economy And Bob's 16 Rules

  (Atmos Clock By Chad Buchanan/Elevation Photos)

This economy is making everyone re-evaluate their lives, careers and who and what they want to be. The “correction” everyone seems to be writing about or experiencing is definitely a reaction to the current state of affairs in all of our lives and not just on Wall Street. Some good people I know are planning to move out of town because of it, some people have left town in search of it while others are just seeing where the next day will take them because something has happened to them to make them happy and glad to be part of it.

In any case, for some people the economy has come at the worst time while others perhaps the best in terms of a re-evaluting their lives today. Personally, knowing myself I am certain I would have taken the path that I have chosen today with Elevation Photos. When I launched Elevation it had more to do with being an entrepreneur, starting my own business and being my own boss and I am pretty sure I would have launched this thing sour economy or not. The timing of it was just right.

Just the other day, some good folks I know at Getty were laid off which is never a good thing. But knowing some of them, I think in a way it'll be an opportunity to reboot their drive and ambition in more ways than they know. I've only been terminated from a job once in my life and as a result of that I took 5 days, headed down to Florida and signed up at a golf academy.  Ever since then, I've been hooked and I've gotten worse every year (LOL)

In the end, I am a believer that when one door closes another opens. Yes, it's tough out there and my wife and I talk about it every day just like the rest of us but what we share is faith that us and the people we know will get through whatever trying times this economy has brought to everyone.

On a ligther, goofier yet somewhat serious note the guy that started that company Go Daddy.Com, Bob Parsons, is not just famous for his ridiculous million dollar ads during the Superbowl every year with scantily clad women promoting of all things a website domain name registery company ( but the commercials did get you to that site  now didn't it) he is also somewhat famous for his now infamous 16 rules for success in business and life in general. ( wow, what a run on sentence!)

The usuals such as Rule #2 Never Give Up and Rule# 8 Be Quick To Decide are the industry standard for all of these types of lists but I like Rule#10 Anything That Is Not Managed Will Deterioate and Rule#9 Measure everything of significance.   He adds these tiny antecdotes for each of his rules so have a spin and judge for yourself.  It's not Sun Tzu but it's not claiming to be....

http://bp.bobparsons.com/gdshop/bp/gear.asp?ci=8283

Hope Springs Eternal Round 2

After listening to Obama's speech just now about re-invigorating the Small Business Administration's purpose to helping Main St. and his bashing of the bonuses that AIG announced their executives will be receiving, I see signs of hope for this coming Spring and am optimistic about our country's turn around.

In just the last few weeks, I have seen some positive signs on my end that show a slow but steady road to recovery. After just completing some assignments in different parts of the country, I have a few coming up outside of California that indicate things may in fact be warming up for customers and their clients which is good for Elevation Photos.

It will be interesting to see how this year plays out in terms of our industry. I am pretty certain that Elevation Photos was the only entertainment based agency to launch at all in 2008 and the fact that we are here today despite all that has gone on is a testament to the fortitute and resiliency that we have shown as a small business during these challenging times. I have no doubt that 2009 will bring about new agencies ( I expect one to launch very soon that I will welcome) but along with it I want and hope fore new ideas.

I have called for our industry to reboot itself in previous posts and I will continue to do so now because the old ways of doing business is dead.  To act as if it isn't is just a fallacy on your part and if you aren't thinking about or creating ways to move in to the next phase of where this industry is headed you will be surely left behind.  That's not just a message to photographers but for sales people, editors, managers, the whole kitten caboodle.  Bill Clinton once said that to end a war you need to start one and militancy aside, I would argue and extrapolate from that and go one step further, in order to end mediocrity one needs to rise above it not only to challenge the establishment but to make not only it better but make it work for yourself as well.

So that hope springs eternal round 2 comes to fruition, one must ask oneself am I really attaining my best ability and potential or is it just easy to sit back and watch the world pass you by. For some of you yes, but for most of you I have no doubt you know what I am talking about. Cogs in the wheel get old and eventually get replaced.  But, if you create your own mechanism and/or enhance /sharpen your tools you will benefit from it.

[Cue Tony Robbins DVD...just kidding]

Why Are We Settling For Less?

There isn't a day or week that goes by when photographers, agency owners and people in our line of work say to me , " Mick, I wasn't able to get access to this or that event." And when I ask them why not a typical answer was because they were just flat out denied! I say to them, did you speak with the care taker or the person who takes care of everyone?  

Same goes for when someone gets a statement for $2 from their agency and they tell me, "Mick, could you believe that I got a statement for less than what a slice of NY pizza costs these days."  I say to them, why are you still working for said agency then?

Or when someone tells me they are doing an assignment for a particular fee ( i.e. less than market price) or worse yet for free I scratch my head and wonder what is going on? What happened?  

WHY ARE WE SETTLING FOR LESS? 

It amazes me that in such a short amount of time, the value of what we all produce has gone down by some insanely low depression era type numbers. Granted the editorial market is in a free fall and the bozos who are giving content away for free in exchange for 2 cents on the dollar will soon come to know that there isn't money in CPC, CPI's and any other ad sense scheme that is all the rage these days.  Yes, Twitter just raised $35 million bucks on a new round of funding but how, where and what model are they planning to make the money back on for their investors?  

I read an article the other day about how Wall Street got us into this current economic mess with the fact that they along with private equity firms traded credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities,etc on the hypothetical calculations that should these risks generate returns than the markets will benefit and everyone will make money. The operative word here is hypothetical calculations and we all know where those went now don't we. On top of all these transactions being unregulated has caused even that much more pain for everyone! 

The point here is that if you get denied to an event, premiere or festival fight it because you have to.  If you get an assignment charge market rates for it but don't do it for less and don't ever do it for free!  This false illusion that it will get you in with the right people is a false one and you just lost the only thing you have to negotiate with ...your talent! 

Lastly, and I might be preaching to the choir here, but hold your prices and fight for media companies to pay you more. Be smart about it of course but saying the economy is bad when a magazine you know sells millions just makes your case ( and mine) that much more convincing when you sit down to negotiate.  It is an art but it's not rocket science! 

I can't stand Donald Trump as a person but do you think he would license his name, his image for nothing or charge lower than market rates to have people put his name on a big building in somewhere USA?  Of course not, he has built his name to mean something to different people but the last thing you think about anything associated with the Donald is that he didn't do it for free...

What's all the chatter about Buzz?

I just got back from visiting a cool assignment Elevation Photos is part of up near Eagle Rock here in LA ( sorry the images will never be made public!) and was going through my emails to find about a dozen of them all forwarded to me about what was posted today on both John Harrington's blog and Paul Melcher's blog about the Buzz foto distirbution deal they have with Getty.

Read below for more in depth reporting

http://blog.melchersystem.com/

http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/

Having just read them both, it doesn't surpise me at all that Getty would want this content. If they can use one of their many portals to deliver these street photos and try to bury them on the Film Magic site I guess they can and they have done so.

Believe me, I understand the issues at stake that John and Paul bring up and having been part of that company for many years am surprised they weren't more careful to think that agencies like mine wouldn't use this as an advantage ( and others as well) when speaking with Publicists, etc. I was aware of this partnership a while back and have benefitted from it and rightfully so. If Getty thinks they can own the world (both inside and out) they just took about 2 steps back in trying to reclaim it. Surprise..people in the industry read the bylines of photos, put 2 and 2 together and bingo the cat is so obviously out of the bag!

Having said that, I have met Brad ( who owns Buzz) and love the guy.  And it's funny that Getty having bought his old company (Online USA) have now reached back and decided to work with him again.  Funny, I never have gotten such a call and you would think that the content generated by my company's assignments my old compadres would want to try and make money off of and from a  business standpoint wouldn't that make sense?  I swear I am just about as personable as Brad so it must be something else...

ANYWAY, ...man I just keep getting dragged back in to these arguments and blog postings. Getty or Getty Vast or Darth Vader Images whatever the case the important thing to get out of all this is that Elevation Photos is thriving, growing and will continue to grow despite all the doom and gloom scenarios people want to write about what everyone else is doing. Trust me, I have had my share of it but the smart ones know how to maneuver, take advantage when the door is wide open and is 2 steps ahead of your closest competitor. 

Because the minute you make the same mistake on your end, trust me, these guys will be all over you!  Stay sharp, be smart and do what you know needs to be done to get it right....