The statement above has been used by some as a humorous remark to difficult clients but is actually based on a valuable mantra in the production industry: changing one of the three main considerations of a production - quality, speed and cost - usually impacts the other two. We’ll try to explain the relationship between the three with the idea that a better-educated client can better manage their projects.
Consider shooting a TV commercial. The end product will likely be seen by a multitude of potential customers so you want it to look and sound good. Therefore, your production needs to use high-quality, cinematic equipment. Additionally, your company recently had a board meeting and your CEO just now told you that he wants the next commercial airing next quarter. Therefore, your production needs to be delivered quickly. Now, you have to figure out the budget.
Using high-quality, cinematic equipment obviously costs more than using consumer-grade tools that can only obtain home-movie style results. And a fast turnaround time will require many people working many hours to get everything done. People and their time cost money. The budget for this type of situation simply might not be as low as you’d like.
Now, what if we have more time to get things done? Well, as mentioned in our Marketing Tip this month, a good production team can offer a crew that can handle multiple tasks. For instance, on our Nautical Landings shoot, both Lance Robson and Robert Kildoo performed a multitude of duties. The two crew members each filled the roles of lighting tech, dolly grip, camera assistant, producer, audio tech, production assistant, client liaison, gaffer and assistant director, among others. And our director, Brian Satchfield, also served as editor and executive producer. Sure, we could have gotten everything done a little faster had we added an additional crew member or two but we would have had to charge the client for that. Since the budget was more of a concern that speedy delivery, a small sacrifice in time saved significantly on the budget.
And sometimes, just sometimes, a speedy delivery at a low cost is more important than a high-quality product. We don’t normally work on many of these types of products because we simply prefer not to cut corners on our productions. But the point needs to be made that you can generally pick any two of the three components - high quality, fast delivery or low cost. Be wary of someone who offers all three.
