Inspire Design Create with David Lee

When you're just starting out, how much is your time worth? Have you been low balled time and time again? In this episode I wanted to cover The 3 Things to help determine what to charge clients, whether it's your first year or if you've been freelancing for some time, we always need to identify:

1.) What is the client's budget?

2.) What are their expectations

3.) What is your profit number?

By discovering these three things you'll run into less headaches during your discovery engagement calls, you'll be able to determine all expectations for the project to reduce unseen headaches and create accountability for both you and the client, lastly you will start to track how much your rates have increased or stayed the same over time which gives you more information on where you can start to scale your business and profits.

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

We are back with Film Director Mark Bone to wrap up our conversation around documentary filmmaking and practical tips you can take into your life. Part 1 we covered a lot of the technical, logistical and creative choices for doc films and in Part 2 we come full circle in terms of what our passions are and how that translates into this journey we call filmmaking. Mark gives his advice on how to start your journey as a documentary filmmaker, why he started the Art of Documentary and we also touch upon a bit of his experience in the commercial industry and where his current passions are.

For more information on the Art of Documentary please check out the link here: https://theartofdocumentary.com/

Mark's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4exYtWOlHd4mL-owyyA12w

Mark's Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/markbone

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

When I first started my freelance career I was told to niche, but then reality sank in because I had no idea how to niche documentary style work. I took advice from others who at the time had already been in the business for 10+ years but they didn't necessarily tell me about how they got there, they just offered their advice based upon when they "finally arrived". In today's episode I want to break down this highly debated topic, "Should you Niche or Generalize?".

In the beginning it's okay to generalize in your freelance career because you need to build a portfolio, you need to develop and hone in on your craft and visual tastes along with all the other requirements for being a cinematographer and small business owner. As time moves on and you progress not only in your skill set as a DP/Cinematographer but you'll start to focus in on what you really want to do and based upon that, start charging more for your services and speciality.

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

If you've been searching for the best documentary course and community, look no further as we have Mark Bone on the podcast! Mark is an award winning documentary film director, commercial director and curating some of the best content for documentary filmmakers on his YouTube channel with close to 100K subscribers as of this recording. I was excited to be able to get Mark on the show to gather his insight and perspective when it comes to documentary films, how to get off the ground running, what fears we have as a creatives and so much more that I had to split the podcast up into two parts!

In Part 1 we talk about his journey from going on humanitarian projects to not knowing what to do after graduating high school. We touch upon his time during film school and how documentary created the spark that allowed him to express the need to tell incredible stories. I also wanted to get a little bit into his YouTube channel and what inspired him to start it and let me tell you, we tell it allll in this one!

Check out Mark's new academy and community he's building with The Art of Documentary (https://vimeo.com/443198808) 

His YouTube channel for free documentary tips, behind the scenes and gear reviews (https://www.youtube.com/user/markandrewbone/featured)

His Instagram for some great inspiration (https://www.instagram.com/markandrewbone/)

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram www.instagram.com/atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

A hot topic for a lot of owner/operators out in the world is "Are you always working?". That question I believe varies depending on what you're normally hired for but as far as a working cinematographer goes I don't think you are and that's okay. The reason being is your day rate as a cinematographer is usually pretty good as you are responsible for the visuals and that alone pays fairly well. Now on the flip side if you're still in year 2 or year 3 trying to figure things out you might be working a lot more compared to your peers or those you look up to.

I'm reminded of a very good quote that applies to all of us, "Comparison is the thief of happiness". When you find yourself comparing where you are to where others are, just remember they've had their own journey of ups and downs. That being said I do offer some tips on navigating the space you're in when you aren't working and hopefully it helps!

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

In today's podcast episode we are talking about client contracts, what they are, why you need them, and when do you need them? Contracts help set the scope of work for a project, it promotes and establishes commitment to the project and gets you paid! For most, contracts can seem overwhelming and they can be but I wanted to share this episode with you in hopes that you find some information to use for your business when it comes to creating contracts and how to navigate some of the items to put into contracts.

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

I've done it, i've moved over to the dark side...no we're talking about Star Wars but we are talking about moving all of my post production work to Davinci Resolve. Now i'm not completely new to Resolve i've been using it for client and personal work for the past two years but there were still some things that weren't 100% there and I couldn't drop my Premiere/AE workflow for it, until now!

In today's episode i'll talk about what struggles I had when moving to Resolve, the plug-in community and how it differs compared to FCPX, a great place to find templates for AE/Premiere that i've used for the past 4 years and some similarities between all three to help you transition to Davinci Resolve.

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

What in the world is "Cinematic"? I think a few years ago everyone on Earth could easily say what is cinematic but with the advent of social media marketing, influencer content creators and others it's quite hard to pinpoint what CINEMATIC is. In today's episode I give my definition of what Cinematic/Cinematography is and how that translates into the world we live in today. At the end of the day I believe something can LOOK CINEMATIC but not FEEL CINEMATIC and the opposite is true as well.

If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Subscribe to the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

Thinking about that next big purchase that you want to rent out while you're not using it? Is it a camera, a set of lenses, maybe some new lights or filters? I've been there and done that and made mistakes along the way so in today's episode we're talking about what types of gear I would invest in if you were looking to rent out 100%, why you need to buy a full camera package rather than a camera alone if you're looking to rent out, why lights are THE BEST GEAR to invest in for rentals and my thoughts on avoiding buying lenses.

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee 

On today's show we have Cinematographer David Woo! David works in the documentary and commercial space which is a very familiar space for myself as well. We get into how he started with his love of photo journalism and documentary photography to progressing into the realm of commercial cinematography, what camera and lenses he loves to use to craft the images he's looking for and so much more!

Check on all of David's work on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/davidwooofficial/ as well as his website https://www.davidwoo.com/ 

If you enjoy this episode please rate the podcast and let me know who else I should have on next!

www.atdavidlee.com | www.legendarymediahouse.com | Instagram @atdavidlee | YouTube www.youtube.com/atdavidlee