Subject: Re: Long help message
From: "J. David Johnson" <[email-masked]>
To: Ted Stethem <[email-masked]>
Cc: LightWaveMailingList <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 11:54:39 -0500 (EST)

Ted,

I am in a similar situation to yourself.  I own a small video production 
company, Video GT.  I started it a few months ago by selling animations to
a local video production company.  They now have added product line and I
have a little bit of steady money coming in.  I too, am operating 
"part-time" as, like you too (probably), have a full-time job.

I sell cable television advertising for our local cable company.  I'm lucky
in that way as I've learned about the commercial production end, marketing
amd promotion, and am privy to the leased access information.

You CAN start part-time and make a decent "additional-income".

Your questions are the same as I had a few short months ago, and there are
no hard and fast rules.  Here are the roads I took and why.

First off, what format?  The best you can afford!  I chose the Flyer System,
because, in essence, it will give me all I'll need (BETACAM-SP) and more.

With the Flyer System, I really don't need to purchase an expensive deck for
input or output. (Especially in your case, as your tower would be very 
transportable)  I simply take my system in to a production company and have
them dump it to the format of choice.

Of course this is the beginning, as eventually I will want a BetaCam deck of
my own.  As far as animation output, again by the best you can afford.

The PAR, i've heard is real nice as is the V-Lab Motion card.  I would opt
however, for the Flyer.  As an animation recorder, it's great!  Base 
system for you would incluse Toaster 4000 card - approx. $1800 - The 
Flyer Card - approx. $4000 and one (YES, ONE) 2 gig drive. Approx. $1800.

$7,600 and you've got a real nice animation system.  Add a 1/2 gig audio 
drive, and you can put together a cuts only demo tape with music bed and
sound effects.  Toasterpaint will let you create you own images for 
texture mapping, and the Toaster will grab frames for backgrounds, logos, 
etc.

There really is so many options and based upon your expected return vs. 
available cash now, you'll need to decide what's best.

Rule of thumb as I said before - buy the best you can afford, and get the 
most for your dollar.

I chose the Flyer, I could afford it (BARELY) and for me offers me the best
bang for my buck.  Of course I do full video production, not just animation.

But if I were in your shoes, the Flyer still offers you the most value 
for your dollar.  The nice thing is that we (part-timers) can afford to
take it a step at a time, and therefore can afford NOT to make a huge 
amount of profit right away.

Last but not least, keep in touch, write down my address and E-Mail me from
time to time.  I would enjoy (and financially prosper) from exchanging 
thoughts from another who is doing almost the same thing as I.

( I know my opinion is just one of many, take it with a grain of salt)

J. David - Video GT