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Hi there, everyone! Jet Kaiser is here to remind you stay comfortable while you work!

Several years back, when I was first getting my feet wet in the industry, I was looking to save money every chance I got, even if it meant placing time, health & comfort on the back burner. Now that I understand the true value of time this isn’t the case anymore.

We [filmmakers] are the biggest assets to our businesses and we need to treat ourselves right. Sacrificing comfort to save a couple extra bucks is not smart. Our money needs to go where our time is spent.

Most people don’t realize how much time goes into a wedding film. Hours and hours are spent in the same position, starring at pixels during the editing process. How ergonomic is your workstation? Below is a basic list that I’ve conducted to help with setting up your work areas with comfort, health and time in mind.

A big comfy chair.

This is number one. Choose a chair that is comfortable and gives you support. Chairs with armrests that are the same height as your desk helps you eliminate shoulder stress.  I recommend the Ergohuman ME7ERG.

Monitors that are at eye-level.

I’ve seen workstations where the editor has to look up to see the screens (like playing sample video games at Wal-mart). It won’t take long for the editor to develop some nasty neck and back pain. Keeping our monitors at eye level (or slightly below) will help avoid stress in your neck and ensures that we are seeing our images clearly.

Ergonomic Mice.

Luckily there is a nice assortment of ergonomic mice on the market. Be sure to choose a mouse that fits your hand and has plenty of customizable buttons. I have found that Logitech has some great mice for folks with large hands like myself. Your mouse should fill up all the space under your hand.

Wrist support.

This is a big one and is commonly overlooked. Computer gloves and wrist supports keep your wrists at an optimal ergonomic position and helps prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Last year I started using an IMAK computer glove for my mouse hand and it was the best $15 I spent in 2010. Also, when the UPS guys delivers and notices your glove when you answer the door you can tell him that you are training to become a cagefighter. :->

Lighting.

This also commonly overlooked. We moved into our new home studio last year and I designed it so we would be able to eliminate any glare on our screens. I studied how the big studios (Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, etc.) lit their workspaces and then applied the same principles to our studio. No direct light, only subtle glows.

Shuttles/Controllers.

Whether it is embedded in your editing keyboard or a stand alone like the Contour Design’s ShuttlePro, a shuttle can speed up your editing time all while keeping your hands and fingers in a comfortable position. Check out this post for more information on the ShuttlePro v2.

Have any other helpful ideas regarding ergonomics? Comment below and share your thoughts.

Stay comfy, ya’ll
Jet Kaiser
Jet Kaiser Films

Jet

Jet Kaiser saved up enough money to by his first camcorder at the age of 14 and he's been creating films ever since. He eventually created the Indianapolis-based, Jet Kaiser Films where he collaborates his with his lovely wife, Dani. Together they produce cinematic, story-rich, "motion pictures for those in LOVE™ "

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Let me see a show of hands from those of you who meet your clients at a local coffee shop, or deli? Now let me see a show of hands that have a quiet place like your studio, home, or rented meeting space? I am going to share with you our experience with both and how each location affected our meetings.

When we first started our company we had a space set up in our basement that had our “office”. It worked for us at the time as we both were working other jobs full time and this gave a way for us to work from home and still spend time with our family. Our first 2 years we spend meeting clients at area coffee shops, deli’s, bookstores, etc… We knew where all the Starbucks were in the Indianapolis Metro area.

To be honest, we hated ever minute of having to meet clients this way. It is very difficult to talk and listen as these places can get quite loud. I remember one time the mother of the bride got pretty upset as they couldn’t hear the video we were trying to show them on our laptop. I don’t think we ever booked a job on the spot in those situations.

You are probably asking why we didn’t set something up at our home to meet with clients. Partly because we live a good distance out in the country and our house is hard to find. The other part was we didn’t want a bunch of strangers in our home. We do know some in the industry locally that do have clients come to their home. Some have a space set up just for that reason, while others just meet at their kitchen table or living room. If you meet your clients in your home and have a nice place set up just for your client meetings, that is great! If you don’t have a designated place set up I encourage you to make a specific room your client meeting space – it will make you look that much more professional.

I have heard from clients that have met others at their homes and they said they didn’t seem very professional as they met in the living room and there were kids toys around and dinner cooking and they felt like they were intruding.

We found our current space a full year before we actually took the plunge and rented it. We knew it was the direction we wanted to go. Why you ask? Yearger Properties, who owns/manages the building, has several buildings around the Indianapolis Metro area. The rent for spaces starts at $300 and goes up depending on the size of the space. The cool thing, and what drew us in, was that we can reserve the conference room in any of the buildings 24/7. We inquired about just renting the conference rooms on an as needed basis, but it would be cheaper in the long run to just rent an office space and have the option to use the conference room in any of their 5 locations (soon to be 7).

Conference Room at Noblesville Office Suites

With our initial space in the building, we always met with clients in the conference room first. Then, if things were progressing to a potential booking, we would ask them if they would like to come see our “Studio” and view our work. We would then invite them in, put in some sample dvds and chat.

After moving into the space and meeting clients in the building we saw an increase in our bookings 500% in 1 year. After adding another work station, our little space became more and more cramped, so w moved into another space within the same building. This space is about double what we had, and we created an actual “client meeting area” within the office space.

part of our “Studio” where we meet clients and show our work

We don’t use the conference room very much anymore. We realized that our initial reason for picking this space was the convenience of multiple locations to meet, but to be honest, we have only used that option a few times. We meet with clients in our “Studio” 99% of the time.

We just recently learned of another option in our area for event professionals to meet their clients. It is called L’Evento. They have a library of event professionals and brides can meet with them, view their work, and get their contact info. As an event professional you pay a monthly fee, $85. -$162.

Some friends of ours, SB Childs Photography, belong to L’Evento and it is working well for them. Stefanie told me, “We feel like our clients trust us more. We used to feel like we had to sell ourselves in spite of our meeting location, but now, the building gives that trust, and the clients are sold as soon as they step in the door.” This is a great option if you want to save some money on space and still work from home, and many cities have similar arrangements. Ask around with other wedding professionals in your market to see if they’ve heard of one local to you.

Another option is to see if there are any local event professionals that would like to go in on a space together.

As wedding professionals, we need to portray and convey that we are professionals. If you invest in a great client meeting area, you will see an increase in bookings, and more bookings on the spot. We now close 95% of our deals after the first meeting in the studio versus 0% instantly in coffee shops. Overall, our percentage of bookings went from 50% to 95% after acquiring our current location.

Meeting with clients over coffee a the local coffee shop is fine after you have booked them. :->

Wishing you a great 2010 for your business. Hope to see you at the IN[FOCUS] Event January 18-20 in Austin.

Jennifer Moon
Northernlight Filmworks

John and Jennifer Moon

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Hello In[FOCUS] Reader,

Welcome to the 2nd installment of Organizing Your Workspace!

Our organizing bible is David Allen’s Getting Things Done. He has by far the most in-depth and complete organizational concepts that we were able to find, so much so, it would be the longest post in IN[FOCUS] history if we tried to teach you everything we’ve learned. In part I, Corbin and I shared with you exactly how far we had to go to increase our efficiency by organizing our office and workflow.  Today, this will be more of a teaser for the 3rd and final installment, but also an overview for what you can learn when you read Getting Things Done or listen to the audiobook.

Here are just a few of David Allen’s life-altering strategies and some examples (at the bottom) of how we are implementing them:

The Major Change: Getting Everything Out of Your Head

The Two Key Objectives:

• capturing all things that need to get done out of your mind and into a trusted, logical system
• disciplining yourself to make quick decisions about all the inputs you let into your life, so you’ll always have a plan for next actions that you can implement at any time.

Your Daily To-Do list doesn’t work:

• calendars should be sacred, everything for your day should be able to be completed
• not completing the day’s tasks and having to move them to future dates is unproductive and demoralizing
• the very heart of his Daily Action Management Organization are your calendar and Action Lists

Collecting All Your Life Stuff, So You Can Get It Out Of Your Head:

• every open loop is in your collection, so it’s in your head
• have as few as possible in-baskets, but as many as you need
• empty regularly by reviewing them all

Collection Tools (Your In-Baskets):

• physical in-basket
• paper-based note taking devices
• electronic note taking devices
• recording devices
• email

The above bullet points are the tip of the iceberg from the wealth of knowledge we’ve received from David Allen’s program. Here’s how Corbin and I have implemented it thus far:

• purchased 2nd editing system: MacBook Pro
• bought the latest version of Final Cut Pro Studio and maxed out our RAM for faster editing
• upgraded to Leopard Mac OS
• bought large and small notebooks for more comprehensive note taking
• upgraded our digital calendar and in-basket with Entourage
• organized our GoDaddy email
• said goodbye to our outdated PC and networked our Mac Pro and MacBook Pro with an Airport Extreme
• upgraded our business cell phone with a Verizon EnV Touch
• purchased Quickbooks for easier bookkeeping and bill pay
• hired Donna and her team of We Keep Books for training in Quickbooks and to catch our books up for the year

Our upcoming goals to accomplish a more carefree, efficient life:

• desks with greater workspace and storage capacity
• physical in-baskets
• large paper filing system
• shelving for closet, The Container Store can customize to fit your storage needs

In the third and final entry in this series, we will show you how we executed what we’ve learned from Getting Things Done and how it has benefited our workflow and business!

Dave and Corb, Soulbox

Dave and Corbin Baxter

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