Mac vs PC, My Biggest Mistake On Set, and the Accounting Software I Use [Ep208]

Podcast

Aug 9

In this episode, we're discussing the accounting software that I use for my business, the biggest mistake I've ever made on set, why I choose Mac over PC, and how I evaluate new potential hires to work for me.

Hello, and welcome back to the mammy video podcast. My name's Ariel Martinez today. We have some more questions that I am answering from you guys. and, uh, these are, these are getting fun. Let me know in the comments. Uh, what do you guys think of these episodes? And obviously keep bringing on the questions.
I I'm fairly enjoying these. So with, I guess, a very short intro out of the way, let's go ahead and get to a few questions here. Uh, first question, how do you evaluate new people to work with? So. That is a good one because it's always, it's always tricky. I like to, you know, I take pride in the kind of quality of content that I deliver to my clients.
And so I only want to work with people that allow me to achieve said quality. Uh, but you know, with that being said, I know that not everyone's going to be best at everything. So it really depends on the position that I need them for. So for example, if I need a shooter, I need somebody that can fairly know how to use a camera.
If I'm on set, it's not as important at, uh, then if I'm not on set. So if I need an extra shooter, an extra camera operator, , uh, basically if I'm there supervising them, you know, I, I can be a lot more forgiving with regards to quality or, or, uh, if, if, you know, knowing if they can do the job, because I'll be there to watch them.
But if it's somebody, if it's a job, if it's for a job that I'm sending them out and basically trusting that they're going to get the job done without any supervision. I am very meticulous because I have been, um, I don't wanna say burned, but I've been fairly disappointed and it's caused more problems.
Uh, for me, uh, you know, actually I had a recent example of this, where I was in a bind, all of my shooters. I heard I already had 'em on separate jobs on other jobs, and I just basically ran out of shooters. Um, So I went with someone that was recommended and unfortunately just did not work out in terms of what they delivered.
So I'm very, very meticulous. If you ask any of my shooters, um, I'm very meticulous on, um, camera settings and how I want things to be shot because I want it to be like, I'm the one shooting it myself. So I'm very, very specific. On camera settings on exposure, et cetera, et cetera. Um, apparently this, uh, shooter, uh, they, I, I don't know if they ignored everything I just said.
Um, and you know, the, the, the footage that was delivered just was not to the quality that I needed. Um, and everything was completely underexposed, even though I was very meticulous on the, on the metering part, like make sure. You know, for slog you're ex overexposing and whatnot, and it just did not work out that way.
It was, it was a very big disappointment I had to go in and sort of try to salvage all the footage for the client. Um, and, uh, this is actually, um, a. Actually, thankfully, this is one of the few projects that I had done, where I actually had to do the post production that we were also contracted to do post production.
So, um, thankfully what they needed was the final product. So I was, you know, I was able to go in there and fix a lot of the footage, uh, that that was delivered and, and, and. Submit a fairly decent, uh, final product. Um, but yeah, that was a big disappointment. It would've been bad if we had to deliver that footage, uh, straight to the client, I would not have been happy with that, nor would the client have been happy with that, but yeah, one of the things that I look for, for example, in this, in this case, if I'm looking for a shooter, I'm not necessarily looking for.
So if I'm evaluating your work, for example, if you're submitting stuff for me to work, uh, to, to sort of work with me or to try to get hired or whatnot, and I'm looking at your reel, um, I'm not really paying attention to the color too much. I'm not, not that that doesn't impress me. Because I know color, and I know that it could be redone if we needed to, I'm mostly paying attention to exposure and I'm paying attention to, uh, framing, to composition, to camera movements, things that tell me, you know, how to handle, you know, your way around the camera and how to use it, how to maneuver it, how to capture the moments, um, whether it's unscripted content or if it's an event.
And you're just capturing to do a recap video. I'm paying attention to those little details like that. Um, more than the final product I'm, I'm paying attention to cuz the, the, the editing stuff could, it could always be reedited and it could always be recolored it cannot be reshot more likely than not.
So the things that I'm making. You know, I need to pay attention to is do you know how to capture the moment? So that's very, very important. Do you know how to expose for the, uh, the captured moment? Um, if you're using your camera on AMA, you know, and you know what I've, I've recorded some great content.
This wasn't necessarily for a job. I was shooting with the FX three. I was basically, I was at an event for my dogs. Uh, we had a little meetup there for all these golden retrieve. which was fun. And I didn't feel like messing with settings or anything like that. So I basically set my camera to auto exposure, still shooting slog three, making sure that my aperture stays the same.
So use the shutter and ISO to basically adjust to keep that. You know that exposure at two stops over like, which you should be doing for slog. Um, and it worked fairly well. So I'm not, I'm not opposed to, to leaving the camera on auto, if that's something that if I'm in desperate need and the person just kind of, if, if they make me nervous um, I rather just tell them, listen, leave the settings as they are, and just go out there and shoot.
I know you can capture moments, go do that. You know, don't worry about settings, cuz I'd rather. Let the camera tell you how, if it's over or under, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm actually okay with that. I just need to know that you know how to capture the moments, that's all. Uh, so that, that's something that I look for.
Um, and that is very, very important because having to drastically, um, bring that exposure higher in post, it's just not something that I'm interested in doing or delivering to my clients because. It, it just, it really degrades the quality of, of the final product. So it's not something I wanna do. So that's for that.
And now whether it's editing or whatnot, like editing is something else that I have to look at your work and pay attention to the editing, to the cuts. Do you know how to tell stories? Do you, can you tell when audio is not good? Can you tell and if it's not good, can you fix it? Um, can you tell when something is just off in the pacing of the story that's being told, um, Things like that.
Are you gonna make more work for me? Am I gonna have to redo this for you? Like, those are the things that I'm really looking for. When I look for hiring people, obviously it's the work that you do. Uh, so that that's very, very important, um, is to make my job easier and. You know, as I grow my business, it, it, you know, I trying to find, I have a small handful of people that I use over and over again, because I've, they've been tried and tested and, you know, none of us are perfect.
Uh, so I try to just basically get people that can get the job done. Right. So if I'm hiring somebody to do audio. Do audio and do it well, you know, I want you to know when the audio's bad when it's usable, uh, when we have to stop production to wait for this sound to, to clear et cetera. So things like that, um, it's very, very important that the production that the recording of whatever it is that we're capturing comes out without any issues, you know, and if we have to stop production because you hear something or you see something on your camera, whatever it is, You know when to make that call.
So those are the things, um, that I look for people that know their way around the camera that know how to maneuver that have experience doing this. And, um, that basically they have to give me confidence that I don't even have to worry about your shot because you know what you're doing. All right. Next question.
What is the biggest mistake you've made on set? Oh man, this is a good one. Um, so actually earlier on, on the podcast, I, I think it's one of the first. either the first five or first 10 episodes. I had a, I have an episode titled the biggest mistake of my career and this still tops as number one. So basically long story short, because I had made a whole episode on that one a few years ago.
Um, I was hired, this was early in my career. I was hired to shoot for, for Lexus, uh, a Lexus dealership here in Miami. And. I go to the dealership and this was actually referred to the general manager of that store was a very close friend of mine from my church. And I, I go in there, um, you know, I'm the camera operator.
So they needed me to take photos and video of their dealership. This is again, I'm, I'm new in my career. And so they come and they showed me their most prized possession. Um, the, so they come and they show me their most prized, um, I guess, trophy that they, they get every year from Lexus headquarters. And, um, it's this huge, heavy trophy it's like has a marble base.
So it's so heavy and a glass orb or ball right on top of sitting right on top. and they wanted me to take pictures of it. And, um, the first thing I asked, cuz I knew we were gonna need to move it other places so that we can get the best angles, et cetera, et cetera. Uh, the first thing I asked them, does this, does this, uh, ball, does glass ball sitting on top?
Does that. Come off. Does it stay, does it able to be removed or is, is that gonna fall off or is it stuck on there? Like, is it soldered on or I don't know how, you know, they would put that and they assured me that it was, it was on that. That's not coming off. So in my mind, I'm like, okay, that's not gonna fall.
So this is all one piece. This whole big trophy. Anyways, as I took the Liberty of, um, after asking for permission, uh, I took the Liberty of, of grabbing the trophy and moving it around. This thing was heavy, like very, very heavy, um, you know, but I, I had some strength in me, so I was able to carry it. But after a while of holding it, trying to determine the, the best place, um, I started getting a little tired.
And so, uh, we're trying to position it. So in every, you'll see in most dealerships and the inside, the, the cars that are inside the dealership inside the building are their best cars. And their most prized cars are like dead center in the middle, middle, middle. We were right next to the, the most prized car, the most expensive car in the dealership, dead center of the, the entire building.
I was holding the trophy. And I decided, you know, it's getting heavy. I was only two hands. So I go and bring the trophy up to my shoulder so that I can hold it better. With one hand, while my left arm give my left arm a break. I was holding it sideways with one hand. And at that point, the ball, I felt it cuz the ball ended up behind my head.
It rolled off the trophy. I'm like, that's not good. And then out of nowhere, I just not out of nowhere. Obviously I saw it coming, but. Hits the car that's in the middle of this dealership and falls to the ground and it just shatters. Oh, the entire dealership went quiet. That was the longest, like five, six seconds of my life.
I was so embarrassed. So embarrassing. I, I could not believe that that just happened. It dented this car that's in their dealership. That's their most expensive Lexus that they had there. And it, the trophy just shattered on the ground. It was just. Oh, my God. That was bad. So anyways, um, I put the trophy down.
Uh, we continued on with the shoot. Obviously everyone was disappointed. Uh, you know, obviously their, their most priced trophy is broken. Um, nothing that can't be fixed. I don't even know the price of that, you know, and needless to say, I didn't get paid for that job. I still delivered everything that they had hired me to do.
Um, But I did not. Uh, I didn't even, I didn't even pursue payment. Like put it that way. I was that embarrassed. I, I delivered them. Everything. I didn't even pursue payment. Um, yeah, it was it was, it was bad. All right, next question. Are you Mac or PC? Why? I am a Mac person. there was another episode that I did where I switched over from Mac to PC.
That was an attempt to try to give PC, um, a chance I've always heard. Yeah, you get a lot more for PC, a lot more bank for your buck. You get a lot more power, etc. Etcetera, et cetera. I gave it a chance. I tried going to PC. I really did. I went, I invested like a little over $2,000 on a machine. This is like several like four years ago.
I wanna say, um, I invested in a PC. And it was nothing but issues from the beginning, like, like crazy amounts of issues. Um, and I didn't build this PC. Like I, I just bought it built, so I don't know why I was getting so many alerts and warnings and notifications and the biggest problem wasn't even the, the, the issues that it had.
The biggest problem was that there weren't easy to find solutions to these issues. So I was spending an enormous amount of time trying to troubleshoot this computer more than. I, I, I should like it. It was just ridiculous. And at a certain point, I said, you know what, forget this. I'm going back to Mac. Um, I don't have time for this.
I don't, I cannot afford to continue to spend time, um, trying to troubleshoot this machine. And even if I do figure it out and wait for the next one, you know, so, um, I went back to apple, everything, you know, I mean the very few issues that I ever have with apple, with Mac, um, the very few, like it's easily resolvable, and I always find some sort of tutorial on either how to fix it.
Um, seriously, like it's, I've just never had any issues. Um, uh, all of that on top of the fact that J you know, the apple ecosystem has just really, really been. Uh, so efficient for my workflow, keeping my calendars in one place, my emails in one place. And yes, I know you could probably do that with Android and all that stuff, but, and, you know, with Google and whatnot, which I still use Google, but, uh, it's, it's just something that I've really grown fond of and just.
Man, everything, even my apple watch and just iPads, just everything. Uh, excuse me. I hit the mic there. Just everything that I have of apple just works seamlessly. What I like about apple is that they, they come out with things and it just works. It really, really does. Um, so for the sake of efficiency and those of you that been listening to me for a while, they know, you know, that.
Efficiency is a big thing for me. So, um, I, I need things to get out of my way to work the way that they're supposed to work and we move forward. We go on. So yeah, for me, it's apple all the way. Um, and it just makes things life so much easier. Yeah. Am I paying more? Absolutely. Of course I'm paying more. Um, but that's what I'm paying for.
I'm paying for the efficiency of having everything working. Properly having no issues. So, uh, yeah, it's it, it really is. Um, at the end of the day, for me, the much, uh, worthwhile purchase on just about everything, really, what bookkeeping software do you use? So I use QuickBooks, uh, I, I think for me, I've, I've been using them since I started the business.
Uh, and I've grown more. So, uh, when I first started the business, I just use a small amount of feature. I didn't have, uh, much to use from there at the beginning, but now as I've been growing and expanding and, and kind of analyzing my business and my numbers, I have grown to really, really like the software.
Um, it gives me so much, uh, what I can do and one of the main features that I love to use and I've. Convince several people, uh, to, to go to QuickBooks for this, uh, feature on how I use it, basically on how I manage my business, you know, aside from the, the, the standard invoicing estimating, collecting payments, um, seeing your profit and loss, uh, you know, the basic things like that, you know, having your services already.
In there recorded and, you know, just invoice. It makes things easier. One thing that I like to do now that, you know, as I expand my arsenal gear and everything. I like to keep tabs on every single piece of equipment that I have and how much money it's making for me. So if I buy the FX nine camera, uh, with the intention of, uh, renting it, you know, like, so every time I go on set, I'm, I'm charging a fee to not only, not for myself only, but also for the camera itself.
The same thing for my lights, for my audio equipment, et cetera, my GI of my slide or my drone, everything. Um, so I'm charging a fee for every single one of those things. And, um, one of the things that I like to see is how much money at the end of the year, how much money has this one item made me. Um, and you know, if, if you have a camera that costs you $3,000, but at the end of the year, you see that, that one.
Made you $10,000 by itself. Just renting it out. Every time you go on production, you have your, your fee and the camera fee that camera fee gets recorded. At the end of the year, you could see your, your, your camera alone just by using it and charging a fee for it has made you this much. Now you can make an educated decision as to whether or not you should buy another one, because not that it might make you the same amount.
Like it's not like you, it's gonna double that. Let's be honest, not, not every time they request for two cameras for, let's say, for example, but now, you know, like there's a high demand for that camera, you know, and maybe something you can also start recording. How many times are they asking me for two cameras?
You know, that should be something that, uh, you can look to. So that's why I have my FX three, uh, two FX, three cameras. I have my FX nine cameras. I have my a seven, four camera. So hardly my, my, my clients hardly ask for, uh, the same of every camera. So if I show up with an FX three and an FX nine, my clients are perfectly fine for the most part.
Um, but they are asking for multiple cameras and every now and then every now and then, um, I get asked for like three to four cameras shooting at the same time. And so the fact that I can facilitate all that and, and record it in my books and, and, and put a. Uh, a number down for every single camera. For my audio equipment for my lighting equipment, depending on how much they need, it's just making it more profitable to use it.
And so QuickBooks allows me to have all of that recorded, uh, seamlessly. So every time I add it in my invoice and that invoice gets paid. In my QuickBooks, it gets recorded as this camera made you this much, your lighting gear made you this much. This made you this much, et cetera, et cetera. So, um, it's been very, very profitable.
I, I love doing that. That way. I can make educated decisions in the future future as to what equipment I should be investing in because it's actually bringing in. Uh, more profit, uh, to do so. So, uh, that's kind of why I use QuickBooks, but listen, that's just the way that I use it. I'm sure there are other softwares out there that do the same.
I cannot speak to them because I've never used them, uh, off the top of my head. I've I've heard of fresh books. I know some people use fresh books. Uh, some people use PayPal, some people use square. I don't know if they go offer all of that. I'm maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I, I have no idea. I'm just sharing the, the software that I use, but that's kind of what I.
Uh, used there, but anyways, this has been a good episode. That's just another few questions that you guys have been submitting and I'm really, really enjoying them. So please continue to submit more. You can find me on Instagram at Ariel Martinez dot Jr. Which is dot Jr. And uh, for the podcast or for the, the company.
At Miami video services. So thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget to RA give us a five star rating over on iTunes. We really appreciate that. It makes us, uh, look good. And, uh, we'll see you on the next episode of the Miami video podcast.