Injury Accident Video « Videomaker Community Forums

Flex Media
Member

Here's a new request for me. I have been asked by a Lawyer to follow his client on the job for a day to show how difficult it is for him to do his job as an Electrician now that he has lost some fingers due to a muzzle loading accident. Apparently ten other people have had this type of barrel (That is not manufactured anymore) blow up on them. Seems pretty straight forward to film. Has anyone done anything like this and did you charge and hourly wage or set fee?

Thanks!

Art

Flex Media LLC
Your Flexible Media Soulutions
http://www.flexmedia.tv

Posted 11 months ago #
composite1
Moderator

Art,

This is considered an 'Investigative Video'. You would still charge your hourly rates for both shooting and converting the footage into digital format, but you would not be allowed to edit the clips lest they be subject to challenge in court. Head and Tail Slate, time stamp the video during the shoot and I highly recommend you shoot it on tape so that the raw footage will be available for examination when the eventual challenge of the material comes.

When you digitize, burn a timecode counter onto the clip at the bottom of the frame so the lawyers can easily call up points on the clips. Use a separate external drive to digitize and process the digitized footage. When it's all done, keep the raw footage and the external drive packaged together locked up in a safe or lockable filing cabinet if they lawyers don't require the original material to be in their custody. Most important, is once it's locked up, don't mess with it! Only take it out when it is requested. Make sure you charge a one-time 'storage fee' if you're keeping the original material onsite.

H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

Posted 11 months ago #
Flex Media
Member

Thank you. All good points. I use P2 cards so I'll have to think about the raw footage aspect.

Thanks

Art

Posted 11 months ago #
composite1
Moderator

Art,

Then 'plan B' is to head and tail slate the beginning and end of your P2 card recordings. Still timestamp the video in camera and when you download the video to your NLE, burn a timecode overlay onto the footage. Don't edit the clips. Bad news is; you may have to submit the original P2's as evidence so don't erase them! Be a real safe bet to just write off the one's you use and put it in the clientn's bill to purchase another set. That's why I recommend using a tape-based camera for this kind of work. Flash media is too expensive to have to cough up like this.

Posted 11 months ago #