There are Pros and Cons in any business, it depends on what’s right for the individual and how they like to work and live.

No matter whether you are employed, unemployed or self employed, it can be difficult to achieve the right balance between working and living, for many the line is somewhat blurred, and I speak from experience where this is concerned.

CONS

1. FLUCTUATING INCOME

When Freelancing you will have good and bad months, sometimes you will be working on long projects with nothing to tide you over, or you will have clients who pay really late or occasionally not at all, leaving you short now and then.

2. NO BENEFITS

You will have no company benefits such as healthcare, pension plan or life insurance. You also won’t have any paid holidays or get paid if you are sick.

3. SICKNESS COVER

Following on from above, if you are ill, who is going to finish the project and deliver the work that you are contracted to deliver? If you are ill it may be no fault of your own but in letting down a client, they may not come back again, or worse still make it known that you can’t keep your promises or deadlines.

4. ISOLATION

It can get lonely from time to time working on your own, you also have to be self critical without anyone around to bounce ideas off.

5. DISCIPLINE

A tricky part of running your own business is keeping yourself disciplined with all the distractions at home. Less x-box and cups of tea and more work.

6. CLIENTS

Lets face it, clients can be a pain at times, but there won’t be anyone else to deal with them, it’s all down to you.

7. PAPERWORK

You will also be solely responsible for the accounting and paperwork that comes with any business. It may be a drag but you will have to do it.

8. TECHNICAL HEADACHES

When your computer, printer or internet connection goes down, it’s up to one person to drop tools and sort it out…you guessed it, it’s you again.

9. INITIAL EXPENSE

Starting out as a Freelancer is going to cost you to a certain degree initially. You can’t start earning without the equipment and software you need to create the wondrous stuff you intend to start regularly churning out.

10. LONG HOURS

With all the responsibilities on top of the actual designing, animating, compositing or whatever type of job you do, you can expect some long hours and weekends.

PROS

1. FLEXIBILITY

You will be able to work when you choose to fit your lifestyle. You can take jobs or reject them, it’s all up to you what you do and when.

2. NO BOSS

When you are your own boss you can get up late if you want, have a long lunch, or go skiing at the drop of a hat.

3. HOLIDAYS

Holidays don’t tend to exist in the same way for Freelancers, but if you wanted to extend a holiday, change the dates, or just take a long weekend for the hell of it….you can!

4. MONEY

It’s debateable whether Freelancers actually earn more than employed people over the course of a year,  but at least you know that whatever you agree to do a job for, all the money will be yours to do as you decide. Rememeber to keep some by for the tax bill though.

5. MORE MONEY

You can have more than one income by running several businesses if you like. You can split your time between them as it suits.

6. INCREASE YOUR SKILL SET

If you feel like learning something new, a 3d package, or a new editing tool, or how to knit or arrange flowers you can afford yourself the time and peace to focus on it and get it learnt faster than you could in the office environment.

7. RESPECT

Your peers will appreciate how much effort and skill went into your work and admire your dedication. After all, you did it alone!

8. FREEDOM

The joys of freedom speak for themselves. No, you don’t have to attend 5 dull meetings today because your boss said so!

9. SATISFACTION

When the job is done and delivered, there really is nothing more rewarding. You can sit back content, knowing you did your best…and then start thinking about the next project in the pipeline. It really is satisfying to see what you have accomplished by yourself.

10. FUN

I just love what I do, and I’m sure if you are reading this then you do too. What could be more fun than doing what you love all day, the way you want to do it, and getting paid at the same time. It’s just FUN!!!

The various methods and services below are examples, there are many other similar services from alternative sites.

1. Yousendit

A very common and popular service with people from all types of background yousendit allows you to upload files free of charge to a limit of 100MB and download up to 1GB per month. If you upgrade to the Pro account for $9.99 (£6.50) per month then you can send as many files up to 2GB in size as you want with 40GB of download bandwidth per month. You can also keep a contact address book on the site for quick retrieval of email addresses that you share with regularly and provides free plugins for Outlook and Photoshop.

2. Mailbigfile

Similar to Yousendit except you don’t need to sign up, but you can for the pro account which also offers 2GB file transfers and unlimited amounts of transfers. You can use the service for free and as long as you want to send up to 200MB per file via email but with no additional features. It also has an address book facility.

3. Dropbox

Slightly different and becoming increasingly popular (It’s without doubt our favourite), Dropbox allows you 2GB of online storage space for free, and up to 100GB if you are a paying customer. The great thing about Dropbox is you can simply drag and drop files to a folder on your desktop, then share the folder with whoever you want to. They will receive notification and once they have a Dropbox account they can drag and drop from the shared folder to wherever they want. This means you can have as many folders as you like each shared with as many different people as you like, or a public folder for everyone. It’s a great way to store files and access them from wherever you are, use as backup cloud storage or a collaboration tool. They even have a new mobile app. Also, if you sign up using this link then both you and I receive 250mb of additional space, absolutely free. Everyone you then invite who sign up also adds to your free space quota.

4.  PipeBytes

PipeBytes claims to have no filesize limit and you can start uploading while someone else starts downloading by sharing a simple reference code. They claim complete privacy, there is no software to install and the file is not stored online but sent directly to your recipient.

5. Assetbox

With Assetbox there is no limit on file size and only the intended recipient will access the file. You can even embed a media player to smoothly stream your shared content to your blog or profile page. The folder structure is very coherent, but each person must register for an account before they can share a file with you.

6. Z-Share

With Zshare you can host files, images, videos, audio and flash in the same place, and as long as the files remain active they can be downloaded limitlessly. Files not touched for 60days are automatically deleted. Zshare lets you upload files up to 1GB, and if you register for the service which still free, you’ll be able to share them privately. Premium members get faster downloads and the ability to upload files as large as 2GB.

7. Rapidshare

Rapidshare is a basic storage place lacking in features & design, but if you’re looking for a one-click file host, it may be the right solution. The service is the twelfth most visited homepage in the world. With Rapidshare, users can upload files up to 200MB in one step and make them available to anyone they like via the download link. The 200MB limit means that larger files need to be broken down into pieces using compression software ready to be pieced back together at the recipients end after download. Premium accounts offer additional convenience and faster speeds.  A file can be downloaded 10 times, and will be deleted after 90 days.

8. Filedropper

With this service you can upload files as large as 5GB and they claim it is the simplest way to share large files. You need to sign up for an account and it isn’t a free service. You can try a 7-day trial or pay for 3 plan options, 99cents (65p) plan, Silver Plan which is $5 (£3.25) a month or the Gold Plan which costs you $10 (£6.50) a month.

9. FTP

FTP or file Transfer Protocol is used to exchange and manipulate files over a TCP/IP-based network. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server applications. Anyone who owns a web domain with associated webspace can utilise part of it for FTP usage by installing an FTP client such as filezilla or cuteftp to transfer the files back and forth to the server. This method can also be utilised well by creating links on ’secret’ posts within your website and sending the recipient the link and password. Not only can they watch or download the file, they can also leave comments and collaborate via your website.

10. PeertoPeer

BitTorrent technology also requires a client to interface with the torrent files and hosts on the internet. The more popular a large video, audio or software file, the faster and cheaper it can be transferred. BitTorrent is a protocol (a set of rules and description of how to do things) allowing you to download files quickly by allowing people downloading the file to upload parts of it at the same time. BitTorrent is often used for distribution of very large files, very popular files and files available for free, as it is a lot cheaper, faster and more efficient to distribute files using BitTorrent than a regular download. There are many other peer-to-peer networks, most famously Napster and more recently Limewire.

- Here’s hoping this brief list has given you some options when considering how to move your files around, please leave any comments or suggestions and let everyone know what methods work best for you.

The latest advice for Motion Graphics Freelancers and all those from any industry considering going into Freelancing or setting up a studio at home on your own.
Check it out here.

We discuss:

Financial Startup

Portfolios & Showreels

Pricing yourself – Your market value

When work is plentiful or scarce

Paperwork & Accounting

Clients and their slow payments

What you miss out on as an employee

Are you right for Freelancing?

What is great about being your own boss

There are more Free Articles,  downloads and more here in Resources.

What you need to know when considering going Freelance and

Setting Up on your own in Motion Graphics

This guide can be downloaded as a complete pdf file here.

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE QUITTING THE JOB AND TAKING THE PLUNGE

Starting a freelance Motion Graphics or Design business can be a daunting, scary, fun, exciting, anxiety filled, but very rewarding step in your career. You’ll need to be able to cope with everything yourself, there will be no backup or other staff members, and you will need to find the right balance between the administrative side and the creative side. You may well find that your emotions see-saw from the pleasure of working from home, to the nightmare that your client won’t leave you alone for a minute, or your computer breaks down.

However, there are a few more important things you should think about before starting your freelance business and this is what we will briefly look at here.

Startup Finances

Many people think that they need to borrow a large sum of money to start-up their business, but this is wrong. Any good business should start with as little debt as possible and grow when the time is right. Don’t go out and buy everything you think you need immediately, buy kit, software and office supplies as you need them, and budget for them in a job to make the costs easier to swallow. Start with the basics, a computer, a good screen, a decent desk and chair, and the software you need to create your work. You probably already have these if you are considering going freelance, so maybe just get a couple of essentials like a decent photo printer/scanner and perhaps a DSLR camera. Consider starting a new business or current account at your bank to keep your business finances separate, and to make the paperwork easier when it comes to vat and income tax.

Getting your freelance business set up can be a quick and painless process if you know what you’re doing – so read on and see what else you should consider.

If you don’t have a huge Portfolio, don’t worry, keep it lean and mean

Starting your freelance business doesn’t mean you need a huge array of client projects on your reel immediately. Edit together your best pieces of work and keep it short, no longer than 1 minute 30 seconds is a good guide. See what is missing, what isn’t strong enough and what you have too much of in your showreel and be brutal with it, chop it out. Consider spending a couple of weeks working on unpaid self commissioned projects to fill the gaps and give yourself the best chances of winning work by showing the full array of skills you can offer your potential clients. Get your showreel online, then scour the job boards, various sites and newsletters out there with job news that you can contact potential clients through once you get your showreel where you are happy and proud to show it off. Confidence in your abilities and passion breeds work.

Ensure your Value relates to your Quality

A common mistake that Freelancers make, happens at the very beginning when they start out, or when cash is in short supply. Reducing your rates is the worst thing you can do, as well as allowing yourself to be talked down from your original quote – although there must be some small level of flexibility in this. Know our value and stick with it, the moment you drop your rates you are undervaluing yourself and your work and it will be difficult to raise your rates back to where they were. Clients you’ll want to avoid at all costs are those ‘looking for something for nothing’ and will almost never be of any good use to your business future. Some have been known to get freelancers to work for nothing speculatively, to win a project, and then as soon as the budget materialises, they are somewhere else with your ideas.

Also remember that your rates will dictate what type of clients you attract. if your rates are too low, then you’ll be attracting bottom end clients. Likewise if your rates are too high, you will miss out on a lot of middle budget work. Look at what you produce and charge the rates accordingly. If you aren’t sure what to charge, talk to other Freelancers, look at small studio ratecards and see what you offer that is similar. Most Motion Graphics artists in the UK charge somewhere between £150-£400 ($225-$600) per day, but this is a loose guide and is dependent upon the experience, skill, client and project criteria.

Too Much Work or Too Little

As we are all painfully aware, the economy can fluctuate greatly, budgets can rise and fall and work can materialise and disappear as fast as you can say Freelance Motion Graphics Designer. Planning properly for the times when you will suddenly be short of work will help keep your business and your sanity afloat during those difficult times. But, by understanding that this will happen, you’re able to plan better and keep better control of your money and spending.

Force yourself to keep some money by for the leaner weeks, don’t buy kit until you need it, and remember you have bills to pay. If you are currently employed and thinking of going Freelance, consider saving all the money you would spend as an employee ie. travel costs, lunches out etc. and squirrel that money away every week or month as a little reserve.

The Dreaded Paperwork – Invoicing and Accounts

These two essential requirements were always the aspects that scared most creatives wanting to go Freelance, after all it goes against the grain to enjoy using spreadsheets, we would much rather use After Effects. Today, there are a vast array of invoicing and accounting applications and websites out there that will help take the pain out of keeping track of the books. It is actually quite simple if you stay on top of it and do a little bit of organised number recording as you go along. Once things are going well in the business, consider getting an accountant to handle your tax return and (if necessary) vat accounts, it is most likely they will actually save you money as well as time even after their fees.

Clients by nature, Never pay on time – be warned

Like any business, cash flow is an important part of keeping afloat. Just because you have lots of money owed to you, doesn’t mean you have done well until it arrives in your bank account. Clients will delay paying as long as possible, especially if they are a large organisation with their own accounts department. After all, their accountants are paid to save them money and would never be applauded for quick payment. Most Freelancers specify 30 days from date of invoice as a payment request or requirement. If you get paid in this period count yourself very fortunate. Most of the time you will need to gently remind them to pay, be courteous and ensure you resend the information such as the amount owing, invoice number etc. to make their job as easy as possible. If you make it difficult for them to pay you then they may just delay further and put your invoice to the bottom of the pile.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure you write and send your invoice the moment you complete the job – no one will pay until they’ve got that!

What You’ll miss about being employed

There are certain drawbacks with Freelancing like anything in this world, but they are outweighed by the positives in setting up on your own. Consider what will change from the office or studio environment. There won’t be others around to bounce ideas off and have a laugh with, you might feel a little isolated. There won’t be any backup in terms of somebody to help you with a piece of software or technical issue. There won’t be other equipment to use if you have a problem. You won’t have access to vtr’s, huge storage systems, or superfast networks. It’s also worth remembering what you will lose out on financially by quitting your job. There won’t be any paid holiday, no life insurance, pension contributions or healthcare. You will of course earn for what you do instead of lining your bosses pocket, and you won’t be bogged down in endless meetings.

Just because you have a Computer and a copy of….

The hard truth is that Freelancing isn’t right for everyone. Just because you have a computer, some software, read all the freelancing advice, doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to cut it. Spending 4 hours a day working and 6 hours surfing or playing games isn’t going to get you anywhere. Downloading all the best plugins isn’t going to make you the best designer, and watching the best creative videos on vimeo isn’t necessarily going to give you the creative ideas you need to be one of the best in your field and make a good living.

Some people have it and some people don’t. It takes discipline and dedication to build a freelance business, especially if you are working from home, surrounded by your comforts and distractions. Keeping track of clients, payments, open jobs and potential leads can be a daunting but necessary task. Bear in mind the countless emails you’ll receive the social networking, the constant phone calls direct to your mobile (no reception to take them). Think about these aspects before taking the plunge.

If you want to go Freelance…GO FOR IT!

Your freelance business will be incredibly rewarding, different every day, hard work and fun. Working from home (or your own office) can be really excellent if you are dedicated and disciplined enough to make the best use of your time. The freedom that comes with freelancing is amazing and something you will not want to give up. If you make a success of it, you are going to wish you had done this earlier, it really is a wonderful way of working. The hours are your own to choose, you can take certain projects or leave them, as you wish, you can take a holiday when you want (unfortunately unpaid of course), and spend more time doing what you love and less time with office politics and travelling.

Remember the things above and keep a level head and you’ll be able to accomplish anything you set out to do, and do it on your own time. If you feel you want to go Freelance after all the consideration above – then make the most of it and you’ll never turn back.

This guide can be downloaded as a complete pdf file here.

See also the What You Need to Know to win a Pitch article when trying to win the work.

There will be separate and more detailed articles about Interpreting a Brief, Brainstorming techniques, Writing a Treatment and Storyboarding coming soon, follow the blog here to keep up with all the free resources and information downloadable for free on the DazPix site.

Here we are with another set of useful hi res PSD files for use in your projects. Ideal for quickly jazzing up your storyboard frames, adding to After Effects animations as foreground elements or creating a photoshop image for print. All the dingle images have been taken with a Nikon D40 at high resolution, then keyed, cleaned up and layered into psd files for your convenience. You can quickly grab a pre cutout PSD, copy the layer and paste it into whatever project or document you are working on. They are completely royalty free for you to use as you will, full colour with cleaned alpha channels. Make good use of them, and if there is anything you particularly want, make sure to leave a comment or contact via email at hello@dazpix.co.uk.

1.  The Motion Exchange

A relatively new site started by renowned After Effects master Harry Frank especially set up to bring together the worlds motion graphics community.

Here you can post videos, discuss others work and all topics relating to graphics and video. It is also a place to generate work for each other and collaborate across continents.

You can set up and join regional or specified groups of like minded designers, blog about current technology and events, or just cruise around the site looking at all the beautiful work posted by the members.

2. Mograph.net

This is a great place for forums, somewhere the bih hitters and tech heads hang out and discuss everything mograph. If you are looking for answers, feedback, critique or industry conflab, this is the place to come and get involved.

3. Motionworks

This site is a fantastic all round resource, and it’s free. John Dickinson posts everything you could ask to see and hear about. The site hosts two popular shows, one interviews leading industry figures, the other offers business advice within the world of motion graphics. On top of that there are hundreds of tutorials, downloads and useful bits and bobs. There is also a forum, and popular comments section on every post, so check it out and get involved with a strong community spirit.

4.  Creative Cow

The world famous cow is the biggest central stop for everything to do with video, graphics, software and technology. Resident experts as well as senior posters offer advice, articles, solutions and insight. The cow has been going since 2001 and is an enormous treasure trove of information. There are forums on every topic you can imagine, with millions of visitors asking questions and answering problems.

5. Vimeo

Vimeo is the video hosting site where creative people like to upload and share their masterpieces, showreels, short films and interesting visuals. There is a huge amount of fascinating material here, and you can join in with discussions, groups, comments and more. Connect with like minded people by adding contacts and stay posted with all their new content, then tell them what you think of it and they can tell you what they think of yours.

6. Media Motion

This is the home of the AE-List, an email list where After Effects experts from around the world can post questions and get answers from the community. It’s a great place to sign up to and get involved, or just lurk and read what the eggheads are talking about. This is a very friendly community but be advised not to ask any stupid questions you could find the answer to on google.

7. Linkedin

A well known business minded social networking tool, linkedin has many groups dedicated to motion graphics, post production and the film and television industry. Sign up for an account then apply to some of the groups specialising in your field. Once you are accepted by the group manager you can enter into the many discussions in the groups, network with people and post your own content.

8. Motionographer

This is another brilliant place to get inspired and connect with creative’s. The forums are varied and there is an enormous amount of visual material to see, articles to read, interviews and video galore. It’s well worth an explore if you aren’t already getting your daily motionographer fix.

9. Behance Network

This site encourages you to communicate with other creatives by enlarging your ‘circle’ of contacts online. You post your work, then look around and get inspired leaving comments and constructive criticism for others.

10. MakeCoolShit

A different sort of networking, but this blog by Nick Campbell is a companion to his successful tutorial and 5 second project site Greyscalegorilla. MakeCoolShit is about the business of creativity, there is some useful advice and a real sense of a place designed to help others get the best from themselves and their work. The comments section is always constructive and sometimes enlightening.

There are more Free Articles,  downloads and more here in Resources.

GET THE INFO YOU NEED TO WIN THE PITCH

We have all been in the frustrating position of spending days working tirelessly on a concept, writing a treatment, illustrating a storyboard, or all of these – for free, only to come away from the pitch meeting with nothing except that sinking feeling that your time and effort has been wasted. In fact, the idea of working speculatively, or pitching without charging, is not working for free – it’s actually working at a loss. You still have to keep yourself fed, pay your rent, bills and any other office costs while you were working on the pitch. What about all the materials you used?
Maybe it was only some board, glue and paper, but a printer isn’t cheap to run, cartridges, glossy paper, even scalpel blades and light bulbs, it all adds up.

This article is written to ensure you give yourself the best chance of winning the project you are pitching on, to keep the wastage of time and resources down to a minimum and to put yourselves in the best position for future work when it surfaces. Even if you aren’t successful on the pitch, this information should help you make the right impression, so that the client remembers you for next occasion.

Getting the initial Brief
The phone rings, or an email appears in your inbox with a vague description about a new series being commissioned, asking whether you would like to pitch for the titles and graphics for the show. There is no detailed information about budget, duration, schedule or what the production company wants. Sound familiar? It seems to be common practice that motion graphics and design studios often need to do the thinking for the client when it comes to a brief, and not just the creative aspects, when it comes to the opening title sequence – the first impression the TV programme, Broadcast documentary or corporate film wants to put across to the viewer. This can often be a blessing rather than a curse, as it allows you to be more creative and expansive in your thinking, but it is also sometimes the case when a client really does want something specific, it’s just that they haven’t told you what it is. The art is to extract this information from their skulls without them feeling interrogated. Often, it is helpful to suggest something else you have seen as a reference, or ask them to think of something they like, or something that has triggered their thought process to this point.

The first thing to do when receiving the opportunity to pitch is decide whether you really want to undertake the job. Assuming that you do, the next stage is to ask the essential questions that will help you understand what you are being requested to do, and how to get the most from the opportunity, with a mind to winning the pitch.
Read What You Need to Know from a Client for more helpful information.

Contact Names
The next vital thing to do right at the outset is get some names. Start with the person who contacted you and find out their position in the client hierarchy. Often, the person who called or emailed you won’t be involved in the pitch itself or the decision making process, they are most likely a Production Manager or Assistant who has been given the task of doing the contacting and handling the financial aspects of the production, and they rarely know much more about the graphics side of the project than they tell you at the outset. Find out who the Producer and Director is, who the decision maker is and even the commissioning editor and the channel or company they work for. You may be able to speak to the Director or Producer directly and get some extra clues or information about the project to help your brainstorming, you may also, with a little research, be able to get a good idea of what they have worked on in the past and see if there is a certain medium, style or format they appear to favour or shun. This is especially true when it comes to deciding on using animation techniques, particularly the more traditional styles.

Who Else is Pitching?
While you are asking all the key questions up front, it is always useful, intriguing, and enlightening, to find out who else is pitching for the same project. Sometimes the client will be illusive when it comes to stating names or numbers, but other times they are perfectly happy to share the list of other companies you are in competition with. This information is useful in various ways, firstly knowing how your chances stack up, who else is on their books, and the size of the studios involved. Sometimes the larger studios will only put their junior staff on the smaller budget projects, giving the smaller studios a better chance of success, if the effort is put in. Don’t give up just because one of the big hitters is involved, more likely than not they won’t put the same level of effort into their pitch. You may also have a contact working in a competitors studio, talking with them may allow you to avoid going for a similar concept and nullifying yourselves.

Brainstorming
When it comes to conceiving the actual idea that you are going to pitch there are no hard and fast rules. It’s a matter of whatever works best for you, but having a structured brainstorming session has a few plusses over a naturally developing concept. Firstly, it puts all the people involved in the project in the same space. Here you can see that you have the right team (or not) for the project and bounce your ideas around, or if working alone it gives you a period of time to allocate to a specific task. Sometimes, forcing ourselves to work within confines of time makes for a more productive result, how many times have you been playing around with a concept for so long that you hadn’t left enough time to put the storyboards together and ended up staying awake all night to get them finished and presented correctly. You manage it, but how much better would the pitch have been if you weren’t so tired, and you had structured your design and brainstorming time better?

The Storyboard
The storyboard is perhaps the most valuable and important tangible element of the pitch, and the single item that the client will want to keep and refer back to at a later date. With this in mind it needs to be concise and easy to follow, fit easily on one piece of A2 board (maximum size) and not look too busy and cramped. Layout and presentation is key, after all, you are a designer, so it is well worth making the storyboard a beautifully presented piece that your client will WANT to keep, and keep looking at.
It is always a good idea to put your studio or company branding somewhere on the board, usually the bottom right hand corner, and it may be worth considering placing your clients branding on there too, just to make them feel loved and to allow them to see how their logo sits with the programme or film they are making.

Animation Video Test or Reference Material
It may also be appropriate to provide a video file, either to show an animation test you have made to illustrate more precisely the idea or concept you are pitching, or a similar style you wish to emulate as a reference. Usually the pitching process will take place at the clients offices, therefore it is important to prepare as fully as possible and ensure that you have everything you need to make the presentation, including not relying on the client supplying a screen or projector. A laptop is the most common way to present video, perhaps connected to a larger screen or display in the room, but if you do use a laptop, ensure that it is booted and fully powered up, operational and ready to go before starting your pitch, and that the video files and media player are easy to access, allowing you to make a seamless transition from verbal presentation to video presentation without any of those ‘hang on the laptop has gone to sleep’ moments. One other thing to consider, it may be an idea to burn a batch of CD or DVD disks or similar data units, containing the video material as well as all the other assets – storyboard, treatment and technical breakdown, to give to your clients at the end of the pitch. The disks act as another branding opportunity for your studio, can include your showreel and any other material you want the client to see, to give you the best chances of success, and to plant you and your company firmly into their memory. Besides, having everything in one place, and making things easy for a client can only be a good thing, right?

The Treatment
Writing a treatment is a healthy and concise way of explaining your ideas, and often makes it easier to reiterate your idea vocally once you have taken the time to put it to paper first.
It also allows your audience to fully understand the images you are presenting on the storyboard. A treatment should contain every aspect of the design process, including style, pace and technique. It should also describe in detail how you aim to build the project with a full, but concise and easy to understand technical breakdown.
It is also advisable to include a section about music and audio sound design where it relates to your idea, atmosphere and style. Although you may print multiple copies of the treatment and hand them out at the start of the pitch, the likely hood is that they won’t be read immediately, it’s just good to have hard copies that they can refer to later that relates directly to what you were talking about in your pitch presentation. Again, it’s another branding opportunity sitting on their desk.

The Pitch Itself
Decide early on who will attend the pitch on your companies behalf. Are you going alone or are you taking another Designer and a Producer perhaps? Be careful not to go in too heavy handed, it is always advisable to have less people pitching than there are people being presented to. Clients don’t like to feel outnumbered or pressured in any way. Also, it is well worth a quick dry run in the coffee shop before hand, so everyone knows who is presenting what and when. You need to give an aura of relaxed professionalism where everyone is working as one, towards the same goal – which is of course, the very best job that the client can get for their money.
When it comes to explaining your ideas, and how you intend to create them, try and use language that the client will fully understand, after all they aren’t all used to the same jargon that creative’s use day to day. Be clear, informative and creative in your words, but make it simple to grasp. It’s blatantly obvious, but if the client doesn’t fully comprehend your idea, then you aren’t going to get the job. Be enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate, but controlled.
It may be mostly irrelevant and even offensive to suggest, but also consider the impression you are making as an individual by what you are wearing. Sometimes a certain type of client may be less impressed with you if you are very scruffy, it all depends what sacrifices you are prepared to make to ensure you win the project, sometimes washing your hair and having a shave can make the difference….! It should be all about the work, but it’s not always that simple and personalities are important, so try and get on with everyone you meet, have conviction in your views that relate to your ideas but flexible with other aspects of the project and the people involved. At the end of your pitch, try to answer as clearly as possible any questions that arise or are asked during your spiel. Be confident with your answers and don’t be pressured for more and more extras by the client. Being too much of a ‘yes’ man/woman may have just blown the budget before you start the job!

Schedule, Time allocation and Budgets
If you take a graphics or post Producer with you, or you are a Producer, it is most likely that you will be handling this aspect of the project and will want to talk briefly at the end of the creative presentation about time and money. Again, be flexible to a point here and ensure that you have enough time to create what you or your team are proposing within the clients brief, which may change as time progresses. Key approval points are always a good idea so everyone knows where they stand during production and ensure the goal posts don’t get moved too far at the end of the project. When it comes to budgets, your client may give you a ballpark figure to work to, if not you must try and be competitive. but not cheap. Very low costs give the impression of lesser quality work, and costs that are too high just scare clients away. A balanced and well broken down budget is an essential tool, and something that will be carefully scrutinised by the client Producer. It may also benefit you to make creative and technical suggestions as to how the client can stretch their budget further, either at the shoot or graphics stage. It would be a surprise to hear of a client who isn’t looking to save money, and they are sure to thank you if you suggest it in a professional, helpful and easy manner.

After the Pitch
Hopefully you will get a call or email soon after your pitch to congratulate you on winning the project and you can begin full production in earnest, but sometimes the confirmation can be delayed, reducing your production time and causing your carefully planned schedule to go out of the window before you have even started. Occasionally you may even be asked to re pitch your idea once the client has adjusted the brief, this can be frustrating but at least you know that you have made it to the next stage, usually with less competition, probably only one other company. You will then need to spend even more of your unpaid time, making a new or adjusted storyboard and treatment, as well as re-thinking the schedule and costs.

It is a good idea to follow up your pitch a day or two after your meeting to ask if a decision has been reached. Don’t harass the client, but a gentle nudge can work wonders, good communication is everything. Sometimes of course you can be strung along and then get told that the job went to a competitor, or worse still, you may never be told and find out in the trade magazine of all places! Whatever happens, try and treat each pitch as a learning curve to further master your skills in this vital area, and a way of building up your client network each and every time you make a good account of yourself or your company.
Next time the pitch may be against fewer competitors, or the client may come back directly to you.

This guide can be downloaded as a complete pdf file here.

See also the What You Need to Know from a Client article when taking on a new project.

There will be separate and more detailed articles about Interpreting a Brief, Brainstorming techniques, Writing a Treatment and Storyboarding coming soon, follow the blog here to keep up with all the free resources and information downloadable for free on the DazPix site.

Here are some more useful hi res PSD files for use in your projects. Ideal for quickly jazzing up your storyboard frames, adding to After Effects animations as foreground elements or creating a photoshop image for print. All the dingle images have been taken with a Nikon D40 at high resolution, then keyed, cleaned up and layered into psd files for your convenience. You can quickly grab a pre cutout PSD, copy the layer and paste it into whatever project or document you are working on. They are completely royalty free for you to use as you will, full colour with cleaned alpha channels. Hope these are useful, there will be more coming soon.