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Know When to Hold ‘Em,
Know When to Fold ‘Em
By KenRengering
So, I bid on this gig — the sound, the
lighting and the generator. It was a
relatively large area with a wide stage
backed by a waterfall. The client wanted to
make the waterfall change in colors; he also
wanted a followspot for a performer who
goes into the audience. I took the initial
meeting with a buddy who does amazing
set design work and brings very cool ideas
to the table, fitting every size budget including
zero. I sent this client the old package
price bid and he proceeded to cherry
pick what he wanted and the prices. That
usually only irritates me a little, but then I
sent over a contract with the description
“client didn’t take package, but took package
pricing” written in bold font. Childish,
but it made me feel better.
Wasting Time FOH
Needless to say, we were soon in cheapout
mode, and so I made another trip to the
venue with my lighting guy where we put
together each look requested and the list of
gear to achieve it. I sent this to the client, who
responded in a conniption fit! All together, I
was under the initial number we discussed,
so I was very confused and told the client my
logic of fitting everything in his budget. He
acted like we never discussed a budget! But
I double-checked with my set design buddy.
It was definitely a little selective memory on
my client’s side.
So, I made the umpteenth call with a little
trepidation — remember, I had two trips
to the venue invested myself, not to mention
two other production pros. We started
from scratch with me asking the client for
the real, actual, genuine, authentic, honestto-goodness
factual number. I may not have
used those words exactly, but this guy was
starting to smell like a time waster.
Ah, then the real story comes out. He has
another sound engineer who is much cheaper
than I am. That will be an important part
of our story. This was a showcase gig set up
to sell the show to the property where the
performance was taking place. Failing that,
the client was doing a four-camera video
shoot to edit and sell elsewhere.
So, I wind up dropping sound, and my
company is now handling lighting and a
generator, feeder cable and distro box setup.
We are at 10% of my original budget. Basically
using none of my stuff, and I have scheduled
myself as the gear hump who gets to
run a little, squinty lighting board on a tiny
lighting system.
They balk! FOH
I do a take-away close: “I have minimized
the gear and techs involved. If my price
is still outside the range of your budget, I
don’t believe we can accommodate your
needs for this event. I appreciate the opportunity,
please keep my fat, lazy heine in
mind for the future.” As you can guess, you
have to be ready to lose the client, and at
this point, I was ready to lose, disembowel,
eviscerate and wallop this guy.
As this was done by e-mail, he soon
called and tongue-bathed my ego. I told
him his deposit was late and to put it, and
the signed contract, in the mail that day. We
were a week out or so from the event and I
was in big-man mode now.
The original guy, the set designer that
I took to the site-review, is one of those
guys who enjoys sharing the misery or at
least putting up with my whining. We were
enjoying the “fun” of dealing with this guy,
who obviously has no production experience,
when he called on the other line.
I asked my buddy to “hold” with the old
“speak of the devil.” continued on page 50
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Anklebiter
2008 NOVEMBER
49
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