April 27, 2004

What's the point?

So yesterday, I sat down with my partner, and we figured out all the additional charges and fees for the show we just wrapped up... Yea... The one where nobody would make a decision, and it came down to the wire.... I got an email back today with some complaints about some of the fees... Now if I got this bill, I'd complain too... Without going in to the real numbers, the total for this show, was just about equal to half of last years gross income for my company... Certianlly nothing to sneeze at in my opinion... The things they chose to argue over hit me strangely though... They picked items that they rent from me almost every show... They also think they should not be paying for the additional custom painted backdrop... They don't like my trucking fee...
If those are their only complaints, I'm in good shape... I'll knock down the usual rental items pretty heavily, since they really don't cost me much, apart from paying for the warehouse space they take up, and occasionally haveing to re-cover them with new fabric... The backdrop, they're going to pay for, as I will not even discuss that with them... They should be happy there was no shipping charge, and rush charge for it... The trucking is a silly arguement, as they could clearly see I had 3 trucks outside the venue, full of their equipment, but I'll comp them one of the trucks, and get on with life...

Hard to accept, but they're already asking if we can do some modifications to the set for next month... I had planned on doing some changes myself just to make our ins and outs easier on the crew, so this will work out nicely... They'll end up footing the bill for the crew to drag everything out of storage for their changes, and we'll do my changes at the same time...

Haveing come from a theatre background, I will never, and I mean never get used to the insanity of corperate production...

Posted by Backstage at April 27, 2004 07:03 PM
Comments

if I remember correctly, even after a flawless show that I had pulled out of thin air, the client had to find *something* to bitch and moan about -- so it would be something they knew I would negotiate on.

good on you for picking your battles and knowing how to keep the corporate number-barons happy....which ain't easy!!

lizard.

Posted by: Lizard Breath at April 28, 2004 10:25 AM

There was a time I would knowingly leave something a little "off" so they could bitch about that. It kept them from looking too hard for things that weren't really there... It was always a nice easy fix... I find it hard to do that now, but it still nags at the back of my mind...

Posted by: Tim at April 28, 2004 06:29 PM
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