Tuesday, we were contacted regarding a set for a show. They asked if we would have the time, and were we interested... Even though we're dead right now, I always want to see what we'd be getting in to, so they faxed over a sketch... They called it a rendering, but it was a sketch... Also there were some rough dimensions on a separate sheet.
There are some clients that I have worked on many shows with, and have developed an understanding of what they need in an end product. In this case, this is a new client, and the show is going in to a space we have never worked in before. So when they called, I told them we had the time and were interested... That is where the conversation should have ended except for them to tell me a bid pack would be sent out... But they just kept pausing...
Naturally they called my cell, and naturally I had just woken up again after driving all night, so I wasn't too quick on the pickup... What they really wanted was a price... They wanted a price based on a poor quality fax, with rough numbers... They never said they wanted a price in their previous contacts, but that was their goal I guess...
Can I do a price?.. Sure, I can do a price, and pending everything goes exactly as I can guess it would go, that would be fine... The problem here is I'm not working with anything that's accurate... Its all in black and white... And the contact I have isn't the designer, its the stage manager... What the hell are they thinking?.. It really wouldn't be fair to them or me for me to give them a price based on this little bit of info... The odds are simply too great that something will change, and that will affect the price... Then you end up in a fight over the increased cost, and nobody is happy... If you send accurate paperwork, through a designer who knows what the producer/director is looking for, then I can develop a quote that I will stick to, unless they make some wild change...
All in all, this is clearly going to suck... If it wasn't so damn dead, I'd consider telling them we couldn't help them without a full bid pack... In reality though, I will develop a quote, and has no specifics, only ranges, and a big fat disclaimer that it all might change based on actual drawings...
And people wonder why I am so down on "art"...