Below is how most people use those to provide a consistent and reasonable way to manage how much a project, product, or service costs.

When using the GFC method, you are able to pick out two of those three things for your project, product, or service that you wish to have completed. The reasoning behind this is that you simply cannot have more than two out of three. Here are the layouts of how the possible combinations come together and what the type of service each of the combinations results in. From there you, as the client, are able to arrive at your own conclusions based on needs and wants, to pick out the combination that best suits your needs and budget.

Picking two of the three options can give you one of three results:

• Good + Fast = Higher Cost

For this type of project, the price is high because it requires a great deal of attention and dedicated time, which can make it much harder to work on multiple projects if more than one happens to be asked for.

• Good + Cheap = Lower Cost But Slower Return

If you want a quality project, but are on a very strict budget, this might be your option. The only drawback for you the client, is that if you are also in a time crunch things might not work out. Because asking for a cheaper price also places you on a slightly lower priority rank than that of one that is a higher priority project that is needed sooner and pays higher.

• Fast + Cheap = Lower Quality

Now that isn’t to say that the product you requested will be given to you as a small blurry file that wouldn’t even look good printed on a postage stamp. You will still receive a high quality product that can be used for anything, for any purpose. Lower quality, in this sense, means that for a quick result at a lower price, the time being spent is less and less of a chance to get extremely creative with the work.

All three have their advantages and disadvantages, it’s up to you as the client to decide what your current situation is and what route to go from there.

I happen to use this method personally and have found that it almost always works out for people. It is understood that there will have to be a compromise of some sort for every situation. In the end, the client gets what they want, and they have the choice of how it gets done.

As either another creative individual, or as a client, what do you think when you see how the list is laid out? Do you feel as though it is a fair representation of how things are? Do you think that it is a fair way to do business? Do you have any other methods that you prefer or are employing? Feel free to leave it in the comments.

Related posts:

• A Tale of Manfrotto Woe
• Going 3 Deep
• Where Has The Time Gone?

I seem to fall somewhere in the grey area between the two groups. I sometimes enjoy being busy, but also rather like a laid-back atmosphere. For the past month or so, longer if you count the entire time that I have been taking classes and the weather has been decent enough out so that chores have to be done, I have been busy almost non-stop. It is the main reason that there have not been new posts here on the blog. I simply have been too busy to do anything other than what has to be done.

Housework, outside work, daughter, class, work, outside work-work, holidays, and family get togethers; all of these things have been keeping me so busy that it has been hard to think, let alone get anything done. And yes, I have been “getting things done” mowing the lawn and keeping things looking decent around the house, but those aren’t things that I really want to do. If I had it my way I would have been finished with the site redesign and would have been working on a few other work related yet personal projects. The only reason I have been able to write this post, is that I am waiting for a file to finish downloading so that I can finish the homework for this week. I only have homework because I am in the position that I need to have a degree so that I can be hired in full time. I really hope to be hired in full time so that I can better support my wife and daughter. This post really doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning other than to give me a place to kind of give my brain a release of all of the things that have been taking up its “processing” time as of late. I really hope that by writing this I will be able to “purge” all of this backed up cache and be able to move into the coming week with a clear head and be able to compete tasks more easily. Not that the week starts out easy though, for the first four days I will be swamped with filming events that require me to head off campus and mingle with the masses. It is a slight highlight however, that the first thing I get to do is more engaging work ( close shot interviews in HD ) than most of the rest of the week (general crowd and roaming speaker shots that get encoded into a low quality webstream). All the while I do not wish to sound unpleased with what I am doing. This job has given me many opportunities that I might not have otherwise had, and I am eternally grateful for that.

I will leave with this. While I have been running without break for quite some time, and am eagerly awaiting a pause in the hectic to and fro, I will also miss it a little. That is why I am in the grey zone. I am not a very happy person when under high amounts of stress, but I also become restless if I have too much time and nothing to do.

Related posts:

• A Little Thing Called GFC
• Tiny People!
• Going 3 Deep

A little while back I decided to purchase some things in order to be able to start doing some of my own, and others freelance type jobs. I chose to order from multiple places including Crutchfield.com (which I highly recommend) and Amazon.com who both where efficient and informative with their shipping process. I ordered all of the items on a Friday.By the very next Monday the first item, a Zoom H4N audio recorder ordered from Amazon, was in my possession. The coming day, Tuesday I received the Canon Vixia HF S20 camcorder from Crutchfield. I also received something else on Tuesday that I ordered the same day, but has no relevance to this post subject.

The tripod that I ordered through the Manfrotto website on the same Friday as all the rest did not even ship until Monday. It did arrive on Wednesday, but I give all of that credit to UPS on getting it to me quickly. I arrived home from work to gleefully open and assemble my new tripod. To my dismay however, when I pulled the tripod out of its packaging, I saw a set of silver tripod legs looking at me. I had ordered a tripod with black legs. I proceeded to email the customer service of the US company that shipped my tripod. I knew they would be closed and did not want to wait on being put through a long ordeal of phone menu mazes.

I figured that I would receive an email the next day resolving my problem by shipping me the correct tripod and I would ship the wrong one back to them. I did not receive an email all day. I then proceeded to call the customer service number. I spoke with a representative and was told that they would ship out the correct tripod and for me to use the prepaid label that would be emailed to me within 24 hours to ship the incorrect one back to them. I did not receive that label for 3 days.

I did receive the correct tripod on Tuesday. But alas! The tripod was missing the 75mm bowl that connects the tripod legs to the head, therefore leaving me with no way to assemble my tripod. Not pleased at all. Again I did not return from work until after the business had closed. I called anyways and after waiting 15 minutes or so on hold, left a message with someone who said they where the the manager and that the case would be given priority status. I assumed to receive a call sometime in the early morning, at the very least an email regarding the issue. I did not receive a thing all day. While driving home, I decided to call again since I had left a little early, and use the normally wasted driving time on possibly accomplishing something. After waiting for 7 minutes or so on hold I spoke with someone who then attempted to transfer me to a different area. It was after being on the phone for 11 minutes that I was either hung up on, or they dropped my call. I know it wasn’t me, I checked and had full service.

I was beyond angry at this point. I called again and waited for a few minutes of being on hold I was answered by someone new. I explained my new situation and asked what they could do to resolve it. They asked a few questions that seemed completely irrelevant to the situation and then placed me on hold again. When I returned from being on hold I was speaking with someone new again. (this was the 4th person I had spoken with that day) This person seemed to be in a higher position as they knew answers to my questions and concerns as well as saying that I could simply remove the 75mm bowl from the first incorrect tripod and place it on the correct one. Then they would mark down that the one being shipped back to them would be partially incomplete and to have it sent to him. (Again he sounded like he had more power than any of the others) So when I made it home I did just that and finally had a completed tripod that was the correct model.

This whole ordeal took an extra 7 days from when the tripod was originally delivered to me. A full week of hassle and stress for something that should have simply been correct the first time around. After going through all that I have decided to retract any want to purchase from Manfrotto in the future as I see it. I will move on to a different brand from now on. Don’t get me wrong, I love the product. I respect the craftsmanship and quality. It is everything else about the company that I do not agree with any longer.

Related posts:

• A Little Thing Called GFC
• Going 3 Deep
• Making time.

Recently I took the plunge and added yet another monitor to my rig at work, bringing the total monitor count up to three. “Three!!?” you ask, “isn’t that just a little silly, a little overkill?” I say no.  I have 2 Apple Cinema Displays ( 20″ and 23″) and a 20″ Dell monitor, and I feel as though 3 may be the perfect number for my current situation and needs.  Try to follow my reasoning as I explain myself.

It all goes back to my freshman year of college when I got the handmedown monitor from my parents ancient Gateway (remember those moo-cow boxes?) and used it as my TV screen since my computer at the time had a cable card installed.  Not too long after that I ended up getting a real TV and therefore had a newly usable second monitor. It was at that point that I realized how much I had been missing out on. I could have the internet open in one monitor, while on the other I could have 3 IM conversations running, and watching the progress of a file transfer.  All at the same time, with no overlapping windows!  I was thrilled to say the least. Obviously I used it for much more practical things such as home work and various projects I was working on. But the doors had been opened to the joy of multitasking and the sense of productiveness that came with it.  Since that time I have always felt the need to have multiple monitors.

But back to the main idea.  I now have 3 monitors running and feel that it is the perfect number.  I will list each monitor and the functions that it serves along with what it displays:

• I have my main monitor, the 20″ ACD:
• Dock
• Menu bar
• Adium buddy list (but only because it wont move to the 3rd monitor)
• Various files and folders, and any drives connected.
• Main editing window for programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, FInal Cut Pro, etc.

The secondary monitor, the 23″ ACD:

• Safari
• Any special files needing high priority
• Secondary editing menus and controls for Photoshop, Illustrator, FInal Cut Pro, etc.

The newly installed 3rd monitor:

• Twirl (for constant Twitter feed)
• Any IM/chat windows from Adium
• Giant time display, date, and current weather (provided by GeekTool 3, which I highly recommend for Mac users)

While its not necessary for me to have all of these things split up onto so many monitors, it does make it very easy for me to be efficient and productive.  I am able to check the world of Twitter, see the date and time, or interact with an IM conversation all just at a glance.  I don’t have to move windows around or have them overlapping and it increases my workflow.  I am sure that a lot of people would say that it is all very uncessesary to have even 2 monitors let alone 3. To those people I would say fine, maybe for the types of things you use a computer for, it is quite possible that you would need only 1 monitor. I use multiples out of want rather than need.

Related posts:

• A Tale of Manfrotto Woe
• A Little Thing Called GFC
• Making time.