The Renderers: The application of Task Management 3.0 live and in 3D
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We met up with Morris Etienne Stux, the initiator behind The Renderers, and asked him how hard life is for video producers in this country, what mistakes he no longer makes and how Joinpoints has changed working life for him and his team
Brief explanation: The term render means to make something/reproduce something and refers to the computer graphics generation of images from 2D or 3D raw data. The computer programs used for rendering are called renderers.
Morris is a visual effects artist and founded his sole proprietorship in Graz in 2017.
He is now executive producer of the company, which has grown into a limited partnership (KG) with two masterminds. As it is difficult to work alone in the video-making industry – unlike in photography and graphics – he has brought two other makers onto the team at The Renderers:
In addition to Morris, who takes care of administration and implementation, long-term companion Dominik Hofer, who is largely responsible for all creative aspects (editing, concepts), and 3D artist Gregor Schuppler are now also on board the company.
What do you offer? What do you do differently from your competitors?
Rendering (laughs).
We mainly produce advertising films with visual effects and animation. This combination is quite special because only a handful of companies in Austria currently offer this.
What has been the hardest time in your company's history so far?
Well, it was very exciting even before the company was founded because we did a lot of projects on a voluntary basis or as part of internships and the financial police asked us to come in for questioning.
We later had problems with a customer for whom we had made many videos, which he finally paid for after many months, only to commission two more projects.
We were supposed to create these at our own expense and he was supposed to pay for them later – the matter is still dragging on in court today. In addition, the work is often difficult to schedule because animation is time-consuming and “change by tomorrow” is simply not an option. So we have a lot of night shifts behind us.
What lessons can you pass on?
Do not rely on verbal promises, but always put everything in writing, even with friends.
What was the situation like before, what made you decide to implement Joinpoints?
In general, I always tried to make the whole system structured, so I had about 50 Excel tables, documents and subfolders. At some point I reached the point where I had to realize that if there were any more, the result would just be a mess, especially if I worked with others who didn’t understand “my system”. Joinpoints was a tempting solution.
Where and how do you use Joinpoints?
- For task management and projects:
This provides an overview of which project is currently in which phase. We have a main production pipeline that contains everything from the quote, planning, shooting and post-production to the invoice. - In the project management:
The individual projects are also divided into processes: For example, a project has ten recordings and each of these recordings is a separate subfolder with different filming locations and phases such as editing, sound editing and mastering. In some of these projects we work with freelancers, who we also store in Joinpoints with their respective skills. - As an interface for accounting and tax consulting:
But we also have customer contacts or a project-related logbook that automatically calculates kilometers, enters them into Joinpoints and creates direct interfaces for accounting and tax consulting. Because it bothers me to need umpteen apps and different programs for everything, we integrate everything we can. Really practical.
Where do you see the advantages of Joinpoints?
Clarity is maintained despite the numerous sub-projects.
I think it’s great that you can adapt everything to your own needs.
I like to rewrite programs a bit and have tried many CRM tools, but they were always perfect for just one industry and not for my needs and the needs of my company. With Joinpoints, we now really have (almost) everything in one place.
What has changed for The Renderers since you started using Joinpoints?
I am so relieved – Joinpoints solves all my problems. In the beginning, importing the projects was a bit time-consuming, but we’ve already saved 100 times that time.
The program is easy to learn and intuitive. Now everyone has a complete overview of projects and deadlines, so I don't have to remind myself and point out deadlines.
The overview of what is important or has priority helps us with planning and we can bring something forward if necessary. This is much more effective than I was used to. You also don’t leave any tasks undone because you want to get points. We’re highly motivated anyway, but since Joinpoints we might have a bit more motivation to complete tasks.
Dominik, for example, really likes the sound when a task is completed 😉
Who would you recommend Joinpoints to?
Allen (laughs)
For those who work a lot with projects, so that they don’t lose track. It can certainly be used for products, but I have no experience with that. For us as a team, it makes a lot of sense to work with joinpoints. We can no longer imagine working without joinpoints.
