As a marketing professional having worked in the music and tv industry, part of developing a campaign strategy for a new artist or show is to research your market to better understand how to execute your goals effectively.

As I began moving into marketing for IT within the entertainment business, I conducted my research to see what were the "it" products and the costs of such soft/hardware. So prior to joining VFX Technologies, I checked out Autodesk's FLAME, the "industry standard" in post production editing. I figured acquiring the it would be as easy as walking into Best Buy and purchasing the software.

Little did I know how I would have to cross lands far and wide to get it. OK, I'm exaggerating, but the task of getting FLAME is far from easy.

After extensively scouring different review websites, message boards and chatting with Autodesk's customer service, the level of secrecy to get pricing felt comparable to attempts at retrieving the nuclear launch codes. The only option available was to contact one of their 10 resellers.

I reached out to all 10 of their resellers, confident that contacting them would get me a fast, general quote. Unfortunately per every reseller the answer wasn't so simple. Little did I know the complexity involved. In fact FLAME wasn't a program they would just send pre-loaded onto a workstation but rather needed a range of information, everything from the amount of space to the additional A/V cards. The unit as a whole needed to be specifically configured to your needs, but more importantly wasn't necessarily readily available.

There was one reseller I was able to receive a quote from. All in all you are looking at a 6 figure price tag. Pricing also varies on used vs. new and rental vs. purchase. I will be speaking more in depth about the pricing in the upcoming blog entry. Subscribe to VFX Insider for the latest on this and other topics related to IT in entertainment.

- Phillip