Local Commercial Rates?

[ItsJanosz]

Hey all. My company has been asked to produce a commercial for a small pizza joint. It's for local cable, will air in three or four cities.
Can anyone give me an idea of what rates people generally charge for this sort of thing? We're a new company, fresh out of SC film school, so we're obviously looking to cut the guy a little break. But we want to have an idea of what kind of market we're talking about here. Idea conception, production and post will be handled by us.
So, what kinds of budgets have you guys seen, and then also what kinds of fees?
Thanks!

[greeches]

I'd like to know too.. anyone?? :)

[Barry_Green]

Our local cable company charges $100/hr for any services, so scriptwriting, editing, shooting, it's all $100/hr. But then, they do an entire spot from concept to completion for $300, so what are you gonna do... it's very hard to compete against a local station and make a profit. The last time I talked to a cable station about local production rates they were so excited because they'd just shot a spot on film for a lawyer, and they had a $5,000 budget for the whole thing. Sigh.

Local commercials are a tough business. Best of luck with it...

[BLUESPIDER]

I just wanted to clear something up. Is $1000 dollars per finished min the average going rate? That's what people been telling me. I just want to comfirm if thats true. thanks

[grinner]

Because most local tv stations do the production for free (in order to sell air time), it's hard to compete for local spots, rate-wise. They'll have to pay for better quality so I see no reason to come off your normal rate.
I charge 195 per hour no matter what we are doing. I don't charge by the finished minute (even for claymation). I charge by the hour. If they want down n dirty, it doesn't cost much. If they want mondo layers of love, that takes more time.

[maverickprods]

We have shot about 25 of these things. When I get a call from someone, I tell them that prices start at $1,500. That is down and dirty, but better quality than the cable companies. I really like a minimum of $2,500. We just produced two for two grand total, but that was them providing the script and V.O. artist. We shot both spots in less than two hours (usually not the case), the editing was nearly identical for each spot. The biggest problem that I have with local spots is that there is so much time consumed by Pre production (hand-holding). I don't actively seek out local spots just because they are so time consuming for little money.
One of the best things that I have found is to try and convince the client to do multiple spots at the same time. They get spots that they can rotate for a decent price, and you can make a bit more money.

[Barry_Green]

Everything maverickprods says here is the truth.

[IncMedia]

I have been charging $250 for 30 second commercials. Is that too little.

[Barry_Green]

Yeah, that's about 1/6 to 1/10 of what a reasonable minimum should be, unless you're just doing the old wave-the-camera-around, slap-some-titles on it type of spots. If it takes you a grand total of three hours (including driving time) to make a $250 spot, that's okay. Any more than that and you're losing on the deal.

[DVX100Shooter]

I have a friend that charges between $400 - $1000 for a :30 Second spot. He's like me, its a one stop shop. He does the graphics, composes the "jingle", pre production meetings with prospective client, post production, shooting and editing. At first he told me he was only charging folks around $200 bucks until someone else told him that he was robbing himself and he should raise his rates which he finally did!