How much do you guys charge for editing and packaging HVX footage?

Ike615

Ike615

Well-known member
- I'm not sure if this is the best forum for this so please redirect me if I should have posted this in another forum. -

I have my day rates for shooting , $700 to $900 depending on setup, and clients (the good ones at least) have no problem with the rates but what I have a hard time selling is the rates for editing. People just don't seem to understand how much work goes into editing a video. They see the final product and are very impressed with it but there seems to be a disconnect with them when it comes to how much time it takes to make it. So I'm often charging less for the editing than for the shooting, which is often absurd because I spend more time in post-production than I do in shooting it.

So I have two questions. One: how does everyone else on here market and sell their editing portion of the deal? Two: what is a reasonable amount to charge for editing?

Thanks!

- Isaac
 
Editing is invisible to most people, it is the last thing anyone thinks about.
Have you ever seen any client rewinding tape and pointing the good cuts
in a scene?
It just does not happen.. most people see the edit just when it is bad, or they
just think the movie or the show is bad without actually knowing why.

I used to work in a post-House in Hollywood, and some package included the free
editing of full length features.. the real money is in the On-lining and the CC .
I don't know how many times I ended up on-lining 1/2 hour shows edited and Color
Corrected entirely by inexperienced people and how many times they were surprised
of not passing the QC of PBS because of inconsistent blacks and jump cuts.

Making a long story short people are not really willing to pay for an editor.

Charge more for CC and ON-lining forget about editing it is a like the Milk-man job it is
going away because people think they can do it by themself. And the same goes for
shooting.. because of technology there are more and more people working for free
and while it is going to take longer to reshape the industry there are not going to be
as higlhy paid jobs as there were 20 years ago.

Maybe I am wrong but I think being able to do everything it is going to keep
you longer alive I wonder how many people in this forum are learning how
to go to the entire process including visual effects without ever going to a post
house

This came out a little long, sorry about that.
Cheers
Aldo
 
Richard,

I like your thinking. How's that working out for you? haha. By the way I'm very much a fan of your work. Not only does it look great but your stories are always catchy. Your video from Europe was actually one of the reasons that convinced me to get the HVX.

Aldo,

I'm right there with you. The crazy thing is that the editor has one of the most important jobs. He/she can take horrible acting and turn it into something decent by combining takes, taking out pauses in an actors speech, etc. One of my film professors (back when I went to film school) was talking about the movie Places in the Heart and how Sally Fields gave a horrible performance but the editor was able to take her horrible performance and turn it into gold. As a result she won an Oscar. But the movie wasn't even nominated for best editor . . . how about that.

I think the biggest reason editors don't get recognized is because when an editor is good you don't even notice the editing. The movie or piece just flows. So good often means invisible. I guess that's just the way it is. But I love editing so I'll take the bad with the good.
 
ragno said:
Editing is invisible to most people, it is the last thing anyone thinks about.
Have you ever seen any client rewinding tape and pointing the good cuts
in a scene?
It just does not happen..
Click to expand...

...gotta disagree there. I worked in a post house a few years back, and nearly every client I worked with had a great grasp of what was on which tape and where they wanted it and how they wanted their final cut to look.... Those were some of my most rewarding sessions because it truly felt like a colaboration and not me trying pull a vision out of someone who had none.
 
It is really great to collaborate with people who appreciate your work and tell you how
they want their show, movie or reel to look like .
Those are the same people that ultimately buy a copy of FCP and spend
years editing their vision. It is really cost effective, for $80 dollars an hour how many
days can you spend on a project before the client says "wait a second did I Spent
$4000 dollars in a week to give instructions to somebody on how to cut my movie?
Mind as well do it myself..". My eye opener was the on-lining of the work
of a 70 year old first time director/editor sound recordist.

Let me make clear that I am not talking about high end movies or high end commercials.
I am talking about a phenomenon: the lost of job security for people that start the
noble craft of editing... it is the land falling off your feet, it happened to me already
once, I worked in the record Industry and suddenly the big studios started to shut
down leaving Recording Engineers without grounds to practise their craft.
People started to record at home, it is not hard .... musicians and in our case directors
want to edit their own work. The only people that are still surviving are the really
good ones who took a huge pay-cut.

Everyday I look across the street to what ones was one the best recording studios in the
world.. it is now gone forever will not come back, widespread information does that.
I called it the Milk-Man Syndrome™ :happy:
Thanks to this forum I am getting my feet wet in production and I am really really grateful for that, knowing my camera
downfalls better than if I just would have gone about it by myself.
I found scene settings for low light condition, tips and tricks for any kind of situation
and I am going to take away money and work from people with more experience than me and because of the rebate panasonic is having on the HVX I think
there are at least a thousand more people out there with the same intentions.
Ultimately I think that staying still it is just not an option anymore and charging
$80 dollars an hour for editing does not happen often here in L.A.

Am I the only one seeing those things? Please feel free to correct me
because the land is falling off again since I saw the presentation
of the new OS X, with automatic realtime compositing capabilities (look at the new Ichat)with core animation and the Final Touch and Shake acquisition
to create a 500 dollars app that is just going to put a lot of people out of business.

To answer the original question I would say $30 an hour or a $1000 a week
would probably be fair to you and the client with CC I would add $20 an hour
or go to $1500 a week. If you do green screen (keylight is easy to use) and the audio mixing in Pro-Tools or Logic, you might be able to get something extra.
I do all the above plus some graphic design some flash and DVD authoring and can't get the company I work for to pay me more than $25 an hour.

This came out long again, I sincerely apologize I did not want to hog the thread.

Cheers
Aldo​
 
Depends on the market.

Here in the DC area I charge $175.00/hr, which is under the market rate.

Clients don't like it they can go somewhere else, I don't need the work.
 
mcgeedigital said:
Depends on the market.

Here in the DC area I charge $175.00/hr, which is under the market rate.

Clients don't like it they can go somewhere else, I don't need the work.
Click to expand...

Wow that must be some kind of governamental job or you are really hooked in the commercial industry, I thought we were talking about rates for low budget efforts.
How do you get that kind of rate?

:beer:
Cheers
Aldo
 
First off, always try and charge per hour. I won't go into all the problems with selling a project on a flat rate, but you always end up doing more work for less and being an advocery with your client by the time you finish the job. There is also no reason for your client to be prepared, he's got you as long as he needs.

We charge $175 per hour plus $50 per hour for GFX. Most sessions are 75% @ $225.00 and 25% @ $175.

We are no doubt in competition with 20 year olds living at home with a FCP system, (no offense), but we target Agencies who whant to take their clients into a nice production facility with all the tools and knowledge to make the most of their production.

So far this has been a success for nearly 10 years and counting.
 
the reason im a DP is that i hate Editing..... i hate it ihate it ihate it...

but if clients INSIST, i charge 75 an hour, and they have to be there with me. so they can understand how long it takes and how painful it is..

I'm good at it, but i just dont enjoy it. it bores me.
 
I am still wondering if we are talking about rates for 30/60 seconds commercials
or something a little more complex that might take 4 or 5 months to edit.
I guess if you have to do a commercial with 30/40 cuts there is no price limit
and $175 an hour seems reasonable since in a couple of days and maybe a week you
might have a pretty decent cut and a pretty cool look if no CG is involved.
It just blows my mind that somebody cutting a reality show, a documentary, or an
independent movie shot on an HVX could charge that kind of money.
It is very educational to me since I usually undersell myself, but those rates sound
so far from something that you can charge by working everyday 10 hours a day for more than month on the
same project, it is 35000 thousand a month just for the editor
and more then 350.000 a year at that point I would shoot with something
better then the HVX and I would call myself a post facility more then a freelance editor.
Please correct me if I am wrong I am here to learn how to make the most of it.
Thx
Aldo
 
ragno said:
Wow that must be some kind of governamental job or you are really hooked in the commercial industry, I thought we were talking about rates for low budget efforts.
How do you get that kind of rate?

:beer:
Cheers
Aldo
Click to expand...

Contacts
Performance
Experience
 
ragno said:
To answer the original question I would say $30 an hour or a $1000 a week
would probably be fair to you and the client with CC I would add $20 an hour
or go to $1500 a week. If you do green screen (keylight is easy to use) and the audio mixing in Pro-Tools or Logic, you might be able to get something extra.
I do all the above plus some graphic design some flash and DVD authoring and can't get the company I work for to pay me more than $25 an hour.
Cheers
Aldo​
Click to expand...

As a freelancer, if you were to charge rates that low, your business would find it hard to survive. Working for a company that pays you $25 an hour and working for yourself are 2 different things. As a self employed freelancer you have to factor in a lot more costs such as equipment purchases and upgrades, equipment insurance, advertising, utility bills, taxes, medical insurance, etc. etc.
Many people charge by the hour which is fine, but when it comes down to it, speed, talent and story telling ablity are the most important things. If two editors charge the same hourly rate but editor "A" can get something cut in 5 hours that would take editor "B" 8 hours for the same cut, then I know who I'd rather hire.
 
My .02
If you edit at home 50/hr more than fair
If you have space/bay at a studio 75/hr
If you have your own studio 100/hr

Keep in mind this is for editing of HVX footage exclusively and I would consider these "you did good prices". You can edit HD HVX footage on a 15"powerbook for less than 3 grand which is about 15-20% of the price of a pro vtr. Dont be too upset if you're not making $175hr nobody else is, do you thinks mechanics get paid $115/hr to work on your car. TedRR is probably paying his guy 25-30hr (no offense). I work in New york and Avid guys are making 400-500/day in television. Then again if you can clock 700-900/day shooting why waste time/money with editing. Outsource it and pay someone else 20/hr. Good Luck.
 
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