Church Conference quote ?

S

STICKMAN504

Active member
Ok guys,& girl i have to film a conference in my area It is a 3 nights 7 to 10pm sat 8 to 12am they would like each night and sat. morn service on separate dvds in a 4pack dvd booklet with full color label and cover. quanity (200# 4 pack dvds ) i have everthing for the productions to design labels and covers and dvd duplicaters i will be film also myself its a one camera shoot and also the would like me to run a project to the next building for the overflow which i have a projector and enuff cable to do it . What i need for you guys is to tell me how much should i charge and what would you charge for this type of work . many quotes as possible thanks:dankk2: im in New Orleans and its a Baptist Church
 
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Would help to know where you are. If you're shooting the Crystal Cathedral congregation it would be a much larger budget than you'd have to work with at a local church out in West Podunk.
 
Depending on the size of the church. 500 bucks per night for shooting. and do a standard 40 - 50% markup on the DVDs after cost.

That is a very conservative estimate.
 
How much for the manufacturing? I would think that it would be what you are charging them for the DVDs. DVDS=Manufacturing but time, well, how much is your time worth?

Just calculate how much time it will take to burn and package those 200 DVDs nicely with the labels or covers includes, break it down into hours and then multiply those hours by say....$60-$80 (some manufacturers may charge that much to fix a camera or other electronics so you could use it as a reference) and then add that to your fees for shooting the event over the course of three days and also the per DVD markup that one of the previous members mentioned and then that should be sufficient.
 
If this were a regualar corporate gig with the same stats up front, I'd charge a flat 8k. I have learned to add 20 percent for any gig with the word Church in it.
Ironicly, the honesty level of the productin tends to be deminished on "services" and more often than not, you are asked to donate all or some of your check back to the business... uhm, church.
When I was freelancing for TBN in Hendersonville, TN, Jan Crouch actually held my first check telling me it was the norm. I had to tell her I'd be cool with that only if she paid my rent.
Simply put, I charge for political hooha and I have never found more of that than with this demogrpahic.
I'd not leave the house for less than $9,500 for this gig.
 
My 2 cents...?

Landed a corporate gig last december, basically to film and edit an annual managers forum (3 days) with the CEO talking about the last years profits, what worked, future paths and all...

I quoted for a 2 camera shoot, plus still photography of the seminars, edits down to reduced H264 file size so they can upload on their internal network, they didn't want individual dvds so i guess i saved time/money in that area.

Basically i tried to do too much for too little, while i had the 2 cameras locked off with audio from the soundboard, i was lurking in the background with 2 remote strobes shooting for the still photography, running back to check both cameras again, checking audio, adjusting output/angle on the strobes, etc. The main problem was they had two guest lecturers who i wasn't allowed to film talking before the 2 seminars i was asked to film, so set-up time was about 5 minutes. Tight to say the least.

They had asked for the 2 seminars filmed/edited (1 hour each), still photography of the 3 day forum (around 250 edited), and a highlight clip (3-5 minutes) showing, well, highlights from the forum.
I quoted $4,000...I know...i was keen to get the job and i was asked through a friend so i basically said, 'yeah i can do that no worries...'

The seminars went smoothly even with the running back and forth but i had fun, the still photography suffered a little with the lack of set-up time and all as i didn't want to shoot available light, but got it done in the end, the highlight reel was basically a montage of stills and short video and commentaries. I wasn't proud of it, but in defence they wouldn't let me film the guest speakers which in my opinion was the highlight of the forum with people interacting and not falling asleep (seriously).

The forum's coming up again this december, if i'm asked again i'll do it pretty much the same, except for the price.
In all reality i should have asked at least $6,000, with equipment hire, my own equipment being used, insurance, travel, time both on site and in editing i broke it down to i made $25 an hour.

I could have saved time in editing but from memory i think it was raining and the were no waves or something similar...i guess i just tried to make it special/interesting...maybe not as boring as it actually was?

Just thinking now if i get this gig again i'll get a 3rd camera for a handheld/roam angle, i'll film close-ups on the managers who fall asleep during the CEO's address and use the footage to blackmail them for more profit.
 
grinner said:
If this were a regualar corporate gig with the same stats up front, I'd charge a flat 8k. I have learned to add 20 percent for any gig with the word Church in it.
Ironicly, the honesty level of the productin tends to be deminished on "services" and more often than not, you are asked to donate all or some of your check back to the business... uhm, church.
When I was freelancing for TBN in Hendersonville, TN, Jan Crouch actually held my first check telling me it was the norm. I had to tell her I'd be cool with that only if she paid my rent.
Simply put, I charge for political hooha and I have never found more of that than with this demogrpahic.
I'd not leave the house for less than $9,500 for this gig.
Click to expand...

Iv been noticing on allot of previous posts that you seem to be making some great money doing what your doing. Can I ask you how long youve been doing freelance and how often does a church pay 9500 for a gig like this? I want to know what Im doing wrong! ha.
 
I would estimate how much time I will have to put in this job (that includes setup). Then I would charge $150 an hour.
 
lairhair said:
Iv been noticing on allot of previous posts that you seem to be making some great money doing what your doing. Can I ask you how long youve been doing freelance and how often does a church pay 9500 for a gig like this? I want to know what Im doing wrong! ha.
Click to expand...

I've been at it a little over 20 years.
and I have never seen a church properly pay for anything.
 
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