40 tape documentary $$?
- Thread starter greeches
- Start date
Super Trooper
Well-known member
$1 Million Dollars?
Zak Forsman
Major Contributor
the absolute lowest I would go for something I was not also producing is $600/day plus $800/week bay rental. for a documentary, i would estimate to be cutting one day for every finished minute of the piece. so working five days a week, I would estimate (as an ideal) four and a half months of editorial and a total bill around $70,000.
so apply that to your own model. the "one day for every finished minute" thing is a good, safe (some might say overly so) starting point for determining how long a project will take. obviously, the real world limits on budget and time will work against that.
so apply that to your own model. the "one day for every finished minute" thing is a good, safe (some might say overly so) starting point for determining how long a project will take. obviously, the real world limits on budget and time will work against that.
Last edited:
Matt Gottshalk
Resident Preditor
Figure out how many hours it will take times your hourly rate.
For a 90 minutes doc, about 120 hours at the low end to edit it.
For a 90 minutes doc, about 120 hours at the low end to edit it.
Zak Forsman
Major Contributor
it's really hard to say without knowing more about the project. it could be anywhere from the 3 weeks mcgee suggested as a minimum to the 18 weeks I suggested. 40 tapes doesn't sound like a lot though. so you answer lies somewhere in between.
Get payed dude.
600$ a day + edit bay rental sounds good. BUT, why not use this to purchase your own 10-15,000$ Edit Bay (Avid/FCP/Permiere studio, Turnkey system w/ 3-4 terabyte drives, and a ONE BEAST of a computer), and charge them the rental fee, and pay for your own machine, AND make some extra dough off it. Then after wards, you can be prepared to take on Big projects as they come.
600$ a day + edit bay rental sounds good. BUT, why not use this to purchase your own 10-15,000$ Edit Bay (Avid/FCP/Permiere studio, Turnkey system w/ 3-4 terabyte drives, and a ONE BEAST of a computer), and charge them the rental fee, and pay for your own machine, AND make some extra dough off it. Then after wards, you can be prepared to take on Big projects as they come.