Another price discussion topic.

T

two99

Member
Hello,

Straight to the point, I live in Australia, I recently did a short web promo shoot for a small company (in the property development sector).

The client wanted a 30 second introduction video for his websites homepage (Hello, we are blah blah, we do blah blah, enjoy the website).

I am looking for some general information on what price I should have charged. I understand from these forums that prices vary GREATLY depending on individual circumstances, however, for those who would like to contribute some experienced input ... here are the details of the shoot:

2 hour shoot
2 x Kino-Flo lights
Operator with EX1 and Letus Extreme + Audio Gear x 2hrs
Assistant x 2hrs
Wally Dolly + Track

End result is a one shot with very slow dolly from right to left. 30 second runtime, spent about 2 hours in post.

I conducted my service in a professional manner and delivered the final product within 24 hours post shoot.

Once again, I would love some feedback on the general price you would have charged for the above project.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew.
 
Don't have a dollar amount in mind but sharing a thought .. IMHO, shooting days are your inventory and its perishable. Regardless of the fact that the final product only runs 30 seconds, a whole day was used where the equipment and personel could have been employed elsewhere but were tied up and unavailable for other work that you could have been doing on productions with longer running times. So cutting them a discount because it only runs 30 seconds shouldn't be considered. Charge them based on the time this shoot took you out of circulation for other work. When you have a hankering for a sip of soda pop, the grocer will insist on selling you a full bottle instead of opening one and only charging you for the part of it you actually drink.
 
Thankyou Steve,

Next time I think I will consider charging a Half Day for the use of my equipment and time ect. The shoot required 2 hours of travel, 2 hours of setup/shooting followed by 2 hours of post production.

If anyone else has any advice it would be much appreciated,

Thankyou,

Andrew.
 
I try VERY HARD to not do half day rates. And if I do, they are generally about %75 of my full day rate, not half.

I would have charged in the ballpark of $1200 USD for this.
 
If anyone was interested, here is the finished product as discussed in my original post.


*Talent not associated with me.

Thanks for everyone's advice.

Andrew.
 
If you had charged them for a 30 second spot you would have thrown in 12 seconds for free.

I would agree that I don't charge by the length of the finished product but by the effort and equipment it took to get it. And don't forget to add the expenses to your time invested. Even if the equipment was yours I am sure it wasn't free so factor it into the cost. You might not need to explain to the client that A+B+C=$ but make sure your investment in gear is accounted for. You mentioned that it was a 2 hour shoot and 2 hours in post. Did you just arrive with no game plan or did you spend time on scripts or coaching the person speaking? I try to factor in how many hats I am expected to wear into my bids. Realistically though the client has a dollar amount in mind and you learn how to guess based on a rough structure. If they give a dollar amount it is up to you to decide if it is worth your effort. Be fair but don't give it away.

I had a client recently that I felt was properly funded so I gave an aggressive bid and they didn't even bat an eye, "Let's Do It"! A few projects later was for a non profit and I gave what I thought was a no brainer bid and I was $2k too high. For your project, assuming that I was in on the writing and based on local rental fees I would have to say that $1200 US is a good guess.

Cole
 
Thankyou Cole,

Yes this has being an experience and I will re-asses my rates and ways in which I charge thanks to everyones advice. The client had a very rough idea of what they wanted, however I had my own game-plan when I arrived. Pre-production was a minimum probably 30-minutes before we started to roll.

Great advice Cole,

Andrew.
 
Yeah something like that, I mean it was finished fast, sounds easy, not a huge amount of equipment required, but I would probably have charged $1,200 low, $1,500 high. I don't edit myself, though, I'd have to have someone else edit probably unless it was super simple and no motion graphics, minor color correction, etc. I could do it if it's easy, which it sounds like it is. I'd hire a DP probably for $250, I'd bill my equipment at $500 maybe for that, no less, that's a camera and related gear ($200/day), dolly ($100/day, for mine), computer use ($100/day anyway), etc. Plus insurance, plus my time. Yeah I'd say $1,500. I'm not saying I wouldn't do it for $1,200, just saying that I'd bid $1,500 and if they came back with $1,000 I'd say $1,250 is doable.

My issue is I don't really care much about $1,000 profit, I mean it's just not worth bothering over. I would rather be finding clients who have a series of $5,000 projects, like what I have done for virtual tours and whatnot, because I can crank those things out easily too and make a much higher profit margin. It's a bit more work but I'd rather spend $1,500 and charge $5,000 and do that 3-5 times, sometimes 10 or more times, for the same company, than spend $500 and make $1,500, even though the percent markup is roughly the same. Because if I have to dick around with negotiating with this client, talk about what they want exactly, write up a contract, go back and forth over e-mail, etc., all for $1,000, that isn't going to help me much. I would need 3 of those projects per week just to be happy. So I'd only do a project like that if I was bored, or if the client came to me without me needing to find them, and if they had a clear idea what they want. Otherwise it seems like a lot of hassle for nothing.
 
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