Charging for Pre-production?

F

finchy

Well-known member
Hi guys,

We are a new business and getting our heads around budgeting for clients but one thing that we cant agree on is what to charge for pre-production work? Scheduling the shoot, scripting, general contact with the client to organize the shoot etc Obviously different jobs require more or less Pre-prod' so....

Do you charge by the number of days that you are in Pre-prod' or do you have a fixed rate?

Thanks!

Tom.
 
Wow. Good question. Wish I had an answer. Do you have a weekly rate as a producer? If so, I'd say you might want to pro-rate a percentage of that rate for Pre-Pro.

Or you include pre-pro expense into your production quote.

-M
 
I don't charge for pre-production at all unless it involves set design or something with a tangible cost like that. The time rolls into my production rate. But it also depends on what you're doing and what services are provided before the shoot. I do small commercial and event projects that don't have a huge amount before, besides planning.
 
I never used to charge for pre-production and ended up doing a lot of unintentional pro bono work that way. I would say establish a lesser fee. For example, if you charge, say $150 an hour base (or $1500 a day) for basic production or post, I would maybe make it $50 an hour + expenses for pre-production. There is no reason to do that work (which can be substantial) for free. Would you expect your lawyer to do work on your case for free and only charge for courtroom showmanship and results? no...so don't do that for your clients. Pre-production is hugely important and the fact that you charge for it further shows that. It will also cut back on the pointless meetings that may come up when the client knows it's on their dime.
 
+1 for Wilshire.

Your time is worth money. That doesn't change just because the camera isn't rolling. Decide how much that time is worth and charge accordingly.
 
I guess for me it's just all factored in. If I know a corporate video is going to cost $2,000, I charge $5,000 let's say, and that $3,000 goes to paying insurance, sales employee, sales employee commission, equipment expenses (my equipment is what is used), all of that good stuff, plus my paychecks. So for me I charge for it all but I don't sit there and figure out the hours specifically, no, I know the rough amount of time any project takes and for now that's fine.

If I were to become a larger company later and had to hire line producers, etc., I'd have to figure out what I could afford to pay.
 
You should always charge for pre-pro. Sourcing special needs, rental gear, props, casting VO or actors, etc. costs you time, and should cost them money. I break it down to an hourly charge and include it in the budget.
 
Cheers for all your responses guys!

I was thinking that an hourly/daily rate would be the bets way to do it....
I was always told that Pre-production should be 70% of the overall work... which i guess makes sense because if you do all the prep work in advance, that will save you time and money in production and post.
 
Wilshireblvd said:
I never used to charge for pre-production and ended up doing a lot of unintentional pro bono work that way.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I used to end up with a lot of situations like this and theoretically, I've planned many a job that "might" still happen if they get the cash they were expecting which would have paid me for production work.

So, these days I won't do free Pre-Pro work without knowing they have the actual budget to spend on the project.

I still don't have a set Pre-production rate as I include it in my fee for the whole production but can see where it might be a good idea to set some fees in case.

I've actually done consulting work that consisted of some pre-pro work but no production on my part which I was paid for but just never had some set pre-production rate.

-M
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top