Costing a production? (How much to charge)

M

MikeGreen

Active member
Hi All,
Does anyone know of any resources for developing a cost for a production? For people who do corporate video, training videos, local market commercials, how do you figure out what to charge. I'm trying to figure out what to charge without either grossly undercharging or grossly overbidding.
Thanks,
Mike
 
Can you give a bit more detail? Like, do you own your equipment so you will be charging for its use or do you have to rent equipment. Are you going to be holding casting calls for talent or do you already have a talent pool. Do you have locations you can get for free or will you have to scout and pay for locations? How much crew will you have and do you plan to pay them? If you would like for me to email you a sample budget that would pretty much cover a full production I would be glad to, which would give you an idea on where to start. You would have to do some research for prices in your area, but at least you will know the questions to ask.
 
I have some equipment:
dvx100a
tripod
audio kit
lighting kit
Getting ready to buy computer and editing software.

Looking at rental fees online, it seems that equipment rents for between 2 and 5% of purchase price per day. The higher ticket items tend to go for a higher percent. I can rent extra things that I don't have. With those I figured to pass the cost on directly.

As far as staff, I have a pool of people for a small crew. Writer, camera, audio, graphics, editors. I'm looking at corporate productions, PSAs and small commercials. I have a couple of on camera talent to use, and figured I could do casting calls if needed.

I downloaded a bunch of the contracts for different unions and different levels of productions. I was going use them as a gague for how much to pay/charge for crew/talent per hour.

Locations I hadn't thought too much about. I figured that corporate things could be done on their premisis. I figured that I'd be able to shoot commercial's at the client's business.
What are your thoughts on that?

I was also planning to pick up a music library that doesn't charge needle-drop-fees.

I'd appreciate it if you would send me a sample budget. Thanks. It would be a big help.

Mike
 
For me, every production is unique. I just develop a plan (treatment), get the clients conceptual approaval, and then do a budget based on that. You can't assume anything. Shooting at client location is sometimes the only way to go, other times it is the worst way. Likewise actors, equipment, extra production staff, scriptwriting, voiceover talent, music, animation, and even DVD authoring.

Music libraries are handy, but will not solve all your problems either.

Any sample I sent you would be useless for you, since every prject is unique.
 
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