Hourly rate??

jinks

jinks

Well-known member
Hi everyone. I know this question is subjective but what would you consider to charge hourly with the HVX? I was approached by some people who saw me with the cam in a park and asked me to video them playing golf for about three hours at their country club. I just bought this cam and while it would be nice to make some money with this cam, I'm clueless on the going rates. They want about 5 dvd's of the finished product. I need some kind of minimum hourly rate that I can charge, whether it's for a wedding or private functions. What's the industry standard? assuming the final product is a 24p dvd.










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The answer is: whatever you think you are worth.
Click to expand...

Nobody has that much money <g>. A better answer might be what the market will bear. There's a lot unanswered in your post . . .

If thats 3 hours of on-course time, what kind of deliverable (finished product) are they looking for? Raw footage burned to DVD is one thing but I doubt it's what they really have in mind. So how much post are you looking at? What about sound? (Dialogue, Foley, background, score, narration, etc) Titling? I'm guessing they're looking for an episode of PGA Golf starring themselves without having any idea of what goes into it.

How good are they? 3 hours = 9 holes for most duffers with lots of time out looking for lost balls. Say 3 hrs gives you 1 hr of tape, edit to 10 min video, 3 hrs course time, 1 hr travel, 8 hrs for a quick hack & burn post, you've got 12 hrs invested - at $65/hr (total pfa figure) plus media thats $800 /5 thats $160 apiece - would they go for it?.

It's a balancing act - just remember you don't want anything out there that's so bad its gonna damage your "cred"

OK - this is 3 am idle ramblings of just a few of the considerations involved. Make sure everybody signs releases, get at least some $$ up front, get it all before they see it - at least one'll want to balk.

Oh, and btw - have fun doing it !
 
Thanks Pixelated and Luis, that's a very good breakdown you make Pixelated. Quick question... what kind of releases do they need to sign off? I mean what are the basics in the release. As for the finished product... I don't wanna give 'em raw footage burned to dvd, it's just wrong for my credibility. So, yeah... I will put in some post work, sounds tracks and occasional interviews/ voice-over. These guys are the big fish in town so I'm looking at it more as a sales pitch for future business if I can pull it off.
While we are still at it, can you give me some pointers on how to shoot this kind of thing? I'm not a golfer so not sure which shots are important. Is it the teeing off or at the putting. I have a glidecam 4000 pro which could come in handy in following them but it gets heavy pretty fast so i'm not sure if I can carry it for 9 holes.
Thanks for all the info!
 
If you are going to have lower prices for these guys make sure you bill something like what pixelated posted and add a 50% off for first time customer deal on the bill.
 
If these guys are the "big fishs" in your town, I would´t charge too low: once your rate is established, it´s hard to go higher...
They probably know how expensive commercial photographs are, so you should charge similar or more...
If you charge them for a Mercedes and deliver a Maybach they will always work with you again and will happily pay the price, if you charge them for a Honda and deliver a Honda next time they want the aircondition and the stereo for free...:cool:
 
i'd like to propose a counter perspective. don't overthink things ...

these guys just thought it would be cool to have some video of themselves golfing. I'm betting they are not going to pay much over $300. If you are interested, I wouldn't worry so much about your rep. Take the gig, learn, have fun, do a little more editing than you probably should for the money and maybe by chance it can turn into more.
 
I'd go out on a four hour minimum (you are losing your whole day after all) and then cost the deliverables and your projected edit time. If you charge $35 - $50 an hour and then a reasonable half-day rate on your HVX (about $100), you could be looking at a $300 - $500 deal.

e
 
I would charge a day rate. what other gigs are you going to be able to take that day?i am a little on the high end but currently charge $850 to shoot b-roll on movie sets with an hdv camera. more with an F900 package.
 
dood, he just bought the camera. sounds like a great chance to learn, make a few new contacts, and a payment towards the camera. that is something to feel good about.

a couple of hundred bucks and finding a good way to represent your professional services on an invoice sounds like a great outcome.
 
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Having a new camera doesn´t mean being new to cinematography, he should charge for his knowledge and the equipement...
I never had a single followup gig from doing cheap projects when starting out 10 years ago, so only a good paying contact is a good contact IMHO...
and "a couple of hundret bucks" can mean anything depending on ones personal standing, actually when starting out and having NO clue on how to use a camera, charging a couple of hundred bucks will mostly lead to clients who feel ripped off by you...
 
Just an update to my weekend gig. First of all, thank you all so much for your input. It me a lot though I might say that I was way over prepared than these guys expected. They were a lot of fun to work for and we all had so much on and off the course. All they really wanted was to be taped at tee off and at the 9th hole.... that's it. They even asked to leave and go somewhere if I wanted and just come back after an hour or so for the last hole. Well, I chose to stay and be a little more "profession" by grabbing some extra footage of them playing on the course.

As for the payment, the initial order was for five dvd's for $350. By the end of the day I had an extra order of five more at $70 a piece which came to a total of $700 dollars for about ten minutes of video. Not bad for me considering the golf course is only five minutes from my house, I can actually walk there if I have no equipment. Secondly the shoot lasted only about two and half hours, thirdly I made a bunch of new friends and most importantly the mayor has expressed interest in me doing a promo video for the town to be featured on their website. Lastly but not least, I had a BLAST doing it!! Oh btw, I have been invited on all sorts of boat cruises that these guys go for. Most of them own boats and I have always looked to rent a boat so I can get some footage of the river to be featured in my short doc' but now it's all FREEEEEEEEE... you can't beat that.
 
Jinks,

Good to hear! Better over prepped than under, right? :)

Sounds like you'll have some more good times yet to come.

-andrew
 
That's turned into a great gig! Every time you work, you learn. On this one, you took a little business-side lesson to put toward your future endeavors.

Sounds like a good time - and what's the point if you're not having fun?

e
 
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