How much do you charge for freelance/contract work?

J

jonE5

Veteran
Well, i was approached today about making a commercial for a small business. I made one for my work and it turned out well, and someone heard about it and wants to know if im interested.

They want to use the same actor/spokesperson i used for that add. I think im open to it as long as i can get the shoot done in a day, and the editing done in a few days after that. Im guessing TRT will be about 1.5-2 mins.

What is a fair rate for a non-pro? Ive never really thought about charging for my work so far, but time is very limited for me so of course i would want to be compensated. I want something thats a fair trade for my time but also feasible for the client to chew on.

I was thinking about estimating an hourly rate for my time, and my equipment, and then for my actor, and then a rate for editing.

My rough estimate, was shoot time 4 hours, editing time 6 hours.

I was thinking $30 / hour for myself, $30 / hour for my equipment, $30 / hour for my actress. Then $45 for editing.

So shooting charges $90/hour, editing $45 / hour.

So total charges for shooting would be $360, total for editing $270.

Total charges $630 (id probably pay out the $120 + $10 travel to my actress, leaving $500 for me)

Is this a fair rate? Am I on the high end? Low end? Have i reasonably estimated the time this will take?

I dont have a lot of details yet about hte shoot but ill try to find out more.

thanks guys

jon
 
I think that your rate is fair, but your hourly estimate for shooting and editing may be off. That is a pretty conservative shooting time estimate, for a TRT of 1.5-2 minutes. Will your workflow be tapeless and have you considered logging your footage in your editing estimate?

I think you will quickly realize, especially after finding out details about the shoot that a total of 10 hours seems much too low.

I'd at least double the estimated shooting and editing time (and that's if you're a fast editor).

Kegan
 
Thanks for the tips. I should have listed my equipment

Canon 7D (so no logging and capture)
50mm 1.8
tamron 17-50mm 2.8
Zoom H4n (may borrow some XLR mics, may not)
Glidecam 1000 pro
tripods/rigs/ etc...

Any other input?
 
Im editing in Sony Vegas, I will have to convert all the files before editing (i usually convert to AVI or wmv to edit).

So that process should be a seperate charge?
 
I'd also consider the rate for your actress. Is this a friend or someone who acts for a living? What is her total time commitment going to be? Will she have lines to rehearse a couple of days before the shoot? or can she do it while you guys are setting up lights?
 
My 2 cents, you are way to low. You should double that. Also work on a price per job model and error on the high side. You don't want to have to worry about the clock nor do you want your client to watch it either. You should pay your talent $350. That will get you happy talent which will equal better performance (really it does) as well as a long shoot day should you need more time than you thought. Pricing can be tough but don't price yourself low because you feel like your client is doing you a favor. Your a talented filmmaker who was recommended for your skill and you should be compensated.

Now if you suck, well then your price is perfect.
 
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Yeah, I'd double it too.

Got to factor in setting up the job, coordinating, estimating time/budget, travel, rendering, burning discs, etc...all the time you spend getting this done might not be "billable time" so you have to work it into the billable hours.
 
marlontorres said:
I just charge a daily rate of $400/day.
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400$ if you would be shooting and editing? Or just 400$ for the shooting day? I will be doing a band soon which will require around 8 hours of shooting, doing 3 songs and covering them with 2 cameras, plus a lighting package and a second operator. The idea is to have a "AOL session" style so to emulate multiple camera angles we need to shoot the songs again and again. Then comes the editing between the XH A1 and 7D.

with the shooting, lighting, and second unit, it came to a toal of 930$ for the day plus editing. I feel like im undercharging but if you say you charge 400, i don't know if people would take advantage of you for your talents or if that's a reasonable price?
 
You want to earn

$XXk pa

You may work 200 days per year

Your $ZZK kit falls apart every three years

Your $AA car falls apart every 5 years

You need insurance which costs YY PA

You have loan for your Kit $VVKpa

Your office costs $WWKpa

Do the maths and you get a day rate

Then half that figure to win the job in todays 'climate'

S
 
PaPa said:
400$ if you would be shooting and editing? Or just 400$ for the shooting day? I will be doing a band soon which will require around 8 hours of shooting, doing 3 songs and covering them with 2 cameras, plus a lighting package and a second operator. The idea is to have a "AOL session" style so to emulate multiple camera angles we need to shoot the songs again and again. Then comes the editing between the XH A1 and 7D.

with the shooting, lighting, and second unit, it came to a toal of 930$ for the day plus editing. I feel like im undercharging but if you say you charge 400, i don't know if people would take advantage of you for your talents or if that's a reasonable price?
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$400 for my services alone and 1 camera. Shoot or edit... still $400. I've done CG work for that rate for 3 months straight. $400, and I'll do whatever, I can do jumping-jacks if you want.
 
What about for weddings? Anybody doing weddings? I'm debating geting into this as sidework.
 
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roxics said:
What about for weddings? Anybody doing weddings? I'm debating geting into this as sidework.
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RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!!!!!!

LOL

My rates are all over the map as I've questioned them numerous times and this is always hard because not every project warrants the same rate even if the hours/editing time may seem to be similar. Total running time NEVER is a good indicator of how much time it takes to edit something. The shorter the video is, the more decisions you have to make and the more the client wants changes.

A rough estimate for me is this

For every hour on duty shooting you roughly shoot about a half hour of footage give or take.

For every 1 hr of footage, depending on the type of project you will spend 3-5 hrs editing, with 3 hrs being a very simple, rushed but SOMEWHAT presentable job, 4 hours being more normal if you're good, and 5 hrs for something that takes a lot of decision making like a long documentary with careful sound and color correction meticulously applied. Usually you can combine multicamera coverage - ie a 1 hr event with 3 hrs over 3 cameras can be counted as 1 hr multiclip.

So if you want to have enough time to make a good product maybe use the following formula

Rental rate of your gear ($100-$150 let's say) as a FLAT STARTING RATE
PLUS
Hourly shooting rate x the amount of hours
PLUS
5 x the Amount of hours on set divided by 2 (30mins footage per 1hr on set)
EQUALS
Your SOLO full production rate

So if you want $50 an hour to shoot and $35hr to edit, for example, one hour on set ($50) you shoot on average 30 mins of footage taking 2.5 hrs to edit costing $87.50 editing) then you get an Hourly production rate of $137.50 plus a flat rate for equipment rental...also add incidentals like travel/costs/taxes/media costs etc.

So if they book you for a ten hour shoot maybe chareg $1375 for labor, $150 gear rental and maybe $50 for travel/media incidentals = $1575...then factor in your actress and additional crew.


But then again the above is a HUGE generalization and not everyone is the same, every shooter/editor/client has different sets of standards and skill levels.

The best way is to have a portfolio or website with a varied template of video genres so you can compare and contrast leads to past jobs with the client.
 
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