how MUCH do you CHARGE???? I'm in a major rut guys

[TruEstar]

Hey everyone!!!!

how's it going?

It's been awhile.... I hope everyone is well!


basically, I've been living and breathing filmmaking and editing the whole past few months. I've took a couple more courses, and did an internship shooting video and editing at a college over the summer.

I'm improving constantly, and currently brushing up on motion and after effects.

I've learned Avid extremely well during the internship, along with owning final cut pro and being very efficient at it.

We had to do a promotional video for a nonprofit organization as a project over the summer, and we spent about 3 days shooting, and put over 100 hours into it altogether editing and shooting.

I completely taught myself Avid spending hours upon hours messing with it, asking other people in the department questions, and watching hundreds of tutorials

It was played at a banquet dinner for the organization, and very, very well received.


Since then, i've gotten a ton of offers to do videos for other people. My major problem, is a lot of them want to pay me very little, or want me to do it for free. As of next week, i'm no longer interning, and I'm trying to decide which projects are worth it, and which ones aren't.

I go all out for my clients, and I've thinking strongly of starting a production company with a few friends very soon.


My question to you guys, is how much is the lowest I should charge for a promotional video for an mma company that i'm going to spend about 5 hours filming on 1-2 cameras in HD, and about 40-60 hours editing in two weeks....

I'm thinking $1,500 is too low, and that muchof my time is worth about $3,000 at the very least.

Is the industry standard really $1,000 per minute, or higher?

Also, if boxers, ect ask me to edit highlight clips together for them, then how do I calculate how much to charge for that?

basically, I don't know what to do with the financial aspects of being a freelance videographer.


I'm also having more trouble with people and pricing if any of you would be kind enough to send me a pm, I can explain the whole situation to you.

this is the video myself and the other intern made for the nonprofit.... Please take a look at it, and considering what i'm going to shoot for the guy, tell me what you think of my suggestions for pricing....

I know there's a lot of things to consider, but

Thanks everyone!!!!

and have a great day!

*noted, the video is in HD, but my buddy accidentally uploaded it to youtube in 480. I'll reupload it in HD in a couple of days....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv1vd-vTsf0&feature=feedlik

 

[chromeboy007]

Thanks for asking. I'm interested in how THAT gym video should be priced as well.

I think I price my videos too low.

 

[TruEstar]

That video was difficult.

I'd never used Avid, had to learn it, and finish the video in four weeks.

We had to go back multiple times since a person in our department kept telling us we could do the shoot with one camera....

even though 2 or 3 would of made it quicker and easier.

 

[NVentive]

Ah, the eternal question.... $1K per finished minute has been an industry standard for a long time, but there are variables. We did a 120 minute CMA project a while back that was basically a talking nurse with a powerpoint presentation. Not long after that we did three :30 second bank spots that involved two days of shooting with a full grip grip truck and a 50-foot boom. The 90 seconds for the bank was an order of magnitude more than the one 2-hour medical training vid. Neither was 1K per, or even close. Those are extremes, of course.
Most of our customers want something like a turn-key price, so we try to figure the production hours and multiply that by $135.00. That's a tad low compared to many markets, but our operating & living costs are extremely low where we are so we do okay with it. We have a lower, unpublished rate for law enforcement clients, who make up a small but VERY steady part of our monthly billing.
In the past, we usually ended up billing pretty close to $1k per, with the average length 8 - 12. 'Throw in a few of the $20 to $30K lux jobs and we were doing okay. Right now, we are seeing something of a shift. In the past, even small companies wanted to look big, now even big companies like to look 'personal,' which is a.k.a. for 'small.' When a small company wanted to look big, we could add in a lot of flashy extras that helped out bottom line. Now, everyone wants to look really conservative, & we just are not seeing the five-figure jobs as often as we used to. Ouch... Trying to make up for it with volume isn't easy, as there are a lot more shooters gathering at the dwindling oasis these days. A lot of the really thirsty folks will charge whatever they think they can get, and I cannot blame them.