How much for a website???

i'm guessing the budget for a studio film's web site is anywhere between $25,000 to $100,000. you've got a team of people working on it - producers, designers animators programmers, etc. pitching initial concepts, designing elements, coding. probably a few weeks 2 to 4 to build it.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Zac! And it was great meeting you and your lady at the Fat Monster films west BBQ. Congrats on the Oscar gig!
 
Well here's my point... I think this website HERE cost about $23.79 + tax.

If local video in STL has taught me anything... the way to get your project done is to convince some competent people that the project will be one of the following...

a) really fun, and therefore worth doing for free.
b) good for their reel.
c) an opportunity to meet and/or work with some important people.
d) the thing that's finally going to the right people, so they can make the big time.


If web design is anything like video in STL... then you can choose any or all of those options to convince the right people to do your world class website...

... then again... you could skip happy hour 1.5 times... and pay the $43.22 that is currently the top dollar for some of today's most talented web designers... If anybody tries to charge you more then that they're probably scamming you...



Of course I've turned into a hard-ass lately when the locals want me to shoot video for free... I tell them, "Hey! It's not like it snows so much that I can pay my bills shoveling driveways through the winter! You're going to HAVE to come up with the $17.29 that I DEMAND for my time, skill, gear, and knowledge!"

So if you're up against a stickler... you may have to break a Jackson.


(sorry... I didn't mean to hijack your thread with stupidity... but it's all Zak's fault anyway)
 
With inBev drying it all up, STL is a tough market for video today.
It was bound to happen though. I have milked A-B for millions in the last 8 years or so and I honestly cannot remember a required session. They have never managed spending well there but they don't have anyone on their BSN staff with actual real world experience either.
So the truth is, they still have no idea how much video costs. lol

to the OP's question, that's a $65k website.
Most of the time a flat fee will be charged for the whol enchelada, including troubleshooting and revisions (corrections, not aesthetic tweeks).

Things brings us to a good point in discussion. If you have been enjoying wages as a specialist, you are going to stop doing that as we enter this depression. While we all know more money is made as a specialist than as a jck of all trades, if you cannot offer a flat bid for a turn-key product, you are tieing a hand behind your back. What will change foraver as belts are tightened is the education behind all of this. Folks like the above mentioned Anheuser-Busch will see for the FIRST time how much it really costs to produce a video. They'll be employing youngans with a digital camera and a laptop after decades of heaping crews that have not beeen required for the last decade. And when money becomes lucrative again, they WILL NOT go back to their old ways of spending 2 grand per finished minute of video. They'll give those youngans titles like producer/director and keep on keepin on.
Mark my words, if you are not wearing multiple hats in your production processes, you will be getting coffee for those who do.
 
grinner said:
Toungue and cheeck as it is, this really is what is gonna sell your business... other small firms bidding the same as you with comedic capabilities.
We have lived in worked in times that have revolved around who ya know. We are slowly venturing into now what we know.
Companies can simply no longer afford polularity contests.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't make my living in video, but I do have my own software business and it's still the same for me: who you know. I still don't really advertise. My name gets passed around from people I work with.

I actually think in it's even more certain in the down economy that I will continue to get work because of my relationships...
 
Heres my new marketing approach for the ecnonomic downturn

Promotion No.55

Make a production booking in the month of February 2009 and we'll mow your lawn absolutely free of charge.
 
SparkyZa said:
That site would cost no more than 5K tops! Anymore then that would be 'execs' lining their pockets. Nothing groundbreaking there...and it runs slow too...not a great programming job.

http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/
Click to expand...

Agreed. The idea of spending $100,000 on a Website is ludicrous unless it has tons of original Flash games made for it, perhaps the need for numerous servers to be setup, ecommerce portals, etc.

Speaking of Web work, though, does anyone here know of a good graphic designer? We are having a ridiculously hard time finding anyone reliable. The fact is, most of these people just totally suck. It's amazing to me they can call themselves professionals. My friend Erik, who is a programmer, has finished the back-end for my site, and we've now went through THREE flakey or horrible designers. We originally wanted someone to do the design and the CSS, now we're ok with finding someone for the design and another person for the CSS. The first was an Indian company, they jerked us around and asked for more than our budget. The second was an an Asian guy, which is only relevant because he didn't speak proper English whatsoever, obviously didn't understand any instructions given to him, as he willfully ignored about 7 or 8 out of 10 changes each time, on the fourth lousy mockup we fired him, because he had taken way too long and wasn't showing any signs of progress whatsoever. Then the third was a total no-show, he said he was able to start immediately, he was paid half in advance (PayPal dispute is now open, fortunately it's not my money, it's my programmer's money), and he said he'd have work last Tuesday or Wednesday, those days passed, nothing, he guaranteed Thursday. Nothing. We had already decided he was gone by Friday but we officially fired him Sunday. We have been looking since Friday night for someone else.

I have posted on craigslist as well, and of the 50 or so responses, literally not 1 of them is good enough for me to be confident in that person doing quality work. It's shocking. If I post for a DP I find like 10 to 12 really good people from 50, with work I consider excellent, certainly another 5-10 with at least "good" work, they could potentially do the job. But what's most hilarious is that graphic designers for some reason think they're worth $75/hr (up there in la-la land, dream world where the economy is great and there is cash everywhere, apparently, seriously morons), yet the work from these people is absolutely godawful. I could do better myself and I barely am competent at Photoshop but I have something called standards -- I wouldn't put work that bad up on a portfolio for anyone to see. I'm happy to pay $75/hr, for a great designer, I mean if they're really good they are worth that much because they will be fast, efficient, professional, and resourceful. Therefore they will finish my project in 5-6 hours, and that's no problem, but if they take 20 hours they better be charging $20/hr or less because they obviously suck at their jobs, haha. It's just really weird, this inflated notion of what these people are worth. They somehow think because REAL graphic designers, actual professionals who are good, charge $75/hr that automatically means they can charge that for their lousy amateur garbage. Good luck, I guess.

So now we're trying eLance too, but it's so far very frustrating. There is so much bad Website design out there, I mean most sites I visit are just so bad, it's not like there is a lot that "wows" you with its design.
 
why would you need something more complex than this, I can understand that if your job is to design cool loking webs or you need a cool flash web for a film you'll need a better page with moving objects and flashy lights, but for me with this web that I designed free of charge ( well just a basic css and some images in PS for the background) is more than enough for a basic reel....... But as i said before I understand that there are cases that ask for complex web solutions, but I can't see 100,000$ going in one......

EDIT: the website is still being built so you can only access the home and contact pages in all three languages.
 
ilauzirika said:
why would you need something more complex than this, I can understand that if your job is to design cool loking webs or you need a cool flash web for a film you'll need a better page with moving objects and flashy lights, but for me with this web that I designed free of charge ( well just a basic css and some images in PS for the background) is more than enough for a basic reel....... But as i said before I understand that there are cases that ask for complex web solutions, but I can't see 100,000$ going in one......

EDIT: the website is still being built so you can only access the home and contact pages in all three languages.
Click to expand...

lol, that's way too simple for my tastes. I'm not just trying to put a reel online, I'm trying to build a company Website with full backend support, I'm not an HTML guy, so with my site (what's already done with it) I don't have to touch HTML, it's all controlled through an admin panel, adding videos, text, images, etc.
 
The only thing about this "Push" website, is that these kind of websites SUCK.

I would much rather HTML, or some simple FLASH...Can't stand these kinds of websites.

Robbie
 
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