How much should I charge this guy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter_Gaudry
  • Start date Start date
P

Peter_Gaudry

Guest
Hey all - got a call from this guy who wants us to convert 10 VHS tapes of his wedding, edit them down to (I presume) a couple of DVDs and make it look good.

1. How much do you think should be charged? Is $1200 too much?

2. Can I use the DVX as an Analog-Digital converter? I.e attach the VCR to the RCA inputs and then hit record? Is there a smart way to do this using Final Cut, where maybe I don't have to record anything onto a DV tape and rack up hours on my DVX heads?
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

1. That doesn't sound like too much at all. It's a pain in the ass, so you could probably charge a bit more than that.

2. The DVX has a pass-through analog to DV converter. You don't even have to have a tape in the thing. I don't have my camera in front of me, so maybe someone else can help you with the settings...
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

No idea what FCP does for capture, but many capture programs will accept whatever comes through the firewire (i.e., "live capture"). No tape necessary.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

10 whole VHS tapes seriously.. he'd have to pay me that much just to sit and watch them.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

[quote author=Neil R. link=board=Offtopic;num=1107971531;start=0#3 date=02/09/05 at 10:10:13]10 whole VHS tapes seriously..    he'd  have to pay me that much just to sit and watch them. [/quote]

I know - I was thinking as he's talking....how on earth did they get that much footage? Apparently it was just his cousin running around filming stuff - which may be difficult to make look good. ;D

Thanks for the replies - I'll look in the manual for the settings for dv-analog passthrough.

Anyone else have any advice on the price?
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

[quote author=Neil R. link=board=Offtopic;num=1107971531;start=0#3 date=02/09/05 at 10:10:13]10 whole VHS tapes seriously..    he'd  have to pay me that much just to sit and watch them. [/quote]

LOL ;D :D
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

10 VHS tapes, if they're full, is at LEAST 20 hours of stuff, and could be up to 60. What did he do, change the tape every time he stopped the camera?

$1200 is a *steal* for this. I'd charge that much just to transfer all the tapes to DVD, no editing.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

I don't even see how it's possible for only one guy to have used 10 tapes over the course of a wedding. Either it was a week long wedding or the guy had multiple cameras. With all that capturing and logging time, plus having to resusitate amateur footage into a finished product, I think I'd be asking for $1500. That's $75/hour for 20 hours of work.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

Unless wedding night footage is included, charge a whole lot more than that.

Dan
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

I'm just trying to think of how much I'd have to spend on booze to make it through that edit session...
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

....with bells on!

Thanks kindly guys - I'll try shooting upwards of $1500 and see where we land.

JenGerDan - if wedding night footage is included I'll continue the thread in the 'screen grabs' section. :D
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

One summer day a man is walking through an alley behind some shops. As he passes through the alley behind a fish market, he spies a huge discarded fish in the dumpster. He thinks to himself, this fish is free and I can have it made into a large and tasty meal at a fraction of the price of buying a fish dinner. So he takes the fish to a well-known chef and asks him how much it will cost to have the rotting fish prepared for a dinner. $1500, replies the chef. The man is puzzled. $1500?, but I can buy a fish dinner for $50. That's true, says the chef, but it will take a long time to prepare a meal from this fish and I will throw-up many times during the course of the preparation. Even when I am done preparing this fish, it will still taste bad. It will not kill you, but it will still taste bad. So, do you still want me to prepare a meal of this fish?
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

;D Well said, Barry! hahaha. Good one.

I agree, set the price really high because it's going to be a crappy job to do. Then if he's serious about the job being done, at least there will be a great monetary reward in it for you. What can buy with $1500? $1750? $2000? Can you put a price on your sanity? Good luck.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

I'm confused.....

First let's say that 10 tapes might seem like a lot, but that isn't an unusual number.

Now, as Peter_Gaudry is trying to figure out what to charge, it can be safely deduced, Peter isn't a professional editor, pro's know the numbers.....

so

The prices being recommended, $1200 and up (I'd be asking for $1500. That's $75/hour for 20 hours of work) are interesting.

For a non professional ie: lack of experience editing esp. long edits, not nessicarily all the right equipment etc....$75 per hour seems very pricey (if you can get it, then that's good) for an amateur, who will most likely need much more than Barry's optimistic 20 hours.

You charge what your skills are worth, not on the "my god there's 10 tapes", $75 per hour is in the ballpark for a pro (a little low), but for an amateur, you just can't charge "the going rate", you're not in that league yet.

My rate for Steadicam work is in the $200-300 + per hour range, but I have over 15 years experience, and come equipped with all my own equipment etc. I've encountered many "I have the Steadicam I'm a pro I took a course I'm worth the big $$$$" types, and unless they're massively gifted, they're in trouble as soon as the end product is shown.

Charge a realistic price, keeping in mine your experience level, do a brilliant job, and build a demo reel, over time, you'll get the big $$$$$.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

Good advice, Pookie. I think we were just trying to ballpark something for Peter. My (unwritten and possibly unfounded) assumption was that there aren't really 10 tapes. Or if there are 10, tapes, then sone of them have very small amounts of material. I've (still) photographed weddings professionally and think it's pretty unlikely that a cousin with a VHS camcorder filmed more than 6 hours of material. Twenty hours was an estimate based on discussions I've had with wedding videographers. The $1500 reflects a reasonable estimate for the editing component of a typical wedding video in my area. The hourly rate is going to be pretty variable depending on the actual amount of work which will be affected by the amount of materials, quality of source material, and amount of "creative polish" that Peter ends up putting into the piece.
 
Re: How much should I charge this guy?

Exactly Barry....

I have one final area of interest.

The person who shot the video needs to log the tapes, however many of them there are.
Assuming 20 hours was shot, a final DVD might contain 2 hours of footage, 18 hours doesn't make it in. If someone else shot the video, then they had the discussions with the bride, and they know who's who (you don't want to edit out grandma who spent 3 days on a bus, just to see her only grandchild's wedding, because she's just another "guest", and you already have enough filler).

That 20 hours should be logged individually to each tape, with notes and a time reference by the shooter, so at most, you'll have maybe 4 hours of raw footage to cut to 2 hours, from the 10 tapes.

I can't think of any worse kind of video to hire someone who didn't shoot it to edit, than a wedding.

A very 'touchy" edit to try to get right, considering.

Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top