How much to charge for a half hour training video?

[mscherrah]

Barry Green helped me out with a bidding problem for a 100 individual spots. I now need help bidding a one half hour production. We don't want to scare them away with a high bid, but at the same time, we don't want to lose the business. The production is a training video. In my last thread, (help with a bidding problem) I listed my rates follows:

$600 for a BASIC :30 second spot which includes an hour of shooting, editing adding of text, uploading to cable, and a master

$900 for a BASIC :60 Second spot with all of the same features

$1200 for a BASIC 2:00 minute spot with all of the same features

$50 per hour of motion graphic creation

We normally do not do half-hour productions, but have been trying to break into the training video market for some time.

If any of you have experience in bidding larger jobs like this, any guidance will be appreciated.


Thanks!
Matt

 

[Barry_Green]

Well, the determining factor is, again, what kind of time and expense you'll go through to produce it. Is it a case of a guy standing there explaining something for 30 minutes, and slap some titles and lower-thirds on it? Or is it a complex and involved, multi-camera, three-week-edit type of thing?

Whenever bidding on something with a new client, I usually ask them if they've seen any video that's like what they want (and usually, every single one of them has). If you can see what their expectations are, you're infinitely better prepared to make an appropriate breakdown and a realistic bid for a product that can meet those expectations.

For customers that really have zero clue, you have to educate them. The heart-attack moment is when you tell them that, without knowing other particulars, the stock rate is $2,000 per finished minute. That gets 'em thinking, real quick. Of course, they may say "that's okay" and write the check for sixty grand, but ... not typically. So then you have to ask them what kind of video do they want. And they may hit you back with "it's all video, just tell me what it'll cost" and at that point, I will usually break out the ol' "Well, how much does a house cost? Are we talking about a log cabin, or a mansion? A rambler in the country, a trailer in a trailer park, or a condo on Park Avenue?" Usually when they start thinking about it in that way, they can gain a proper perspective on how things really can be very different. And then, if they still have no idea what they want, and can't clue you in any further, then I give 'em the ol' three-step approach, of: "well, we can do a basic video for $5,000, or for $12,000 we can really add a lot of additional features, and if your budget can afford it we can do a really top-of-the-line video for $60,000." In nearly every case that I've done this, the client has always picked the middle price number. And I spell it out what kind of things they'll get in the basic video (talking heads, minimal editing, minimal graphics), and what gets added in the mid-level (maybe professional voiceover talent, location shooting, etc) and what could be added in the big package. And in these cases I set the low-level pricing at what I think is reasonable, the mid-level at a healthy profit, and the top-level at a huge level that could involve all sorts of stuff -- aerial footage, professional actors, location shoots, graphics and design work, etc...

In order to do this, you have to have a very good idea of what you can get those things done for, so you can bid fairly. But it all comes down to knowing what the client expects, and what they can afford, and what it costs you to produce that, and making those three factors meet.

 

[dwelter]

Matt, jeesh, you're back with another bidding question. I think it's time you hired a freelance producer/director or whatever you want to call him/her. You need someone to find out the scope of the project or breakdown a script that knows what you charge for people/equipment/studio/props/talent/editing....ect.
By the way did you think about my idea of breaking out a few of the 100 modules you were bidding on?
Anyway, this isn't rocket science. Figure out what you charge for things, get a bidding program and fill in the blanks. Or better yet get an old pro to do it for you a couple of times.
Hang in there, wish you a win soon.