How much would you charge for a basic t.v commercial?

Rylan Zolinski

Rylan Zolinski

Well-known member
I have been sort of offered (not confirmed yet) to shoot a commercial for a grocery store here. It's a chained store, so it's not some small locally owned place.

What would be a reasonable price?

I would be using my XHA1 as well.
 
Reasonable price all depends on what they're getting.
I know you probably hate hearing that answer, but it's true.

How much you should charge is tied directly to what you're going to give them.
What's the concept? Are we talking about a 30 second story with various setups, actors, locations, and sytlized lighting? Or are we talking about the owner standing in front of the produce section talking to the camera for 30 seconds straight?

Also - where is "here?"
Your best bet will be to do some research in your local market and find out what other places are charging. You could possibly get all sort of answers here - but for example, I'm in Austin and I know that what I get for a commercial here is not the same as what someone in a city like Dallas can get, or Houston.

Of course the easiest way to figure out how much to charge when you're starting out is simply to ask the client how much of a budget they had in mind - then tell them what you can do with that budget while still making a profit.

(and in some cases you simply have to tell them what they can do with that budget)
:thumbsup:
 
First there should be a worked out script, so you can budget accordingly.
Then you should consider that this advertising is done to gain costumers/profit for the chain store, so if your work achieves this, you should be rewarded for that.
Simply put: first charge for your work, then charge an extra amount (how much is up to you) for the expected return in profit of the company...
This doesn´t mean you should charge a "phantasy price", commercials have to be spot on to bring accross the intended message, this means time and talent.
Most local spots I see don´t suffer from technical quality (you have an XH A1, along with an 35mm adapter this unit can produce great cinematic pictures) but from bad acting and location/probs...
So get good and experienced actors/models and if you need eg a kitchen don´t use your moms, but rent one in an "upperclass" house.
You can only tape whats there.
Add a top postpro with custom sound, voiceover and logo animation and you should easily hit the 10K-15K mark.
All the best!
 
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Definitely agree with Spartacus - 10-15 for something that looks very professional sounds about right once you add in your day rate and VO talent, editing, animation and all those other little things that add up FAST. If you are looking for good VO talent and customer service that is top notch I have to reccomend Studio Center. They've got several studios across the USA and a wide variety of talent and can get stuff done really fast. They've saved the day for me a few times. And while I'm 1000 miles away they have perfected the long distance relationship and might as well be next door - shameless plug over. :)

- also beware these are not the cheapest guys in the world and you may well find much less expensive talent locally.
 
Morox said:
What would be a reasonable price?.
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It doesn't matter what we think is a reasonable price. What matters is what the client is willing to pay and the amount that you're willing to do it for. As others have said, break in down - come up with a concept and figure out the cost to execute that concept. Pitch the concept and price to your client - if he says, "that's a little more than I wanted to pay", then tweak the idea and find places to trim the budget. If he says, "that's way more than I expected to pay", then walk away and don't look back.
NEVER work with clients that don't value your services.
 
I live in a small city (40,000 people). I honestly would be happy walking away with $200.

I am a complete amateur with XHA1. I am learning, but I am still an amateur.
 
Morox said:
I honestly would be happy walking away with $200.
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Well then, I think youve got a starting point (and everyone has to start somewhere).
So find out what they want, figure out what it's going to cost you to do it, add $200 to that and that's the MINIMUM you can charge them.
 
just charge them $25,000 and if they say that is too high then you should quickly become irate, start cursing, stomping, and telling them how you're the next big thing. eventually they'll give you something you can be happy about. :beer:

seriously, if you feel you are just starting out then your price should reflect that. if you're editing this too then you should factor that in as well. personally I think you should at least shoot for $500 and do your best. good luck either way.
 
Here in Japan I would - quick estimate - charge about 1,000,000 yen for a TV spot. Its very dependant on the network size etc. On that the total in my pocket would be about $3k USD.
 
ncje said:
Here in Japan I would - quick estimate - charge about 1,000,000 yen for a TV spot. Its very dependant on the network size etc. On that the total in my pocket would be about $3k USD.
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Do you mean after all expenses are paid for?
For the whole job or only camera?
 
How the ad is used is irrelevant to what it should cost. The price is what it costs to make the commercial. What the client does with the video is his business. It would be like taking your car to the mechanic and he says well if you only drive on country roads it's going to cost $2500 but if plan on hitting the interstate I'm going to have to charge you $3500.
 
milksac said:
How the ad is used is irrelevant to what it should cost. The price is what it costs to make the commercial. What the client does with the video is his business. It would be like taking your car to the mechanic and he says well if you only drive on country roads it's going to cost $2500 but if plan on hitting the interstate I'm going to have to charge you $3500.
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Not exactly true.
If you get voiceover done, or if you have actors invovled - many times the costs go up depending on the scope of the distribution. The same can hold true for music and other elements that might be included in a commercial. You may have the rights to broadcast a song on Television, but not to stream it online - for example.
 
Just as a point of intrest..... I live in a semi rural part of so. Or. When I watch the local adds for car dealerships, antique stores or whatever, I actually don't mind the somewhat amateur quality of the basic concept (what a graphic artist friend calls "Fender Slappers") but what I do find highly irratating is really bad sound. You know the kind where the announcer sounds like he's talking from the bottom of a septic tank. The brain assimilates the visual with the aural as a complete package. If you can't record the location sound right because your trying to use the mic. on the front of the camera or for whatever other reason, at least try and clean it up in post or do a voice over if the talent (lol) is able to.
 
Morox said:
I live in a small city (40,000 people). I honestly would be happy walking away with $200.

I am a complete amateur with XHA1. I am learning, but I am still an amateur.
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Hmmm...your camera rental rate would probably be around that price, let alone all the work you are doing. If you are doing all the pre-production, shooting and editing, then I would go no lower than $500. Even if you claim yourself to be an amateur, your work is worth alot more than $200, and the minute you take money for doing video work, you can claim yourself as a professional.
 
10-15g. 5g is too small as you will end up making like $500 after you pay all the cast and crew. 10g is OK, but to be on the safe side make it something like 15. I actually deal with similar budgets all the time (past 6 productions were 6-15g). Based on simple formula if we have only 5g/day it's gonna be rough; at 7g and more fun starts, at 10g some decent rate and cool gear comes into play.
 
If our hero is a self-admitted "total amateur" with the camera and would be comfortable with $200, than what makes you think he'd be capable of orchestrating a shoot with cast, crew and 15 thousand dollar budget?

No offense to you Morox, but I think this project might be out of your scope if it's a "chained grocery store". If you're asking very vague & generic questions like "how much should I charge?", than maybe you're not ready to take on this task.

Or maybe I'm wrong. I'd need to hear more details.

PS-Just give 'em five shots and an art card....1,000 bucks! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
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