Job payment?

Niels Neeskens

Niels Neeskens

Well-known member
Dear friends,

Maybe you can help me out here, because I am struggling big time with this. I've got my first serious job for my production company I just started and I have to give my costumer an indication of what the whole thing is going to cost him. Maybe somebody with more experience knows about what to ask for it. This is the job:
It is a promotional articles company and they want a company movie on a dvd. I am going to do the whole process by myself with the help of a friend of mine who is in the same business. The endproduct is going to be a dvd with a menu where short movies are placed, for example who works in the company, take a look in the company etc. etc. There is a change that he is going to use the movie for their internetsite (charge more?). And we are going to make an intromovie on the site. So it is a price indication of the whole process; Filming it (HVX200, 4 GB, Panther Tripod, DVrig, Sound, Light) in sd format, editing it on FCP and setting it on DVD in FC Studio. The endproduct has to be more than 1 copy so maybe I have to copy it with the help from a specialized dvd copy company (otherwise it is to much to copy 1 dvd per time on laptop) and I have to save the file on a harddisk for future orders of the project or changes in personal on it.
I hope somebody can help me to give him an indication of the price of it all, because I will have to give him that in the next few days.

Regards
Niels

ps. Sorry for the long question
 
For something like that I would try to get $8,000 US (plus or minus). Your video will have to be at a certain level. If this is your first time, you may want to low-ball it to cover yourself. I just finished a corporate video last night, it clocked out at 42 hrs of online editing with 242 key framed clips (lower thirds, pip, animated logos, etc) What do you envision having the final product looking like? Does it have a voiceover artist and music score??
 
Thanx for reply Eric! Voiceover yes (don't know yet if the boss wants to do it or a professional), about the music score I don't know, probably not. I have to run it trough in the second meeting with him.
 
Corporate videos can reach 10K easily.
Doesn't matter if it's your first time or you are experienced, it's down convincing him that you can provide top quality, if they have budget.
There is more than editing in corporates videos.
You need a concept, you have to write a shooting guide, the voice overs, the editing pack (sound, titles,voice). Estimate the time you will spend 'filming' people & locations. Meetings for previews with the client.

There is one advantage for you if it is the first time the clients does this, so consider he doesn't know what he wants so you can easily convince him for your thoughts.

If it's not the first time for the client again, then it takes more management than art.

I believe 5-6K is a good amount. That is if you can justify it with your skills.

But then it depends on how much time & days you will consume on it.

EDIT:
I'm talking for a 6 minutes at least corporate video.
 
That video would top out at $2300
One day filming, (didn't look like any lighting or rigs were involved) (approx $800)
One day post. (offline edits)(approx $1100)
Misc. costs ($400)

Cool idea, video was kind of long, maybe cut it down? Nice work.
 
Thx for the feedback. However the post production was more like 1 week. The people in charge made us redo the editing several times because they weren't satisfied. Yes, even that stuff got 'censored'. Tough working for the school....I'm gonna slap on an extra 2000 bucks for that :D
 
Niels,

Pricing your work is one of the hardest things to do, especially if you're starting out. If you have a reel of good work and prior video to show your client, it's going to be that much easier to quote a proper rate. Corporate clents HAVE money. You have a unique skill set. Make sure you don't undercut yourself, and get paid what you should. That being said, if you haven't done much like this before, charge low and be glad you got the experience and possible future business (but beware; he will always expect that low price)

When I charge my clients for production/post work, I find out as much as I can from him about what he wants his finished product to be like BEFORE I give him a quote. Once i know the scope of work (do I need to do AE work, or just FCP, do I need a 3D artist for a logo animation, soundtrack, VO, am I writing a script, how many revisions, lenght of final product, etc.) these are all things to think about. I break them down and separate them, estimate the # of hours I'm going to spend on each thing, and decide on a proper hourly rate. The total gives you the proper amount to charge for your work.

For example, 5 hours of After Effects compositing @ $80 p/h = $400

And obviously just regular editing woudl be less, 3D would be more. For production, I go by day rates for camera, operator, sound/boom, lighting, each with their own rates for the day. If you have a low-budg client, lower your rates. Vice versa for high-budg ones. Just deliver the goods :)

Don't forget about other material costs, DVDs, tapes, labels, delivery, driving, etc.

My clients have liked this kind of breakdown because they know exactly what theyre paying for.


If you don't know how many hours it would take you to edit the project, start keeping track. For the last year every project I edit I now keep a time sheet of the amount of hours I spend and what it was I was doing. So I have a good idea how long it will take me edit a feature from scratch or do chroma key after effects work or whatever.

Oh, and be sure to blow him away with a great product :) Hope this helped. I'd be happy to send you a copy of one of my budgets if you want to see it.
 
Thanks all of you for all the good advice! Specially Mike for your thorough answer and I am really interrested in a copy of your budget. Hope you can send it to me. Thank you in advance!

Niels
 
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