Multi Camera Shoot Pricing

Spotlight Media

Spotlight Media

Well-known member
Real quick here guys, I am curious what you all do in cases of half and full day rates with 2 cameras. When a 2 camera shoot is requested for half day do you just double it to cover both cameras or do you generally come up with a price somewhere in the middle (ie $600 for half day, do you go $1200 half day for 2 cameras, or $800 (or somewhere in that range) for half day 2 cameras?

Mods, if this is a bad place for this question feel free to move it.
 
First, it depends if your equipment is included in your price or if another camera has to be rented.

For me, I charge for me, the same basic rate regardless. That includes the equipment I own only, which happens to include two cameras. At the moment I don't scale based on which equipment is used. Then the second camera operator has to be paid for. Generally the camera operators I hire, since they are only operators and usually less experienced, are paid less than me. But the important point is that the increase in cost is how much it takes to hire an operator; I don't make any extra profit off of his efforts. What exactly that pay is will change drastically depending on the nature of the work, the skills required, the length of the shoot, location and all sorts of things, so I'm not going into numbers here. Weddings are the only things I make specific packages for right now.
 
I'm essentially the same as Cassius, but I pay less for my less experienced ops, but charge out at my rate. I don't have any problem justifying the standard rate for the number of people, and it's a small additional income stream.
 
Thank you for the info guys, this is good to know as I routinely review my rates every year. For arguments sake both the HPX300 and the HPX170 are owned by me. I hire from a pool of various talent in regard to the 2nd cameraman. Some are better than others but I generally have a rate for the 2nd man regardless of skill as he generally shoots off a tripod... not that difficult. My varied thoughts on the rate has to do with the 2nd camera. If ones half day rate is $600 (as an example) for a camera, cameraman, tripod, then is it the norm to charge another $600 for a 2nd camera, cameraman, tripod? Or rather what is the industry norm when it comes to this situation? Currently I have chosen the "meet near the middle" (following the example would be $1000) for this scenario as a "fall promotion" but fall is coming to a close. I am more apt to charge for what it's worth (sometimes being a little higher) but I want to adhere, as close as I can, to an industry norm so my pricing is backed up when I go for a new client, knowing that the new client most likely knows current going rates.
 
Thanks for this good information. Multiple camera systems can function in many ways, depending on the arrangement and aiming of the cameras. It is a multitasking system.
 
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