Music Video Pricing

C

Cheesesailor77

Veteran
Hi, I know this gets asked periodicaly but i did a search and couldnt find anything

I'm interested in doing a couple music videos as soon as possible. I have a couple "successful" shorts and a demo music vid under my belt and its time to move on.

So what kind of deal is appropiate for someone just getting in? I can try to answer questions about my specifics.
 
if you are just getting in... you may not come across bands that have $$.. most unsigned don't or have very little. remember every situation is differeent so keep in mind your limitations and work best you can with them.

unsigned bands = beer and pizza budgets (usually).

build your reel and find groups that have $$. but keep in mind that even if you have 10k to work with, most of that will/should end up on the screen in the end.
 
surf said:
my best tip: get as much money as you can!
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hahaha

If your new to it, maybe just charge a small amount until you get a clientele built up then go for more. As soon as you start having trouble keeping up with all your work, then it's time to raise prices. It's all about doing less work for more $$
 
what is it you are doing?

producing? directing? shooting? editing?

every group you encounter will have a different amount of $$ to work with. some/most will have nothing. you can estimate your fees based on the budget you have to work with and what you are actually doing.
 
do you have a group to work with? if so, how much money do they have?

say a group has $500 (beer and pizzas budget) -

how would you break that down in production costs and how much would you want to pay yourself?

if you want to advertise your services (scout shoot light edit) then what do you charge hourly? figure that out for yourself and creat a MV package cost that you can present to people.

but remember, every production is different. you can say to a band that you charge $1500 per day.. then find out that they want to rent 5 ferraris and super models for the shoot and expect that cost to be included. or you can be passed up by a group that has a great song but no money. with MVs i personally find it better to know what the budget is in advance then work from there.
 
I am in this same boat as to what to charge. For some reason, I have ran into the problem of people running away when they hear my rates but what they don't realize is that they are paying for professional service from start to finish. Anyway in 2006, I am going to be changing how I do things. Unless I know for a fact that the band/group/artist has some money to work with, I am going to ask them what is their budget right from the get go. Based on what they tell me, I will base my rate from that. That way I won't under charge or over charge them to the point where they will run away.
 
The budgets for videos are getting crushed nowadays. And unless you're pretty high up in your game, you're not getting paid to do them. We've done three videos here at this company. Two of them were done totally for free. The other had a budget of around $5000, about 2/3 of which went to crew and the rest to equipment and overhead. But all our locations were donated, props were free, transportation was free. So "budgets" can really be hard to compare.
 
ok, obviously we're having trouble communicating. Other times this has been asked, ppl just wrote out the specifics of what they charged for the service. Some charged by the hour, some by the day, some separate prepro, production, and post.

And obviously the group that wants ferraris are going to pay more than the hourly wage. (and for those who dont think thats obvious, thats what the contract is for)

Anyway, any band I do a video for will be local, a group I talk to in person, probably introduced by a friend, so there wont be a lot of money at first, but they wont be free either. Even bands without a record (along with those with) can see the benefit of having a music video to show off, and I do good, expensive looking work, VERY cheaply.

It seems the rule of thumb is $50 an hour so I think thats how i'll start with deals and cuts made here and there. I was just wondering how other ppls experiences went and what structure they followed.

Anymore info will be appreciated :)
 
i think that is a good way to work it dvx1000shooter..

there are a lot of good unsigned bands out there that could use videos but have no or little money. MVs are a great platform to show your stuff and do creative work. it is key to work with the limitations as they present themselves.

here is a vid i did for no $$$ shot in my kitchen on my dvx and in the singers hallway. i loved the track and wanted to do something for it with or without $$

http://motion4music.com/media/manuok.mov

no one got paid. but it worked out. now if this group gets a deal and some $$ maybe they would come my way with a budget for another. if not ... what the hell.. it was fun and it is on my reel.
 
HOLY ****! That was you? I love that video! its been sitting on my desktop for probably a year, i refuse to move it!

That got to be my favorite music video shot on the dvx (suck that matt). Damn, you live in Socal? I live in Monterey, damn, if you ever do something in SF LET ME KNOW! I wants to help!
 
Cheesesailor77 said:
WHOA since when did we get the auto censor? I thought this was a free speech board?
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huh?

cool you like the video. thanks.

MVs are not like regular videography work and are always different. so keep an open mind when it comes to the $$.
 
Nice stuff, kovarova. It really started messing with my head when the aspect ratio started flipping all over the place!
 
Cheesesailor77 said:
WHOA since when did we get the auto censor? I thought this was a free speech board?
Click to expand...

About a month or so. They figured since there were so many kids on here they would clean it up a bit. Day it happened everyone jumped on this one thread posting everything they could to what turned to ****.

:laugh:
 
A good way to work with lowballers who want a cheap video is to offer a one day shoot for whatever amount they want to spend, run home, edit the thing, and give them a copy of the "finished" video the following day and it will impress the daylights of out of them.

Then wait.

They will inevitably call you back for more videos. And, seeing as how quickly you work, they will want bigger videos with more locations and will want to spend more money with you.

No Joke.
 
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