Need Advice Quickly

King_Dontae

King_Dontae

Active member
What is a good rate to charge for producing a 30min religious program?

It will be a 2 person set up. In 1 chair is the pastor/host, and in the other his weekly guest. It will be shot in a room at their church. I will be using 2 cameras. I will be using lav mics. The program will air weekly locally, and the host has another show that he wants to do if he likes this one.

I will be editing this, also I am paying the second cameraman out of the weekly fee I get for the show. How much is an average rate?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
You're going to get a million answers, and the only answer that counts is -- what would you be happy with?

Stock answers include "$1000 per finished minute", etc. Well, let me be the first to say -- that ain't gonna happen on a 30-minute show for a church! Not a prayer, if you get my meaning. I mean, I assume it's primarily a guy sitting behind a desk preaching, yes?

More likely you'll get something like $1500 per episode, maybe $2500, and that includes editing. A few years ago I used to do a weekly show for a car dealer, it took about two hours to shoot, about 14 hours to edit and polish. So I basically worked two days a week, had five days off, and made about $2000 per episode; one per week = $2k per week. A hundred grand a year for a two-day work week. People might say I was crazy to do a half-hour show for $2000; maybe so, but I looked at it in context with everything else I was doing, and a two-day workweek combined with a five-day weekend for pursuing my own movies, books, dvxuser, etc... that was a pretty attractive deal... plus that show was the most fun job I've ever had, because I got to mercilessly lampoon the salesmen. They wanted the show funny, so I did pop-up bubbles and graphics and all sorts of stuff, it was a blast and very satisfying. The day the host quit the dealership was a sad day... with no host they cancelled the show. But it was a great ride while it lasted.

I'd say look at realistically how much time it's going to take you to do it. If a second cameraman is going to be using your gear and sitting there for an hour every week, that's the type of job it's okay to pay cheap on. Steady work that they can plan around, heck, $200/day for that would find a lot of takers I would think. Don't spazz out about being sure to charge for every little thing, because steady weekly work is a whole different ball of wax. If it takes you one day to setup, do the show, and edit, then it might be profitable at $1000 per episode. Still ask for two or three or five, whatever they'll spring for, but it also all depends on if you own your own gear or will have to be renting, etc. My car show paid for a lot of equipment very quickly and it was all gravy from then on.
 
Once you've locked in the contract, you may want to consider having your second shooter run both cameras with you working a tricaster to ease your editing.

Regards, Michael
 
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