Pricing

Tony_Reyes said:
i've had a couple jobs where the guy wanted me to show up for only 15 minutes because he needed someone on a camera and i felt bad saying it but i will not do anything for less than $100 a day.
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WOW id consider you very generous. My rates are based on half or full day, 15 minutes is half day min, I wont go into exact details. Being in Japan as well I have a home or away rate. Home is Tokyo area, away is in another part of the country. Anyway this is drifting off topic.

To original poster. Seriously at the level your at I would factor it as $25 per hour to shoot and edit, plus expenses so around the $1k mark. As this is your first job though dont think oh well I reached my time limit job done, give them a quality project where you can. I think this is about commensurate with your experience.
 
My minimum rate to leave the studio is $300 but in reality, most times I leave the studio it is a half day. After all, we have to pack out equipment, transport it, do the job, return, unpack and clean the studio, charge up the batteries. I charge a half day rate for a half day but many photographers in my area (Northeast, US) charge about 2/3 of their full day rate, for a half day because let's face it, when hired for a half day, it pretty much kills the day.

Frankly I am a little shocked at some of the lower rates mentioned on these forums. Maybe I am out of touch but for some of the rates mentioned here, I would rather be out windsurfing or something.

As far as the state of this industry, I see it growing, not receeding. My still work is somewhat receeding but the video is experiencing growth. I noticed that my still equipment supplier's catalog was about 75% devoted to video equipment. Most newspapers are going over to HD as well. Good time to jump in the field I would say.
www.sjbaraophoto.com
 
Hourly or day rate? Your time is your product inventory and it's perisahable. If you bill hourly, you need to remember that an agreement to do a 1 hour shoot on a particular day effectively means that entire day has been used up. That gig removes the entire day from your inventory because no one else who might use your services is likely to book you for the other open portions of the day. So the 1 hour committment to the first client might as well be a full day comittment in terms of its impact on your inventory. You're not like, say, a barber who can book an appointment between 9am and 10am and another hour for another client from 10am to 11am.
 
A buddy of mine just did his first corporate gig for $2000, so I'd say that's a good starting point for your first one. As you get more gigs under your belt you should raise your prices by quite a bit.
 
Hi Pittsburgh,

Glad to see you're interested in both the film and business side of the business - smart of you to signup here and ask others in the field.

On the biz side, one of the best models is to develop a CNA - Customer Needs Assessment. Try not to be a "one show pony", instead try to match your products and services to meet/exceed the needs/expectations of the client. True, it's a iterative process: what can you do?... what will it cost? But just quoting a cost without determining the specifications and criteria for success is bound to end up in failure for a number of reasons. As the saying goes, those who don't set targets seldom hit them.

Typically on this type of project, your client is not the end-user/audience. Your client, perphaps a staffer or manager who's accountable for the funding probably has an expectation of the success criteria for the safety film. Maybe he/she simply wants to "check-off the box" to meet an objective of a superior or corporate edit, perhaps they are really passionite and want to do good - reduce injury, pain and suffering, lost time on/off the job, property/equipment damage, lawsuits, workman's compensation, hospitalization and death. Or maybe it's simply to create an awareness and attitude to foster empowerment, responsibility/authority, communications, and feedback among the troops. You see, when we think of it from the client/funder's perspective, it's a whole new paridgm.

Now we could segway into the actors/crew, camerawork, audio, music, video, cinema, script, editing, media format, etc side of the business, but I'll save that for others or another post. The point is that all these dimensions are a function of the prior paragraph - the customer shouldn't be concerned with "how we make a watch" but instead is interested in how to tell time. Once you and your client have performed a comprehensive customer needs assessment (the SPECIFICATION), you can focus on our internal processes and develop a comprehensive quote. Sure, you might have minimum billable rates beneath which you can't do the job you envisioned. But then again, you may find shortcuts (less video/audio, more text pages) that easily satisfy the client's needs.

Good luck, Michael
 
Benji Pond said:
wow, you guys sound like a bunch of ppl who rip ppl off. i do alot of weddings and quinceneros with my friend in the summer when im not filming with snowboarding just for some extra cash. i usually charge about $600 for a b-day where ill go- film the party with one cam, make a 15 min edit for them and burn 2 dvds- more dvds at extra charge.

weddings i charge a bit more only cuz its harder and needs to be alot more serious and you really have to put effort in. but all they stuff i do is for friends, fam and fam friends so i dont overprice


ide asume seeing this is your first job that you got it from someone you know perhaps in the company or a fam friend? therefore dont charge them what someone else would- cut them a good deal and then you can be assured they will rehire you in the future and def put a good word out for you.



figure out your costs- whatever your cost is double that then charge them $15 an hour for your work ide say ( dont forget editing and stuff )

try to think how long it will all take ahead of time though so you can tell them a price up front.

so lets say it cost $200 to make- tapes, props, and anything else that youd need that you dont have that you will use just for the filming.
double that---- $400

then lets say its gonna be filmed all in one day- 6 hours- so $90 more

then account storyboard time- say 3 hours or prep to make a story board, 3 hours you might spend making a script, then the 8 hours youll spend editing it.---$210

add it all up- about $700

so for a small project ide call that you could charge that. just remember, this is your first project. Are you sure you can produce something as good as a pro? if so go ahead and boost your hourly pay rate up some then... its all up to you. but if a job can see a outline of sorts where you layout where all your costs come from they realize how much work it actually takes and they understand why you charge them so much. its alot more professional

once youve got this job under your belt then you can start making some profit off these things and ripping people off becuase you and i both know that its hard to find a relyable camera man. word of mouth is your friend when your starting out small
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Hey Benji, can we see a sample of your work so we can determine if the saying "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR" is true.
 
And I am wondering about usage fees. In my still work I am licensing my work for clients and I charge a usage license fee depending on where the work will be presented. How does this work in the film/video industry where one may be producing commercials or training films?
 
I just wanted to thank the topic poster, and those of you who gave a reply. I'm starting up my business and this topic gave me a lot of information to consider.

Pittsburgh0205, did you get the job? how did it go? Do you have any sample clips that you could share?

Thanks,
Scott
 
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I get a lot of clients that have been burnt by low ball videographers. My rates are quite high (normal though, if you compare me to bigger facilities in my area), but I and my clients think I turn out good stuff. I also spend a lot of money on production. I'm not saying all videographers that charge little money are bad, but I get clients that come to me and ask me to fix their video , or reshoot their video. Most wish they would have spent the money, to get something really nice the first time. Most projects I work on range between $25k and up. I do have a crew and incorporate lots of motion graphics, etc. So there is a budget. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're worth it, and you can put out stuff that looks like it came from a big production house, charge the going rates for your area. A 2 man crew in my area averages $1200 a day, editing goes anywhere from $125 hr for sd to $300 hr for hdcam. Don't sell yourself short. I've used a freelance director before that had a $10,000 a shoot day, day rate! The client thought he was worth it, and so did I. His work backed up his rate.
 
I've been reading this thread and it's VERY informative. I do have a question though.

I have a gig booked for next week. It was supposed to be about 3 hrs and started at 2am. I was charging $275.00. It was one location and a 90 minute interview. No editing, just shooting.

Now there are three different locations totaling almost 11 hours with travel (1 hr away). It still starts at 2am. I've been doing video work for about 7 years now. This is a BIG corporation and I don't want to lose their business. Does anyone have a ballpark figure for what I should now charge? You can check out my work at www.beproductions.net/corp to get a feel for what I do.

Thanks in advance
 
Well I would bump my rates for shooting in the middle of the night, and get paid for my mileage on top of my standard rates.

$275 seems somewhat low if you are providing the equipment too... your equipment prep time, batteries charging, loading, driving, unloading, setup, the shoot, strike, loading, unloading, unpacking and charging....
 
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arges03 said:
Well I would bump my rates for shooting in the middle of the night, and get paid for my mileage on top of my standard rates.

$275 seems somewhat low if you are providing the equipment too... your equipment prep time, batteries charging, loading, driving, unloading, setup, the shoot, strike, loading, unloading, unpacking and charging....
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I'm thinking of raising it to $1000.00. Is this too much or too little? I'm the only shooter and I'm just supplying my camera (Canon XL2), Tripod, Wireless lapel mic and tapes. It's just shoot and give them the footage. No post work at all.
 
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