Prom Video

L

LuckyProducer

Well-known member
Hey dvxusers, I might get a job for a prom at my school. I am not gonna be part of the prom...only next year...so I told the student council about Lucky Productions and I gave them my card. If they are interested and want to hire me, I have nooo clue what to charge. I will have to make a lot of DVD copies for every student that goes cause that's what they did last year. They make a lot of copies and then the students goes to the office and picks up their copy.

I don't know how much I should charge for the copies and for the filming. You guys can check out my site to see where I'm at (my level on pricing and filming). click on http://www.putfile.com/luckyproducer to go to my website.

Thanks for all your help! I highly appreciate it!
 
Well I am not gonna charge this for the prom video. I will make a package. Is this too much for a wedding video or birthday video. I charge this much and my customers seem fine with it. If they complain, sure, I would drop the price. What do you think I should charge?
 
The other prices seem cool on the website. I agree about the DVD prices unless you have them in custom cases with really nice custom printed graphics to justify the cost. The wedding seems pretty standard. Are the 3 camera you have all dvx's ?
I might charge a little more for 3 cameras. Try to charge slighty lower than your competition in the area. Also try to think about how much you would charge if you had overhead and paid taxes and all that good stuff
 
Yes, the cases are customized. They have the bride and groom's name on the front. they have two screen grabs of the video on the back cover, and the chapter list names of the DVDs. I also have the DVD case with two DVDs inside.

I usually work with two cameras. If I can get another partner I get 3. Only one of them is a DVX. should i make different packages for different cameras angles? like 2 cameras is this price and for three I will charge more?

I also don't charge too much because I don't have great audio. I don't have any wireless mics or anything but I am planning on getting them. I am going to start another post with questions about that.

thanks for the tip. Let me know what u think now.
 
What I would do is just come up with a base rate that you will charge to come out per day for Shooting then come up with a rate for editing. Then after that you can come up with a package price depending on what they want.
I wouldn't charge less that 1,000 for any project you do. I calculate editing as 1 day for every minute of finished video. I got that calculation from someone on the forum ( I can't remember ) and it's great because it gives you time to complete the job to best of your ability without rushing
 
wow! 1 day every minuted of finished video? So if my wedding video is like two hours long, i should tell my customer it will take 120 days to finish it? I was confused there for a second. I am thinking of charging $1,500 for everything including the DVD copies (well depending on how much they want).
 
Most people that i've seen that do wedding video generally make some type of wedding music video then put the reception and ceremony seperate. Remember each job is different and depending on the graphics,CC, Keyframing, Etc...in your project that will determine how long it will be. If you have a project that's strictly cuts and dissolve you could potentially be done very quickly.
 
No, my projects are very complex. I also do a wedding music video at the end of the video and I separate the ceremony and reception. so I guess I can go longer on them and make them wait longer. what is a good time do you think for finishing it? Like 2 months?
 
For something like a prom video I would snag the gig by offering to do it for FREE. That kind of event generally only involves one camera anyway. You will make your money by doing pre-sales of DVDs before the prom, sales at the prom, and sales AFTER the prom. Make sure to offer a slightly better price for pre-orders and make sure people know the price will go up after prom.

I don't know about your market, but around here I could easily charge $30 per DVD. Assuming only 100 couples buy a DVD that's a nice $1500 for an evening of work and a few hours of editing. Not any more work than a wedding really, other than the fact that you'll burn a lot more DVDs.
 
I would charge a base fee that covers everything and do copies cheap (like $5 each). HS kids will otherwise just buy one and make copies for their friends. Of course I know you respect copyrights and would never use commercial music in your video, but lots of young people have no respect for other peoples copyrights so you have to assume the worst.

You could also charge $20-30 each, but require a minimum number of pre-sales to do the project. 8 hours shooting (pre and post-prom footage too) plus 20 hours editing, I would want to make $2000 - $4000 on the project. Considering you are in HS, maybe $1000 - $1500 plus cheap copies would be a good place to start. You might even want to spend more time on editing, just to make it cool enough to get some WOWs. WIth a second camera person, I would do interviews (maybe ONLY of the people who pre-pay, thus encouraging pre-sales).
 
Actually, I mentioned earlier, the students don't pay for the videos. The school buys them and then the students go and pick them up at the office for free.

About the copyright and commercial music and stuff, how do I get permittion to use music? Is it expensive? Is it a lot of paper work? Let me know if you guys know. Thanks!
 
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