Rates for videographers

S

Shattered Glass Pictures

Member
What's todays going rate for experienced videographers these days? I'll be shooting with a DVX-100B, and I'm bringing along a Bogen tripod and and Sennheisier shotgun mic.
 
Just as a place to start, experienced shooters aren't usually tied to a particular camera or platform. Most operators have many hours across multiple systems and formats.

Averaged rates take a cue from what the market will bear within that same market. St. Louis or Charlotte may not support the same rate of compensation as NYC or LA or Orlando or Chicago.

There are other variables, of course. Your experience, guild affiliations (if any), market where the work is taking place and the platform you're operating all play into the equation.

The easy answer, for an experienced shooter, is between $500 and $1000 per day based on a ten-hour minimum plus incidentals (per diem, mileage, meals).

e
 
alright just wasn't sure. At the moment I'm in Fl. going to school but i've done camera work for a television pilot and a few shorts as well, so I have a fair amount of experience, and I was asked by a friend to film an event which lasts about 3 hours and i wasnt sure of the going rate.
 
overlandfilms said:
Just as a place to start, experienced shooters aren't usually tied to a particular camera or platform. Most operators have many hours across multiple systems and formats.

Averaged rates take a cue from what the market will bear within that same market. St. Louis or Charlotte may not support the same rate of compensation as NYC or LA or Orlando or Chicago.

There are other variables, of course. Your experience, guild affiliations (if any), market where the work is taking place and the platform you're operating all play into the equation.

The easy answer, for an experienced shooter, is between $500 and $1000 per day based on a ten-hour minimum plus incidentals (per diem, mileage, meals).

e
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Exactly, but also matters what sort of shoot you are doing. Dayrates between a commercial, industrial, TV show, documentary, or narrative film will often vary greatly.

Also, "experienced" is a pretty broad term. A cameraman with 20 years in the field is defined as experienced and demands top dollar (and is worth every penny for projects that demand it) but people in the 20's, who have only shot stuff with their prosumer camera, will also define themselves as "experienced."

Having worked both sides of that phone call I can say the best plan is to get the other guy to give their budget or dayrate first. If, as the videographer, you give your dayrate first, be prepared to have them attempt to negotiate down. Guys that have the resume won't budge. If the producer gives the budget first then you are in the position to either accept the rate or attempt to negotiate up (if they offer you a fair rate, getting greedy will mostly offend them and they will move on).

Additionally, a lot of freelancers will take a lower dayrate for longer jobs.

A friendly suggestion; don't give up the 10 hour work day and overtime. A lot of savy producers will talk about how they can't do overtime but they need the flexability to go "a little over." It's BS; when they do this they will work you as long as humanly possible. Always keep overtime rates in your contract.

Cheers
 
I have been doing video production since the mid nineties. I took my wife's advice and eventually embraced the rate system she recommended for me.

I have a flat "personal rate" that I charge for all of my time -- $25 per hour -- this covers storyboarding, meetings .. etc and is also a base rate that is combined with other rates whenever other rates are applied.

I have a shooting rate (when only myself) of $55.00 per hour (video/audio/lighting) making the total hourly cost $80.00 as it is combined with my "personal rate".

I also have an editing/archiving rate of $35.00 per hour that when added to my personal rate brings the total hourly cost to $60.00.

I just track my time along with shooting and editing/archiving time and log them seperately on the invoices and all has been well.

I have also been flexible enough with some clients to budget an estimate up front and settle on a total capped amount for certain projects.
 
I usually bid by the job. If I just shoot for a few hours at an event and hand over my footage, I may just charge a couple of hundred dollars.

If I bring extra gear (more than a camera and tripod) the price goes up.

If it's a project I do from concept to completion (like a recent marketing video for an art college), I try and estimate my time for shooting, editing, meetings and the like. I give a flat rate in the contract, with a clearly stated deadline (for them and me), expectations and certain number of revisions (usually 2 rough and 1 fine).
 
I'm relatively new at this. Having a lot of experience on the academic side of documentary experience where pay is largely nothing after it's all said and done...I have my first real commercial gig staring me in the face and I don't want to under-bid it any more than I want to ask for too much.
I'll be shooting with a (free, but experienced) undergrad assistant and have a lot of experience in the field generally and am sure that my product in the end will exceed what they expect. I'll be shooting on excellent equipment (camera, tripod, lights, gels, reflectors, shades--whatever), and the day of shooting plus editing should take no more than a day and a half at 8 hours per day.
What would you charge if you were me?
Thanks in advance for any and all advice.
 
figure out what you think you need to make on the job, and then bid double the time you think it is going to take. In the end you can always present a bill that is lower than your bid, accounting for the time the job actually took, if you think that is fair to both sides. You can appear to be saving them money and maybe they'll use you again.
 
dop16mm said:
figure out what you think you need to make on the job, and then bid double the time you think it is going to take. In the end you can always present a bill that is lower than your bid, accounting for the time the job actually took, if you think that is fair to both sides. You can appear to be saving them money and maybe they'll use you again.
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Sounds good if you have no competition. Would a higher rate risk losing the bid?
 
Gary Huff said:
Do you really want to work for someone who's just going to pick the lowest bidder regardless?
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Of course not, but there is a balance. There are a number of considerations, of which price is one of them. Plus often times you have no idea what others are bidding at.

Logic dictates that the higher your price, all other things equal, the less likely you will win. Since you don't know who your competitors are and their prices, tossing a self inflated number on the table might not be the smartest idea.

I often give my prospects pricing options, when I sense that there are competitions. Give them a basic package, a better package and a luxurious package (or whatever) to choose from can't hurt. And when they ask you why you have different options, you can indirectly discredit your competition for not giving them options based on the clients' needs - I think it's called 'ghosting'.
 
chromeboy007 said:
Logic dictates that the higher your price, all other things equal, the less likely you will win.
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But logic doesn't accurately govern interactions between human beings. There are some out there who will take the lowest bidder, no matter what. And there are others who would never touch the lowest bidder, no matter what. When getting brain surgery, one wouldn't presumably want the lowest bidder doing that job. Of course, maybe there's reasons why you would want that, but ... doubtful.

If there's no way of knowing who your competitors are or what their prices are, you shouldn't be underbidding or overbidding. You should just figure out what it's worth to you to do the job to professional standards, bid that number, and let the chips fall where they may. If you don't get it, then likely the winning bidder underbid you at a rate that you wouldn't really have wanted to do the job anyway. And if you do get the bid, well, that may show that you bid lower than the other folks, but if you based your decision on what you were comfortable making for the job, then who cares whether others were bidding higher than you? Obviously that was a losing strategy for them, so don't stress over it.

I often give my prospects pricing options, when I sense that there are competitions. Give them a basic package, a better package and a luxurious package (or whatever) to choose from can't hurt.
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Agreed, and this was always a successful tactic for me. And, interestingly enough, I can't think of a single time when I gave three options, where the client chose the cheapest one. It may be illogical, but... nobody really wants to look cheap.
 
What we usually find is that we end up working harder on a tight-budget job than we do on one that is a little more plush. By trying to keep costs down, we usually create problems for ourselves later on. That 'figure your needs and then double it' is a difficult thing to do when you feel you really need the job, but it is good advice. 'Wish I had taken it a little more often. ;-)

P.S. We have probably over-complicated things, but we keep three hourly rates. We have a $75 per hour rate for law enforcement agencies, which is low because they almost never tie up our entire suite when they come in. Our hourly rate for ad agencies and non-profits is $100 per, regular shooting rate is $125 per. At the moment, we are charging the same for shoot time whether it is on location or in our studio, we are realizing that we need to re-evaluate that. More often than not we are asked to bid a project price, which usually can vary widely depending on parameters. In the past, that has ended up somewhere around $1K per finished minute, but that is changing rapidly right now.
 
I take about 20 hours of editing per hour of footage. I wonder if I'm working too slow. Anyway, 25 to 50 bucks an hour is a good pay. Calculate how many hours you'll work and add up the cost. I saw this other method on the food network but I dunno if it would work for videography. Take the total expenses (if you own your gear research how much it would take to rent it for the amount of time you need) and multiply by three. This should pay expenses, bills, and overhead. Something like that. It was on Restaurant impossible :Drogar-Shock(DBG):
 
i saw that too....i usually bid by the job... i ask what they want and get a concept..and move forward form there....for long trips over 400 miles... where i film and hand over the footage..last trip was to Florida and the rate was 450 per day really depend son what i am comfortable with....
 
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