rates to edit :60,:30 and 10 sec commercial

[Bigdaddy B.]

I've been asked to edit (audio and video) from about a hour and a half of footage (multiple takes) and make 3 versions, a :60 sec, a :30 sec and a :10 sec. No dialogue. Just music and sound fx. How much should I charge them.They are not a big company. They are doing this as a project.



Bigdaddy B.

 

[grinner]

just your hourly rate.
They'll be paying 100-200/hour elsewhere unless they let the local station do it for free.
It's as easy as pointing out the difference in quality in that case.

 

[Noah]

I have editors that charge anywhere from 500-1500 a day based on the scope of the project. I have a good working relationship with most of them and if I tell them I only have 500 a day in the budget, most of the time they'll make it work. Just consider how many days this will actually take you. It always takes more time than you think. Factor in turnaround for client revisions. Some clients put more trust in your skills than others, but most get very nit picky. Also, make the terms very clear with the production company; I will charge you x amount based on x days of work, this includes x revisions from the client, stock music, unlimited web posting, delivery on x. Let them know that anything outside of those terms will be at an additional cost. I had one client who asked for youtube delivery over ftp and at the end of the day asked for 20 DVD copies and they expected not to be charged for this. 20 dvds may not seem like a lot, but it takes a lot of time to burn all of those, print all the labels, put them on and put them in jewel cases, not to mention the hard costs of the dvd media, labels, and cases and the cost to messenger it over. Things add up.

Also, if they can't afford your normal day rate, but you're willing to work cheaper - tell them this is what it would cost, but because of the nature of the project and because I want to work with you I am willing to provide my services at a discount.

Hope this helps.