Stumped on hourly rates

Vince K

Vince K

Well-known member
Hey everyone...
I'm seriously stumped on this one and any help would be appreciated...

I'm used to shooting my own productions, basically a one man show, and haven't actually been hired as a 'b', 'c', 'd', or 'e' cam ever in my life... aside from doing B or C cam on features if I'm on a union gig.

I've just been asked to work on a 2 hour gig along side of 4 other shooters with my full rig.
With the rig I have in my signature, what would you say would be fair to charge for a 2 hour shoot? I normally get $400 a day and have never had an "hourly' rate.
How do you break it down to be fair to both parties?
I really don't want to say " I'll do t for the same price as the other guys"...

What would you guys charge?
 
Day rate is assumed 10 hrs. So if your day rate is 400$, then 40$/hr? I charge 75/hr for any HD work (shoot/edit) and 50/hr for SD work (shoot/edit).

Dave
 
there are also minimums people charge, cause for a lot of people it's not really worthwhile to work for 45 dollars if you're only doing an hour. for a 2 hour day you might be good just charging half your day rate, since it's considerably less than a half day. You can charge separately for your gear, and your services, so it could be something like 50 bucks and hour, and a additional 100 for your gear. Makes your day more worthwhile because 100 dollar jobs just don't cut it, and it makes them feel like they are getting a deal.
 
Sometimes it depends on where you live. Try finding the prevailing average industry rate in your area for camera man.

Also for comparison, when we work with talent agencies, non-union actors, try to match their rates to union when negotiating.
 
I vote go day rate. For me I have a day job doing industrial stuff and do work for television and music video on the side. I always charge day rate because even if I am only doing 2 hours for someone else, it means I have cleared my whole day.
 
sure shott said:
i vote go day rate. For me i have a day job doing industrial stuff and do work for television and music video on the side. I always charge day rate because even if i am only doing 2 hours for someone else, it means i have cleared my whole day.
Click to expand...


+1


Now if you need the money ( like we always do ) you might be able to work something out, but honestly if it's less than $100 I will not even come out.
 
Most professionals will unfortunately now offer a half day ( five hour max) rate which is 60 - 75% of their day rate ( I charge 70%). Usually I don't see equipment reduced though as if for some reason you have to subrent you can't rent gear on a half day or hourly basis. However everybody cuts his own deals and event shooters often have different rate structures and hourly rates.
 
I charge $95 for the first hour & $50 per hour after that. I start charging one hour before the shoot so I have time to setup (so basically my minimum charge is for 2 hours/$145. And I'm cheaper than most local professionals.

In my area it seems to be the opposite... nobody charges day rates (Except News freelancers with a Car and $100,000 kit) because nobody is willing to pay that much. Then you break it down and charge by the hour and it end's up costing them more anyway haha!
 
And sometimes, what it is worth to the client justifies you charging them a higher price. TV advertisements, for example, might be straighforward and relatively quick to produce, but if the client stands to possibly earn $1,000,000 from it, then it would be entirely fair to charge them $20,000+ for a weeks work!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top