Training DVD's...

Robbie Comeau

Robbie Comeau

Como's back. back again
I was just curious on to how much you guys would charge to make a Martial Arts Training DVD...

The video will be done in Final cut, and edited in DVD Studio Pro for the main menu titles...The video is roughly an hour.

Again, I would just like some thoughts on to what you guys would charge.

If you want specs, here they are to narrow the price to a more accurate decision:

Final cut studio 2 is used.
Canon XH-A1 + DVX100b
Rode mic, or LAV mics.
2 manfrotto tripods.
Two days work.

Thanks.

Robbie
 
So is someone asking you to do one, and you're looking to us to tell you how much to charge them?

There's hundreds of ways to answer this question, but the simplest way is: what's the client's budget? What are they planning on spending? Ask 'em. Ask 'em "what's your budget for this project?" When they say "er, I don't know, how much will it cost?" then you have to turn it back around on 'em and let 'em know that it'll cost what they can afford and the project will represent what they can afford. Like when someone says "what does a house cost?" The answer is, "do you want a roadside shack in the swamp, or a mansion on the hill? What's your budget?"

Okay, with that said, let's pretend that it's going to be a relatively sucky little video that doesn't have a whole lot of effort behind it. You said "two days work" -- does that include editing? All-in? Then you could charge as little as a two-day rate. What do you think is good money for working a day? Most people would be pretty happy with $1500/day, so you could say $3,000 total -- as long as you're actually done in two days! If it drags on a week, or two weeks, you'll be losing.

Others say "charge an hourly rate" -- so, charge a flat rate for shooting (at least $500 per day per camera operator) and a flat rate hourly for editing (at least $60/hour, or $600 for a 10-hour day). Of course, that presupposes that your skill level is *worth* $60/hour; only you can answer that.
 
Robbie Comeau said:
I was just curious on to how much you guys would charge to make a Martial Arts Training DVD...

The video will be done in Final cut, and edited in DVD Studio Pro for the main menu titles...The video is roughly an hour.

Again, I would just like some thoughts on to what you guys would charge.

If you want specs, here they are to narrow the price to a more accurate decision:

Final cut studio 2 is used.
Canon XH-A1 + DVX100b
Rode mic, or LAV mics.
2 manfrotto tripods.
Two days work.

Thanks.

Robbie
Click to expand...

Hi Robbie,

Including specs was helpful, although we're not sure if it's two days shooting or two days total (seems way too tight for anything useful). I've responded to posts like yours before, focusing on lighting and audio but still relevant - check out this link.

Good luck, Michael
 
Thanks a lot guys.

Yes, it is 2 days all together. I am a fairly fast editor, so I think I can get it done in the day. You know what, maybe 3 days. The last day I can touch up on the video, and start making the DVD main menu, cause that'll be my challenge right there.

Thanks for that link Mike, I'm going to read it now!

Robbie
 
Well I did an instructional video last month and originally said $700 Australian (I was trying to keep it cheap). In the end, the one day shoot ended up being an original 1 day shoot with a pick up shot shoot a few weeks later (they forgot a step in the video and had to re-record some voice over stuff). That wasn't the worse part though (the shoot is about 40 minutes away from my house so that was a drain on petrol) - I asked at the beginning if I had creative control (eg: colours for graphics and stuff like that) and they said yes. Well, after I finished about 2/3 of the video (I kept uploading videos to youtube for them to see the progression) I started getting massive lists of things to change... like changing colours and fonts, padding the video out and then cutting it down... it was a vicious cycle.. This is too short, now it's too long... got very annoying and ended up dragging on for a few weeks. I ended up probably spending over 40 hours of work on the video and only charged for 20 hours at $20 AU an hour... so they got a very good deal in the end (they were said to be very happy with it).

I guess I'm a bit wiser now and might have to start charging per hour. But what Barry said is great advice. Ask them how much money they want to spend and that is the kind of video they will get... unless you want this to be an awesome video to put on your show reel, charge them accordingly to the work you put into it.

I hope that helped...?
 
To avoid problems like Zeakio mentioned, write an addendum to your standard contract that spells out what the parties agree to with respect to creative control and other issues that impact project time. Very important for fixed fee work.
 
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