Trying to establish a day rate...help?

S

stcraw4d

Member
I met with a producer who contracts out shoots/edits, and I'll be working with him for the first time. He'd like to know my day rate. It'd be for shooting - but using my own equipment.

I'd use a Canon 7D, Canon 60D, own light and audio equipment.

I've just never established a day rate - I've normally just bid on entire projects. I'm thinking the 350-450 range, but I don't want to lowball myself and get locked in at a low rate -- nor scare him away and not work with me in the future.

Thoughts?

Is there a different day rate for editing, should he ask me to do that, as well?
 
Probably depends on your location, proficiency, type of production and gear you are including. If its an indy feature in the mid west with the 7D and stock lens, probably a lot lower than $350. If its a high end commercial or corporate gig in New York with a fully accessorized PL mount 7D & cine lenses, you should get A LOT more than $450 a day. For me, corporate stuff starts at $1000/day.

More info would help, but I think you are in the ball park for an average day rate with a standard setup in a general market.


Jason
 
AwakenedFilms said:
Probably depends on your location, proficiency, type of production and gear you are including. If its an indy feature in the mid west with the 7D and stock lens, probably a lot lower than $350. If its a high end commercial or corporate gig in New York with a fully accessorized PL mount 7D & cine lenses, you should get A LOT more than $450 a day. For me, corporate stuff starts at $1000/day.

More info would help, but I think you are in the ball park for an average day rate with a standard setup in a general market.


Jason
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Thanks for the reply, I'll try to give more info. I'm in San Antonio, and he's out of Dallas. I'm not taking a high end rig, matte-box, redrock stuff. I'll have the 7D and the 60D both with L lenses, but not an actual rig. The audio will be a wireless sennheiser lav kit and a shotgun mic recorded to a Zoom h4n. Like I said, not high end stuff, but enough to get the job done. Definitely not in the $1000 range, though.

It's a few interviews and b-roll stuff for a corporate video (a company in the oil/gas business).
 
I'd think $350 per day plus expenses/travel would be a fair enough starter rate.

Noah
 
I think $350 is way to low for you to come out with all that gear. I would say minimum $800 for 8-10 hours then overtime after that. Think about how much the rental on all the equipment is. Then what is your actual day rate with out equipment. Then when you quote him a price give him you with equipment and with out. Then if he decides he doesn't want some of your equipment he cant take it off your day rate. If he is hiring you for more than one day then give him a break on the equipment rentals.

Day rate for 8-10 hours should be $350.
Then equipment id say another $300.

But this also has to do with how big of a portfolio you have. If your just starting out then you probably wont get 800 a day.

Keep in mind the scope of the project as well. Corporate gigs have money! You should get top dollar.
 
For me, corporate stuff starts at $1000/day.
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This is close to my day rate, I usually do 900.00 Which includes any gear I have that needs to be used for the shoot. Then I do around 50.00- 75.00 per hr. to edit. depending on the job and who it's for.
 
Thanks for the replies, all. I threw out the $350 rate for myself and we'll work equipment on top of that at an additional rate. I'm not sure how to price that, though. Like I said, I don't want to sell myself short - because I'm not new to this type of work (DSLR shooting/editing) only this type of pricing/bidding. But, I'm also wanting to be cautious of pegging myself at a low rate for the future -because this is the first time I've worked with him.

Would $350 for me +$250-300 for equipment be feasible? It actually wouldn't be a two camera shoot, just one, so I'd have:

1 Canon 7D, a Chimera light kit (2 softboxes), a Zoom H4n, a a Sennheiser lav and Rode Shotgun mic recording two tracks. And then the hardware (glidetrack/monopod/tripod) stuff. Is that worth $300/day?

I've just never been on that end, so I don't know what they'd balk at.
 
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In that market (I mean in the Houston-Dallas-San Antonio triangle), a day rate for an ENG type camera (AVC-Intra 100 1080p) with 2 person crew (and lights/audio....) runs about $1000.

For your level of gear (and I suspect experience) $550-600 is probably the maximum.

Be sure to talk to the producer about how they want it shot. If they are cutting it with other interviews (pretty typical for corporate stuff) then find out in advance about lighting, depth of field, backdrop.... For example, they may have other stuff shot with an office setting for the background. If you shot in front of a backdrop then it could stand out from other interviews. If they used ENG cameras for other shoots (which typically have deeper DOF than DSLR) then you'll probably want to avoid shooting really shallow. That means closing down the iris and possibly adding more light.

Good luck!
 
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