How much to charge for promotional video?

ajedproduction

ajedproduction

Hi there, me and a friend started a mini production company a year or so ago, we wanna work freelance and create videos for clients. We did quite a lot of stuff for free to gain experience, make contacts and build up a portfolio. We've had some paying customers but as were still starting off(and they were just friends lol) we only charged them very small ammounts like £40 for a music video for example.

I've been recommended by a client I did a free promo video for to a friend of his who wants a promo video for his salon that's just opened.

How much should I be looking to charge? I've told him that right now as were just starting off it would cost £50 for a promo video. I know that's peanuts compared to what professional videographers charge, but I'm kinda wary of charging too much at this stage where I'm just trying to build up my contacts and my portfolio. Next time I'd obviously wanna charge more as we gain more contacts and build up a reputation.

Here is the promo video I did for free for the client that recommended me. It's the first promo vid I've done, I just wanted something I can show to potential clients so I did it for free.
https://vimeo.com/61436136

Thanks.

I dunno if this is the right forum to post this by the way...
 
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lol im charging £60 for music vids and first one is crap.

second one though is the bomb, always speak face to face with the people and recommend a price of £90 or two for £150

they will usually negotiate for around 60-70

remember people and companies pay minimum of £200 to get these kind of vids
 
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Did you make other promo videos except that one ? Because that Bubble Tea one has some serious shortcomings (first one being wrong white balance on some shots).

Your shorts though are of far better quality.

I don't think you're anywhere near "asking people to pay for your services". Devin Supertramp makes the best promotional videos ever and he's most often doing it for free (and that was even truer at his debut and he still kicked ass).

The way I would do it is do the best job I can to deliver the best promotional video possible and if the clients want to pay, they can pay the amount they think is fair, not some random number.
 
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Well it's a decision you have to make, do it free or paid, if you feel less confident about asking for a free offer to do one paid second one free so it works out £25 per vid, if you can get decent shots that's worth money alone, or at least covers travel expenses
 
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TheArtist said:
Did you make other promo videos except that one ? Because that Bubble Tea one has some serious shortcomings (first one being wrong white balance on some shots).

Your shorts though are of far better quality.

I don't think you're anywhere near "asking people to pay for your services". Devin Supertramp makes the best promotional videos ever and he's most often doing it for free (and that was even truer at his debut and he still kicked ass).

The way I would do it is do the best job I can to deliver the best promotional video possible and if the clients want to pay, they can pay the amount they think is fair, not some random number.
Click to expand...

Which shots have the wrong white balance? Is it the shots of the guy making the drink with the orange background? You may be right or that may just be bad colour correction on my behalf, I'll hold my hands up to that.

If you mean the shots in the beginning, thats how I intended it to look and made it look that way with colour correction. I wanted to give it a pink/blue look. (I know the opening shot is really shaky though :( ) I'll admit I've still got a lot to learn about colour correction.

Your entitled to your opinion and I respect that, obviously I can acknowledge that on a technical level the video is far from perfect, (to my defence though it was all shot in 3 hours with consumer grade equipment, no lighting) but at the end of the day the client absolutely loved it and it's gotten me and my production company a lot of attention from several other people who have told us they really like it and want us to make them something similar for their business.

Sure other film makers and videographers may criticise me and say that on a technical level I'm not ready yet, but at the end of the day I've got people who are happy to pay for my services and that's all that matters. I'd be a fool to turn down their money and the experience I will get from making videos for them. The more videos I make the better I'll get. If I can make a few bucks then why not. I'd only ask people to pay if they approach me first and I feel confident I can deliver them a good product. I still go seeking out possible future clients and offer to make them a promo video for free.
 
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Just out of curiosity, what is the minimum wage per hour in England? (for an adult).

EDIT: Ok I've gone and looked myself. Now your pricing seems to make more sense. Your minimum wage for 21 or over is £6.19 whereas Australia it is $15.96 per hour.
 
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Just be aware you could be building a reputation saying 'incredibly cheap' if you do a lot for so little money.
If you want to make a living you will need to calculate what income you need to survive, how much taxes you need to pay, how much you need to save for your pension and investments in gear.
Then you need to figure out how many hours you can actually do paid work.

As for your first promo: nice.
But:
The intro can be a little long for some viewers.
The making the drink part could be a little shorter.
The music made me smile :)
 
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Some advice from someone who made some wrong steps when setting up a production company to do corporate work etc....

- Never do freebies ( I only do freebies for immediate family members, even extended family have to pay) You have a required talent, you should be paid what you are worth...

- Dont price yourself cheap, if you start off cheap you will find it much harder to get higher priced jobs in the future, you will be known as the cheap guy (I know from experience) I get loads of offers of jobs but all at low prices because I started off with that in the first place.

- £50 is way too low! See above points, I started off thinking if I can earn in a day what I earned in my full time job (about £80 a day) I would be happy, Im doing what I love right?
I very quickly learnt my time and expertise is worth 4 times that.

Basically start off on the right foot, yes you wont get every job coming your way, but believe me you don't want to be in that position, sometimes you have to say this is how much I charge and be prepared to walk away if they cant pay you that.

Put it this way, further down the line if you a pricing jobs and getting 100% of jobs, you are not charging enough... a healthy rate would be getting 50% of jobs you price for.

My two cents worth, but I am in a position now where I am having to basically start afresh and seek out new clients.... that can pay to allow me to pay my bills and mortgage doing what I love :D
 
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Ajedproduction,

Know simply this...whatever limitations you have in your own mind on what to charge for your services are your own.

Having said that, on a purely practical level it would all depend on many factors including:

-Length of the video
-Who's providing the footage/content
-Who's writing the script
-Who's providing the extra elements such as music, VO, etc.

From there you can certainly create a pricing schedule based on some consistent factors.

But needless to say, you are grossly undercharging and therefore removing nearly all perceived value from your services.

All the best,

Sean
 
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