I have done event videography work for quite some times, and they aren't that easy as one would imagine, the worst are weddings so I told myself NEVER do weddings, but the funny thing is, that seems to be the most lucrative work so far in our city (Cleveland, Ohio), I get at least 5 request a month still even I put out there that we don't do weddings (weddings are charge from $750 from a basic shoot at reception to $3000 fancy ones, based on my research on others who does that in town, price varies based on credibility of the company).
So when I first started event videography, I charged based on the time spent, crew needed, and equipment needs, for the first job I did, I charge for a minimal lum sum of about $150/day shoot (not including editing, final output, tapes, equipment, crew, just me with a camera shooting and give the tape to the guy). Then realize I might have to break the habbit of charge cheap, it's become a common 'known' factor that I was cheap
I've done club videography, the opening and closing of nightclubs where they have special party, one owner wanted :crowd shots, interviews, scene, people dancing, etc. for that I charged a total of $1600 (my 2nd job), which included 40 hours of editing, 3 teams (each team with 2 people - camera and interviewer), and we did a 3 nights shoot (4 hours each night), finished project was turned into a 30 sec promo, 3 mins promo, and a 45 mins documentary style of the club with interview and such. yeah, i think this was very cheap considering the time and work we put into, but it builts my credibility along hand (and this was like in 1999)
Shooting a club, you have less control with the lighting situation, in above case, because it was a grand opening, I have to utilize what is available in lighting, which mean it wasn't going to be fun, i had to go out and grab a few SIMA peg lights ($50 each and only last for 20 mins long), and a 1 ccd camera that can do night-light shoot (in black/white so it shows the darker area of the club without intruding), and plenty of running around like crazy.
Taking above for consideration, you have to think in way of how much work you need to do and how much you would think suffice in payment (if you say you just want to charge $10/hr and you did 8 hrs of work at site, plus 8 hrs of pre-production work, plus 40 hours of editing..., that's $560 then add that with the people you might need, the cost of equipment/material you need to get, etc it would add up, once the price is added up, think hard to see if this is AFFORDABLE to your client or not, you must add in the factor also since this is your first job, if you really want to build credibility and lower the price down and have a lost? or you want to at least cover your expenses and do it almost free? or you want to make some bucks?
But please keep this in mind, if you charge cheap, people will assume you are cheap, and they will always expect a cheap rate, so it's better to charge 'decent' or 'reasonable' or make a decision that for the long run it won't hurt you but to help you.
(case in point, the $!600 job, it was a lost after paying eveyrone at very low low price, the club again wanted me to do it for their other club opening for same amount, but the new club was 4 times bigger and they wanted more stuff included, I finally negotiated to without editing, and with what they wanted for a total of $4.5k and they agreed) and they were happy with the result.
i know it's hard to land the first business, at the same time, I know how difficult it is to price right, and how eager sometimes we are to land a job doing what we love that we forget what we can offer, but try to not sell yourself short or sell your crew short, just always think of what's next in line so everyone will not have to be grumpy during the process of working
Just my 2cents
Johnny