A friend of mine wants to make an hour long beginner's guitar instruction video. He wants me to shoot it and edit it, and create the first dvd using dvd architect, mainly for the chapters. There will be a main menu, scene selection, and a special features menu with a gag reel and interview with the musician. I will be doing the interview, and all the production, including pre and post. He wants me to give him an idea what I would charge for him to do this. Normally, I would tell him that I'd do it for free just to get the experience, but his question raised a valid point. If I WERE to charge him, what SHOULD I charge him? I have no idea where to even begin pricing something like this. Honestly, it's an aspect of the industry that just, quite literally, hadn't crossed my mind until now. OH and by the way, he wants to have the finished dvd by the last weekend in June, to take to a festival that we both attend. So, what do you guys think?
What to charge?!?
- Thread starter AgresticProductions
- Start date
It's a pretty simple formula - first answer two questions:
1) Will you need to buy or hire in anything to complete the project?
If so you make a list of these things and they represent your costs. Your entire list may consist only be a) mini-dv tape x 2, b) Five blank DVDRs... or, it may be much longer.
2) How many days you'll spend putting the project together?
You then work out what you think your time is worth per day... for the sake of this let's say $200 - times that figure by the estimated number of days
To come to a price, you take the costs and add them to time costs...that gives you a final figure.
So, for example costs equal $50 -- you decide to charge $100 a day and estimate four days work - one for production and three for post production -- that means you charge $450 for the production.
1) Will you need to buy or hire in anything to complete the project?
If so you make a list of these things and they represent your costs. Your entire list may consist only be a) mini-dv tape x 2, b) Five blank DVDRs... or, it may be much longer.
2) How many days you'll spend putting the project together?
You then work out what you think your time is worth per day... for the sake of this let's say $200 - times that figure by the estimated number of days
To come to a price, you take the costs and add them to time costs...that gives you a final figure.
So, for example costs equal $50 -- you decide to charge $100 a day and estimate four days work - one for production and three for post production -- that means you charge $450 for the production.
This is really helpful. I have been looking into how to charge people for my video work as well and have gotten alot of different answers, some from here. I think it is still hard to come up with what to charge even when you are 'charging what you think you are worth' 
the last thing you want is to charge yourself out of a job....
All the answers have been useful....
-- spinner
the last thing you want is to charge yourself out of a job....All the answers have been useful....
-- spinner
At the same time though you don't want to undercharge, because you're better off in the long run having less work that pays good than too much work that doesn't pay enough. 
As you and I have discussed in the past, once you are making a living
at it, this doesn't come into play. As Will said, you don't want to work
for a price that will hurt you financially or get you the reputation of
someone who works well under the going rate.
The reality is you will rarely price yourself out of a job. Most of the jobs
you will be offered will be referrals, like Agrestic here. You quote your
rate, the client counters and this goes on until you both agree on
something. Either you will do the job for close to what you feel is acceptable,
or you will do the job for much less in order to help out a friend.
Either way, you get the job.
Just a side note on doing estimates. Everything takes longer than you expect it to. Unless you've done this exact thing before and timed it, you should bump your time estimates by 50%. I'd bet money that you'll be closer using 150% of the time you think it will take than you would be with your original estimate. From my point of view, it's better to come in under budget and give the client a break on the final invoice, than to end up working many hours for little pay.
I do a lot of commercial work, and I bid it based on my pessimistic estimate. When the client asks me for revisions, I look at the actual hours, vs. the estimate and figure out if I need to charge the client extra. If I have hours that I have not burned, I'll tell the client there was enough padding in the estimate for their changes and I'll make them at no extra charge. I warn the client that any more changes will result in additional fees. Having done many jobs, I've found that my estimates generally cover the small changes the client requests after the first final draft is completed. I have to assume they will want to change something, unless I've done a lot of work for that client and I have a good understanding of what they like.
I'm rambling, but my original point is that things always take longer than I expect them to. By planning on that, nobody ends up working all night for no pay, or being upset by additional charges for simple changes.
BTW: When I first started doing commercial work, I did not estimate the time it takes to compress a draft of the final comp and put it on the internet for the client to view. I generally end up doing that 3 times for a given project. Then when it's all approved, there is the final final that gets written to tape(s) for the television stations, maybe to a DVD for the client, etc. All of these little steps take time, computer resources and sometimes physical resources.
One more thing; since clients love to drag their feet on shoots, I charge a flat $75/hour that starts when I leave my studio for remote shoots, and ends when we wrap up shooting. If the talent shows up late or spends 20 minutes in makeup while I'm waiting patiently, that's all on the bill and I make that clear up front when I do the quote. I will not quote a flat fee for shooting.
Doug
I do a lot of commercial work, and I bid it based on my pessimistic estimate. When the client asks me for revisions, I look at the actual hours, vs. the estimate and figure out if I need to charge the client extra. If I have hours that I have not burned, I'll tell the client there was enough padding in the estimate for their changes and I'll make them at no extra charge. I warn the client that any more changes will result in additional fees. Having done many jobs, I've found that my estimates generally cover the small changes the client requests after the first final draft is completed. I have to assume they will want to change something, unless I've done a lot of work for that client and I have a good understanding of what they like.
I'm rambling, but my original point is that things always take longer than I expect them to. By planning on that, nobody ends up working all night for no pay, or being upset by additional charges for simple changes.
BTW: When I first started doing commercial work, I did not estimate the time it takes to compress a draft of the final comp and put it on the internet for the client to view. I generally end up doing that 3 times for a given project. Then when it's all approved, there is the final final that gets written to tape(s) for the television stations, maybe to a DVD for the client, etc. All of these little steps take time, computer resources and sometimes physical resources.
One more thing; since clients love to drag their feet on shoots, I charge a flat $75/hour that starts when I leave my studio for remote shoots, and ends when we wrap up shooting. If the talent shows up late or spends 20 minutes in makeup while I'm waiting patiently, that's all on the bill and I make that clear up front when I do the quote. I will not quote a flat fee for shooting.
Doug
...I appreciate all your help, too, Rik
Right now I am going over all my notes on pricing, thinking over all the advice I have been given and will be coming up with a good flat rate. I have some good work out there, enough for some to be asking me for rates and asking that I attend their events. I hope I can start really advertising my work in a couple of weeks.
I am actually pretty excited. I think the next thing I need to do is maybe take some business/entreprenuer classes. Since it is my little business, I am thinking I can come up with my own model of sorts. Maybe this summer....
-- spinner
Advertising is different.
In that case you have people looking at several rates and choosing the
cheapest. You can charge yourself out of a job. That's why we always
hear connections are important. I have never had a reel, I have never
advertised, my company doesn't have a website or its name on my
office door.
I have gotten 100% of my gigs from referrals. It sound like you are
heading in that direction. When people ask your rates you've already
got them.
In that case you have people looking at several rates and choosing the
cheapest. You can charge yourself out of a job. That's why we always
hear connections are important. I have never had a reel, I have never
advertised, my company doesn't have a website or its name on my
office door.
I have gotten 100% of my gigs from referrals. It sound like you are
heading in that direction. When people ask your rates you've already
got them.
What I mean is that I am going to put out some bulletins indicating that I do video work. I am not yet in a position to "advertise". I just mean that I know a couple of bands that I have done work for, they like me and are willing to refer me. Plus, send out some bulletins on MySpace since I have a number of bands on my friends list.
So when people ask about rates, I'll have 'em...
-- spinner
Thanks for the info guys. I actually talked to him about it, and we decided to trade for services. He has a small music studio, and in return for his video, I get to make my music demo for free.
Wow, great points, you brought up a few issues I haven't even thought of, of course, that's why I'm a newbie. I plan on advertising my business this time next year, in the mean time, I'm taking a year to hone my skills, learn new CGI tricks, do soem free work (or cheap anyway), and read these and other forums for ideas, the last thing I want to do is to go full time and experience a bunch if "Oh-no's!".
DP Rates
Im working on a lo/no budget film as the DP. I have no idea the exact budget, but the previous film completed from the director/ producer had about a $10,000 budget. This picture may or may not have a similar budget. The director/ producer wants to pay me and asked me my rates. What should I charge? I am not a very experienced DP only the productions which I made in film school. I don't want to be too greedy but I don't want to take less than I could have had. I understand that all the money comes out of her pocket. The factors I'm considering is it is at least a 3 day shoot, I have to drive at least 30 miles to get to locations, and I will be using my own camera.
Im working on a lo/no budget film as the DP. I have no idea the exact budget, but the previous film completed from the director/ producer had about a $10,000 budget. This picture may or may not have a similar budget. The director/ producer wants to pay me and asked me my rates. What should I charge? I am not a very experienced DP only the productions which I made in film school. I don't want to be too greedy but I don't want to take less than I could have had. I understand that all the money comes out of her pocket. The factors I'm considering is it is at least a 3 day shoot, I have to drive at least 30 miles to get to locations, and I will be using my own camera.
When I was getting started, I charged only what I had to charge to make ends meet and often worked for little or nothing. Ethically, I cannot imagine charging like a professional when I'm still figuring it out. You'll have to judge where you're at in that progression from newby to expert. If you're also providing the camera, that is a value to the production. One way to approach it would be to find out what it would cost to rent your camera and charge them the rental fee plus something for your time and driving expense. It seems like that would be very fair. Of course, the better you get, the more you can charge. In the end though, I think most of us have projects we will do for less money because we love them, and projects we take on purely for the money.
Doug
Doug