My friend and entrepenuer, Ali, is hiring me to work with him at a party. He's a DJ and he wants me to video the crowd/show/whatever and project it onto screens. I still have to have a meeting with him to figure it all out, but what should I charge? I'm thinking at least $500...maybe even close to a grand...all that equipment and preparation is well worth that, but what do y'all think? This is my first job like this. I still don't know how big the party will be.
I need to know what to charge!
- Thread starter LOGAN L Productions
- Start date
I would suggest charging as low as you can to compensate your funding and get a *little* profit... it'll build some credibility for you, and more of a chance of re-hire.. and since this is your first time, it would make more sense to charge as little as possible, and then work your way up each time.
My suggestion: Keep as low as you can, do a good job, and hand out business cards at the party. Once you get a-rollin' you'll be able to charge more.
My suggestion: Keep as low as you can, do a good job, and hand out business cards at the party. Once you get a-rollin' you'll be able to charge more.
Thanks for the suggestions, guys...I'll figure it all out when we meet up later this week. Of course, I won't overcharge anybody.
Is this a Rave type party, a club, or a birthday party?
Some things you have to consider is:
Who's equipment are you going to use?
If it's yours, does he or the place where it's being held, have insurance in where your equipment will be covered?
What's the deductible?
How long is the party?
Are you going to be walking around with cables trailing you all over which, are plugged into a projector?
Will you need a helper?
Me, personally, I've thrown many raves/parties in my life. I never hired any VFX dudes but I do know that one guy charged like $300 and he did a live show. It was a lot more than just a video feed on a screen. He's not asking you to record anything, just feed it to the screen, right?
If someone asked me to do it, I'd tell them $250, plus replacement of equipment if damaged.
If your friend is getting paid $500 for this party and he wants to add some VFX and you come in and want to charge him $500 then the DJ makes no money.
In fact, I had some DJ's that would play for FREE the first time, then charge the next time that person hired them. 1. It got their name out there, 2. It gave them more exposure to OTHER promoters, and 3. They almost always got paid anyway. They DJ'd for free because they loved to do it and they wanted to do it.
Do you want to do this project?
Are you doing it for money or the learning experience?
How much would YOU pay to learn this experience?
Some things you have to consider is:
Who's equipment are you going to use?
If it's yours, does he or the place where it's being held, have insurance in where your equipment will be covered?
What's the deductible?
How long is the party?
Are you going to be walking around with cables trailing you all over which, are plugged into a projector?
Will you need a helper?
Me, personally, I've thrown many raves/parties in my life. I never hired any VFX dudes but I do know that one guy charged like $300 and he did a live show. It was a lot more than just a video feed on a screen. He's not asking you to record anything, just feed it to the screen, right?
If someone asked me to do it, I'd tell them $250, plus replacement of equipment if damaged.
If your friend is getting paid $500 for this party and he wants to add some VFX and you come in and want to charge him $500 then the DJ makes no money.
In fact, I had some DJ's that would play for FREE the first time, then charge the next time that person hired them. 1. It got their name out there, 2. It gave them more exposure to OTHER promoters, and 3. They almost always got paid anyway. They DJ'd for free because they loved to do it and they wanted to do it.
Do you want to do this project?
Are you doing it for money or the learning experience?
How much would YOU pay to learn this experience?
Keep your fees separate so you don't end up losing money.
Charge a day rate or hourly rate for your services.
Charge half of your rate for ordering/picking up equipment (plus cost) or add 20% to the actual cost.
Charge a kit rental fee (for wear and tear on your owned equipment and for using owned expendables).
Charge a day rate or hourly rate for your services.
Charge half of your rate for ordering/picking up equipment (plus cost) or add 20% to the actual cost.
Charge a kit rental fee (for wear and tear on your owned equipment and for using owned expendables).
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
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
Don’t do flat rates. It’s a sure way to loose money. Do expenses + hourly or day rates. That way if that 3-hour production turns into 12, you won’t get the shaft. I also break my contracts down into 3 parts: pre-prod, prod, and post. That way, when the project changes and the production needs change, I won’t be locked into a rate that I quoted before the script was written that turns into a completely different project.