how MUCH do you CHARGE???? I'm in a major rut guys

[TruEsTaR]

Hey everyone!!!!

how's it going?

It's been awhile.... I hope everyone is well!


basically, I've been living and breathing filmmaking and editing the whole past few months. I've took a couple more courses, and did an internship shooting video and editing at a college over the summer.

I'm improving constantly, and currently brushing up on motion and after effects.

I've learned Avid extremely well during the internship, along with owning final cut pro and being very efficient at it.

We had to do a promotional video for a nonprofit organization as a project over the summer, and we spent about 3 days shooting, and put over 100 hours into it altogether editing and shooting.

I completely taught myself Avid spending hours upon hours messing with it, asking other people in the department questions, and watching hundreds of tutorials

It was played at a banquet dinner for the organization, and very, very well received.


Since then, i've gotten a ton of offers to do videos for other people. My major problem, is a lot of them want to pay me very little, or want me to do it for free. As of next week, i'm no longer interning, and I'm trying to decide which projects are worth it, and which ones aren't.

I go all out for my clients, and I've thinking strongly of starting a production company with a few friends very soon.


My question to you guys, is how much is the lowest I should charge for a promotional video for an mma company that i'm going to spend about 5 hours filming on 1-2 cameras in HD, and about 40-60 hours editing in two weeks....

I'm thinking $1,500 is too low, and that muchof my time is worth about $3,000 at the very least.

Is the industry standard really $1,000 per minute, or higher?

Also, if boxers, ect ask me to edit highlight clips together for them, then how do I calculate how much to charge for that?

basically, I don't know what to do with the financial aspects of being a freelance videographer.


I'm also having more trouble with people and pricing if any of you would be kind enough to send me a pm, I can explain the whole situation to you.

this is the video myself and the other intern made for the nonprofit.... Please take a look at it, and considering what i'm going to shoot for the guy, tell me what you think of my suggestions for pricing....

I know there's a lot of things to consider, but

Thanks everyone!!!!

and have a great day!

*noted, the video is in HD, but my buddy accidentally uploaded it to youtube in 480. I'll reupload it in HD in a couple of days....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv1vd-vTsf0

 

[directorik]

What to charge is a balancing act between three things:

What is acceptable to you
What a client will pay you
What to local market will allow

Frankly, what you charge has very little to do with over all
quality. Many clients are willing to pay much less and get
less. Many prodCo's are willing to work for very little in order
to get a gig. And the "industry standard" rarely applies. That
number make an interesting conversation starter and nothing
more.

I charge $500/day if I provide ONLY the camera, sticks and
me. One hour - 12 hours - 14 hours - it's $500. Anything
else - audio, lights, grip equipment - and I charge more. I
charge $100/hr with a 4 hour minimum and a 10 hour day
for editing. I don't know if you can charge that in your area.

If three large for the entire project is worth it to you and you
can get that, then that's what you should charge. Do you
know what the local market will support?

 

[GuerrillaAngel]

$999. for that first one you mentioned.

You don't have any gigs at the moment. If the gigs start coming in (actual checks), you can bump up your prices accordingly, because for one thing, your time availability becomes limited.

Likewise, if you're not getting gigs, your prices are too high.

Sadly, it not what you think you're worth is what matters. Its what the market is willing to pay.

Good luck though!

I charge $500/day if I provide ONLY the camera, sticks and
me. One hour - 12 hours - 14 hours - it's $500. Anything
else - audio, lights, grip equipment - and I charge more. I
charge $100/hr with a 4 hour minimum and a 10 hour day
for editing

While I'd knock a few bucks off for my area, I do like the $500/day whether one hour or 14. Smart marketing. Editing is troublesome to set fees. I hate making a lousy product even if its what the customer wants to pay for.

 

[Alcove Audio]

I charge by the hour. I have block rates that reduce the hourly rate, the smallest block is 20 hours. Additional time goes back to the regular hourly rate unless they book another block. A feature film gets a special rate, but it will keep me busy for at least three months. Nothing leaves my studio until the final payment is received.

Figuring out how much time a project will take is often difficult as most clients don't have any idea of what they want. Audio post is anywhere from one to eight hours per linear minute. A very large consideration is the quality of the production sound. Crappy production sound means lots of additional dialog editing, lots of noise reduction and, in some cases, lots of ADR with inexperienced talent.

The first thing you need to figure out is your overhead - how much your hardware and software cost you, your rent and utilities (even if your working out of your bedroom you should add something in), etc. From there pay yourself a salary. Add it all up for a month and divide by 160 (four 40 hour weeks). That's your starting point, then add in for your experience and talent.

 

[David.rhsc]

My AC and operator rates are pretty variable. It really depends on the market:

Commercials > High End Industrials > Cable Television (I have no experience with network shows) > Mid grade Industrials > SAG ULB Features > Low Budget Music Video > Low grade Industrials > Favors for friends > Freebies for PIE.

That expresses my experience in rates. On the high end I've seen $500 for 10 as an operator (their gear) or a gaffer (subset of my buddy's truck) with OT after 10 and DT after 12. Those were high end industrials, my only real experience with commercials (for TV) was as a PA. Can't recall what the rate was, but it was solid.

On the low end, I've see 0. But you gotta evaluate the PIE to know if it is worth doing the freebie. If it's not a favor for a friend, then the PIE better be worth the investment of your time and inevitably your money by way of transportation expenses (gas and miles on the vehicle), expendables, and so on.

On the average I see $250 for 10 (same OT/DT setup) on what I would call mid grade industrials as a catch-all operator/ac/grip/electric, and $300 for 11 (OT after that, no DT) on a cable TV show where I am the sub 1AC.

I'm in prep on a ULB feature and getting a stipend on that job for 1 month of shooting + 1 p/t week of prep. The stipend is pretty low, but ends up being more than my last feature 1AC gig, so there's that. We're also off the grid for the first 20 ish days of shooting, so they are providing 3 squares a day. In theory they are doing the same when we are back in town as well.

That doesn't help you price out a whole project, but it gives you an idea where some of those prices come from. FWIW: I am in the middle of a freebie for a friend's non-profit. About the same time investment as your MMA video, and wish I was charging them something. Still, I support their cause and could not charge them in good conscience. I'm too slow of an editor and don't have proper sound gear to charge those rates.

Maybe I can write it off or something.

 

[Synia]

The first thing you need to figure out is your overhead - how much your hardware and software cost you, your rent and utilities (even if your working out of your bedroom you should add something in), etc. From there pay yourself a salary. Add it all up for a month and divide by 160 (four 40 hour weeks). That's your starting point, then add in for your experience and talent.

I agree with Alcove. Don't forget food and water cost money too.

what you get without considering your experience and talent is your minimum, meaning you should never work for less than that. Add in what you think you are worth, and if you getting too many jobs, then you've underestimated your talent, and if you don't get any job then... well... adjust your price accordingly.

 

[Nate North]

Billing is one of the toughest parts of pro work. Mainly because none of your clients will have the vaguest idea of what is fair, or how much work it takes to get a good product.

Beware of charging project rates. Customers will constantly inflate the criteria of the job, making it three times the size they told you to get a quote. They don't understand that giving notes all the way through a process increases your work so much. Try to explain it to them, and you'll get these BS philosophical arguments laden with inept metaphors.

I just charge 100 an hour flat, let them complain about the bill until they get tired out, then I give them the 65 an hour rate I wanted in the first place. If I charge 65 to be more fair, same discussion, but they won't be happy till you take it down to 35. I think the breaking point was when I met this drunk plumber with a 200 dollar wrench kit talking about how he dropped out of high school and made 50 an hour steady. I looked at my 70K investment in production gear, and 5 years serious training, and said, "100 an hour from now on" I've been getting it. Cleared $3,000 since Sunday. I live in California, so I can get a tank of gas and a pack of smokes for that, score.