starting audio post facility for indie films - need advice

[asterix2k10]

Hi,

I'm in mid-city Los Angeles and I'm thinking of starting a small, streamlined low-budget audio post facility for indie films where I could offer ADR, mixing, sound design, etc.

The facility will have space for 2 actors in a booth and 3 people, including me, in the control room.

Street parking only (although this is not a big issue.)

I will be able to offer stereo (not 5.1) mixing for now.

What kind of rates would be reasonable to charge? Any other advice? Thanks.

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

Hello new person! I don't know much about audio, but there are some incredibly experienced post audio people here that can answer your questions

 

[AudioPostExpert]

What kind of rates would be reasonable to charge? Any other advice? Thanks.

Tough question to answer. You really need to identify who your market is and how much they have to spend on audio post. There is very little commercial filmmaking (theatrical, TV, DVD, etc.) which is done in stereo these days and it's definitely a shrinking market. In other words, the vast majority of those with any sort of reasonable audio post budget will be looking for 5.1 and the vast majority of those who are looking for stereo will have tiny or no audio post budgets. A realistic charge if you're just starting out, is therefore either zero or very close to it as far as mixing and sound design are concerned. ADR is always recorded mono so a stereo only facility is not as much of a problem. Your booth is likely to be too small for most serious ADR work but certainly low budget ADR and VO recording might be a good starting point for your business. Make sure you really understand ADR workflows and equipment though and be prepared to work for unrealistic (or non-existent) rates, at least to start with.

Audio post is a very tough and unforgiving business but with hard work, enterprise and talent it is possible to find yourself a niche.

Other advice: 1. If you are going to be offering sound design and/or mixing (re-recording) and charging anything above zero, make sure you really know what these roles are. In my experience, many of those starting out in audio post don't even know what these roles are, let alone how to do them to any sort of professional standards. 2. I'm not sure what software you are using but ProTools is the industry standard, you'll have problems trying to run an audio post business using anything else, especially in LA. Make sure you know ProTools inside out.

Any other specific questions, feel free to fire away.

G

 

[rayw]

What kind of rates would be reasonable to charge? Any other advice? Thanks.

6% profit margin is about average for the services industry.
http://biz.yahoo.com/p/7qpmu.html


Figure your direct and indirect business costs, add 6%.
http://buildyournumbers.com/calculate-profit-margin/


Might wanna A) see if that resulting figure is competitive with your local peer competition's prices, then B) seriously assess if your audio post service can compete on any aspect other than price.

 

[wheatgrinder]

How about online only option? Your markets bigger and your costs are less.

What folks like me need is someone to...
clean up existing dialogue tracks (noise removal etc.)
Dialog fixes. realigning dialog to video perfectly, creating missing words from other syllables etc..
Foley passes.

You could deliver stems and leave the mixing to the customer.

Specialize in a few services that are short of "mixing" offer those services online for a fair price.. and maybe you have found a niche.. ??? who knows..