OT: What would you charge?

xjerx wrote on 1/13/2006, 2:37 PM

I have been asked to do a video project for an entertainment company. The project involves me going around a military event...music..food..magic...parachutes...etc...and capture all the action on tape...then edit it down to a 15 minute "commercial" so the military can show their advisors what they did.

They want me to tape from 9 AM to midnight! I was thinking $100-$200 an hour for the taping. (but the entertainment company is trying to get me to do it for less than $500 for the whole thing...no way)

What would you guys charge.....I know prices will vary from location to location and skill level to skill level...but I just wanna know what you guys would charge if you were offered the same job.

Thanks for your input
Jeremiah

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/13/2006, 3:04 PM

I'd charge ~ $900, maybe 1k. 15 hours is a long time, you're talking ~15 tapes plus putting everything together. I'd tell them this (if it were me):

$1100 is you guys go through ALL the footage & pick out what you want & I edit that down. You find someone else to tape it & I do the editing then it's $300. I'd negogiate down to $950 if they insisted (that's why I'd start at 1100). If I had to go through all the tapes myself I'd add on another $200 for my time.

So, between $1100 & 1300. I did one job for ~$500 that took, overal, 9 hours of being there (not 9 hours of taping) but I was being fed for free, it was broken over several days & I had ~35 DVD sales with my making $9 on each of them (profit).

When do they want it done by?

Steve Mann wrote on 1/14/2006, 11:23 AM

Sounds like they are used to dealing with wedding videographers. There's no way I would touch this for less than $2,000. Do you, or they, have any idea how long it takes to copy and log 15 hours of video? You should plan on about two or three days of editing unless they have a storyboard of what they want in the final product. And are you up to being on the run for 15 hours without help? Add an assistant plus $50 of tapes and you're net for this $500 project is less than minimum wages.

Steve

rextilleon wrote on 1/14/2006, 11:59 AM

I agree----unless you need it for a reel piece or you are building a resume, I wouldn't touch it for under 2000.

winrockpost wrote on 1/14/2006, 12:07 PM

i think you guys are still in the giving holiday spirit at 2K,, sounds like at least 5K to me. 15 hrs of tape, uh going to eat up several days before even thinking about assembly, hell may be 10 or so when you get all the fine points, may need an audio dude, being as helpless as i am have to have a producer ,etc.

jkb242 wrote on 1/14/2006, 12:27 PM

I agree with Steve. If this a hobby and you are in need of clients and practice, fine. But if you, like most of us, are in this at the least as a second profession or more accurately in it full time and are for profit, the rate these guys are offering is what babysitters get. Nothing aganist babtsitters but this profession requires a bit more skill and I will guarantee you, regardless of the price, the clinet will pick you clean over details he is obviously unwilling to pay for.

It could be a big poker game too, often, many of these are. Call their bluff and demand your rate, you will earn it, no doubt if not freeze your A.. off or bake it in the sun.

Other suggestions here were good as well. Scope down the project in chunks so that you can both manage the client and your time.

Best of luck!

vicmilt wrote on 1/14/2006, 12:27 PM

I'd have to say...

how much do you want the job?

can you Afford to work for free, or very little, for the time allocated?

what else are you doing that night?

At one point people (many people) were actually willing to pay my then current rate of $10,000 a day... and that was w/o equipment or anything else - just to guarantee that the rest of the $125k to $200k they were spending on a day's shoot, wouldn't be wasted. It takes a certain skill to run a forty man crew with 8 trucks of gear.

Now in my (long) career I've seen many really talented people forced to go out of business, because they had a "rate" - like a religious icon, that could not be blasephemed against.

At one point - after years of "the big time", the business changed, I made a few wrong turns, and I found myself out on a set, shooting and directing for $500 a day. That was a long fall, but I had mouths to feed. Happily, it led to one thing, then another and finally back to a NEW place, and then another, and another again, to the Present where I currently exist. (not the Past - not the Future)

So -
Life is not a fixed thing.
There is no happily ever after.
Your rate should vary with your needs - financial, emotional and aesthetic.

but DO try to have fun, in every situation possible...
this is a wonderful time to be alive.

best,
v
ps - I did all the national commercials, as well as all the recruiting films, for the Air Force, for eight years. "Aim High" - tha's me.
Personally, I'd kill to be out on that military site, with full cooperation and free access. There's nothing like it. Take what they offer, prepare to work like a dog, and have the greatest reel of anyone you know - THAT reel will get you the next job - where you'll make a little more money than this one. Keep building like that, and one day you'll get super bucks, too.

winrockpost wrote on 1/14/2006, 12:43 PM

Mr Milt you offer great advice as always.

One thing though, doesnt sound like its a base shoot with access, but I could be wrong , again.

vicmilt wrote on 1/15/2006, 2:44 PM

Shooting a Job - just for the sake of shooting is a waste of time.

If you're going to "shoot something", make your own great project.

But check further - if you're going to get on the base - and have some real otherwise "ungettable" opportunities, I'd say ask for a good price (see the guys above), but make it clear that you want the job, "for whatever's in the budget".

Otherwise, avoid the BS that comes with every job - think up your own project and go for that.

There are dozens of opportunities available for film makers - right in your neighborhood. Talk to the Boy Scouts, local charities, sports groups, climbers, skaters, runners stamp collectors, beach combers - whatever you like -
these folks will kill themselves for you, once they realize you are "for real" - then take that video and enter it in a local film festival - send me a copy of your prize... and if you don't win - you'll still have a LOT of happy people, and the respect that comes with success.

best,
v

v