video edit job pricing

[makemassair]

alright mateys?

been offered an edit job thru my sister for a mate of hers who owns a poker company. still waiting on the rough details beyond what my sis told me.

now I've not charged for edit work before and was wondering how I should go about fairly charging for my services whilst not getting ripped off nor ripping them off.

I was told 2-3mins short promo film, which I reckon could be shorter as sis was thinking advert length which is 30secs to 1min. anyways she reckoned about ?250-300, they were also thinking about me filming it as well.

any advice. when i get some 'proper' details I'll add to this post, but a way of charging for freelance edit work would be cool.

toodles.

[deepvisual]

for 300 quid you,ll make more money per hour tossing burgers at macdonalds.

budgets for 15 sec TV adverts start at 150,000.

to edit ask 25 per hour minimum,

expect to shoot for at least 5 hours of footage which you then have to capture, ( another 5 hours), edit (between 20 and 100 hours depending on style) then deliver ( usually dvd or tape another 3-4 hours)

corporate rate for this kind of work would be around 15,000, as a first timer maybe ask around 4k, if you ask less, either you will be in a world of pain or it will look like a really cheap bad video- and guess who will get the blame.

[sleepytom]

?200-?300 per day (8hours) is about standard going rate for freelance creative work.

depending on how much you like the client you can opt to do charge by the half day or full day. you shouldn't charge by the hour as you cannot really work on 8 different projects in one day.

so lets say they want a 1min advert - that would probably be a half day shoot followed by a 2? day edit followed by a flat rate fee for compressing for the web (or whatever)

remember to add costs for equipment hire (camera and lights) and consumables.

[makemassair]

cheers guys. 4k seems an awful lot for a promo for a poker company. but then I don't know at present how big this company is.

awaiting the email at present and what they expect

[sleepytom]

but having said that a professional production company would do a one day shoot with at least 4 people working on it.

and then spend 2 days editing / grading + any motion graphics stuff would be charged at a high rate.

but they would produce a very professional product...

i guess the most important question to ask is can you actually do the filming to a good enough standard? have you got experience with lighting? do you have access to a good camera (DSR-570 would be the entry point for being considered good - you could just get away with a Z1 if its well lit) if your answer is no to any of these questions (or you simply don't understand what i'm talking about!) then you should definitely get a proper cameraman to do the shoot.

[deepvisual]

sometimes you need to educate the client.
you can do it cheap but it will look cheap.
like anything, theyll get what they pay for - and like always, you can let them talk you down if they think its too much, but you,ll never be able to up the price later without good reason

[Lara]

?200-?300 per day (8hours) is about standard going rate for freelance creative work.

Depends how good you are whether you actually get this!

[jimmyogenic]

it kinda depends on what you want to achieve...

always add extra time on that you've not allowed for for things like capture and final rendering...

I did my first proper film/edit (9min epk) for ?500 and it took over a week in all, but it gave me my first producing break which has then led to more work which does pay a proper daily rate...

so i guess if your just starting out and you want the experience then charge what you feel is the minimum that you can do it for... plus all the extras (ie dvd's tapes etc). don't be afraid to turn it down if they won't pay for at least yoru basic time and extras..

when you do the quote, also don't just give them a figure of say ?800, break it down into the following categories (as an example..)

pre-production - .5 day
filming 1 day
log, capture of footage 1 day
editing 2 days
post production and mastering 1 day
at a daily rate of say ?150 this would mean the total cost would be 5.5 x ?150 = ?825

plus media ?50

this way they will see that your not just picking a figure out of thin air and they will appreciate the time thats actually involved with making a short film..