Hourly rate for Non-linear Editing? « Videomaker Community Forums

minpd4u
Member

I am freelance Non-linear editor.

here's my issue.

Project:
24 classes shot by 2 camera(1 main/ 1 close up on the board)
each class is about 1 hr long.

I need to edit and make dvd set.

How much should i charge?
can i have some kind of chart for rate?

thanks in advance.

Posted 6 years ago #
Endeavor
Member

How about just 1 thread on this.

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

We get questions like this from time to time, and I think they can all pretty much be answered like this -

1. Determine how many hours the work will take.
(I'm the world's worst at this step. Give it your best guess, but also start tracking your time for each project so you can produce a chart to help you do estimates in the future.)

2. Pick an hourly rate that you'd be very happy with. (We'll call this "Rate A")

3. Pick an hourly rate you'd be less happy with, but would still be willing to work for. ("Rate B")

Now, set your standard rate at Rate A, but offer a discount to Rate B. As jobs come in, slowly reduce your discount until you're as close to Rate A as you can get. If you actually get to Rate A, and still have jobs coming in, rename this as Rate B and come up with a new Rate A.

Of course, your competition, supply and demand and other forces will all be at work, affecting your outcome.

In competitive areas, I think you'll find two tiers of video companies - those who's work is absolutely great AND the market has noticed them; and the lower tier where others are struggling to reach a higher quality and get noticed in the market.

In that lower tier are many who love the work and are willing to work for near subsistence levels, just to continue doing what they love - and that drives the prices down.

Best of luck to you. It'd be interesting to hear how your business progresses.

Posted 6 years ago #
minpd4u
Member

Thank you for reply.
i appreciate them, especially one from compusolver.

one more question. (it could be little stupid)

what is average hourly rate in general?

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

In Oklahoma, its $1.25/hr

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

OK, that was a stupid answer (but, unfortunately, fairly honest) and it wasn't a stupid question at all. However, these things vary greatly from location to location. It's too subjective for me to answer. I've earned as much as $72/hr based on salary as a programmer and earned more (and less, if I figured it hourly) when I owned computer stores, but I make a heck of a lot less now (see above post!) :)

Posted 6 years ago #
Endeavor
Member

The value of anything is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

Posted 6 years ago #
TrinaM
Member

I just finished my first "job" -- and I charged $50 per hour of editing, telling the client it would be approx. one hour of editing per finished minute. The final cut was 18 minutes, and they loved it! I also charged an hourly fee for filming, prorated. They didn't blink an eye at what I charged, and they plan to use me for future projects. What a great experience! :D

I'm not absolutely sure $50 per hour is good or not -- for me it was fair and well worth my while. I started out thinking I'd do wedding videos, but I'm starting to believe that corporate is where it's at!

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Trina - I don't know how you got the ratio of one hour per finished minute for editing times. I do a lot of three-camera wedding videos and my average is about half that - one hour of editing for two finished minutes. That's with three video tracks and usually four or five audio tracks.

You didn't mention what kind of video this was and how many cameras were used.

Also, as for what the time is worth, don't forget the "artist" factor. A truly talented, artistic editor is going to be worth more than a less-talented editor who lacks the artist's viewpoint.

Posted 6 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

Hank,

I guess I would go with "TrinaM's" number of 1 hour per minute of finished video. That includes EVERYTHING! Even DVD authoring but NOT encoding because I do that over night when I'm sleeping.

Like you have mentioned, it comes down to what type of project you're doing.

Right now I'm doing my second 2 cam theatre stage play that was about 2-1/4 hours in length. That will take me about 10 hours to do only because all you're really doing is switching between cam shots. Now a very well done artistic wedding project will take a lot longer for me because I'm doing very time consuming features and comp segments to make it look it's best.

I guess when I think about it, in the end you almost need different pricing schedules based on what type of project you're doing.

RAM

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Sure, the amount of artistic editing, effects, etc. affects things, but I put all that into my wedding videos (at least I consider it artistic!)

I wonder if editing styles could be at play here? I used to take much longer to do my editing but then I started doing things differently. I now lay down my three (synchronized) video and audio tracks, turning off all but my main audio. Then I begin editing, cutting away the higher tracks to expose lower tracks as needed and switching audio levels as needed.

I find that things go much quicker this way than in the days when I would select clips from various cameras and lay them down as needed.

I'm not counting render times either and DVD production is a snap with multiple burners.

I just couldn't afford the time to edit three cameras at a 1hr:1min ratio!

Posted 6 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

Without a doubt styles could make a huge difference.

Just like anything else, I really believe that with more experience, one can get more efficient at editing.

I don't know about you or anybody else for that matter but my biggest problem is just coming up with that special unique scheme when creating an edited piece. IÂ’ll sit there pondering and staring for the longest time while attempting to come up with something totally new and different. I guess I donÂ’t like making things look the same. ThatÂ’s probably not the smartest or most efficient thing to do but somehow it always gets done in the end and it looks pretty nice. Once I have a scheme or theme going the physically editing actually goes pretty quick.

RAM

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

During the wedding season, we do four to six weddings a month. There is no way I can come up with something new on every wedding. I try not to make them all "cookie-cutter" template type wedding videos, but the fact is that there are certain scenes and themes that work well.

No bride has seen all our other wedding videos, so she isn't going to mind that they may all share similarities. A certain uniqueness seems to come out of each one, due to their individual differences, but I can't take much credit for that. As much as I dislike the "template" moniker, if it walks like a duck...

My hat's off to you if you can really wring unique, effective and appropriate styles out of each wedding.

Posted 6 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

Actually Hank, I don't do as many weddings as you do a month so I have a little more time available to spend in the bay. This is more of a passion for me and not a full time job so I don't really need to push myself. If it was, I think that I would have to change my ways and do the same thing you are doing because I would find myself falling WAY behind too much.

RAM

Posted 6 years ago #
kkmac
Member

I feel like I'm seriously underpaid for my work. I don't live in a big metropolitan area so business is not quite the same. I live in a city but demand is not great. No one in this area would ever pay big bucks for my services, even though everyone that sees my work loves it. I am self taught (no degree) so its VERY hard for me to move to a city that has the demand or work for a company doing this line of work.

I charge $24/hour per camera for filming and $18/hour for editing. I estimate editing to about 5 times the length of all the content. A 1 hour show filmed with 2 cameras = 2 hours of content = 10 hours of editing. Thats just for estimating. DVD authoring is also charged its seperate fee. Still a small rate. $25 authoring fee plus $0.25 per minute of video. Included with this fee is 1 menu with 6 buttons and 6 chapter marks. Anything more is extra.

I do feel like I should be charging more, especially as I get more and more jobs and my reputation grows. I can honestly say that I had more work back when I did charge less. I'm not going to lower my rate just to get the work. I know that there really isn't many companies in this area doing what I do. People are happy with friends filming their stuff for them for free. It really sucks for me but thats how it is here.

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

No one in this area would ever pay big bucks for my services

The truth is, no one's likely to pay more than you think you're worth. Somehow, your own self valuation finds its way to the surface.

I don't think anyone (in the wedding video business) is in a more remote location than I am (an hour from the nearest Walmart), nor in a poorer area. And it does affect rates, that's true. But I book $1000 weddings all the time. Booked one for July just today. The same package would go for three grand in Dallas, but then I don't have those big marketing expenses either.

If your work is truly good, then maybe you need to work on marketing (and possibly confidence). Have you ever thought that you might be losing business because some people may think (because of your low prices) that you can't be good, so they don't even waste time asking for a demo video?

Have you done a marketing study? Do you know who your competition is? Do you need to expand your coverage area? I know gas is high, but if instead of four hundred dollars for a local wedding, wouldn't it be worth an hour's drive to get to a $1000 wedding? We drive two to four hours to do weddings, all the time.

Posted 6 years ago #