HOW MUCH SHOULD I CHARGE FOR A MUSIC VIDEO

[gniklaw]

Hi
I shot a couple of music videos for an artist that I’m working with to sharpen my video making skills and now I’m getting calls from other artist to shoot their videos and I don’t know where to start as far as formulating a fair price for all parties involved.

Please Help

[matjusm]

This is like asking "how much does it cost to make a film" because the answer can be pretty much anything. I’m no expert on the subject but I do know that prices vary from about 10$ that your next door neighbor might pay you all the way to 1 million $ for the next Britney Spears clip.

[Endeavor]

HOW MUCH SHOULD I CHARGE FOR A MUSIC VIDEO

How much can you get?

[gniklaw]

matjusm Wrote:

This is like asking "how much does it cost to make a film" because the answer can be pretty much anything. I’m no expert on the subject but I do know that prices vary from about 10$ that your next door neighbor might pay you all the way to 1 million $ for the next Britney Spears clip.

Yea I know theres so many variables thats why I’m having such a hard time with this because most of my clients would be independent artist who don’t have a lot of money but at the same time I’ve done 3 videos and I know that there’s alot of work involved with making a good music video. How do you come up with a price? Do you charge by the hour for shooting, editing and so on or do you come with different packages like a $1000, $3000 or $5000 package. I would love to do this so I can buy more equipment but I want to give people a fair price that won’t scare them away but at the same time be worth my time and effort.

I’m very skilled in Vegas video
I shoot my videos with a Canon Gl2
I have a nice floor to ceiling green screen setup in my basement 9X12 with lights

How much should that be worth to someone who wants me to shoot their video?

[Anonymous]

If I’m having trouble figuring out how much to quote someone for an event, I’ll typically charge an hourly rate, which would be the same from preproduction all the way through post. For example, for one video I just did, I told the gentleman up front that we run $100/hr, with everything included, and I guessed it would be about 10 hours work (3 hours on location, 7 in post). It turned out to be about 9-1/2 hours work.

Just remember, if you give someone an hourly quote and you’re way off the mark, they won’t be happy. If you quote a project at 20 hours and it takes 40, you’re almost better off explaining the extra time, and offering to compromise, than to try and demand all the extra. In fact, if your quote is in writing, some states have laws that will require you to honor your quote, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. To that measure, some video producers will write into their contracts that extra charges may be incurred above and beyond quotes, but I get really nervous about that stuff. If I tell someone that a project will cost them $500, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I wound up charging them $1000. But that’s just me.

[birdcat]

You could always offer it in trade for a percentage of revenue plus your actual costs. It’s a gamble but if they ever make it, who knows????

[worb]

Well since youve done three, you should have a pretty good ideal on the time it will take to make one. Let the group view the three youve made and tell them that you should be able to do this with x hours of recording time and x hours of editing and getting a finished project out the door and quote them your hourly rate. As on a roll pointed out they will be fine with it unless it goes way over. Whats way over? Usually a 10% overage is acceptable. Since you are just starting out, I would not charge any overage just to keep getting your feet wet and more name recognition.

[gniklaw]

Thanks for your replys.

[mwickham_1]

sounds like your just getting into this and the people that want you to do the video do not have a lot of money either.

I might suggest you find some equipment you want and of course the materials like tapes DVD etc and charge that till you get some experience. Then after you have done 3 or 4 then you might have a feel for what you can charge.
Michael

[Author]

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