What should I charge?

[Anonymous]

Hey Everybody, I have been doing weddings for sometime but now I am being asked to do some light commercial work and I’m not sure what to charge.

I have a small retail company that would like to do a 3-5 minute info video for their website. I would do all of theproduction,voice-over and editing. Are any of you doing this type of thing, and what is a fair rate for me to charge?

Thanks,

Mark

[Anonymous]

The price would vary depending on the equipment you are using and your skill level. If you are able to present a professional looking commercial, I would try any where between 20 and 30 dollars/hour.

Jeremy

[Anonymous]

WOW, that sounds REALLY Cheap. Is everyone out there working for only 20-30 per hour? I was expecting to hear something like $800-1200 per finished minute of video…. Am I dreaming?

Andyes, I will be usingprofessional equipment and will produce a professional quality video.

[Anonymous]

um… yeah…. that’s a bit much. You have to determine what your time is worth, and I wouldn’t base it on finished minutes, but how long it takes to produce those 3-5 minutes of video. Back in the old days when I produced local commercials, I would charge $150 for a 30 second spot,but that was way back….. now for a 3 – 5 minute video, a few hours of editing, a few hours of consulting with client, a few hours of script writing and revisions…. i’d probably go for about $400, but that’s me, I don’t know where you live, your market conditions….

[Aspyrider]

Something like that, on a local level. $400 – $600 probably. I charge $60.00 per hour for print and web work. That is what this market will be used to.

[Rob]

Dumb question from a dumb student: What’s print? You mean exporting out to tape, DVD, or something of that nature?

[Aspyrider]

I do graphics and web work along with Video, $60.00 an hour. I base my video work on the time spent to make it and what all is involved.

[Anonymous]

If you are a professional video artist, you should at least cover your costs.

Any amount in addition to that is just gravy or icing on the cake, so to speak.

Figure out how much it costs you to produce the video, the DVDsand/or the posting of it on theInternet, and thenaddtheamount of how much time yourtalent is worth hourly.

Don’t overestimate your own value of your talents or self-esteem.

[Anonymous]

What I did once, just out of curousity, was call our local cable company and asked what they would charge. A basic 30 sec spot was about $500, but, with full production, scripting, etc.

[faqvideo]

I agree with CVP and totally disagree with John Crawford. You should consider your local market. Try to find out how much customers are used to pay in your market, and price accordingly. If you are not well established, discount is an option. But dumping the market price is a disservice to your colleagues, and first of all to yourself in the future.

Any book on how to start your business advices not to use “calculate your cost and add a margin” scheme. Go backwards, starting from the market price, take out your production costs, that’s how you’ll get your margin.

Shoot-It-Yourself Wedding Video

[Grinner Hester]

I’d start by throwing books about the video business away.

You’ll bid a wedding based on your time. You know what your worth by the hour, right? Multiply that by how long your gonna be on this, including post. You’ll get better at calculating this as you go. Taking one on the chin is a great learning experience.

A flat $1k is a fine price to start out with in doing weddings. They’ll be paying the photog more than that and wont get to enjoy a montage. You’ll be learning as you go and can charge more later.

[Author]

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