It all depend on maaaaany factors. When i shoot low budget $5000 music video i know i can't afford to pay more to my editor then $500. If it's $10,000 production then it's $1000. I know the editors know that my videos always look good so besides money they will also get another great piece for their reel so they don't mind low rate (or so i think).

Rates vary depending on locale so you should try to get the rates from locals or from areas with similar markets.

If you don't have a way to make local comparisons then I'd try to budget your rate into a year-long estimate. What are your yearly expenses? What would you like to net, and what is reasonable given your experience? And then, how much can you really work?

Hours-wise, this looks like a minimum of 5 days of time, or one work week. If the jobs were available, could you really have one per week? Would you need time in between for promotion, book keeping, system maintenance, etc? Could you get separate clients to actually take the time you have available? What happens when they all want you to edit in the same week?

When I worked as a freelance grip/electric I found that I could book 10-15 days of work/month and then almost all additional calls would be for days I'd already booked. It's not exactly the same for editors because their time is a little more flexible, but it's similar.

Rob Mack

Thanks for the replies,Sorry i should have said this isnt my proffesion (but im very good at it) and it was a one off job that i wanted to get a rough idea how much to charge the person.
cheers

I generally charge 50 bux an hour to edit. If I'm doing something that I've not ever done before, then I discount that to 35/hr for a job that I'm unfamiliar with (IE doing something I've not done before that I have to spend time figuring out how to do as I go).

Dave