How much to charge

Electromen wrote on 4/30/2004, 10:11 AM

The question of how much to charge for video work was asked here before. I made the comment "What are people willing to pay". I just left a builders office with a copy of a video he had made by a local television station. This is the second version in two years and he has paid a total of $30,000 US dollars. $5,000 was for the helicopter alone.

You can bet the station did not base their pricing on time & material, but a package price.

$30,000 for a company grossing $18,000,000 per year is still a lot of money. But he said the video paid itself off in increased sales.

My point is, working by the hour is one way to go, package pricing can be more profitable in the long run. "What are people willing to pay?"

Comments

shmoopyd wrote on 5/2/2004, 10:53 PM

This is a difficult question...one I have also wrestled with.
i have done some for friends and family that I have spent 30 hours on and charged 150 $
Other corporate, instructionals I have charged 5-6000 for.
I usually ask them what thier budget is and what they expect for that amount.Also what is your level of delivering what they want.
If they want a helicopter shot then they have to cover that expense.
I know De Havalind spent about 50.000 on a vid and got the rights to a Steve Miller song.
If you are using Video Factory you can't charge what the big companies charge.
I usually go with 300 a day filming, and 50 per hour editting for big corporations.
Regular people for birthdays, anniversarys etc, ..150- 300 to film stills and do a 15 min video.
It depends of what kind of project you are doing...are you converting old super 8 ......authoring DVDs?
Deb