OT: Pricing for a 10-minute Broadcast commercial?

ken c wrote on 5/8/2008, 6:11 AM

Hi --

For any of you who work w/broadcast news teams, or professional video infomercial production shops, a quick question:

What would it cost to hire a video production company to:
a) write the script
b) develop the storyboard
c) create motion gfx bumpers/flyin logos
d) locate/source royalty free clips
e) do all the video editing

for a 10-minute near-broadcast quality long-form commercial/infomercial?

I'm asking, because I'm working with a partner, and am creating one myself, using Vegas, and we need to figure out how much I should get paid, based on industry standard scale, for this type of work. It has a lot of motion gfx, using AE/C4d plus vegas titles and rf video clips etc... Total time I've worked on it is easily over 200+ hours so far, will likely have logged 250 hours by the time it's done.

thanks!

-k

Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/8/2008, 8:03 AM

There is no one answer. Too many variables involved, many growing out how simple or complex the script is--very difficult to budget a project without a finished script and/or storyboards. The market you're in, too, plays a big part.

BTW, what is "near-broadcast quality"?

Some companies would charge $50,000, but that includes some basic air time, aslo.

Coursedesign wrote on 5/8/2008, 8:19 AM

I have seen internal costs of $250,000 for a 30 minute Guthy-Renker (leading provider) infomercial, like for the usual kitchen gadgets, etc.

This includes also the carnival barker, er, talent.

johnmeyer wrote on 5/8/2008, 10:33 AM

I'm sure you have Googled this. I just Googled "infomercial production cost" and got this:

infomercial production cost

The first link:

Average Cost of an Infomercial

has a really nifty table:

ken c wrote on 5/8/2008, 10:56 AM

Thanks - great ideas from everyone; I appreciate it. Typical infomercials are 28.5 mins long, so perhaps the table's rates would be cut by a part for shorter length (though w/inflation since '03 to '08, it gets factored in)... that's a big help!

-k