I charged her 2hundred for the whole dang thing, but that whole dang thing has evolved into many sub things! She is a very famous voice over artist, so I dont want to screw it up. I'm cheap now. That was the understanding. I guess I should just do my best and hope for the best. She even made mention to the fact that I'm doing much more then we talked about, and wanted to compensate me as such. I just dont know how much to ask for? Or demand. No biggie.

Well if you are charging $200 for the whole thing, then you are going to have a hard time asking the going rate for a three minute encode for a client review. If you encode a three minute segment from the timeline that you have finished, that should take no longer than 15 minutes. 5 Minutes for upload. Less than a half hour is invovled. You could ask for a half hour of your normal bay rate, but in all honesty, it is normally a given that there will be client review dubs or such for review or palm pressing.

On a full card rate gig, I expect machine and tape charges for client review dubs. On a lump sum gig I expect the review materials to be covered.

All that said, play it right. Only be willing to give her a section of stuff that you are ready for review on, then suck it up and eat the half hour. Next time, build it in to your lump sum. I normally expect three such deliverables. I also put that in my contracts.

JMHO

Keith

She even made mention to the fact that I'm doing much more then we talked about, and wanted to compensate me as such.

Let HER come up with the extra amount. You may request $100 - she may offer $500!

FWIW...

As far as I know common practice is to do something low quality &/or low frame rate to make sure it can't be used as is (but without any watermark thing). I *think* this is part of the package (built into charges) with some facilities/studios/shops etc., and so there might not be a lot if any extra involved, though doesn't hurt to ask. At any rate, as a look see sort of thing it shouldn't take a bunch of time to encode a few minutes, much less then half an hour + whatever render time for FX anyway to do it lower quality, and the client should only be looking for concept stuff anyway.

BTW, quality encoding can cost clients a bunch (more then your project for 1 minute's worth). Check out a recent post about rates in the relevant forum at dv.com. Just because it might seem easy, no need for anyone to give away income.

a couple o thoughts from someone who's been playing the game for a long time.

1. you'll never make enough from any single job to retire - that said, it's return business that builds a career.
2. since your client seems friendly, I'd "price condition" her with a statement like, "the going rate for this conversion is based on $125 per hour, and I think it would take 3 hours.) ALWAYS estimate more than you really think. No job ever gets done within the original estimate.
3. having given her the ground rules - if you cherish her business (which means that doing business with her has not been a nightmare, or actually been pleasant) - put the ball in her court - what can you afford to pay?

Then do the job, and do it to the best of your ability, whether it's for rate card, or it's for free.

v.

I am not in the business. It is just plain good sense.

If she is famous and friendly and if she likes your work, don't charge her extra money, but ask her to make YOU famous. Ask her to pay you the extra requests with publicity to your name and work. Ask her to mention you in *her* website and whenever she talks about her image. Ask her to give you work (and get credit) in her next album or clip.

It will pay you back, much more that the 50 or 100 you could charge for the extra work. And it may even bring you extra customers from the trade.