Video Production Pricing Question
Tim Wuolle
Broadcast Media Professional-Available for Freelance
I was approached to do freelance work on a government project. The want me to shoot and edit using all of my own equipment. I’m using wireless mics, lights, Sony NX5U HD cam, and FCP to edit on my mac. The want me to give them an hourly rate pus a day rate. There is also travel involved. (flight) I want to charge the going rate. Also, what travel expenses should be included? Any help would be great. Thanks!
Tim Wilson • There’s only one way to figure out what to charge: figure out how much your services cost to provide, and charge more than that.
“The going rate” has nothing to do with it. Neither does your level of experience or the kind of client. If you can’t make more than you spend, change your expenses, change your rate, or find another job.
I hate to sound harsh, but the only way for any business to survive is to make more than you spend.
Some thoughts:
1) If you’re a freelancer getting paid hourly, you’ll never get paid for every hour. Standing in line at the bank, writing invoices, cleaning your desk, talking on the phone, etc. etc. – you’ll be lucky to actually bill half the hours in a week.
2) Which is why I agree that half-day rates are more trouble than they’re worth. Besides, once you count up winding down what you’re working on, loading your stuff in the car, setting up, tearing down, traveling back — your half day shoot is 2 hours MAX. If the client expects a 4-hour shoot to equal half a day, that’s nuts. It costs you more like six hours, even if you’re just driving across town.
3) On to the real math. Count up your actual costs for everything – work-related car expenses, liability insurance, consumables (disks, tapes, light bulbs, etc.), phone bills, electricity…
…and then food, health insurance, life insurance, your car, your house, your kids, TV, movies, clothes.
Now, take all of that, and divide it by 20 hrs/wk, which is the number of hours that you should assume to be safe.
Let’s get THEORETICAL. If it costs $50,000 to do all that, and you want to work 50 wks/yr, you need $1000/wk to meet my target. 1000/20 hrs = $50/hr. To break even.
Now add up how often you want to refresh your gear. A new computer every x years, new software, new chair, whatever. That’s another $5-10/hr.
Oops, taxes. If you need $60/hr just to cover your expenses, you need to add another 25-30% to cover your nut – you’re now looking at $75-80/hr.
Want to put anything in savings? IRA? Better to start when you’re young. If you want to set aside 10% of your income, you’re now looking $80-90/hr in the face.
That’s why I say that experience, client, the going rate mean nothing. At the end of the day, no matter what your career, your actual job is making more than you spend.
Now, if you’re in a position where the going rate is a hard ceiling…and it might be…do all of that math in reverse. Can you make a living at the going rate? It’s easy math.
On to the specifics of the original question: government work is tough to budget for. My primary clients as a producer were NOAA, Everglades National Park, and EPA. I charged them differently for a long-term contract than I did the state police for a one-off.
I had a colleague who was a civilian contractor for DoD – he made as much for one job as I made in a year. If either of us had pitched the other’s client with the rates we’d originally charged our own clients, we’d both have been laughed out of the room.
If you can’t ask the budget up front, or it’s one of those “you tell ME the budget, and I’ll get the money allocated” kind of deals, then do the math I talked about earlier in this post. If the job is rock-solid for more than 20 hrs/week, adjust accordingly.
In any case, it’s your job to figure out how much it costs you to stay in business. Charge more than that.
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