Advice on charging on a unique drone shoot

[cascadedroneguy]

Hey fellow droners -
I couldn't post in the gigs forum due to insufficient privileges, so here I am. I have been contacted by a modular home delivery company that would like me to shoot aerial videos of the delivery and offloading of this home on a remote island. It will be a day-long event and I would be accompanying them over on the barge and riding along to the delivery site. I've checked the airspace and it is clear. I would have little in the way of travel expenses, as the departure point of the barge is less than an hour from my location. Being that I will be there the whole day, I figured I'd charge a day rate of $500 and not charge for individual videos. They don't want any special post-processing either, so there won't be a much in the way of editing required.
Am I underselling? Thoughts?

 

[Gagey52]

Greetings mate, only you can answer your question. What is your time worth, what are the costs of operating your drone etc etc. if you have an accountant, I’d be asking him/her to assist with costing your jobs.
Regards

 

[MapMaker53]

You may be selling yourself short. Let's examine the job. How many hours do you think the entire job will be? Nothing goes exactly as planned, so instead of thinking it will be an 8 hour day for you, I would bump that to 10 hours. That will make it a $50/hr job. Will there be any unexpected risks to your drone? I'm guessing, if they are transporting these modules by barge, it may be something they are going to ask you to film. If so, you will be physically riding on the barge yourself, which will require a barge takeoff/landing and flying over water while you film a minute's worth of the barge en route. You will also need to do a few hours of upfront work, including charging your equipment, caching the aerial imagery, etc. Don't get me wrong... sounds like a fun gig. But try to take everything into account that could push the level of work a bit higher than anticipated. You should get the exact details of what they expect to be filmed before committing to a price. Good luck and have fun.

 

[azuretrails]

Hey fellow droners -
I couldn't post in the gigs forum due to insufficient privileges, so here I am. I have been contacted by a modular home delivery company that would like me to shoot aerial videos of the delivery and offloading of this home on a remote island. It will be a day-long event and I would be accompanying them over on the barge and riding along to the delivery site. I've checked the airspace and it is clear. I would have little in the way of travel expenses, as the departure point of the barge is less than an hour from my location. Being that I will be there the whole day, I figured I'd charge a day rate of $500 and not charge for individual videos. They don't want any special post-processing either, so there won't be a much in the way of editing required.
Am I underselling? Thoughts?

Hey Mike,

I had similar asks from companies in the area when I used to run Seattle UAS (like boat delivery and launch, employee events, etc.) Working it at an hourly rate with mileage to/from and any additional for a VO, addt’l pilot, etc. almost always worked out better for us. We did require 50% down as I hate to say it, but there are some shady people out in the area who won’t remit when the job finishes. (Realty agents, Boy Scout troop leaders, AirBNB hosts, you know who you are…) Anyway hope that helps you structure what works best for you.

 

[JimD]

100/hr is my rate, and I’m fine with not doing the gig. You may not be.

 

[KLAX]

LMAO, sorry, thought you were trying to figure out how to charge BATTERIES on a unique drone shoot. Made myself chuckle. Ok carry on...nothing to see here.
You went to Google Headline Writing school didn't you...

 

[Arnold LeVine]

Underselling. IMHO, double it. And charge for travel back and forth. Parking costs? Meals all day?
Get it in writing that they just want raw footage, and how much extra editing costs, as you don't want to find out too late they "just want a little edited video" "It'll only take you a few minutes". "thats nice, but could you just do .-.-..-..-..-..?" etc. etc.
And a deposit upfront. And what if weather or they change/postpone the date?
Maybe I've gotten cranky over the years, but "Trust but verify"

 

[dfly]

Underselling. IMHO, double it. And charge for travel back and forth. Parking costs? Meals all day?
Get it in writing that they just want raw footage, and how much extra editing costs, as you don't want to find out too late they "just want a little edited video" "It'll only take you a few minutes". "thats nice, but could you just do .-.-..-..-..-..?" etc. etc.
And a deposit upfront. And what if weather or they change/postpone the date?
Maybe I've gotten cranky over the years, but "Trust but verify"

What he said!

 

[cascadedroneguy]

You may be selling yourself short. Let's examine the job. How many hours do you think the entire job will be? Nothing goes exactly as planned, so instead of thinking it will be an 8 hour day for you, I would bump that to 10 hours. That will make it a $50/hr job. Will there be any unexpected risks to your drone? I'm guessing, if they are transporting these modules by barge, it may be something they are going to ask you to film. If so, you will be physically riding on the barge yourself, which will require a barge takeoff/landing and flying over water while you film a minute's worth of the barge en route. You will also need to do a few hours of upfront work, including charging your equipment, caching the aerial imagery, etc. Don't get me wrong... sounds like a fun gig. But try to take everything into account that could push the level of work a bit higher than anticipated. You should get the exact details of what they expect to be filmed before committing to a price. Good luck and have fun.

Thank you for those points to ponder! Good info.

 

[cascadedroneguy]

LMAO, sorry, thought you were trying to figure out how to charge BATTERIES on a unique drone shoot. Made myself chuckle. Ok carry on...nothing to see here.
You went to Google Headline Writing school didn't you...

I will admit, my headline could have been more clear.