How do you charge for filming cinematic footage?

[Torchbearer]

Hey guys -

I just had my first commercial gig on Friday night. I did some FPV filming for a company and it turned out really well

I wanted to ask how you would normally charge for these types of jobs

I'm thinking I'd need to charge an hourly rate for being out filming, but what comes after that?

I edited their footage and put together a 3.5 minute video - should the video editing time be included in the hourly rate?

I also gave them access to all the raw footage to make their own reels. It seems that should be included in the hourly.

Is there anything else I should be thinking of?

 

[BigAl07]

Pricing YOUR work, YOUR time, YOUR expenses is something only YOU can do. Market variables, work flow variables, Cost Of Doing Business variables.

I would suggest you develop a strong and comprehensive Business Plan before you do anything else. During this process you'll learn COBD (this is a MUST if you want to be a business and not a paying hobby), learn about your competition in your area, learn about marketing your business, and by the end you'll have a very good idea how much you NEED to charge as well as a good idea how much you CAN charge.

In estimating a project you need to have an idea of:

1) How much prep/planning time you'll have invest.
2) Will you need to visit the site prior to the date/time for Safety Evaluation?
3) How much time on-site (not just flying but on site)?
4) How much time traveling too/from the site?
5) How much time in Post Processing?
6) Any time/cost involved in delivering the finished product (thumbdrive etc)?
7) What about cost of Insurance? Registration? Subscriptions?
8) Equipment costs (initial, ongoing, maintenance, replacement etc)?

Then what about pure overhead: Accounting? Marketing?

 

[MapMaker53]

BigAl07 is obviously an expert when it comes to business plans. I would simply add that I would separate out any Post-Processing as an add-on option for an additional cost to the client should they desire that. Otherwise, you would simply provide the client with the raw footage and photos which the hourly rate would cover. I find that the post-production work can take many more hours than the flying part of the work depending on the size of the job and deliverable.

 

[BigAl07]

..... I find that the post-production work can take many more hours than the flying part of the work depending on the size of the job and deliverable.

That's a FACT!! For a good product of high quality we can spend a TON of time in Post Processing and that costs $$. If I'm editing video for you I'm not flying so I get paid either way lol.

Some clients are shocked when I estimate the final cost of a project simply because they only see us on-site for an hour or so.

As a side note, it's very RARE I'll give up my unedited anything. I got burned one time several years ago. The client was going to have her "nephew" put together the final project to highlight her "working" farm. I gave her the raw video clips (all my photos are edited in house period, but we have that down to a quick process now) and a couple months later I saw the "finished product". I was appalled it looked like Stevie Wonder had edited it. All of the video clips were dropped into it UNEDITED just from clip to clip with cheesy transitions. NOTHING was cut out and it was beyond clunky. The only good aspect was that my name wasn't attached to that project at all so, hopefully, no one knows I was even connected to that disaster LOL.

 

[Torchbearer]

Pricing YOUR work, YOUR time, YOUR expenses is something only YOU can do. Market variables, work flow variables, Cost Of Doing Business variables.

I would suggest you develop a strong and comprehensive Business Plan before you do anything else. During this process you'll learn COBD (this is a MUST if you want to be a business and not a paying hobby), learn about your competition in your area, learn about marketing your business, and by the end you'll have a very good idea how much you NEED to charge as well as a good idea how much you CAN charge.

In estimating a project you need to have an idea of:

1) How much prep/planning time you'll have invest.
2) Will you need to visit the site prior to the date/time for Safety Evaluation?
3) How much time on-site (not just flying but on site)?
4) How much time traveling too/from the site?
5) How much time in Post Processing?
6) Any time/cost involved in delivering the finished product (thumbdrive etc)?
7) What about cost of Insurance? Registration? Subscriptions?
8) Equipment costs (initial, ongoing, maintenance, replacement etc)?

Then what about pure overhead: Accounting? Marketing?

This is great. I have a spreadsheet going to try to track everything from subscriptions, initial, & recurring costs, etc. that I'm expecting

I've started figuring out the accounting, researching how ill do the bookkeeping.

I've given some thought to marketing ideas, but getting this stuff all written out in a business plan is a great idea

 

[Torchbearer]

BigAl07 is obviously an expert when it comes to business plans. I would simply add that I would separate out any Post-Processing as an add-on option for an additional cost to the client should they desire that. Otherwise, you would simply provide the client with the raw footage and photos which the hourly rate would cover. I find that the post-production work can take many more hours than the flying part of the work depending on the size of the job and deliverable.

For sure. The flying took me 2 hours including the drive to and from. The editing and uploading was about double that.

That is exactly what prompted me to ask about this

That makes sense to add it as an add-on option. I had read somewhere else that people don't like to give out their raw footage but wasn't sure why. Looks like BigAl told us the reason ha

 

[Torchbearer]

That's a FACT!! For a good product of high quality we can spend a TON of time in Post Processing and that costs $$. If I'm editing video for you I'm not flying so I get paid either way lol.

Some clients are shocked when I estimate the final cost of a project simply because they only see us on-site for an hour or so.

As a side note, it's very RARE I'll give up my unedited anything. I got burned one time several years ago. The client was going to have her "nephew" put together the final project to highlight her "working" farm. I gave her the raw video clips (all my photos are edited in house period, but we have that down to a quick process now) and a couple months later I saw the "finished product". I was appalled it looked like Stevie Wonder had edited it. All of the video clips were dropped into it UNEDITED just from clip to clip with cheesy transitions. NOTHING was cut out and it was beyond clunky. The only good aspect was that my name wasn't attached to that project at all so, hopefully, no one knows I was even connected to that disaster LOL.

Haha yes! I've heard that giving out the raw footage or photos was something a lot of people won't do

So you would charge a market-appropriate hourly rate, and the only option for the customer would be to pay the hourly rate for filming AND post-production work

That makes sense to me, I didn't even think about them posting their less-than-spectacular edits and attaching your name to it, possibly costing you future business

 

[BigAl07]

.......
So you would charge a market-appropriate hourly rate, and the only option for the customer would be to pay the hourly rate for filming AND post-production work

........

Yes we charge our same hourly rate for editing as we do for flying.... if we're busy editing we aren't able to fly. Also, we charge a similar rate for traveling again for the same reasons. Time is $$.

 

[Torchbearer]

Another reason I was thinking selling the raw footage may be a good idea is because I'm unsure about copyright laws for the music side of the videos

Did you sign up for a copyright free audio service for the editing you do?

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I have only given out raw footage once, to a charity outfit that was doing a fundraising video. They had a professional film crew doing the ground shots and interviews as well as the editing so I was comfortable letting them edit. It also saved them money for just my time onsite and they were very pleased with the results.

 

[skiptv]

Without all the 'how to do this and how to dot that' Here is the answer to your question. I base this on 25 years of professional TV/Film Production and 13 years of Drone TV / Film Production. Flat rate your shoot. $350 to $500 half day, doesn't matter if it takes you an hour or 5 which is a half day, $750 to $1000, for anything over 5 hours. Editing a Project well the rates is between $350 to $500 for the first 90 seconds and then $50 per minute after that. That is the industry standard. Forget charging for travel, you are an independent producer, travel is on you. If you want to build it into your price, do that, but dont separate it out. Start high in all your pricing. One last thing, clients always think they are producers, once you send them a finish project they will watch it 100 times, then come back with 100 changes, I will change an error for free, but any creative changes cost them $half the rate I charged for the original edit. If they hire you to film, they own the raw footage.

 

[dangerd]

For sure. The flying took me 2 hours including the drive to and from. The editing and uploading was about double that.

That is exactly what prompted me to ask about this

That makes sense to add it as an add-on option. I had read somewhere else that people don't like to give out their raw footage but wasn't sure why. Looks like BigAl told us the reason ha

As a photographer, you always retain the rights to what you shoot. You can sell the raw video to the client if you want, or you can license it per use, or perpetually, however you like. Like. Unless you sign away your rights to the footage, you always own it and can license it to whomever you like in the future.

 

[LeeB]

One more thought on this. Don't forget to figure your ground crew in your pricing. They need to get to the site and be paid for their participation.

 

[WildDoktor]

Without all the 'how to do this and how to dot that' Here is the answer to your question. I base this on 25 years of professional TV/Film Production and 13 years of Drone TV / Film Production. Flat rate your shoot. $350 to $500 half day, doesn't matter if it takes you an hour or 5 which is a half day, $750 to $1000, for anything over 5 hours. Editing a Project well the rates is between $350 to $500 for the first 90 seconds and then $50 per minute after that. That is the industry standard. Forget charging for travel, you are an independent producer, travel is on you. If you want to build it into your price, do that, but dont separate it out. Start high in all your pricing. One last thing, clients always think they are producers, once you send them a finish project they will watch it 100 times, then come back with 100 changes, I will change an error for free, but any creative changes cost them $half the rate I charged for the original edit. If they hire you to film, they own the raw footage.

Not discounting all the other replies here; I like them too!

But I do admit that I'm curious about this approach; I've seen it mentioned several times but I've not found as thorough or simple and explanation as yours, @skiptv, so thank you for this!

A few questions:

- I'm guessing the flat rate here includes *everything* that happens from when you step onto location: meeting with the client, walking the property, educating and choreographing actors, delays caused by waiting on others, weather, etc?
- "$750 to $1000, for anything over 5 hours", up to how many hours in a "day" legally?
- "If they hire you to film, they own the raw footage." My research says if I shoot it, I own the copyright, unless I'm a W2 employee (USA). Transferring copyright to another party seems to be a long, cumbersome process. How do you handle this? (Maybe your statement was an over-simplification so you didn't have to get into the details.)

Thanks!

 

[glsander]

I have only given out raw footage once, to a charity outfit that was doing a fundraising video. They had a professional film crew doing the ground shots and interviews as well as the editing so I was comfortable letting them edit. It also saved them money for just my time onsite and they were very pleased with the results.

My organisation does aerial damage assessments via drone and manned aircraft. We have the pricing down for the mapping exercises. We now have a client that wants to download the imagery and own the rights to the photos. I am trying to find a pricing model for image downloading rights. We are mapping large areas of land. Do you have any advise on pricing or can you point me in the right direction?

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

My organisation does aerial damage assessments via drone and manned aircraft. We have the pricing down for the mapping exercises. We now have a client that wants to download the imagery and own the rights to the photos. I am trying to find a pricing model for image downloading rights. We are mapping large areas of land. Do you have any advise on pricing or can you point me in the right direction?

For footage only, I usually charge a half day or a day rate depending on the deliverable resolution, airspace requirements, insurance requirements etc...Mapping is a different animal since the deliverables involved are a bit different. If your client is taking care of the data and you're just involved in the flight, I would base your price on the time (and amount of batteries) it takes to fly the mission and a standard price for setting up the mapping mission in your selected software. Guys that do mapping probably have much better ideas than I would since I usually only shoot video footage. Of course location also plays into pricing as well.

 

[vsasolutions]

Hey guys -

I just had my first commercial gig on Friday night. I did some FPV filming for a company and it turned out really well

I wanted to ask how you would normally charge for these types of jobs

I'm thinking I'd need to charge an hourly rate for being out filming, but what comes after that?

I edited their footage and put together a 3.5 minute video - should the video editing time be included in the hourly rate?

I also gave them access to all the raw footage to make their own reels. It seems that should be included in the hourly.

Is there anything else I should be thinking of?

I bill hourly for my time. If client wants the unedited footage and it is something I could sell for stock footage without a release, I will charge an add on fee. Post production, charge by the minute of edited video (rates are different based on editing done i.e. am I just splicing clips together, am I color grading, am I adding voiceovers, am I adding graphics to the video). Keep your billing model simple and use it as a guide. Each bid should be custom based on deliverables and challenges.

 

[Veuwr Aerials]

I would never show my clients the RAW footage - the one time I did I was also incredibly embarrassed of what they created. It's like non creative people don't care about cutting out the bad parts