Weddings and other events

[rbruner2]

This is a question out of curiousity. After I get good at my video editing skills, I thought I could take advantage of that and perhaps have a side "business" of shooting weddings and editing them for people.

My question is: Is there anyone here who has done, or does this kind of thing, and if so, what are some common things to offer, prices, etc.

For example, I figured you could break down a price schedule as follows: (the prices shown are merely illustrative...I would like to know what reasonable numbers would be)

* Videotape the wedding/pictures $150
* Videotape the reception $150
* Videotape the rehearsal $150
* Edit video into "movie" $50/hour of footage
* Video provided on VHS tape $25
* Video provided in VCD format $75
* Video provided in SVCD format $100
Okay, then you have prices accordingly. So, you would charge them just for the time you spent for the first three points individually. This way a person could decide how much they actually wanted to pay for to have recorded. Also, if they just want the raw footage, they don't have to pay extra for editing. But if they want transitions, titles, etc., added, they would pay extra for that.

Then, they pay for each type of format they would want.
So, for example, if someone then said they wanted to have the wedding and reception taped, edited into a movie, and in VCD format, they would pay:

$150 + $150 + ($50 * 3 hours) + $75 = $525.

So, what input can anyone offer to this?

[TIbrO]

Sounds like a plan! I'd actually find this sort of thing fun, too. I love to film stuff and then edit it. Those prices sound kinda high, but who knows. There is a video shop around here that will do conversions from any camcorder format to VHS, and they charge you $50 for the transfer, regardless of the length. However they do not edit it or put transitions or anything... they don't even offer it. So, since the kind of thing you're doing is so demanding of your own resources, you should be able to charge those prices. You would have to get more than one computer to do all of these conversions to VCD and stuff. What if you start your business and then you get like3 weedings in one week? You would have to like not use your computer for anything else bu quick captures, real quick editing, and then encoding, which is imposible to make quick. This sounds like the type of thing a group of friends would launch, or a single person that has lots of capital to begin with.

[Tommy]

I guess it depends where you are but, I've seen prices around that amount here.

Good luck

[thxkid]

Sounds high also unless you are going to use 3/4 inch video tape or Betacam and a grass valley switcher with professional edits, but bring it back down to earth you are either gonna use a DV Cam, Hi8mm Cam, SVHS Cam this use Adobe or Ulead to edit your video down to VCD or tape, print out nice professional looking labels, no markers please.
Basically thats what I am doing this weekend taping a wedding using a Hi8mm cam, editing onto computer use Ulead Media pro 9.0 with HollywoodFX Professional transitions, edit down to one VHS EHG tape and 2 VCD's with very nice looking Labels on covers and CD-R's.

Price $400.
Then again I was begged to do this since I have been shooting Weddings since 1982, 1st one in about 4 years and 1st one with using computer to edit with, but been doing VCD's for over 2 years so I got it down.
Remember everyone now is armed with a DV or Hi8mm cam, computer and software to eidt.
The difference is how YOU make it look when your done, I don't advertise It's just word of mouth and samples of what I have done before and everyone really likes my finished product.
I lay it out like this, get raw footage of Rehearsal, rehearsl dinner(like them free dinners) wedding, shoot video as weddding pictures are being taken, Reception, make sure to get cake cutting, Garter toss, Boquete toss, and the couples 1st dance.
Now I edit everything into a 4-5 minute music video with a song of the couples choice to start out the finished product(this really hooks them) fade music video out fade in wedding, then transition to reception, at the end add extra good shots from wedding photos, rehearsal and dinner, usually end up with 60-90min. of finished product, make sure to eit out the junk.
Your looking at about 6-10 hours to edit your tape down to a finished product. Charge $25 for copies of VHS tape or VCD. You keep the original, I charge an extra $75 if they want the raw footage tape.
After they see my product I usually get anywhere from 5-15 extra copies to make.

[rbruner2]

I said that those prices I gave were purely illustrative. What I'm trying to find out is what REASONABLE prices actually would be. Or, changes to the price schedule?

For example, perhaps it would be better to just charge per hour. So, maybe you charge $50 per hour of time just to video (rounded up to the nearest hour).

So far, one thing I would do differently. I would charge a price for the first copy of a VCD or SVCD, since the extra time it would take to put the disc together and render the MPEG, etc. But then subsequent copies would be cheaper. Likewise for the VHS tape (although, that is easier to make than a VCD). So, I would record the first tape for perhaps $25, and each copy thereafter for $10 a copy or something.

Anyhow, all prices I'm suggesting are purely guesses. What prices would YOU charge?