What is a fair price to charge?

[themarknebula]

I have been capturing DV video and Authoring my own DVD's for over a year now. Receintly I was asked to Capture and Author a Training DVD for a Bus Matinence company. What would be a fair price to charge someone for constructing a DVD for a customer?

[grossjamesh]

What ever the traffic will bear.

[fmctm1sw]

What ever the traffic will bear.

LMAO. You see a lot of folks charge about $10 per hour, no menus or anything. Who is doing the initial filming of the maintenance?

edit: Nevermind. I geuss its you... What kind of time is the filming going to take?

[curryman]

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=196526

[Baldrick]

This isn't site feedback. I'm moving your topic.

[Richard_G]

If anyone approaches the company I work for and wants me to do a job for them, they charge the customer £55 plus tax per hour of my time (they still only pay me my standard wages, about half that, though.....).

[themarknebula]

Thank you...
The filming has already been done. The only thing I have to do is capture, edit, render, and create menus/chapters.

[DaBarrister]

Minimum $35/hour, or flat fee of $350 for standard work (capture, fade-ins, fade-outs & crossfades, simple menu, chapters, render, burn). $500+ for fancier work (motion menus, creative edits, color correction, etc.). Charge extra for artwork, frame captures for training booklets, etc. Professionals charge a great deal more (usually in the range of $60-$100/hour or so) but probably get it done much quicker.

You can also consider charging one fee for one copy, additional fees for additional copies, or a large fee for providing them the master files and let them burn as many copies as they want.

And get a non-transferable, no-cancel contract that spells all of this out in detail.

[northcat_8]

Holy Cow....I guess I work too cheap.

I've never charged over $100 for something like that.

[Gazorgan]

I don't think I've done a wedding under $300. That's pretty much tape to disk (some simple edits, and a logical menu for the various aspects of a wedding). Seeing as how I bill out my consulting time at $75 hour, I do video for free :P

I actually hate doing wedding/soccer/graduation videos. I tell my customers that, but they insist there isnt' anyone else that can do it (for under $500 they mean). Unless you are 100% sure of your work, you should do it by the hour.

Reasons....many. Are you giving them any editing rights? Never ever ever ever let a committe look at your work, no 2 people will agree on anything. Same goes for websites. You said the video was already shot. That's a bad sign. Very bad sign. You are going to take the heat for any inadequecies in the original taping. As well as failures in the original (if any) script.

By the hour and no less than $30/hour!

[DaBarrister]

Reasons....many. Are you giving them any editing rights? Never ever ever ever let a committe look at your work, no 2 people will agree on anything.

Too true.

You said the video was already shot. That's a bad sign. Very bad sign. You are going to take the heat for any inadequecies in the original taping. As well as failures in the original (if any) script.

Also true. That's why I added the bit about color correction. Amateurs don't know the first thing about white balance - and that's just for a start. Shakey camera, improper angles, insufficient lighting, "power zooms" and all the rest will leave you with a massive headache just doing the project.

If you do the project, then make them look at the raw footage before they look at the finished project.... First, you'll make them suffer as much as you did (LOL) and second, your product will look better.

By the way, reserve rights (if you can) to use at least a part of the project in your portfolio, if you're building one AND if the finished product is half-decent.

[macleod]

I have been doing this for a little while now, however, it hasn't been for businesses. From what I have seen on the net, the price for 1 hour of footage, no menus, editing, etc. is anywhere from $35-$70 an hour. I did see 1 place doing it for $10 an hour of footage (gotta be a scam though).

I have been charging $15 for a tape with a menu, 100 year dvd-r, hub label, and case.

[DaBarrister]

macleod said:

I have been charging $15 for a tape with a menu, 100 year dvd-r, hub label, and case.

I'm sending all my stuff to macleod - that's cheaper (given the value of my time) than I can do it myself!

[macleod]

I get that a lot from people that know how much work goes into it. When people approach me and ask what I charge (mostly co-workers), they freak when I tell them that other places are charing X, but I am charging $15 and then all the services I provide. They are still a little skittish, I don't know why. My guess (since I do other stuff for folks for free) is that they think I am going to do everything for free (which I am almost doing if you look at parts and materials, sorta).

Once I explain to them the cost breakdown, they understand MY price more, but not the $35-$70 people. Personally, I sell myself short because here is the way I look at it (I dont tell co-workers this)

about 5 minutes to set up a cap
dont consider my time while it caps for X amount of time
Takes about 15 minutes to edit and put menus in, etc.
converts for about 1 hour
1 hour to burn
5 minutes to put labels, etc. on it

After all is said and done, my "butt in the seat" time is about a half hour. You can look at the cost of all my equipment, but I sorta would have bought all of it anyway on my own.

My latest one was 18 dvd's, each copied 9 times. Whew, that was a big one.

I guess my question is what "time" are we talking about?

[Lynchchrist]

I took on the job of capturing, editing, and authoring the season in review video for a pop warner football team. The capturing was done by committee (4 moms) so that we could assure every kid was highlighted at least twice. We captured 149 clips which totaled 28 minutes of video. This took about 6 hours. Then I edited the clips spacing out each player and mixing offense and defense as much as possible. (random would have worked fine!) Then I placed stills between groups of 3-5 video clips. About 4 hours with Premier and rendering. I authored it on MyDVD deluxe and put together 2 slideshows of scanned stills. After editing music, (looping when too short, fading if two long) and menu designing, I was in it for another 3 hours) My computer was tied up for 2 days burning with me switching out discs every 1 1/2 hours untill all 30 discs were done. I charged way too little. $175 set up + $15 dollars a copy= $625 - costs (about $35)= $590. Devide that by the 13 hours in front of the computer= $45 an hour. I enjoyed the project and it came out great according to all who I have heard from. I just think that those of us who spend our free time on this site and forum are worth more for our time. Nobody else is going to self teach themself for one project. We are creating memories or in the case of the educational video, we are creating a tool that is replacing a teacher, a classroom and the company is writing it all off anyway. Get paid for what you enjoy doing, that is the key to life!!!! Lynchchrist, Austin TX

[themarknebula]

Thanks everyone for your help... This has been educational.

It would be great, if I could make a living doing this :P
[/quote]
Lynchchrist
We are creating memories...