How much should I fairly charge for.....

[sdsumike619]

I've been doing a lot of DVD production for our family business (music instruction DVDs) and I also just completed shooting and encoding some website clips for a friend of the family's law firm (some company quoted them $5000 for the job, and my dad told them I could do it for less $2000)

Now, I've answered an ad on a bulletin board for some guy who has a movie that is 5 hours of raw footage, to be edited down to 90 minutes, no special effects, just editing, encoding and authoring a finished DVD. My question is how much I should charge him. I'm not a videolab, just a guy working out of my house, so I don't want to charge the rates that are commonly found such as on the DVD Demystified site http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#5.1

When it says on there $40/min for encoding, is that realtime encoding? my machine does not encode realtime...

If anyone can help me out how to determine what to fairly charge for doing this project, I'd be very thankful!

Mike

[ROF]

$40/minute seems like a fair price considering the high dollar equipment and software required to do professional grade work. If you are uncomfortable charging that, charge less. I wouldn't charge less than $20/Minute however. Remember, your equipment costs money, the electricity to perform this costs money, the lights in your room cost money while you continue to check on it's progress, the software performing the activity cost you money, and most importantly your time is worth alot of gold. You should never undercut yourself, but since you aren't a professional lab(maybe you are and just don't realize it) you might want to charge $30/Minute. $2700 for a 90 minute project is pretty darn good and you'll be saving your customer half of what they would pay to send their raw footage to someone outside the area they probably don't even know and have never met face to face.

[sdsumike619]

Thanks for your reply! I think I do undercut myself; I felt rather uncomfortable charging $2000 for some simple web site clips! Then again, you're right all the software and hardware did cost a lot in the beginning (even though I'm outdated) What about the realtime/non realtime encoding? Are the accepted per minute encoding rates for realtime encoding? My computer here only does about 30% of realtime (and that's assuming no effects on the video)

[sdsumike619]

So you think $2700 is a fair price for editing the 5 hours down to 90 minutes, encoding the 90 minutes, and authoring the finished DVD?

[ROF]

The encoding rates you are looking at that website are for the finalized master print copy. Sometimes it might be real time, other times there might be additional menus, SFX, or others to be added during the editing process which might slow down the encoding the process or certainly add more time to the work you'll need to perform. A flat fee of $30 per final encoded minute for a professional quality master isn't bad for the consumer.

Like I said, they'd be paying twice that if not more for some "company" do make them a master print from 5 hours of raw footage. if you feel confident enough, have the proper equipment, sofware, and the time, I'd charge that price at a minimum.

[sdsumike619]

hah, well I have an Athlon 1800, 512RAM , with Vegas 5.0 and DVD Workshop 2,, been producing DVDs that we sell worldwide for $36.00 a piece so I feel pretty confident in my abilities to deliver what he needs..I need a new system though for sure!