how much charge? / funeral taping...

[nkordyjaka]

I have a friend asking what i would charge to do a taping of a funeral in a home.
We're looking at a 3 camera shoot to a video mixer and right onto a dvd afterwards. So no post going on here. I'm done at the end of the day. But I'm kind of at a loss of what to charge.

He insisted I charge as if it's just a regular client. Obviously i'll just take a bit off anyway lol but I'm not sure what my initial charge would be anyway....

what do you guys think would be a reasonable rate for the service?
Much appreciated!

nathan

[drgt]

do it for free

[mrswla]

If he insists on you getting paid, charge him $50 dollars. Then donate it to a charity that the deceased liked.

[Case]

He insisted I charge as if it's just a regular client.

Just break it down for yourself into its components, then add these up for the total.
Like: your hourly rate + equipment hourly rate (based on purchase price and expected economic lifespan) + overhead (administration and other general business costs) + additional project costs (transportation, material (discs)). Only the first component (personal fee) should be negotiable.
And if you have to ask this question, stay a fair bit below the Pro rates...

[budwzr]

Doing it free depends on who is better financially secure, and if you would kick yourself later if the friendship ever turned south. And various other unknown factors that may or may not exist.

If he insists, he may have a guilty conscience about something. Or he may want to help you out financially. It's hard to know ahead of time.

Speaking for myself, I would hate to do a free job for someone and later find out he bone's my wife every day when I leave for work.

DISCLAIMER: Just another point of view, don't take it personally, just laugh it off

[videopoo]

Do you do this kind of work regularly? If so, what your regular rate? Have him pay for supplys and do it for free- if it were my friend.

[DB83]

Unless you actually own the afformentioned equipment then you incur costs - rental charges etc.

If you do not wish to charge i.e make a profit then you can simply pass on these costs. Better still have your friend hire the equipment so he pays upfront and you can supply your services for free or, as has been suggested, no it for a nominal sum which you immediately donate back.

If you already own the equipment - do this for a living - I find it rather naive that you would not know what a ball-park figure would be.

[nkordyjaka]

budwzr: i like how you went with 'bone' lol good choice!

thanks for the feedback everyone. i appreciate it. Yeah I'm going to incur some costs from some rental stuff.
It's more a matter that he knows i'm constantly broke ass and so if he can help me out with some work for something he's willing to hire someone else to do anyway, he'd rather give me the work right?
I'm assuming that's his train of thought.

Does anyone have experience doing this before? Like I'm wondering if this is something that could be offered in a funeral home?
I know I've seen a couple funeral homes that have like a cheesy cam at the back that shows the whole room, empty seats, and not really any good views of anything. But I wonder - if you could get the cost of something like this within the $500 range - does that make it feasible as a service to offer funeral homes? Thots??

[budwzr]

And the lighting is going to suck, so you can't buy three Flips and stick them in the bookshelfs.

[nkordyjaka]

yeah you'd have to use a couple of legit cameras.

does no one else think this could be kind of a cool service for a funeral home to be able to offer?

[Moontrash]

I dunno if a lot of people would pay to see a group of people sitting around a dead relative. I would think a Wake would be more appropriate, but I could see a totally bereaved person just not able to get over some1's death and they had to have a lasting memory. It wouldn't be me fer sure.

Tell him to pay for the equipment rentals and take 50 bux for yourself

[filmboss80]

It's kind of a cultural thing. Some may see it as utterly tasteless, inappropriate, and somewhat disrespectful to the dead; while others may view it as another major family event worth preserving on video. It's not my cup of tea, but I believe it is a viable market--perhaps not nearly as big as wedding videography, but a niche market just the same. There probably won't be a lot of competition either.

[nkordyjaka]

It's kind of a cultural thing. Some may see it as utterly tasteless, inappropriate, and somewhat disrespectful to the dead; while others may view it as another major family event worth preserving on video. It's not my cup of tea, but I believe it is a viable market--perhaps not nearly as big as wedding videography, but a niche market just the same. There probably won't be a lot of competition either.

I would agree with that. It definetly wouldn't be something I would want personally, but I find it surprising how much money people will spend on someone's funeral. For myself I'd want as little as possible to be spent to get me outta here, but for some it's a really big thing - to each their own I suppose.

[deadrats]

I have a friend asking what i would charge to do a taping of a funeral in a home.
We're looking at a 3 camera shoot to a video mixer and right onto a dvd afterwards. So no post going on here. I'm done at the end of the day. But I'm kind of at a loss of what to charge.

He insisted I charge as if it's just a regular client. Obviously i'll just take a bit off anyway lol but I'm not sure what my initial charge would be anyway....

what do you guys think would be a reasonable rate for the service?
Much appreciated!

nathan

i would drill them just on principle, charge them them like there's no tomorrow, where does he get his balls big enough to take a dirt nap, you take them to school, i say at least $2500 per camera per hour plus another 5 grand for your participation and 15% for my reply.

on a side note, who the hell tapes a funeral? what kind of morbid, disgusting, despicable, macabre desire is that, why would anyone want to a video reminder of such a sad event?

there's something seriously wrong with those people for wanting something like that.

[DB83]

To answer the above, I suppose that it is possible that there are persons who, for whatever reason, could not attend, and may still wish to experience the event.

But as far as the topic is concerned I do tend to smell a dead rat here - no offence to the previous poster intended.

[deadrats]

To answer the above, I suppose that it is possible that there are persons who, for whatever reason, could not attend, and may still wish to experience the event.

But as far as the topic is concerned I do tend to smell a dead rat here - no offence to the previous poster intended.

as president of the anti dead rat defamation league i am appalled that you would slander rodents who are no longer with us.

as for people not being able to attend wishing to experience the event...really? do you honestly think there is anyone in there right mind that would sit and watch a video of a funeral they were fortunate enough not to attend? and a 3 camera shoot no less? what is this, a sitcom? why not shoot it pov style while they're at it?

come on, it's truly tasteless and classless to want to tape something like that? what's next, film an abortion? sickening, just sickening.

[DB83]

The sitcom ? - "Till Death Us Do Part", naturally.

[nkordyjaka]

Yeah I believe its simply for a couple family members who can't be there for whatever reason.

I'd be happy to miss it, but again, the whole funeral thing constantly surprises me. It's just not something that's a big deal to me personally, but I'm finding quite a few people that actually take it pretty seriously.

Meh...

[zoobie]

You couldn't pay me enough to film a funeral...too grounding (bada b00m)

[edDV]

budwzr: i like how you went with 'bone' lol good choice!

thanks for the feedback everyone. i appreciate it. Yeah I'm going to incur some costs from some rental stuff.
It's more a matter that he knows i'm constantly broke ass and so if he can help me out with some work for something he's willing to hire someone else to do anyway, he'd rather give me the work right?
I'm assuming that's his train of thought.

Does anyone have experience doing this before? Like I'm wondering if this is something that could be offered in a funeral home?
I know I've seen a couple funeral homes that have like a cheesy cam at the back that shows the whole room, empty seats, and not really any good views of anything. But I wonder - if you could get the cost of something like this within the $500 range - does that make it feasible as a service to offer funeral homes? Thots??

First you need to decide whether you are doing this out of obligation or for hire. This is very similar to shooting a wedding. I only do that when it is family or a close friend and I always take a loss on time and rental equipment.

If you are independent of the family then you need to figure what the finished tape is worth to them. Consider saved air transport costs, hotels fees, relief of guilt and desire for archive by those that attend. If the negotiated price is less than your estimate of costs, then decline the bid. But if you want the job, make a good sales pitch first.

Payment can be a problem. I once did this for a friend of a former boss who stiffed me even for rental costs. Make sure the deposit covers all your fixed costs then some.

[ChrisFig]

Having only being hired once for a funeral, I felt obligated to do it at a discount. But at the end of the day, it is an event and justifies being billed as a typical event. You can rest assured that funeral homes do not give discounts. If anything, their prices are a bit inflated because families aren't exactly shopping around for a discount.

[jman98]

deadrats - I'm not understanding it either, but it is rather harmless if strange and far be it from me to criticize if it brings comfort and/or closure to others. Having lost a close relative my advice to others would be "You REALLY don't want to do this", but we live in a day and age in which the rules are changing all the time about what is appropriate. Almost everybody I know under the age of 40 foolishly shares far too many details of their lives in public forums like Facebook so I could see why some people might want this without thinking it's a good idea myself. A lot of people just don't have any boundaries any more.

[DB83]

The problem here is not the wish to have the funeral video-taped, it is the manner in which it is to be done.

If you attend a service then you get a one-dimensional view. For a wedding it is fairly normal to have the camera looking at the faces/bodies of the bride/groom etc. But I also do not understand the need for more than one camera and with that camera being at a discreet distance at the back of the hall out of the sight of the rest of the mourners.

One should also respect the other mourners. If they see several cameras, they might also think what they are attending.