What should I charge for this work?

[sdsumike619]

My mom works for a company that sells "something" and the parent company wants a video of their sales presentation, from the time when a customer walks in the door, to the time they leave..

I shoot, edit and author DVDs for our family business so I really don't know what the work is worth. So the owner wants to know my price for

1) Just shooting the video and editing it down, (giving her a miniDV tape to send to the parent company)
2) A finished DVD to send to the parent company.

I'm guessing the total shoot time would be about 1.5 hours, perhaps less... I got paid $2000 once for a friend of the family's law firm that wanted clips to put on their website so now I'm just trying to figure out what I should charge. I want it to be in-line with what she might get quoted by calling an outfit in the phone book, and then go lower than that..

Any help is appreciated!

[edDV]

Look at the local pricing from local videographers and price just below them until you can demonstrate technical performance and an "inside connection to strategy" that makes your work more valuable than theirs.

You need a rate card similar to theirs* and an hourly rate for editing, authoring and anything else not in the fixed cost services.

Most important, any redos also redo (duplicate) the fees if due to company internal reasons beyond your control.

You need a contract with most companies and you will be paid per contract. Everyone needs to understand the rules or you will find yourself in court.


* that you can discount for other advantage.