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Market Rate for an Editing Project
I am putting together a bid on a project for footage that’s already shot. I’d like to hear from others about what they might charge for a similar project.
The project is editing 6 videos – each segment to be edited, was filmed with 2 cameras.
Each video captured a different presentation with multiple people moving around and talking in a room.
3 of the videos are to be 5 minutes long.
These are basically cutting from one camera to another, in real time, with no “cutting out of time” because we’re filming a presentation that lasts 5 minutes, so they want it to be exactly as long as it was in the performance was.3 of the videos are to be 2 minutes long – these will require more editing – cutting time out and stopping to insert some light graphics under narration.
There will be light graphics on all the videos. (basically putting up some text on screen at multiple points – maybe 2 times per minute.)
Each of the three 2-minute pieces will need music to be integrated into it.
We will need to pay a narrator to voice the three 2-minute pieces.
A total of 21 minutes of content.
(The cost for filming has already been paid for.)
How much would you charge for this project?
If you’d rather message me confidentially that’s fine too – I’m at: do***@*********es.com
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Donny -
2 Replies
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It’s not so much the length of the finished videos that has much influence on the overall cost. It’s computing the hours it takes to GET TO those few finished minutes, that makes the cost. Even the three “simple” videos will require some time spent in adjusting audio, color correction, creating and placing graphics and titles.
The fastest I ever edited something simple was at a 1:1 time ratio, meaning, if it was an hour long, it took just over an hour to edit. That’s not typical; that’s hack-and-slash news cutting where you’re screening everything in faster than real-time speed using just the JKL and in/out keys on playback and making simple cuts. Ratios of around 4:1, 8:1, or more, are what you could expect to spend on this kind of job you describe, ASSUMING there are no “gotchas” to correct for like bad sound to fix, bad lighting to compensate for, extensive graphics to create from scratch.
So maybe figure an hour each for the “simple” ones, and three hours each for the “complex” ones. Very roughly.
When you have a guess as to the time ratio you’re looking at, multiply total working time by your hourly rate to get a ballpark figure.
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This is the perfect place to adapt that old “mechanics” poster from the garage for your client:
$1000 if I do it.
$2000 if you watch.
$5000 if you help.; )
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.
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