medical videography

[Cory Petkovsek]

Sales principle: Charge according to the value to the client.

You must also consider the local and if applicable, global market. Finally the quality of your work, which is tied up in the value to the client.

You already have rates on your video production website. Why charge medical clients any differently than non-medical clients? Your work is essentially the same. If $1200 for the effort works for you, is fair for the market, and is within the client’s expectations, and the client likes your work, you have a winner.

However refer to the sales principle above. Depending on how good you are at marketing and sales, a medical client may very well pay a premium for your service over the price of a general video company because of your specialization in the medical community.

Look in any phone book and you’re likely to see a full page spread, “Mother’s legal services” with a picture of a mom and daughter. A few pages later you’ll see “Father’s legal services” with a picture of dad and son…. and they have the same phone number.

Then the last point is quality. I hope you are continually seeking how to improve the quality of your work; I am even though I feel our production quality is at a professional level. If this video represents your current caliber of work, then over the next several months of productions your output should greatly improve until it reaches a professional level. On this video I would look at how you could improve typography, white balance and color temperature, and audio. Oh and your copyright designation ;).

Cory

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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
CorporateVideoSD.com

[Mike Cohen]

Greg,
Overall, nice job. Patients generally need to see the basic facts, which you have presented nicely. Doctors have told me that some patients want to see everything, some just want the bullet points. The physician using the video should know his or her customer.

Doing a good patient education video has more to do with a good script and getting the right visuals vs an expertise in the medical field. You seem to have both of these accounted for so that’s great.

As for pricing, I will reiterate the responses to this commonly seen thread on this forum – charge what is appropriate for the job, for your business and for your market.

For the Job

Asking “how much to charge” is like asking “how much is a car, a house, a boat or a pizza.” In other words, define your scope.

For your Business
Are you working out of your basement with a full time job and this is a money-making hobby or are you a small business owner with a facility, equipment, payroll and employees? Your overhead will also partially define how you charge for your services.

For your Market

How much competition is there? And how does the competition compare to you? And what do you offer that others do not. Your expertise in radiation oncology will only really help with other radiation oncology videos. But a general knowledge and comfort level with medical things may give you an edge. It gives me an edge!

Also, what will the market bear? You might not find this out immediately.

Good luck.

Mike Cohen

Medical Education / Multimedia Producer

[Greg Ouellette]

thanks for the replies. i knew posting that was likely to get what you have answered, i have spent a lot of time on forums. was hoping that with this video it is fairly straightforward to deconstruct it and consider the production value and give it a ballpark valuation based on that. breaking it down on a per hour invested would obviously be the simplest answer, but as we all know, with some areas of production there is added value due to that persons experience in a niche. i just dont know how to value that.
let me rephrase and see if this would make sense to ask:
a potential client shows you this video and says ‘i would like something very similar to this with my script. about what would you charge me to do it in my clinic, me supplying ‘talent’ and script?
either way, i very much appreciate both of your input.

[Jason Jenkins]

I can’t tell you what you should charge, but I would charge about $4k for something like this.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[Mike Cohen]

Greg,

I will reiterate, what you charge is not black and white. It is what is appropriate for your business.

$1200 sounds a bit low for 6 hours of shooting and some editing.

Is this your primary job, or are you gainfully employed doing something else?

If this is your primary job, then $1200 will barely keep your lights on.

If this is a paid hobby, then charge what you need to to pay for your gear and earn a fair wage for your living requirements.

Mike Cohen

[Martin Curtis]

Looks good, though you can always spot non-actors 🙂

The sound recorded in the doctor’s office was a bit echoey

FWIW, I work for government and my boss charges my services (me + camera(s) + 2 wireless mics + FCP + DVD duplicator) out at A$200 per finished minute. I only work for internal business units and the videos are destined for patients. I know that “per finished minute” isn’t always an acceptable metric in this game, but it works for us. The $200 pfm (compared to about ~$1500 pfm the local professionals charge for multiple shooters, lights, sound guy etc for a truly polished product) is basically to scare people away from using us if they don’t have a plan, a goal and some funding but designed to be low enough that the truly committed ones can afford to do it. Occasionally the money gets me new toys.

We instruct people that they are to supply the script after it has been approved by the funder, arrange for actors (and pay if necessary) organise locations (though we can help with generic locations). And bring the lunch.

[Greg Ouellette]

thank you so much for taking the time to respond. i have been honing my skills for several years and working toward a niche to offer sustainability in a possible new career away from health care. it seems my background and understanding of the technical and social aspects of health care may be what allows me to carve something out. no doubt many would question the sanity of leaving a very well paying and reliable profession, especially at this time. truth is i have been traveling as an independent in radiation oncology for about 1/2 of the 15 years or so i have been in it. this video was a first test run with a physician i have worked with. we both suspected this was likely a $4-5k effort, especially if a few things were polished up a bit more. i would have preferred to have done the voiceover as an interview to have the option to cut that in for higher production value. i would include that in the $4-5k. originally the goal was to offer a cost effective solution for those wanting a customized video of their practice. since then i have seen the light in going for the higher end market with a higher end product. i am certain i can quickly grow into that. i will not ramble on any longer, just will say that i would have made it a bit more elaborate for the $4-5k range, which i will. with that said, i also believe in not over-producing this kind of thing, especially if it is primarily targeting the elderly. lots of motion and fancy sound effects can detract from that audience as a generic whole.
again, your input and $$ valuation is appreciated

[Mike Cohen]

[greg ouellette] ” i also believe in not over-producing this kind of thing,”

Absolutely. But the higher price you mention need not = over producing. It is to provide a living wage to you and to provide a professional service at a competitive rate.

Look forward to seeing your future work.

Mike Cohen

[Martin Curtis]

2 things just came to mind: I thought some background music would be nice under the VO, and it might be nice for it to be captioned. Putting it on YouTube makes captioning easier, but you still have to make the timed text file.

[Greg Ouellette]

hey martin. i have background music playing, i must have it too low for computer speakers. i did this with middle of the road sony monitor headphones and paid close attention to it. maybe i should not use speakers for eval of background music.
noted on captioning. would you deliver two versions: w/ and w/o? captioning or just put it out to client?
thank you for your time.
also, yes, the rooms were echoy. the exam room bit was crammed into the schedule. i will insist in allowing time to hang blankets next time or bring two lavs. i did it with the same shotgun mic as the vo, but that was done in a bedroom with carpet facing cushioning. i am also planning on learning more on microphones for interior work.