Production rates for strictly online vids

[David Roth weiss]

Mark,

You really must read the thread below. It discusses a big company with a business model similar to what you’re contemplating, only they pay guys like yourself to do the legwork. As you will notice, very few here, myself included, care for that concept.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/17/868348

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Ryan Mast]

Hi Mark,

Yellow Pages also has a company that does something similar, for mom-and-pop businesses — they also sub out almost all the work to local/regional videographers. They pay something like $150 per vid, IIRC. Can you compete with that? If you’re marketing this to a mom-and-pop business, they’ll probably have a nephew with iMovie and a Canon Elura who will do it for $50. Can you compete with that?

[Mick Haensler]

[Mark Alexander] “in your opinion, what do you think might be a reasonable price point from the business owners perspective for a short and simple video that they could place on their sites?
“

IMO this is an irrelevant question if you haven’t first committed to paper what YOU need to charge to make a profit. Figure out what you need to make first, THEN find out what the market will bare for a specific profit. If the market won’t bare what you need to make than you don’t do it, it’s that simple.

But to answer your question specifically, everyone is different and will have a different perspective on what is reasonable. I would say most “mom and pop” shops would think no more than $200 would be reasonable and that includes getting it on their web site for them too. So let’s run this out shall we:

1. Sales call average time .5 hours with a return rate of 10%(that’s being generous) so that’s 5 hours of time invested already.
2. Write up the contract and get the deposit – .25 hours
3. Write the script and get it approved and signed off on – 2 hours
4. Do the shoot – 2 hours
5. PP – 2 hours
6. Get client approval and get it coded AND online on their web site – 3 hours

Now let’s say I’m off a bit and the thing only took you ten hours once you got your rhythm down and the client pays you $250, you’re now making a whopping $25 an hour. If you were working for somebody else this might be OK, but to me this is not a sustainable or desirable business model.

Also, these are not much fun to do. I might as well go sell tires at Sears….

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mark Alexander]

Hmm, certainly am not interested in a “race to the bottom” that’s for sure. The Demand Media model seems significantly different though than this one. Take a look at this if you will and offer some opinions. Basically they have you shoot and do one edit, they approve and then pay you $200. The idea being to knock these out in 5-6 hours or so.

See: https://www.turnhere.com/

Mark

[Jason Jenkins]

I’ve got some local “competition” here that regularly sends out emails to local businesses. They have been promoting their “promotional video for as little as $500”! Emotionally and physically, I just can’t work at that level. I value my time and expertise too much. Add another “0” to that number and we can talk.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[Ryan Mast]

Yeah, YellowPages subs out their video work to TurnHere, who subs out their work to little regional companies. Couldn’t remember their name at first.

It’s easy work, and their standards are pretty low. And you don’t have to put in the effort to go find clients. If you want to do cheap, local videos, it’s probably best to plug into something like TurnHere who already has a marketing machine in action, rather than doing advertising on your own.

—
Meteor Tower Films
Video creations for music, art, & theater.
https://meteortower.com/

[Grinner Hester]

My hourly rate is what it is. While the mom and pop shops you mentioned want a flat bid, that’s pretty easy multiplication. A grand a piece is pretty standard here, assuming I’ll be done in the time frame you discribed. Some balk with an “oh my!” but that doesn’t change my costs or worth. Others do the “oh my” the other way and wonder why they didn’t start capitolizing on this long ago.
Truth is, a turn-key ad campaign can now be created for that flat grand I mentioned. This is how things are changing.

[David Roth weiss]

[grinner hester] “Truth is, a turn-key ad campaign can now be created for that flat grand I mentioned. This is how things are changing. “

No one is suggesting that these campaigns can’t be created. The question is, can they be created with a profit?

Grinner, do us a favor, figure out the actual net profit you make on a $1000 commercial. And please, don’t tell us your camera is already paid for, that’s just a form of denial. Figure in every single bit of your time and equipment please, then tell us what you’re making per hour. I suspect that net, net, net your gardener is making more on an hourly basis.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Mick Haensler]

[grinner hester] “A grand a piece is pretty standard here, assuming I’ll be done in the time frame you discribed. “

Yep, that’s about right for me as well.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mark Suszko]

The sample videos on the Turn Here site look surprisingly good to me. Well, of course they are going to only show you the best ones. But are you telling me each one of those demos only paid the creators $200?