$ Rate per minute but POST-PROD ONLY

[Cory Petkovsek]

My guess is that you haven’t done any hired post production work and you are wondering what to charge?

You list several items (digitizing, motion graphics, titling, subtitles (if needed), editing, music, rendering), but are you familiar with how long it will take you to do any of those items? Figure that out, then base it off an hourly rate. Then you’ll have a fee proportionately based on the amount of work. Then adjust it per project within client expectations; no one wants to pay you hourly to learn.

A per finished minute rate is meaningless. Watch 5 minutes of TV and you might see a couple of static shots and simple edits, or you might see 200 shots of motion graphics, heavily color manipulated imagery, 3d work, music, sound design and more.

Cory

—
Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video

[Pat Tremblay]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply.

Actually I’ve done a bunch of those already, but I’ve been wondering if I’m actually charging “standard industry prices” since I never went through the ~system~ and always based myself on what time it takes me. Thing is, I believe I’m rather fast and efficient, leaving me with less than I should if charging on an hourly rate… Or sometimes actually even wondering if I’m asking for too much and fearing I could loose future contracts with other companies who are more “aware” of the business.

“A per finished minute rate is meaningless” I hear you loud and clear and totally get the picture on this one. I guess I was trying to ask for a price range.

So, on a “typical” corporate video(I know it’s vague, but something akin to let’s say 2 camera interviews, picture and archive footage inserts, motion graphic intro and transitions, creds, other titling and music (composed, not library), all with no explicit “wild” action-style stuff, just sober & simple) what approximate price one could charge from cheapest to most expensive?

If this is still too abstract, and I can easily understand why, maybe you could tell me approximately what percentage of the whole production budget is spent on a once again, classic/average vid for post prod… I.E. if they tell me they are spend X amount on the prod budget, I could have a better idea of what could be charged proportionally in that dept.

Thanks once more!

XP Professional 5.1 build 2600 (Service Pack 3)
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Onboard soundcard Realtek 97
2GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c
Asus NVIDIA EN7800 GTX Video Card

[Scott Carnegie]

$350/day for the editor $150/day for the edit suite.

This is what I charge for corporate clients. The edit suite is a custom-built Avid Media Composer.

http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

[Chris Tompkins]

Typical edit suites pricing can run $100-$400 and hour with operator.
Or $1000 flat day rate.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Pat Tremblay]

Good to now. But I’m wondering what people consider “editing suites” these days. When everything can hold into one computer… Or are we talking about the same thing, but on a software level?

I’m under the impression though, that these numbers don’t necessarily include the motion graphics and music compositions fees, am I wrong?

Thanks!!!

XP Professional 5.1 build 2600 (Service Pack 3)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, 3DNow (2CPUs)
Onboard soundcard Realtek 97
2GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c
Asus NVIDIA EN7800 GTX Video Card

[Chris Tompkins]

We do everything on one box here. So, ya that price included the grfx work.

That does not include the music trax. We use several music libraries and pay a needle drop fee per track used and bill the client as such.

It does not include; Voice talent, custom music score, sound design (other then basic good editing).

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Cory Petkovsek]

>> 2 camera interviews, picture and archive footage inserts
That’s like 1-2 hours of editing.

>> motion graphic intro and transitions
What does this mean? You click on a plugin/effect and add it, or you model and render some crazy 3d motion graphics, or somewhere in between. $0 to $4000+

>> creds, other titling
Basic text or motion graphics text? I’d probably do some nice animated text in AE, so a few hours for it.

>> music (composed, not library)
I don’t compose music, so I’d quote from a composer.

“Standard Industry Prices” don’t really exist. Only market prices do. They are localized. They are also dependent upon a huge variety of factors including talent/portfolio, name and equipment depending on what service is being provided. A good rule of thumb is to price according to the value to the client.

As a producer, I don’t charge clients hourly rates. We spec out a job and I quote them that. It is based on an hourly rate, but has all resources, effort and padding built in and is tailored to my local market and that specific client. If I’m hired to shoot only, I’ll charge a day rate. As a motion graphics artist working for another producer or client, I might charge an hourly or day rate. Basically when I can scope out the project they get a fixed price; if they don’t know what they want or they want me to experiment, they get an hourly/daily price.

There are no proportions, everything is specific to each individual project. I don’t know what a “classic/average” video is, as every job is different, on average. One average corporate job might mean a couple hours of shooting and a hundred hours of post. Another average corporate job might mean a whole day of shooting and no post, or no shooting and a few hours of post. I’ve done all of those and more.

Cory

—
Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video

[Pat Tremblay]

Thanks for your insight Cory!

XP Professional 5.1 build 2600 (Service Pack 3)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, 3DNow (2CPUs)
Onboard soundcard Realtek 97
2GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c
Asus NVIDIA EN7800 GTX Video Card

[Mark Suszko]

He’s got it right: every job is a custom job,even rote ones all have little differences, this is not something you can commoditize like buying reams of copy paper.

The real variable of importance is the TIME spent, regardless of the specific functions. What amount of TIME needs to be invested to produce the desired quality level? If a quick typed-in and centered title is enough, that may take two minutes. To make something nice with animation efects, 2-d or 3-d CGI, now you may need rendering time, it could eat up an hour or even a day, depending how complex it is.
This is why everybody bills using a day rate, based on an hourly rate. The day rate is the buffet: you can get all you can eat of any technical and artistic discipline: graphics, color correction, sound effects, music, visual effects, compositing, encoding and compression, authoring, etc. in the proportions the assignment demands, for one basic hourly/day rate.

The big trick is, knowing how long the different kinds of work take, and this comes with experience. I’m going to be faster at some things then another guy, but slower than a different one. The particular demands of the job and the budget of the client drive the choices I make in the edit suite; I’m picking the methods and techniques that get me the best result for the least amount of time put in. After doing this enough, I can look over a project and make a pretty good guess at how many hours I need for capture/loading into the system, for doing a first pass for basic cuts and dissolves, for making lower thirds and adding some stock music tracks. The hours times the established rate equals an *estimate* of what it costs the client.

A red-hot rock-star editor with a hot rig could maybe do a certain job in fewer hours, but he charges more per hour, because he’s worth it. A less-capable or less fancily-equipped editor could tackle the same job and maybe take five hours longer, but not charge as much per hour. They could end up costing the same. Will they look absolutely identical? Probably not, except in very broad ways. Really, it comes down to a result, and the question of is that result good enough, for the amount of money available to achieve it. That’s what the client is looking for. So you make an estimate saying “I can deliver these specific items of performance, meet these technical standards, and I think the time I need to execute this is about x hours at z rate, with y amount of “fudge factor,” plus or minus, for the unexpected… Is that aceptable to you?”

Our shop used a rule of thumb per-finished-minute rate back in the eighties, for one specific kind of bare-bones job, but any resemblance to that rate today would be total coincidence and NOT something you would want to base a buisness decision on. There are just way too many variables now in equipment, software, and talent level, to make a meaningful comparison.

Finally, do you know what your day rate is? Really? Have you taken everything possible into account? There are a lot of great posts about calculating day rate in the archives, it is worth it to browse them for additional insight. Keyword serach “day rate”.

[Pat Tremblay]

Great points, all of that makes sense. There alot of “DEPENDS”, but there’s no other real way to calculate. I do see that.

And I thank for the lengthy reply!

I tried to answer back for a few days but I couldn’t log in for some reason… Better late than never!

XP Professional 5.1 build 2600 (Service Pack 3)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, 3DNow (2CPUs)
Onboard soundcard Realtek 97
2GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c
Asus NVIDIA EN7800 GTX Video Card