[Elisa Llamido]

Follow up:

I got the drive from the client and found out that there was more footage than expected, closer to 30 hours! So I followed Richard’s guidelines for how long it would take and added a bit more (x4), then added time for the “hard costs”, all itemized.

I submmitted this to the client, with an email letting him know that he could cut his costs by eliminating clips that are unnecessary. I also added that if it was completely out of his budget, I could make a cut that fit any dollar amount that he wanted to spend, but it would mean sacrificing the time and care that I take in selecting the cuts. It would still be good, I assured him, but not AS good.

i added a sales pitch about me as a creative artist and what he would get by investing in my skills. (I have found that this is often what finally influences the client and creates an emotional “gut feeling” that says that they should hire me.)

Then I sent it and breathed deeply for a while, trying not think about how extremely cool it would be to get this gig and how sad it would be if I didn’t.

He called me in the morning and asked some quesitons, mostly about what was included and I could hear him wavering. “Is this a worst-case scenario? ” he asked, “is it possible that you’ll finish earlier than this?” “Oh sure!” I told him. “It’s definitely possible. But I think that it’s probably pretty accurate.” “Let’s do it.”

So yay!!

Thank you all for your input. I really, really, really wanted to cut this project and I was afraid that I was going to undervalue my time. Giving me guidelines to work with really helped and now I feel confident in my quote.

Oh, and I bought the Avid upgrade on the last day of the special. It will have a bit of a learning curve, no doubt, but it’s Avid and I get it so it shouldn’t be too bad, I don’t think. But this job definitely made it worth it to upgrade.

Thank you everyone!

Elisa

[Elisa Llamido]

Thanks for the software recs, Mike! It looks like 5.5 is working fine with the test footage, but I always like to have options in my back pocket in case I run into a problem.

Thank you!

Elisa

[Elisa Llamido]

Tremendously helpful, thank you!

I tried loading some footage with my 5.5 and everything came in without a problem, which was my biggest concern. I will stick with it exactly because of the points that you made. Why reinvent the wheel?

I appreciate your workflow comments as well. I haven’t worked with this much footage before (it turns out that it’s a bit over 30 hours) and understanding the challenges inherent with scale is tremendously helpful. I’m glad that you wrote as much as you did.

I appreciate it!

Elisa

[Elisa Llamido]

Thanks, Mark!

I will definitely offer him the option of trading his time for his money. And thanks for seconding the long to short approach. That’s the way that I’ve worked before and it certainly makes more sense.

I will have to contemplate the software upgrade, but if I have to, I have to. We shall see.

Thank you for your comments!

Elisa

[Elisa Llamido]

Thank you for your thoughts, Mike.

My hardware is older, but robust enough to run whatever I need. I spent quite a pretty penny on it years ago and it’s still holding up well. Do you have any recommendations for the “cheap or free software” you mentioned if I can’t work with what I have?

The footage is very high quality, but you make a great point about getting a client brief that would eliminate a lot of the grunt work. That gives me a great option for making it cheaper by having him invest more of his time. That way he can decide which is more valuable: his time or his money.

In the end, it’s all about the hours and being able to offer the client options to cut down on my hours is very helpful.

Thank you!

Elisa

[Elisa Llamido]

Thank you for your detailed response, Richard! Exactly what I was looking for. I was really on the fence about this because I would say that this guy is definitely in the upper part of the 70% from your article. I don’t think he will try to talk me down, but I do think that it would be possible to price myself out of what he is willing to pay.

You have given me very solid points to consider and I will definitely use them in coming up with my quote. It strongly defines the scope of work.

I also always get a 50% deposit up front, but I hadn’t thought to also invoice 25% at first deliverable. Very good call at this price point.

Thank you for taking the time to answer and share your thoughts!

Elisa