[Greg Ball]

You asked “Do you dump the pre-arranged one-day to do the two-day?” No way! I’m professional and I treat clients professionally. I keep my word.

If I’m booked I’m booked. Better gigs always come around, but you have to keep your word in business. That’s my point. I would not want to put myself in a situation where I booked myself and my gear for 2 hours at $50 -$100 per hour where I know I could book a day for $850.00. Just don’t think in those terms and your clients will respect you too. If you want an hourly job try fast food

[Greg Ball]

Then if you’re a full-time student be a full-time student and leave the video work to professionals.

If you told Joe that you charge either a full-day rate or at least a half-day rate, he’d need to understand. If not, Joe is not the type of client you want.

If you think you can fill up the other 6 hours of your day with other shoots then go for it.

[Greg Ball]

If you try to resize a 16:9 video, you won’t be happy with the results. If it’s critical that both the 16:9 and 4:3 look like they have come from the same source, you may want to consider just letter boxing the 4:3 footage to match the letter box from the 16:9.

[Greg Ball]

Is there air conditioning? How about neighbors mowing their lawn or using a weed wacker. Kids on bikes? Dogs barking? You get the drift. Clean audio capabilities are real important when looking for studio space.

I would think you could get $300 to $500 per day, depending on your area.

[Greg Ball]

Thanks. I actually have a LHe card. But I’m leaning toward what you’re suggesting David. Basically I’m editing it on my home system and then moving it to another system at a client facility to output the Digibeta. Both systems are identical.

With that in mind, if I’m using the same external drive, do I only need to move the project file onto that external drive and plug it into the the client’s system to output my sequence? Any catches? Thanks.

[Greg Ball]

I don’t understand how you charge hourly rates for shooting to begin with. Suppose you book yourself for a two-hour shoot on July 10th. Now a large client contacts you for a large project for two days July 10th and 11th. You turn them down because you’re working for 2 hours on the first day?

At the very least you should charge a half-day or full-day rate. We typically do not offer even half-day rates. It’s not like we can book another shoot for the other half of the day.

Keep in mind that part of shooting involves planning, packing up your gear, driving, setting up, shooting, breaking down your gear and driving home. Do you include all of that in your hourly rate?

I suggest you re-examine your business plan including your rates. Of course this is all just my opinion.

[Greg Ball]

Thanks Walter! That’s exactly what I was looking for. Have a great weekend.

[Greg Ball]

That’s it!! Thanks much to all of you. “The answer to your riddle”…LOL I like that.

[Greg Ball]

Thanks Dave, but I remember seeing an actual program that created a quicktime movie. That’s what I’m looking for. I don’t have time to create everything from scratch.

[Greg Ball]

You could donate it to a local school. You could also call a used equipment dealer in your area and let them come and take EVERYTHING for a bulk price.