[Jim Winn]

Sorry I have been MIA so far in this discussion, but I really appreciate all of the feedback everyone has given thus far.

To address a couple of points:

Beyond the visual quality of our work, one of the reasons our clients hire us for stills or video is that they are typically in the field of heavy industry, which sometimes requires a long list of safety training and/or certifications to work on-site. For example, our entire team has surface and deep mine certifications from MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which allows us to work in mining environments. Our clients come to us first, because they know we understand and can meet all of their safety requirements and get the job done. David, the guy we will hire to shoot a lot of the work for this upcoming project, has worked with us in the past on non-industrial projects and we will be hiring him on full time near the end of 2010.

The person who has advised us on past projects has only done so in the areas of appropriate price and bid formatting. We are more than comfortable with our technical ability to produce the project. On the editorial end we have the New York Times and Time.com as clients, but as I’m sure you know the editorial side of things works much differently than the commercial side, and as that side of the business picks up we want to make sure that everything is structured the proper way. For this particular project the client had seen some of our other work and approached us specifically to produce something similar for them. They will be getting two other bids as it is a requirement, but we are definitely the front runners in this situation.

Part of the reason we are hiring David as a shooter is that the project also requires a significant amount of still photography, and we will have our hands full managing and shooting that work. If we did everything on our own it would add at least another week to the project’s timeline, adding too much to the project’s end cost. In this situation it is more efficient for us and the client to shoot both the still and video portions of project at the same time.

Along those lines, I would love to know what the typical profit margin is on a similar video project. Obviously our expenses are going to be slightly higher than normal since the logistics require us to hire on additional hands, but something to compare with would be helpful. We have several other clients who have approached us about doing similar work before the end of the year. We always planned to build this work into our business, but had planned on having more time before we got to that point. These clients have sped up our timeline, and as that grows I want to make sure our business grows in a responsible fashion. Again, that’s in part why I wanted to turn to you guys, because I trust your opinion.

So, hopefully this give you guys a little more context. Again, I really appreciate all of the feedback and especially the concerns you voiced in the earlier posts. Honestly, if someone approached me with similar questions about the still side of our business I would without a doubt raised similar questions, so I completely understand.

Thanks again,
Jim

[Jim Winn]

On a related note, after you account for all of your time and expenses, what is the typical profit margin you full time video producers expect to bring in off a given project.

For the project mentioned above for example, if you billed the client $10,000 what would you generally expect to clear from that? I understand that there are a lot of missing elements in that equation (how much equipment, what kind, for how long, etc.) but if you had some ballpark information that would be pretty helpful for this and a few other upcoming projects we have in the works.

Thanks again,
Jim

[Jim Winn]

Thanks Rebecca, I really appreciate the feedback. It sounds like we’re in the ballpark with 8500, which makes me feel better. I’ve been breaking down our costs and time required for the project, and its jumped up a bit to $10,400, which I feel pretty comfortable with.

If anyone else has any thoughts please feel free to pass them along.

Thanks again,
Jim