[Paul O’brien]

Hopefully you got this worked out. I’d have suggested you go in and check he .ai file and ensure that it was properly masked, or to go in and manually create the missing portions of the mask. Or to use after effects trace option (the options in the Edit menu, I don’t have AE open just now).

I’d think one of those two routes should have gotten you back on the path.

[Paul O’brien]

To all who have posted to this, thanks for taking the time. It has been informative.

In summary, for all the production value/time I budgeted I feel I gave him a correct proposal. Now, whether that is what he really wants (or thinks he wants) that’s something to talk about further. I assume I could point him in the direction of the local tv stations for the local car commercial quality, but I assume that’s not what he’s looking for either; somewhere in the middle.

I didn’t quote him at 1k/minute. That was just the cost if he did the quick math. In my experience of an informercial/advertisement styled video, with the quality I put in, thats what it came to and I thought that to be in line for the two minute piece he wanted produced. Our cost of living etc it is lower than average, so I believe I factored that into price. For time involved I expect two, maybe 3 8 hr days work time from start of shooting to handing off the finished product.

Grinner – cool you can give a quote so quick. In such a pricing, does that include all music/narration/production costs? If it does, I see those elements eating into margins/profit really quickly – do you just go in with those factored in, how do you keep those costs down? It is those costs that I’ve looked over here in the forums and they seem to be mentioned little, yet they can add up quickly. Narration for three edited pages = $200 I won’t be seeing! Music selection if need be = addt’l money going straight through me! On a 5k shoot, the margin is better between that, but scale down to a 2k shoot… it eats up more, and quickly.

How does one protect from these costs to keep these small jobs worth the while? Or can they be chalked up for one more piece on the reel?

Again, thank you everyone for your time and the information, it is answers like these that people come around here.