I keep seeing lots of questions in forums about how to price your video production services. That makes sense as professional photographers are a big segment of the market for DSLR cameras and there are many significant differences between the photography business and the videography business.
So, I’ve put together a three part tutorial on budgeting and pricing video production. I’ll post them through this week and link them together when it’s all online.
I’m deliberately keeping these tutorials at a beginner level because it’s important to get the basics in place first. And I’m using simple tools that anyone can access.
Part I is a 4 minute overview of budgeting video productions. If you’re running an established video production company you probably need to skip Part I and start with Part II as that discussion is about establishing value in the market. Part III is a bonus section that will make anyone’s video business more successful.
One of the difficulties in a tutorial like this is that projects and peoples experience vary a lot. It would be great if I could say, “Take the number of pages in your script and multiply by 5 and…” so you’d have a formula to use as a starting point. But it just doesn’t work that way.
I can tell you that setting up for a basic interview/testimonial shoot takes a couple of hours. If I have someone scheduling testimonials (like at a convention with lots of satisfied customers) I can shoot an average of three testimonials an hour. If they are really just sound bites that number can increase to 5 or 6 an hour.
All that footage has to be digitized and logged. I convert the audio tracks to MP3 and get it transcribed so everyone can work from text rather than scanning video files. From there it’s on to rough edit, changes, final graphics and music, color grading, audio sweetening, rendering for the delivery media.
What was captured in a day can take two weeks of steady work to deliver as a final video. And that’s with something as simple as a testimonial project. As projects get more complex in shooting the rest of the production workflow multiplies that complexity. Learning how to budget and price larger productions is an art.
On the other hand, it you’re just looking to establish a price for yourself as a camera operator I recommend spending your time connecting with production companies and established operators. You’ll quickly find out what the going rates are in your area and you’ll learn if you have what it takes to get work.
My goal is to give you enough information to help you move forward and improve how you budget and price your productions. Please leave your comments with feedback and questions.
