Ballpark quote for endurance sports events
 

I was wondering if anyone can provide a ballpark figure to charge for providing video coverage for some endurance sports events. I'm wondering what an average bid is for existing businesses so that I don't lowball things and lose money or go wildly over and have no takers for my services. I would be shooting for a minimum of 4-5 hours and a maximum of 24-30 hours. These events aren't huge entities with deep pockets. I would sign over copyright (all media, all locations, for all time) because I don't think that I could earn any money off the footage from anyone else. I suspect that the vast majority of events would use the footage on their websites for promotion. Also, if you know it, how much extra should I charge for events who want their footage edited by me?

Thanks,
Tim

wow, that endurance sport category can encompas a massive amount of circumstances. Are we talking about an endurance bicycle race where you need to provide video coverage via a vehicle with driver and cam op? OR are we talking about a sport where the competitors return to the same place many times so that your coverage can be stationary and locked down? Does the sport involve exposure to extreme elements (altitude, cold, water, etc?). How many cams neeed to fulfill the client's desired level of coverage?

Lots of variables there.

If I was facing that challenge, I'd probably go with an actual "cost-plus" approach. By that I mean breaking things out into line items based upon time actually spent recording the event and including your "profit". One could concoct a base package for the minimum time length and then quote a rate for additional hours. For example:

Base package for five hours: $500
Additional hours: $100 each

This should prevent one from losing his shirt if the event goes on for a full day or more.

The same approach could be used for the editing, if desired.