price to charge for a 1 hour 2 cam band shoot at DVinfo.net

Dave Morgan · August 5th, 2009, 03:05 PM

what is a decent price for charge for a 2 camera HD shoot a live band? then give them the whole show on dvd and make a 6-7 minute demo for them from the shoot.

does 800-1200 sound right?

using a sony ex3 and canon xh-a1

Shaun Roemich · August 5th, 2009, 03:56 PM

My pricing, that would cover the shoot and the DVDs of the raw but no edit.

Adam Gold · August 5th, 2009, 04:38 PM

I agree with Shaun. For everything you listed I'd be in the $1500 range.

Jeff Emery · August 5th, 2009, 04:42 PM

Post withdrawn.

Craig Seeman · August 7th, 2009, 09:14 AM

We can't take into account regional cost of living so it's hard to give an exact dollar amount.
I can tell you what the hours might be like.

Always include 1 hour for setup. That would make the band shoot a 2 hour minimum. For a band shoot I'd have a 3 hour minimum. 4 hour minimum for corporate shoots. Keep in mind it takes you some time to get to/from location and that's hours you can't use for another job.

I'd charge 6 hours for the shoot (3 hours per camera). Maybe $450-$600

The DVD, without out any editing, requires you to input an hour of video from each camera. Creating two menu links, one for each camera (Your NOT editing them together as two camera shoot, that's editing). Then encode and burn. EX3 file input will be fast but A1 will be HDV (real time). I'd charge 2 hours for input, 1 hour for menus and such, 3 hours encode and burn (and it can take you much longer depending on your computer). That's about 6 hours but this work (especially encode/burn) is not that demanding so you may want to consider that. Time is time though and encoding ties up your computer which may limit what other work you can do.

Charge 6 hours to make the DVD at a "reasonable" rate.
at $75-$100/hr you're in the $900-$1200

Editing the 6 minute piece could take you anywhere from one day to one week. It really depends on your approach. Let's assume one day though. Going through selecting shots and editing and making sure the audio works. Don't forget you'll need to include this on the DVD and/or make a separate. Keep in mind they may want a web version as well. It's all HD so they may decide on Blu-ray too. This could be $600-$800 keeping everything minimal though.

The entire project might be $1500-$2000 (again this keeping a VERY SIMPLE edit).

They may want the entire 2 camera 1 hour performance edited as a 2 camera intercut shoot. this could add 2 to 8 hours of work (again depends on your style, etc). That could be all the way to another $800 for the job. This is all assuming $75-$100/hr. You may have a higher hourly rate. I certainly wouldn't go lower (gear costs remain the same regardless of you location).

Jonathan Palfrey · August 7th, 2009, 11:11 AM

I normally charge by the day no matter how long the shoot is. I also say 2 days post production for every 1 day production.

Pricewise it works out about the same as what everyone else have put.

Bryan Gilchrist · August 7th, 2009, 11:21 AM

That's where day rates come in for me. If I were to shoot this video with two cameras, they'd be looking at about $1,500 (a day) just for the shoot and $50/hour for editing.

I worked on a music video once where it took 14 hours to get three seconds of video (it was an action sequence in the video). That was interesting... :)

Greg Paulson · August 9th, 2009, 11:01 PM

If the band thinks they can get a quality product for basement prices, then they'll end up with garbage and those dreams of being the next big thing will never happen.

I shot a band series years ago, got each to play a 45 min set, and I picked the best 23 for the show. Had to bring in a good sound guy who mixed for TV, not a crowd (very different worlds). Used house lights, shot in the afternoon with no crowds. Some days were brutal long (4 hours) because of sound issues within the band, retakes.. one manager asked that we not air the show because his singer wasn't on her game, and it was a shameful performance. Jerked us around with payment too. No love for him.

Due to budget issues with time and people, there was just me (producer/shooter/editor), another camera guy and our sound guy (who also fooled around with the house lighting).

There was no communication between the two camera ops (just didn't have access to that sort of gear back in those days), so each of us shot very fluid shots, and made eye contact now and then to allow the other guy a chance to move to a new shot. (we couldn't hear **** up there, I'm no fan of loud music... ), and a cabled intercom wasn't possible with all the gear around.

I then took the two tapes , put them in A & B, synced them up with time code and rolled them through a switcher. I was accurate about 99% with my transitions. If I made a mistake, I started the song over again and just had a good memory for when I needed to switch cameras.

This was actually the quickest way to turn the project around, even when I had to re-do several songs. We had a very early Avix Xpress at the time, and it wasn't worth the time (not to mention the precious hard drive space) to put the show together on NLE.

The short demo tape is almost it's own special shoot, because you'll want to make sure the clips shown in there are bang-on perfect.. that means multiple takes and multiple angles, staging... you can't do that level of prep for the whole show. Not without spending time & money.

Client needs to know that given a low figure, they'll get what they get, warts and all. Just to save your sanity, budget in a 3rd camera that gets the wide shot of the performance... it's your safety shot to use when the 2 other cameras are both shooting the floor. When ever I shoot something of a "once only, get it as it happens" , I like to have a cover camera going just in case I need to dramatically alter my main shot. It's saved me in editing more than once.

August 5th, 2009, 03:05 PM	#1
Dave Morgan Major Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 293	price to charge for a 1 hour 2 cam band shoot what is a decent price for charge for a 2 camera HD shoot a live band? then give them the whole show on dvd and make a 6-7 minute demo for them from the shoot. does 800-1200 sound right? using a sony ex3 and canon xh-a1

August 5th, 2009, 03:56 PM	#2
Shaun Roemich Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia (formerly Winnipeg, Manitoba) Canada Posts: 4,088	My pricing, that would cover the shoot and the DVDs of the raw but no edit. __________________ Shaun C. Roemich Road Dog Media - Vancouver, BC - Videographer - Webcaster www.roaddogmedia.ca Blog: http://roaddogmedia.wordpress.com/

August 5th, 2009, 04:42 PM	#4
Jeff Emery Major Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Ohio USA Posts: 222	Post withdrawn. Last edited by Jeff Emery; August 6th, 2009 at 02:09 PM.

August 5th, 2009, 04:38 PM	#3
Adam Gold Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Woodinville, WA USA Posts: 3,467	I agree with Shaun. For everything you listed I'd be in the $1500 range.

August 7th, 2009, 09:14 AM	#5
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	We can't take into account regional cost of living so it's hard to give an exact dollar amount. I can tell you what the hours might be like. Always include 1 hour for setup. That would make the band shoot a 2 hour minimum. For a band shoot I'd have a 3 hour minimum. 4 hour minimum for corporate shoots. Keep in mind it takes you some time to get to/from location and that's hours you can't use for another job. I'd charge 6 hours for the shoot (3 hours per camera). Maybe $450-$600 The DVD, without out any editing, requires you to input an hour of video from each camera. Creating two menu links, one for each camera (Your NOT editing them together as two camera shoot, that's editing). Then encode and burn. EX3 file input will be fast but A1 will be HDV (real time). I'd charge 2 hours for input, 1 hour for menus and such, 3 hours encode and burn (and it can take you much longer depending on your computer). That's about 6 hours but this work (especially encode/burn) is not that demanding so you may want to consider that. Time is time though and encoding ties up your computer which may limit what other work you can do. Charge 6 hours to make the DVD at a "reasonable" rate. at $75-$100/hr you're in the $900-$1200 Editing the 6 minute piece could take you anywhere from one day to one week. It really depends on your approach. Let's assume one day though. Going through selecting shots and editing and making sure the audio works. Don't forget you'll need to include this on the DVD and/or make a separate. Keep in mind they may want a web version as well. It's all HD so they may decide on Blu-ray too. This could be $600-$800 keeping everything minimal though. The entire project might be $1500-$2000 (again this keeping a VERY SIMPLE edit). They may want the entire 2 camera 1 hour performance edited as a 2 camera intercut shoot. this could add 2 to 8 hours of work (again depends on your style, etc). That could be all the way to another $800 for the job. This is all assuming $75-$100/hr. You may have a higher hourly rate. I certainly wouldn't go lower (gear costs remain the same regardless of you location).

August 7th, 2009, 11:11 AM	#6
Jonathan Palfrey Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Torbay, UK Posts: 170	I normally charge by the day no matter how long the shoot is. I also say 2 days post production for every 1 day production. Pricewise it works out about the same as what everyone else have put.

August 7th, 2009, 11:21 AM	#7
Bryan Gilchrist Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 224	That's where day rates come in for me. If I were to shoot this video with two cameras, they'd be looking at about $1,500 (a day) just for the shoot and $50/hour for editing. I worked on a music video once where it took 14 hours to get three seconds of video (it was an action sequence in the video). That was interesting... :)

August 9th, 2009, 11:01 PM	#8
Greg Paulson Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Winnipeg , Manitoba, Canada Posts: 43	If the band thinks they can get a quality product for basement prices, then they'll end up with garbage and those dreams of being the next big thing will never happen. I shot a band series years ago, got each to play a 45 min set, and I picked the best 23 for the show. Had to bring in a good sound guy who mixed for TV, not a crowd (very different worlds). Used house lights, shot in the afternoon with no crowds. Some days were brutal long (4 hours) because of sound issues within the band, retakes.. one manager asked that we not air the show because his singer wasn't on her game, and it was a shameful performance. Jerked us around with payment too. No love for him. Due to budget issues with time and people, there was just me (producer/shooter/editor), another camera guy and our sound guy (who also fooled around with the house lighting). There was no communication between the two camera ops (just didn't have access to that sort of gear back in those days), so each of us shot very fluid shots, and made eye contact now and then to allow the other guy a chance to move to a new shot. (we couldn't hear **** up there, I'm no fan of loud music... ), and a cabled intercom wasn't possible with all the gear around. I then took the two tapes , put them in A & B, synced them up with time code and rolled them through a switcher. I was accurate about 99% with my transitions. If I made a mistake, I started the song over again and just had a good memory for when I needed to switch cameras. This was actually the quickest way to turn the project around, even when I had to re-do several songs. We had a very early Avix Xpress at the time, and it wasn't worth the time (not to mention the precious hard drive space) to put the show together on NLE. The short demo tape is almost it's own special shoot, because you'll want to make sure the clips shown in there are bang-on perfect.. that means multiple takes and multiple angles, staging... you can't do that level of prep for the whole show. Not without spending time & money. Client needs to know that given a low figure, they'll get what they get, warts and all. Just to save your sanity, budget in a 3rd camera that gets the wide shot of the performance... it's your safety shot to use when the 2 other cameras are both shooting the floor. When ever I shoot something of a "once only, get it as it happens" , I like to have a cover camera going just in case I need to dramatically alter my main shot. It's saved me in editing more than once.