What Does An Editor Charge?

[Shaun Forsdyke]

Hi all. Genuinely sorry for another one of these threads!

I've been asked to be an editor for ten, three minute music tutorial videos. These will be used for an App about learning how to play guitar. The videos will be on youtube and the App will embed these videos.

Two camera set up per video.
I'll also be working with the musician to add titles and instructional hints in each video.

He is looking for this to be funded by a musical company (he is currently sponsored by one).


As this is going to be a fully funded project I simply have no idea how much to charge. I assume I should charge for the complete package of 10 x3min videos and not by the hour?

I know a rate that I would be happy with but have no idea if I would seriously be undercutting myself.

What time scale for the editing would you say? About a total of (excluding working with the musician for the text hints) 10-12 hours. Basically an hour per video?

Any advice would be great and knowing what you charge would be an added bonus (may be PM if not comfortable with having that info on the site).

[Allan Black]

I'd charge by the hour, and my experience is the first one will take the longest time and the last one the shortest. 90mins a finshed minute to start with, then once you've established the format, maybe 60mins/minute.

Then you have to take into account what experience and history does the producer/director have?
If this is their first venture, watch out, ask to take a look at their footage before you commit.

Make sure you don't have to grade anything or fix up the guitar sounds and get 'em to approve the graphics font and style before you start.
Get an approx. 50% deposit up front.

Charge for any recutting, because they'll have to test the tutorials on students before they're released.

Maybe a silly question, but this job is in English isn't it?

Cheers.

[Shaun Forsdyke]

Thanks Allan Black.

Yes its an English job. I know the guy personally, ive worked with mutual friends before etc.

Again, thanks. Thats some useful info.

[Shaun Forsdyke]

Another question. I am not set up as a freelancer. Would I be expected to pay tax on this or will that be sorted out already.

I would personally be happy with £10p/h. I imagine that is at the low in comparison to some. Although I dont want to be charging £10 when I really should be thinking about £20.

Opinions?

[Allan Black]

Well they won't pay 20 if you don't ask for it .. I'd start there and negotiate.

Work out the approx total hrs/$$$ first and use that to start. You could start with 20/per hr and after xxx hrs, drop to 15.

But only use that if they look worried .. a good indication would be the looks on their faces when you ask for 50% up front.
Don't leave it too long before you start checking your gear, drive space etc.

I would expect you have to pay the tax .. on your earnings.

Keep a daily record on this, all their mobile numbers day and night and as notes for next time too.


Cheers.

[Jonathan Palfrey]

Hi Shaun,

Is this your first ever editing job paid or unpaid? What kind of experience do you have from previous work? Even if it's personal.

I'd imagine the fact they are asking you to do this means you have some experience that they have seen. That means its best to use your own experience on how long its taken to do any videos in the past. The amount time for the edit really depends on the speed you work at and as Allan mentioned if you have to do any fixing such as colour correction or sound editing. That sort of stuff normal takes the longest.

In the last year I have been running my company I keep a record of all the hours we do to get a better understanding if we are pricing correctly. It also helps you predict how long future projects will take.

For example we have one five minute tutorial video which has had over 28 hours work done on it because of several changes by the client. We have done other videos such as a 30 minute interviews which only took 2 hours to edit as it only needed a few cuts and light colour matching.

As Allan also stated, start high then allow them to negotiate. You really want to ensure you earn enough in the first few hours as only doing 2 hours a day work at £10 per hour wont be sustainable. I would charge a minimum of 5 hours (half a day), if you think it's simple enough you should get it done in that time then perhaps charge a lower rate for any extra time for changes. For example £100 for 5 hours then £10 per hour after that. For a 10 hour day thats £150.

Regarding taxation, in the UK you have several months from when you do your first job to declare self employment if you want to go that root. Gives you a chance to see if this is just a one off job or hopefully the start of a career.