Wedding Video Help...It's been awhile.
 

Hi,

I have a client that asked me to shoot their wedding. It's been awhile since I did weddings because I've been doing other types of projects.

I need some advice on pricing. I used to use the bride and grooms pictures at different stages of their life...baby pics on up, add music and make a montage of the stills. I sometimes shoot video from the rehearsal, wedding, reception, intervews at the reception until the bride and groom leave.

I'll be using 2 cameras, a lav mic on the groom and one on the Pastor. A mini disc recorder at a podium if they have special singer etc.

Is there anything else I may have missed?

For a total package lke this, what is the current going rate? I'm thinking something like $2,500 for the whole package.

What do you think?

Also, payment...half upfront and half upon completion or 1/3s?

Thanks
Lisa

Number of hours?
Two operators?
SD or HD?
SDE?
Play montage at reception and use own equipment?

Need more information.

There will be 2 camera ops. Using minidv (jvc hd100u) and another minidv camera that fotage will match with.

Number of hours I have not actually calculated. I know in the past when I did them it was a full day and then editing hours on top of that.

Montage is just for the dvd final copy.
Lisa

You don't differentiate between a 6 hour and a 12 hour day????

You should have a base number of hours plus an hourly rate for additional hours or an extended hours package.

JVC HD100u is a 720p HDV camera, not miniDV.

You need to estimate how long it takes you to edit a wedding video. That varies GREATLY by style. I usually assume a 40 hour work week. If you're editing HDV you have to consider the HDV GOP render. If you're delivering Standard Def you have to consider the time to render the downconvert.

"Going Rate" depends on your cost of living, how you think your work is valued, amount of time you put into it.

In my book NEVER work with payment on completion - NEVER!!! -

I get paid 1/3 non refundable deposit on agreement and 2/3 on day of wedding.
When I do corporate work it's often 1/3 on agreement, 1/3 at start of shoot, 1/3 at START of edit.

I would NEVER do a week's worth of editing and not get paid for it in advance.

You DO NOT want to deal with bounced checks given on delivery or late payments or clients who suddenly don't have the money when you've done all the work and are ready to deliver.

Hi Craig,

I think the last time I did a wedding shoot it was about a 6 hour day not 12.

The jvc is HDV but meant for this project I'm shooting on the DV side and not HD. I discovered my graphics card can't handle the HD edits yet.

I do need to figure in the hours because it can take quite a few of them to say the least.

For payment I agree...I expect a payment upfront to book the date and if they decide not to marry then they loose the deposit.

Thanks for the help.
Lisa

Shooting DV will save you a fair amount of time in render and downconvert.

In addition to payment up front you should get the rest of the payment on the wedding day. This way your edit time is paid for. There are too many horror stories about people who asked for payment on delivery.

$2500 total is reasonable IMHO.

BTW my longest wedding was about 17 hours. Major overtime! Officiant was about 5 hours late and that was just one of the things that went wrong for the couple.

I ditto what Craig said, I never do payments. All money is due prior to shooting.

I would make sure you have a start and stop time specifically spelled out, so you can address the 'overtime' possibilities.

Also, you should consider throwing in 21.00 for the bottle of Jack Daniels you'll need the next day. Just kidding, I du'tn ettit whil'e drinkgin.........

I recently was asked to do a wedding for a friend of a friend. I was doing weddings for 16 years and then stopped for about 11.
I rented 2 Sony Z1U. My computer couldnt handle HDV either but I found that downconverting from HDV to DV was better. I charged 1,750.00 but this was way too cheap. I would not do it for less than $2,500 and the next one will be 3,500. A lot of it depends on your location and the going rates.