...should I charge to shoot a 3 min youtube video? My guess is that I will shoot it and provide the client with the file to upload to Youtube. I'm thinking around $50 - $150.
Is this fair?

well, first, your area is diferent than mine, 2nd, that 3 minute video could turn out to be an hour to shoot. Don't forget edit time, render time, upload time-none might be much but it adds up. Oh yeah, set up time, strike time, travel time...
How much is your time worth? $10, $20, $30 an hour or more?
Personally, I have a 2 hour minimum for stuff like this cause I know it ain't gonna happen in 3 minutes.
I know that doesn't answer your question but it's really hard to answer with a definitive answer.

The final destination of the video doesn't matter. What matters is my time and work going into that video.

Are you just shooting three minutes of raw video and giving the client the footage? Or are you expected to edit the footage and produce a compelling story? There's a huge difference between the two.

The least expensive video I ever produced (which was about three minutes and the final destination was YouTube) cost the client $850.

This will be a marketing video for a Realtor and my guess is that I will be editing the footage.

Hi Troy

I did a marketing video for an oven cleaning company ..ran for 3 minutes and took us pretty much a full day to shoot!! I personally either work on either a half day or full day rather than hourly. By the time you have gathered your gear got to the realtor (and probably been to one of their properties) your moring at least is gone!!! I would go for at least $500 as a bare minimum!!! But then again over here Realtors always seem to be crying poverty and seem to hate spending money...still stick to at least $500!!!

Chris

...should I charge to shoot a 3 min youtube video? My guess is that I will shoot it and provide the client with the file to upload to Youtube. I'm thinking around $50 - $150.
Is this fair?

Troy,

You're shooting way too low with that price. I'm mailing you off list with some suggestions.

Troy,

You're shooting way too low with that price. I'm mailing you off list with some suggestions.

Agree... I'd charge $100 per hour of shooting and that includes editing. But I would not start the job without script you and your client agree on. You don't have time to "be creative" on the set.

We have customer contact us to shoot a youtube video from time to time. They use the word 'youtube' because they want it cheap. We always explain what we did is a lot better the just a youtube video and quote them a normal production rate. If they still want a 'youtube' video, we will suggest they get a home-use handycam and an employee to do it.

I was going to say the exact same thing. There are plenty of people that can just go and get a home camera and hack it themselves, but if you want a professional product you will pay a pro price.

The way I look at it, unless the business has a connection somewhere that will offer then a hookup price for a pro video, they are at the mercy of who ever they can find (google, yellowpages, ect). And if they had that hookup, you wouldn't be in the picture.

$500 seems like a sweet spot.

Remember...they are using something that is advertising their product or service and they are going to be able to use this advertising material (your production) over and over. I think you are way under bidding this.

Thanks for all the great responses.

Troy

Hi Troy

Just for interest I'm doing a job next week for a Property Investment company which is basically filming a guy talking to the camera. It's fully scripted so should be easy. He has then given me hi-res jpegs of his PowerPoint slides that he uses with the "patter" which I'll insert as overlays at appropriate points in the footage.

I have essentially set aside Tuesday morning to film this and editing will be very basic. He asked me if I can possibly squeeze it into a $1000 budget!! We have a company here that shoots you an "internet video ad" running about 2 minutes and they charge $4000++ for that so that might give you an idea what to charge???

Chris

Stick to your guns and charge professional rates. You can do this when not shooting weddings :)

If there is a company quoting $4000 for the job and you know this, don't do it for $1000, there is probably a reason they're quoting him $4,000.

Funny, I saw a craigslist ad for a car dealer asking for 3 min video shot & lightly edited (basically of the used cars, showing them). His pay was $10/video. Yes, he was trying to get away with $10 bucks a video, with 3-5 cars/week.

Slightly sideways...but I've done a couple of 10min political satire interviews which are up on youtube. The scripts alone took me around a month to write, then filming, once I had the script was a couple of hours (I played both parts), then all the editing was a number of hours also. So... it certainly adds up. These were straight forward once the filming started as it was all done in one place with a tight script, and the 'good' takes were just selected and run together...

A 3 min video could involve more time because you may have several shooting locations and you have to construct the story, and view and choose the clips you will use etc...

Funny, I saw a craigslist ad for a car dealer asking for 3 min video shot & lightly edited (basically of the used cars, showing them). His pay was $10/video. Yes, he was trying to get away with $10 bucks a video, with 3-5 cars/week.

well, it looks like a cell phone video job to me....

A 3 min video could involve more time because you may have several shooting locations and you have to construct the story, and view and choose the clips you will use etc...

That's a very good point. People who aren't involved with video production have no idea of the time it takes for each part of a production. The notion that a video should be valued by the minute of run time is crazy.

It's really important to find out the "going rates" in your area for professional video productions. It's not only important for you but for all of us because every time someone takes a job for less than they should charge, it devalues the market for everyone.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that your potential customer probably has a general idea of what the job will cost. If you bid well under that expectation, it may cause your customer to be frightened away because "you aren't a professional."

What I've done lately when asked 'how much', is ask the client how much they want to spend, because of the varying levels of production value. If they say $100.00, I'll tell them I'll break out the cell phone camera, and so on. It's actually been working on the last few jobs fairly well. In fact, I got a call recently where I expected the client to want to spend a few hundred just from the way they were talking and so I asked them 'how much', I was told several thousand.

Bottom line for me is I can't (won't) work for less than 50.00 per hour of my time in shooting or editing (although weddings will screw with this formula sometimes).

Ken, I like that approach. Relating price to the production value of a job is a good way to negotiate in a way that is plausible to a customer. It is a way to negotiate price by relating it to the scope of the job. It's a good 'platform' for discussion. Otherwise it can seem like a gouge. To be a little facetious - Is this a cell phone job or a five camera shoot?

Hi Guys

I still think that you need to stick to your hourly rate regardless of whether it's a cell phone shoot or a wedding. In my opinion, your time is your time. The tools you use to do the job are your own decision but it's still your time and you must charge for it even if the client wants a 1 min YouTube clip!!!

For general enquiries I normally give them a budget cost by estimating how long the job will take and if I need an assistant and then give them an "estimated cost" If that scares them off then you know the job wasn't worth your time anyway!!! I cost weddings here at $75 an hour and whether someone wants a kiddie's birthday party or a promo shoot my rate stays the same. I really cannot see the point of doing a job at a loss!!

Chris

Everything I do comes down to an hourly rate. Sometimes other costs play a part, like purchasing stock footage, paying for voice over, mileage, renting additional equipment, etc. But at least 90% of the cost of every project is for my time.

A friend asked for a price to shoot his kid's pee-wee football games. He about choked when I said $65 per hour. I explained that if I spent three hours on an afternoon shooting his game for $20, I'd be passing up work that would pay $195.