How much...
 

...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

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...