Pricing a Party Video Invitation?
 

Any advice for pricing a 5-minute event video invitation? My client wants a fee for the project, not an hourly rate. He's probably spending more than I'd dream of making in two years to bring in musicians and dancers from Africa for a private safari camp grand opening. Shooting will probably involve 5 x 2 hours getting morning and evening footage of the animals. It's close to home. Then I'll edit that together with some royalty-free African beats, I guess. Pretty quick turn around. One month. Which has to include time for the DVD packaging and reproduction which I'll outsource. Any tips?

Any good recs on royalty free African music?

Thanks! Love this forum!

Other than short of ripping him off, depending on your experience and the amount of cameras being used, I'd say nothing more than 1.5 grand? Now, I'm thinking in Australian dollars, so thats close to 1.2 grand... or so US.

But this is a guesstimation... maybe someone might ahve a mroe concrete estimation for you.

That's likely to be more work than you might first think. From your description I'll bet he expect nothing but first-class shooting and editing and that takes time, lots of time. It doesn't sound like he's expecting to pay bargain basement prices as long as you can deliver the quality. For a fixed price bid, you need to add up everything, direct and indirect costs, and include contingencies to allow for all the things that can go wrong that can't be forseen. I'd say 5 kilobucks for 5 minutes would not be unreasonable.

Smartsound has some royalty-free world music clips that would work well.

Take a look at FreePlayMusic.com

Thanks Leo, Steve & Aviv for the tips. On fees, my inclination leans more in Steve's direction, but since the client is also an acquaintance with potential to offter or connect me with future work, I'm thinking about giving him a discount. Plus, aside from the stress of the quick deadline it ought to be a fun job.

Part of my ongoing analysis involves local comparison: I live in an area of the U.S. where the cost of living is fairly low, and I know house painters that charge $18-20 an hour, plus the client buys the paint. Painters' tools are brushes, ladders and drop cloths. With our tools--videocam, mics, editing equipment, etc.--costing what they do, I just don't see approaching a job for less than $30/hr, and even that seems very low to me. Problem is, getting potential clients around here to make that association.

I think Steve is right about the client expecting a first class product. And I'm sure he's used to and willing to pay first class prices. I'm reminded of the story of the tourist in a Paris parfumerie that wasn't interested in the $5 bottle of French perfume. Only when the manager swooped over and "corrected" the price to $50/bottle did the customer become convinced of the perfume's quality; then she was eager to purchase it. It's probably been talked about elsewhere on the forum.

1 month for a coporate job is actually VERY reasonable turnaround..
recently i did a Virgin Velocity induction video for the call centre which manages the calls here in aus..
11 days to shoot 6 managers over 3 days coz they were all interstate, basic induction and training (were talking Camtasia screencaps, overlays, texts, voiceovers.. the whole bit.. vox pop of existing staff, edit and deliver to DVD and WMV formats...
Friggin nightmare.. i should have charged double, but these are my regualrs and i always get work from them at least 3 times a year...
So making sure u look after your god clients is paramount to continued work.. as well as providing a god product of course..

i WISH i had one month though... lol God that was hell..

for what this guy wants, depending on your cameras, no less than 1500 AUD.. depending on teh complexity id then increase it based on his editing needs.. so u must be specific with how u approach this..
ask him "do u want text and stills overlaid? do u want a voiceover? Do u want flashy effects? Do u want composites? Do u want to animate any logos? Do u want it on DVD or HD formats for PC? How many copies do u need..

Speifics my friend. its the only way to cover your ass..