Hey Everyone, First off, I love this site, I spend alot of time searching the forums for ?s I have and I seem to always find an answer.

Here's my current question...

A friend of mine called me up and told me about a potential gig. A guy that he hunts with needs a DVD created of their hunts. He already has footage shot and will be adding to it this fall. He's looking to have about an hour long DVD. He has sponsers and this first DVD is going out to his sponsers to show how he's using their equipment. There is also a possibility that this could end up on public access and a segment on the local news.

I really don't know what to charge for this....I have experience doing weddings, concerts, interviews etc. Alot as freelance and a few on my own...I'm trying to slowly build up to doing this more than part time on my own.

Being that this is a hunting video, I don't anticipate a complicated edit.

My first instinct was to charge $1000..$500 upfront when I get the first batch of footage and another $500 when I deliver that final product once they provide me with the remaining footage.

I'm in WV so theres not that much video production around. A friend of mine has a business and i know they charge $100-$150 per hour to edit, but thats mainly corporate accouunts

I would really appreciate some advice. This could lead into other videos as well so I don't want to over charge.

Thanks in advance

You've been shooting video for pay and never created even a skeleton of a business plan.
Start with what all you business and personal expenses are. How much do you need to make with 20-25 hours of paid work a week and 20-25 hours of unpaid business maintenance (marketing, bookkeeping, taking care of your gear).

Now you know what you need to make for a week's of paid work to survive and grow your business. Next figure out how many hours of work this job will take. Then you've got your price.

The above is a simplification but it's been repeated many times in this business forum.

When someone says "how much do I charge" basically it's how much do you want to avoid being homeless and hungry and then maybe how much beyond that to grow your business. If you don't charge enough to survive . . . you won't.

I have edited dozens and dozens of hunts. It is a bit more complex than you might think if you want to keep keep it compelling.

A 60 min DVD is going to require 8-10 well documented hunts. A 6-8 minute segment for each hunt is pretty standard.

Good luck.

This could lead into other videos as well so I don't want to over charge.

More importantly, this could lead into other videos as well so you don't want to under charge. What they pay today is what they're going to expect to pay everytime.

$1000 means you don't plan on spending more than 15-20 hours editing. I couldn't do an hour long program in that little time. I'd double or triple that price.

Dwain,

It sounds like you may be spending a lot more time on this than you are anticipating. Consider that you will be editing footage shot by someone else and it sounds like there is no log of the footage you will be receiving. So, unless this "guy" you will be getting the footage from can tell you what footage is good and potentially should be in the edit and what is just garbage, you could be spending hours just reviewing the footage and noting what is usable.

Other ways to consider this. Let's say you spend 1 hour of edit time for every finished minute (this may be low but it's a starting assumption). For your $1000 charge you'd be be making roughly $16 per hour. This is way lower than what you should be charging per hour for editing. Even if you charged $3000 you'd still only be at $50/hr, a very reasonable rate.

Just something to think about when you're trying to decide if it's worth it for you to edit this project.

-Garrett