Good Afternoon,

I have been hired to shoot three basketball games on Saturday. Mileage and meals is no problem to sort out, but what kind of payment for the time and dvd is of interest to me. Post will be minor with just cutting out junk! What would be reasonable?


gus

Depends on your experience, what you feel your time and effort is worth. How many hours of shooting and editing? How many dvd's are you producing? All of these factors play into pricing. It's hard to quote you a price without all the details.

With more details it would be easier to give you a reasonable price to ask for.

Mark

Also depends on your market - what others in your area are charging for similar work and format, and can depend on day of the week. - Saturday may be higher because more events, like weddings, happen on Saturdays than, say, Tuesdays.

Good Afternoon,

I have been hired to shoot three basketball games on Saturday. Mileage and meals is no problem to sort out, but what kind of payment for the time and dvd is of interest to me. Post will be minor with just cutting out junk! What would be reasonable?


gus

hello dale,

just finished the 05/06 basketball season. was taping all games (my kid was playing) made some a view dvd for some das in between, and now one dad ask me to tape him the upcomming championship game for $ 50. i don't know if that is the rate for a game.

all the other games will be burned onto dvd/ dublicatet by a local comp. for 4.99 per dvd. (14 games/ 9 kids/ 126 dvd's)

greetings

im only 15. my school the other week payed me £95 just to film there school concert. i have had about 20 hours experience in filming weddings/special events, about 12 hours experience in filming partys and 30 hours experience in filming stupid short films with my friends. i spent two night beings there film ing it and i spent over 10 hours editing it. I also get £3 ontop of that for every dvd sold. the market around me is very high priced for what they offer. £200 per hour to film a concert. then £80 PER hour to edit it and then £7 per dvd. all filmed on XL1 and XL1s. every one shoud know the xm2 has same specs as the xl1s.(except from changlable lense and XLR terminals)

An uncomplicated 1-camcorder shoot and edit of a simple wedding and reception might be a roughly equivalent event, and prices might start around US$1000, including editing and a couple DVD or tapes. But there is wide variation in price. even within a give region.

Thank you all for your information:

I was going to shoot the three games, lightly edit the three games, perhaps and hour work on each. I was then going to cut them one master dual layer dvd and let them do what they like from there.

Karl,
When you were shooting the game did you use frame or interlaced and what shutter speed did you use.

what would you suggest?


Dale

Thank you all for your information:

I was going to shoot the three games, lightly edit the three games, perhaps and hour work on each. I was then going to cut them one master dual layer dvd and let them do what they like from there.

Karl,
When you were shooting the game did you use frame or interlaced and what shutter speed did you use.

what would you suggest?


Dale

hello dale,

i did not use my xl1-s camera for that, since there is not enough time to set everything up, outlets is an issue, secure set up of monitor, best spot location blocked with wild parents, bleachers not very stable, some of the gyms don't even have bleachers (7 grade) i need at least 1 hour for set up (may be i am slow) my tripot has a bottom spread.

so, i used my canon trv dvr 730, tape and fs-4. old tripot has center spread, could adjust the legs to the 1 st row down.
sound stereo
tbc on
dnr on
pb auto
rec lp
audio 128 bit
auto tv on
tv input video 1
auto focus
auto shutter on
program ae auto
d zoom 500x
16:9 wide off
steadyshot on
n.s.light off
she has the option of several different lighting conditions, one ist sport. i did not use it.
even the sony has the option of turning the auto shutter off, i can't set anything else on her.
to make all my blah..blah short. everything was straight in auto.
exellent quality, light, color, audio (on board) and focus

had on hand at the tripot at all times, since there were people walking around!

watch out for skylights!

did one game at our st. marys college. they have a videographers platform above the bleachers, and the right lighting. looks like a nba game.

no editing on my side. have still not figured out my liquid 6. program <G>

stopped rec at all time outs, and took shoot of scoreboard between the quarters.

there was no "junk" to cut. very basic titel

putting the highlights of the 12 games together with my old pinnacle 8 program, but that is very time consuming. just loading ea. game (about 55min) have 7 games in my pc now, and work on it for about 2 weeks now!

what kind of camera do you have/ use?

greetings

The stress factor plays a part in my quote. For me, basketball games are pretty easy, even kind of fun anticipating and zooming in on the action. So I think $50/game sounds good for the shoot plus maybe $35/hour editing. There's more stress involved with a championship game, though, so....

I produced a highlight video for a dad to send to colleges on his daughter's behalf. For $375.00 I agreed to shoot three games (two at locations beyond 30 miles from me), burn a DVD w/timecode, edit per his instructions, and give him twenty VCDs. He also had some crummy footage he shot that he insisted I use--took me a long time editing that. I ended up holding his camcorder hostage until he could finally pay me for the editing. The whole process took six months! :)

Would I do something similar for that price again? Probably. Someone else might gasp and tell me I'm charging too much; another may gasp and tell me I'm not charging enough. You have to go with what sounds reasonable in your own mind, I suppose.

hello lorinda,

your pricing sounds about right for a basketball game

greetings


like your: holding his camera..lol

thank you for the information.
I am in ball park with what you people are charging. I am looking at about 250 dollars for the 3 games and cutting them 1 dvd to copy, plus milage and food.
I am shooting with a gl2, using a rode mic, set to cut base down. plan on shooting at 200th of a second or so on Time value. Figure I will not use frame for most if it ( will shoot about 10 minutes of frame at 1/500 so I can rob nice stills). I want to keep depth of field as deep as possible, hence a slower shutter. I may use auto focus if I have to but if I set up mid court, zoom to the key, focus, draw back as far as possible and retain focus I should then be able to keep most of the court infocus and just change zoom. if you have tried the afore mentioned and it did not work please tell me.

Any helpful hints would be good.

I have a shoulder brace and a decent video tripod. With the 20 optical zoom I was thinking of tripoding from center court. do you think moving with the shoulder camera better??


dale

You are so right to stay far, far away from autofocus. The hunting would ruin your video. The plan you mentioned for focus sounds good; I'm sure you'll be checking focus constantly to guard against any drift.

With one camera you don't have much choice but to be pretty much center court, so I would think the tripod would work best. (It's not like you can get cool shots under the basket or anything, right? Because you'd miss action at the other end of the court?) Are you going to be on the floor or in the bleachers/balcony?

People who watch basketball are probably more interested in sharp detail rather than a "movie look," so yeah, I'd stay away from frame mode for the most part.

hallo lorinda,

agree with you, but i had no problems (hunting) with auto focus at all. (my sony, my canon on the other hand hunts like out of control in auto focus)

greetings

I agree with Lorinda Norton

I agree with Lorinda Norton


hello nathaniel,

just passing on my expirience with the sony 730. don't know anything about the gl2 auto focus performance.

greetings

Holy Smoke! I've never seen those words in print, Nathaniel. Think I'll print it and put it in a frame! LOL!

Yes, Karl, you knew exactly what you were talking about with the Canon and its notorious "hunts like out of control" in auto focus. :)

Holy Smoke! I've never seen those words in print, Nathaniel. Think I'll print it and put it in a frame! LOL!

Yes, Karl, you knew exactly what you were talking about with the Canon and its notorious "hunts like out of control" in auto focus. :)


hello lorinda,

wow..it's like a chat room...lol

ot.
2 days after i got my brand new xl1-s, i had a theater recording, and almost passed out when i saw my $ 5000 camera went on the hunt, so no more auto focus with my baby, but like i said, my sony made all games without any hunting at all.

i think dale will do fine.

greetings

hello nathaniel,

just passing on my expirience with the sony 730. don't know anything about the gl2 auto focus performance.

greetings

it all depends on what you are doing. i find the autofocus on xm2/gl2 really good

I don't know if this will help you any, but I charge $50hr to shoot, $15hr to edit. Prices are negotiable, since I am only using a GL1. If I were to shoot using my XL1s, the price is $50hr, no negotiating. It works for me.

Hmm, age old question.
Video depositions: $250 minimum two hours, $75 each hour there after. Post, $75 per hour. If no editing in post, no charge, just dupe tape charge, and most of the time it is just a straight unedited duplicate with the default date time stamp in lower right or left corner (depends on your camera) done in Premiere 6.5 since Pro 1.5 firewire digital does not carry over the date time. This unedited dupe is $40 per tape including shipping and handling. CDs same price.
Life events (weddings etc) $250 per hour with a four hour minium and $250 per hour (or portion) there after. Includes one finished (edit out junk my choice otherwise known as "Directors Cut". If client views tape and instructs on what is out, then $75 per hour editing time, especially if he comes to the editing bay and micro manages the edit, for one edited tape. Additional tapes $40 per tape includes shipping and handling. CD/DVD instead of tape same price. Fancy DVD with chapter etc ??? not requested yet.
Batch capture and tape loggng with PPRO 1.5 real neat and for me a must do to save space, and not capture junk too. That is the reason in film (the big guys using film) at the end of a take that the director says CUT - Print. The previous 99 takes that director did not like are not printed from the negative - yes the neg has to be processed but only the "Print" take is actually saved/printed for editing.
My first music video (currently in production/editing - still need some cut away shots) is a token payment for the reason it is my first and it is for my temple that is producing a music CD with this one cut being made into a music video.
The hardest thing in Video depositions is staying awake. And speaking of staying awake, I'm off to bed for this has been a long, long day and more shooting this morning and over the weekend.
Yours,
Tom

Good Afternoon,

I have been hired to shoot three basketball games on Saturday. Mileage and meals is no problem to sort out, but what kind of payment for the time and dvd is of interest to me. Post will be minor with just cutting out junk! What would be reasonable?


gus


hello dale,

how did your basketball shoot went?

greetings

First, Thank you all.

I shot from a 8 foot elevated position, I could not use the tripod so I set up my shoulder brace and manfrotto remote attached just at thumb level.
I zoomed to the net and focused, then baced off until I could fit the jump at center. Pretty much all was in focus through most of the shoot. I did zoom in on some close up shots and such and then refocused on the hoop. It all went pretty well.
I set the camera on TV and set the speed for 100th of a second and filmed. The lighting was very good for a gym and the footage is excellent.
I have been asked back to film their team as they mad to provincial finals so I will be at it again this weekend.
Again,
thank you everone!!

ps. my sony auto focus is far better than my canon, but I prefer the lens on the canon.

I forgot,

I charged 80 dollars a game. I will present them with a dvd of each game, post editing only on the final game.

Again your help made my job easier!


Gus

I forgot,

I charged 80 dollars a game. I will present them with a dvd of each game, post editing only on the final game.

Again your help made my job easier!


Gus


hello dale,

great that everything worked out for you. i think your price sounds fair too.

i just finished to edit the 12 games of my kid. been at the end of 2 weeks. cut them down to 36 min. (about 3 min. per game, more or less) basic titles, and transitions, but some slowmotion effects for fouls. this is my third time, lost everything twice! thats why i don't edit!
the final version looks fine, just need to learn to use the new program. pinnacle studio 8 is very simple.

greetings

Dale and Karl,
Sound like you guys had fun, and that is the beauty of we all do ... we get paid for what we would do for free. Thank goodness our significant others keep us on track. Otherwise we we would have to stand on a corner selling pencils, which at times seems like a better choice to finance our passion.
Yours,
Tom

hello everyone,

Well, some how on my third game last week I forgot to turn on my rode mic, I have about 7 minutes with no audio, UGggg. I always shoot with head phones when I use the exterrior mic. This time i did not and I paid the price.
tonights game was to get into the medal round. I had to remind myself to not get involved in the game!!

you are right, it is great to get a few dollars to spend on more camera gear!!

I only edited the final game in the regionals. I spent about an hour cleaning it up, making title and for the final credits i put in a moving 3d background with slow roll of each plaerys name. Looks apretty good and i printed up dvd labels so they look nicer than a home cut dvd.
Tomarrow I film the medal game and i will have to focus on filming as apposed to wathing the game!!

thanks for all the information and help. this could become a disease.


dale

Go Dale!
BTW, re those paper labels ..... For me and my set tops I put the labels on.
For a friend of mine, who is VERY frugal, we tried to view the dvd I made special for him, and did we have PIXXELS !!! I could not understand it. It played on my set top.
Well, since he was SO frugal his player did not have enough power to spin the dvd and when I removed the paper label, all was good again. It seems that the weight of the paper slowed down the spin rate and thus the pixels.
So for him, he gets the marker pen, which creates, down the line, other problems, or so I have read.
Yours,
Tom
RE: Sound. I sorta over bought an 8track mixer. It is great but in learning I inadvertently had the mute button depressed and did not hear sound from the camera headphone output, even though I was hearing it through the mixing board. Ah, me, nothing like learning on the job. Such fun.

hello tom/dale,

like i said, i have finished to edit all the games. did a pre-showing with my family, and bummer...had 2 typos in it....yea (english is my second language)
shoot and shot...well, will leave it the way it is, because it sounds funny, and it's a small gift for the sunday championship party.
@dale
had no problems with audio, so i a sorry to hear about your problem.

greetings

Tom- What 8track did you get? Any details?

Avoid paper labels on DVDs. Either the weight or slight off center can cause problems with many players. Over time the glue dries and if the label bubbles or peals it will either become unplayable or even damage the player.

Inkjet printable DVDs are VERY INEXPENSIVE these days and an Epson R220 printer is only $99.

Avoid paper labels on DVDs. Either the weight or slight off center can cause problems with many players. Over time the glue dries and if the label bubbles or peals it will either become unplayable or even damage the player.

Inkjet printable DVDs are VERY INEXPENSIVE these days and an Epson R220 printer is only $99.
I've had problems with my Epson, since shortly after buying it. So... I'm looking for an inkjet that can print on disk media, and guess what? Epson is the only printer in the U.S. that will print on disks. Yet, the Canons sold overseas will also do this, but the exact same model sold here won't. What's up with that?

Dear Keith Forman,
My 8 track mixing board is a SOUNDCRAFT Spirit E8.
They make also E6 and E12.
I got it to use when I do Video Taped Depositions. My wife is a courtreporter and we work together on Video Depostions.
I forgot howmuch the E8 cost, but I seem remember it was about $700 from B&H in New York.
It is great, however I could have gotten away with a BeachTEK attached to the bottom of my GL2 with 2 or four XLR balanced inputs, which I also have by the way the one with two.
I can just use the BeachTEK or the E8.
One can also daisychain two E8s for 16 channels!
I have four lavelairs along with the needed XLR balanced cables.
No more 60 cycle hum or foreign radio stations on my sound track. Also ambiant room sounds, such as airconditioners, are gone. I really has to be noisey to screw up the sound.
A friend has loaned me a very expensive ($1,000) shotgun mike to use for "Man in the street" interviews or anyother set up that requires good sound under adverse conditions.
The learning curve is straight up forever. I started out as a still photographer and now I do ANYTHING having to do with image making, stills, motion, website, brochures, newsletters and of course DVD.
Romour has it that I can use my E8 as a sound mixer for my computer/Premier Pro 1.5.
It is lots of FUN! and since my wife became my CFO I am starting to make money.
I am finishing up my first music video in the coming weeks.
Trust me, I will let the world know/view it when it is finished.
Yours,
Tom

No need to be so formal Tom...we're neighbors here :) I used to have a Korg D12, that I recorded my audio on, and could mix it later at my leisure. However nice it was, it needed to be battery powered. I lost a lot of audio one day, when the breaker kept flipping off at a concert. Since then, I have been looking for a new multitrack recorder, but it has to use batteries, and be cheap... or affordable. The Deva is out of my league.

Man, this thread has veered way off topic--and in two different directions! :) About the printers, Keith, have you looked at the Primera Z6? My friend uses one in conjunction with a nifty little robot. It (robot) feeds, burns, prints--puts everything in a cool little pile using the aforementioned printer. I think the printer cost him about $1500.

Lorinda,
YES! Way off topic.
I think it was what are your fees.
I like to think I was one of the few that answered straight away.
In fact my CFO (wife) was a little upset that I "gave away too much" as to fees.
She came around when I explained just how much I have learned from this and other boards.
My sound mixer is ac powered and I have batteries with converters for those woods locations and when the power goes. In the case of AC going out in a building, the clients understand it does take a few minutes to do a change over.
Keith, my main sound is done on my GL2. I have no provision as this date for doing a backup sound track, though in the case of the video depositions some court reporters request just a sound track only at the end of a depo and in that case a plain vanilla casset recorder does the trick.
However the technology for reporters has changed in the past 6 months so that sound is recorded either on an attached laptop or now on the reporters machine on a flash card along with the text.
Now, is there anybody out there that has been following these posts that would like to let us know their fee structure and the reasons ? ? ? or even another thread/threads that cover it???
Yours,
Tom

Tom,

While it seems to gone off thread, I got a lot of cool and outstanding information from this thread!!!
I have often pondered about a number of items mentioned in this thread. As someone said, there is no learning curve, its all uphill!!

thanks a million everyone!!!


dale

Tom,

While it seems to gone off thread, I got a lot of cool and outstanding information from this thread!!!
I have often pondered about a number of items mentioned in this thread. As someone said, there is no learning curve, its all uphill!!

thanks a million everyone!!!


dale
Hey, glad our off topic ramblings could be helpful... so Tthhhhhhpt! to you Lorinda ;) I gave him my honest reply to his question, and got sidetracked by tech stuff. I'm a guy, it happens!

And Tom... I sort of liked being able to record 4 to 8 tracks at the same time, then adjust the seperate tracks later in post. I used to do a lot of bands, and could get a feed from the house board, from each mic. In better situations, I can tune down drums and instruments to get better vocals. When you listen live, the drummer and bass usually overwhelm the rest of the group.

And finally, Lorinda... When you coming back to Florida? I'm looking forward to being able to harass you in person :) By the way, I have heard of the Primeras. They just aren't what I need. I don't do many DVDs, so that would be a bit of overkill- and pricey too. I just wanted an inkjet that could do the odd ones I need, and print forms and pics the rest of the time. Cheaply, too!

Oh my gosh, Keith--you did it again! LOL! :) Actually, I'm upset because it's looking like I might not make it for the annual Madness in Miami this year. But I haven't given up just yet. You and a couple other funny guys in Florida will be the first to know if something gets cooked up.

Let's see....back to topic #3, I understand about the printer--it's way out of my range too.

@Dale: Maybe slip some audio from other parts of the game into that seven minutes? Except for unique announcer talk, it all sounds about the same! :)

Um.... oops?

An uncomplicated 1-camcorder shoot and edit of a simple wedding and reception might be a roughly equivalent event, and prices might start around US$1000, including editing and a couple DVD or tapes. But there is wide variation in price. even within a give region.

I live in the LA area (where you'd think that wedding videography could fetch $10k USD and up! Up! UP! - And it Can!)

But you need to take in to account the competition in a given area too. I have a coworker that nets about $400-$600 USD after costs per wedding, because there are plenty of videographers trying to make a spare buck anywhere they can.

Check local ads for the service that you are offering, and see what they are charging. That will give you a base to work from. It also helps to have a reel highlighting both your shooting and post-production skills. If you "Wow" the perspective clients with a good reel, you can squeeze aditional Ducats out of what otherwise is a real skinflint of a client. Display them on a showy laptop when interviewing the job, and better still the dinero can go.

A nice photo album with highlight stills from your shoots and a winning sales personality, and a videographer can make a good back-up living on the weekends!

-G.