Advice for ballpark figure to quote

[John Hewat]

Hi all,

I'm in need of some advice:

A company who runs a water skiing show at Melbourne's MOOMBA festival in three weeks has asked us to videotape a competition as part of the festival. The product would be a DVD that they could use to market their ski-show business, which is already a successful one. They've done shows all over the world and they just want this as a kind of promo thing.

What's involved appears to be:

*4 nights of 1 hour ski shows of about 20 - 30 skiiers per night.
* multipe cameras (we're thinking 3 - 4), one on the boat, two on pontoons and one on a tower.
* recording the announcer's commentary

This will be between 8pm and 9pm, which here will be pitch black, but there are floodlights apparently, which will hopefully provide enough light for our Sony Z1, V1 and EX1.

The final product would be four one hour DVDs with each skiier's performance included.

We're going to need to rent water-protection gear, another camera maybe (maybe two), pay two guys (or gilrs) to work the other cameras on all four nights, travel (a lot!), and then of course edit the footage into four dynamic, exciting discs.

And having only shot weddings, deb balls and plays, we're at a bit of a loss as to figuring out what to charge.

Anyone done a similar job who could offer advice or even share some success/horror stories?

Any surprises we should expect?

We're excited about the job but it's way bigger than anything we've done before so we're a little nervous.

Thanks for any help you can give,

-- John.

[Steve House]

Wouldn't have a clue as to what you should charge except to say this sounds like a major, multi-kilobuck level of project to be sure. Just sharing a couple of thoughts that occured reading your post ...

there are floodlights apparently, which will hopefully provide enough light for our Sony Z1, V1 and EX1

Don't leave it to chance! Try to visit a show before you go to the first one you're going to film and take some readings or shoot some test footage. If the lights aren't adequate you'll have to figure out some way to get more and that will need to be included in your budget.

You mentioned bringing on-board additional camera ops but don't forget you will also need sound people and gear. Don't underestimate the importance of sound or the skills required to get it - good sound doesn't happen by itself. And don't expect the camera ops to be able to pay proper attention to it - they'll have enough to do getting the pictures. It's not just announcers commentary you'll need to record - you'll also want the roar of the boat motors and the splash of their bow-waves, the swish of skis through water, splats of skiers hitting the wakes, thumps of skiers hitting the jumps, the oo's and ahhh's and applause of the crowd, etc, so you can recreate the sonic environment of being at the show itself and that's just not going to happen if all you have are the on-camera mics.

[John Hewat]

That's excellent advice about the sound - I hadn't thought of that at all.

It turns out that it isn't 4 separate shows but actually the one show four times over four nights, which makes it much easier and takes a lot of pressure off. We met with them again today to discuss it and saw the river where it will be taking place and from a technical point of view, it doesn't look as challenging as we had first anticipated and will not require the other camera operators. We've quoted just over three thousand AUD, which they seemed happy with (I think).

So it's not as large as it originally sounded, which is, from my point of view, a good thing. Even though it means less money, it allows us to get our feet wet in a more manageable environment, which is good.

It will definitely be a heck of a lot of fun! Beats pointing a camera at a wedding ceremony again!

[Ryan Lester]

Originally Posted by John Hewat

That's excellent advice about the sound - I hadn't thought of that at all.

It turns out that it isn't 4 separate shows but actually the one show four times over four nights, which makes it much easier and takes a lot of pressure off. We met with them again today to discuss it and saw the river where it will be taking place and from a technical point of view, it doesn't look as challenging as we had first anticipated and will not require the other camera operators. We've quoted just over three thousand AUD, which they seemed happy with (I think).

So it's not as large as it originally sounded, which is, from my point of view, a good thing. Even though it means less money, it allows us to get our feet wet in a more manageable environment, which is good.

It will definitely be a heck of a lot of fun! Beats pointing a camera at a wedding ceremony again!

John,

I'll have my Sony Z7 by then and i live in the city. Give us a buzz if you need an extra cameraman!

ryan@visionmediaproductions.com.au

[John Hewat]

Thanks Ryan,

We've organised four cameras and operators plus a reserve so far so we should be well and truly covered but I'll add you to my list. It should be a fun shoot!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ryan Lester

John,

I'll have my Sony Z7 by then and i live in the city. Give us a buzz if you need an extra cameraman!

ryan@visionmediaproductions.com.au