When do you start charging for your time?

[Santos Ramos]

I am working on a video project and I give them prices per day and per hour.


When do I need to start charging them?

When I get to the location and start unloading the equipment from the car
or after I set up all the lights?

Last time I set up about 6 lights, a green screen, teleprompter, mic and camera. it took me about 2:30 hours to set up all the equipment and the lady wanted to pay me for only one hour. Most of the time I only need 1 hour for the interviews.

Next month I will have to go to Miami to do and interview, the interview will last no more then 30 minutes but I have have to set up s green screen and a teleprompter and I have to drive 600 miles from where i live.

Should I charge them for 3 days of shoot + miles food and hotel?

I figure if they had to rent a camera, lights and mics the company would charge them per day even if they do not use the equipment.

Please help! give me some prices guide lines.
I charge $150 per hour or $1000 per day.

Thanks for your help and sorry about my grammar!

[Don Donatello]

if within 30 miles of my house - i charge when i start work - which could be carrying in equipment or if there's a production meeting ..

i do not work on per hr bases or do a 1/2 day rate ... above 10 is 1 1/2 X ... after 12hrs 2X ....

1/2 day rate for travel days .... X cents per mile ( min is IRS rate) .. $85 day per diem ( IRS does have rates on different city's) ... decent hotel they pay unless we agree on some flat amount for hotel/per diem -depending on city ... NYC cost more then San diego ...

[Steve House]

It's your business so its policies are your call. It's not uncommon for production firms doing local location shoots - sounds like that's what you're doing - to charge portal-to-portal, ie the clock for the production day starts when the van leaves the studio and ends when it arrives back. Charge a day rate with a half-day minimum for shoots of 4 hours or less. Defintely charge for mileage if beyond a reasonable distance, typically 25 miles or so.

Out of town like your 600 miler, definitely charge travel days, mileage, hotel, and per diem plus any other reasonable expenses with client agreement - that should go without saying. Whether you should charge your full day-rate for travel or a lesser amount would be up for negotiation. Sometimes you might charge for the travel time if it falls on what would be a normal working day (theoretically being on the road prevents you' from taking available for another paid assignment waiting in the wings) but a reduced amount or no charge if it is on a non-working day.

[Santos Ramos]

Thank you for the great reply!
I hope that there are more videographers that can add their advice in this tread.

Thanks

[Daniel Browning]

Originally Posted by Santos Ramos

When do I need to start charging them?

When I get to the location and start unloading the equipment from the car
or after I set up all the lights?

If you don't value your time, your clients wont either. Have a proper realization of what you're worth, then your clients will respect your time and do whatever they can to make things easy and fast for you.

[Santos Ramos]

I have worked for the private sector for a long time and now I am doing
freelance work but I have not idea what are the guide lines for videoraphy rates.
I guess the first big project I will do more work then I charged for.
But I have set a rate of $1000 per day or $150 per hour with a minimum of 2 hours.

I guess if I ask if this are good rates, most of you will say, it depends on the project.

Please give me some advice on my rates.

Originally Posted by Daniel Browning

If you don't value your time, your clients wont either. Have a proper realization of what you're worth, then your clients will respect your time and do whatever they can to make things easy and fast for you.

[Dylan Couper]

Almost the same as Don for me. If it is within an hour drive I don't charge for driving time, but I charge starting when gear starts getting moved into the location. I don't charge for early morning coffee time with the producer or client, and try to show up early (without charging).

It's pretty rare that I charge for less than 2 hours, since nothing ever takes less than that, even if it is a 3 minute single shot.... Usually I try and stick to day or 1/2 day rates.

If I have to drive further, I just charge a flat rate for gas, not milage.

If I have to fly, I charge a 1/2 day rate per day of travel. They pay food, accomadation and either provide a rental car, or someone with a car to drive me around (which is what I push for).

As far as your rate goes, it is determined by the market around you. Charge as much as people will pay you if you like. It differs from city to city and depends on what gear you are including and how much competition there is around you.

For example, in Vancouver $1000 a day would be top dollar and you'd better be bringing a Varicam with 10 years of experience and a golden demo reel. Most people with mid range HD gear (HDVs or HVX200s) here are working for $250-$800 a day depending on experience, demo reel, etc...

On a slow week, I could hire talented people with HDV gear for $150 a day... if I was a real cheap b-stard. :)

Hope that helps.

[Steve House]

I can't see charging in less than 1/2 day increments. After all, even a 1 hour booking pretty well means that the complete day is occupied as far as being able to also accept other assignments. You may be done by 10am but the guy that called and needed you for the entire day on the same day as the first shoot wouldn't have rescheduled everything to wait for you to finish up the first shoot before you moved on to his. Even a 1 hour booking means the entire day is sold. So that means you need to at least break even on your cost of doing business for the entire day with the shortest booking you ever accept for any portion of that day if you want to stay in business.

[Elliot Press]

Regarding your shoot which is 600 miles away.
If it were me I'd be charging for 1 days travel there, 1 days work and another days travel home, plus expenses such as hotel, fuel and maybe meals. Charge FULL price for the days spent getting to and from location because those are days you could be earning on some other job.

[Don Donatello]

and looking at rates from the other side ...
if i was the Producer and i'm looking at ...
i have a 30 min interview - 1 day pay= $1000 ...
1000 x 2days for travel = 2000 ....= 3000 sub total
plus hotel/perdiem, milage/gas etc
i would look into hiring local ( miami area) to compare cost ... could get a very good cameraperson with package for 1200-2000 ?????... who knows might be able to get a 1/2 day rate ???

[Kell Smith]

I have a question about this.
This really simplifies things, the idea of charging a day rate. I've been really confused about how to bid.
So let's say you charge $500.00 a day or, like your example, $1000.00 a day.
What then is your method for bidding for editing, building the DVD, doign the graphics, etc in addition to that?
In my case, for the things I'm going to be doing, I've worked up packages. But montages are slightly different types of jobs, and this is bound to come up sooner or later as I branch out.

[Kell Smith]

No takers?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Kell Smith

No takers?

You're talking about two different things here. The "day rate" is for a shooter/DP kind of deal where you hand the tape over to the producer after the shoot, pack up, and go home. What you asked about is more of a package deal, more akin to what the aforementioned producer is goig to charge HIS client for the completed program. You might use day rates or hourly rates in your calculations when you run the numbers to come up with your bid ("My editing time is worth $XX per hour and it looks like it'll take 100 hours to edit ...") but you'll probably actually bid that sort of job at fixed price.

[Don Bloom]

Kell
My "day rate" or "1/2 day rate" (whichever works for the client/job) is ME only. Camera Operator, technician or engineer donesn't matter. Gear and operator are a different rate, Editing, authoring,graphics and voiceover work is a whole different ballgame and has nothing to do with anything I charge for shooting or operating. Thats all a seperate charge.

Travel, per diem, hotel all of that is billed to the client as well per our written agreement.

Photo montages are completely different. Personally I do all I can to avoid them these days but I know a few guys that do them and they charge anything from a flat rate of X dollars to a charge per picture. Some charge a flat rate with a charge per picture over X pictures. They're all different.

Much of my work is figured, as Steve said, as a package deal. Shoot,edit,author burn 1 price.
HTHs
Don

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

For example, in Vancouver $1000 a day would be top dollar and you'd better be bringing a Varicam with 10 years of experience and a golden demo reel. Most people with mid range HD gear (HDVs or HVX200s) here are working for $250-$800 a day depending on experience, demo reel, etc...

Varicams must be cheap in Vancouver, a Varicam body rental is £450 (not saying you won't get a discount) + lenses on top in the UK. A rough daily rate for Digibeta kit & DP would be around £650 - it could go higher, but that's pretty common.