Senior Promo Video for Photographer - $$$???

[Travis Cossel]

So I have a photographer who is interested in a video promo to get seniors excited about booking a session. The style of the video is to be "MTV-ish" with pretty heavy editing. The footage to be used will be a combination of footage from a pair of actual senior shoots, and then some creative setup shots using/featuring actual prints.

I'm curious as to what the rest of you would charge for something like this. Here was my thought process:

2 half-day on-location shoots of senior sessions - 8 hours total x $50/hr = $400
MTV-style editing - 8 hours total x $50/hr = $400
planning and additional shooting - 2 hours total x $50/hr = $100

TOTAL COST - $900

I presented this number to the photographer, who was a bit shocked at the cost. I asked what they expected for this kind of video and they said "$300". I don't want to be overpriced, but $300 seems like chump-change for a video like this. Thoughts?

[SiuChung Leung]

I think $50/hr is very reasonable price, you don't even charge him for equipment cost. I think the photographer need to realize that he is doing a commercial promo video for his business, it would be the same when the photographer charge a fashion label to do a commercial photo.

[Ethan Cooper]

Unless you really need the money or the guy is a close friend, I wouldn't budge off the $50/hr fee. That's a minimal hourly fee for professional work. $300 is a joke.
Kindly explain to him that video isn't as easy as photography and takes much more time and effort to get a quality product. On second thought, don't say that. Upon further reflection, maybe I shouldn't have typed that and I definitely shouldn't hit the submit button...
...oops.

[Don Bloom]

Hmmmm, I wonderwhat HE would charge for something like that?

I agree, I don't think what you're asking is over the top. Shoot, edit, deliver finsihed product... In my mind you might even be a few bucks low.

Don

[Lisa Shofner]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

Hmmmm, I wonderwhat HE would charge for something like that?

I agree, I don't think what you're asking is over the top. Shoot, edit, deliver finsihed product... In my mind you might even be a few bucks low.

Don

Exactly.

Ask him (or just make an anonymous call to him) to find out how much he charges for a senior photo shoot & photo package. I'll bet it is over $300.

tell him you'll charge him a per-picture cost of only $5....@ 30 images/second, it will run up pretty quickly. Haha.

[Vito DeFilippo]

I'm with Don. I think you quoted low. Especially if you have to shoot two half days, thus killing the rest of each day. And I bet it takes you longer than 8 hours to edit...what about client approvals, DVD encoding and authoring, delivery? Or encoding and uploading for the web?

That guy's crazy to think you would do it for 300. Would he work three days for that?

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

2 half-day on-location shoots of senior sessions - 8 hours total x $50/hr = $400
MTV-style editing - 8 hours total x $50/hr = $400
planning and additional shooting - 2 hours total x $50/hr = $100
TOTAL COST - $900
I presented this number to the photographer, who was a bit shocked at the cost. I asked what they expected for this kind of video and they said "$300". I don't want to be overpriced, but $300 seems like chump-change for a video like this. Thoughts?

Especially if the photographer wants any music, audio work on the thing. I would have probably quoted about the same though the ambiguity on the edit part leaves room for price growth (re-cut to change X,Y,Z.... etc how involved would the client be in post, etc).

I know photographers don't even think about audio. Your photographer - not this client - has more exposure than most given the working relationship you two have, to audio concerns. I work with a photographer who also doesn't consider audio because... well... he doesn't have to. He knows about it because he hears me complain when we do a post-op on the shoot a week later or so.

I wonder what a photographer would charge for a 1/2 day shoot at multiple locations, with ~500 photographs to touch-up, color correct, and arrange. It really is a different world from still photography. A world that is largely unknown.

[Jason Robinson]

Another thought.... photography has essentially two "dimensions" and I'll use the term loosely. 1) Color space & lighting 2) framing & composition

Movies & Video productions have two additional dimensions.... 3) Audio 4) Motion (though some photographers do great work with incorporating motion in shots for blurring, etc) and motion could be very similar to framing & composition.

Both have post production work, and significant ones too, but post gets complicated by and order of magnitude with each added dimension. Which is why it is hard to do movies / video well. It is easy to screw up one dimension of complexity and ruin the entire production. Bad audio makes a production worthless. Static boring shots? Same thing.

You could check out what KTVB would charge, they run $120-200 /hr for location shoot and editing is entirely separate I think.... I checked a year ago or so so things could change. Or look at Peppershock, though Peppershock is waaaaay out of this photographer's league... cranes, helis, etc)

He is getting a bargain if he knows it or not.

[Jason Robinson]

Also consider the market. There are about 5 of us in the valley that could potentially serve this client. Everyone else is "up-and-coming" one man shops with a camera (and I might fall more towards this category) or the big players. There isn't much in between.

I have little available bandwidth for more gigs in the next 4 months so I'm sure others might be in a similar situation.

The client is left with the upstarts (which will charge $300 and deliver about what you would expect) or the production companies that will easily double or triple your bid.

Then jumping back to project specific details, I easily agree with your post-production estimates. So this is basically two days of work (the other 1/2 of your shoot day will be shot prepping & packing up gear and then logging the tapes from the cams after the shoot). For about two days of work.... $300 is completely unacceptable for sustainable professional productions.

Don't get me wrong, I might do it for $300 for my photographer, but he has helped me out a lot on past gigs so I'd cut him an amazing deal. He knows what work is involved so he probably would not want to go that low just because he is a great guy. Giving good friends and business associates too good of a deal might lead to annoyances and potential hard feelings.

ok.... I'll quit replying / hogging the thread. I've given my .... $0.20 :-) inflation

[Travis Cossel]

Thank you everyone for all the comments (and thank you Jason for the $.20 worth!). I do think I quoted low for this project, which is why I posted here. I wanted to get other opinions. I was kind of miffed when I felt I underquoted the job and then the photographer expected to pay 1/3 of that. I thought, "I'm either losing my mind or this photographer just doesn't have a clue." Guess now I know. Thanks again everyone.

[Vito DeFilippo]

Maybe he'll hire someone else for $300, get a crappy product and a lightbulb will go on.

You're better off without this gig, that's for sure.

[Travis Cossel]

Yeah, there is no way I'm taking the job for $300. $900 was my minimum. I think I may still get the job sometime down the road when the photog has saved up the money.

[Steve Elgar]

Way too cheap. And if you do it for that price, then they will expect you to do future projects at such a ridiculously low price. I'd be charging the $300 for half a day..even though my professional rates are higher than that. But yeah, there is a lot of work in that project and your pricing should reflect that.
Trust me, i've been caught out way too many times myself. IF they can't afford it, then don't do it. You will only find youself going backwards.

regards
Steve.

[Travis Cossel]

At this point I'll mention that I cut the photographer a good discount because I know them very well. I didn't want to mention that earlier because I wanted straight up opinions on the hours and billing, without the distraction that this is a preferred vendor. Thanks again everyone for the replies.

[Glenn Davidson]

Well you are Dreambigproductions. Counter with $350.