First Bar-Mitzvah
 

This is my first Bar-Mitzvah (or any event video), and i will be three a Canon XH A1s, and will also be editing it, creating the dvd menus, and authoring them. My question is, its a 5 hour shoot, how much should i be charging?

Rich or Not Rich
 

Well it depends what their budget is, How many cameras you are using? Where is it? I would charge about $5000 for video on a barmitzvah, $10,000 for video and photo.

$5K sounds a little high, but that is my perspective from this part of the nation. 3 cameras x 5 hrs does equal a decent amount of camera op time though. IF you are paying others to staff the cameras, don't forget to factor that in.

Be careful with that logic or you'll be constantly selling yourself short to people who might have paid more.

As for what to charge, I would say charge what you feel it's worth. Shooting with 3 cameras for 5 hours and editing all of that footage down will not be easy .. easier than a wedding day .. but still time-consuming. You should determine what you want your hourly rate to be, then figure out how many hours this project will take, factor in the cost of operating 3 cameras and charge whatever that comes out to be. If you price yourself by what you think their budget might be, you could really shortchange yourself.

I did a Bat Mitzvah recently, and I only shot with one camera for about 2 1/2 hours; straight edit with a mini-music montage for the lunch afterwards. I think I charged about $850.

wow thats a lot of really high numbers. hahaha thanks for all of your input, for this ONE time offer i quoted them at 1100 flat, although i told them that this was a one time deal, since they were my first customers, and im friends with the daughter. I've also decided that this would be good first time price being im 15 and i wouldn't want to scare them away with such a high number when i dont have anything in this certain department to show them!
thanks for everyones help and input, it makes me feel more confident that i wasn't over charging them, that being my fear, and looking like a d**che bag. thanks to all!