What to Charge For Your Video Work | Tomorrow's Filmmakers

What about if the interviews and the b roll need to be shot at different dates, do you charge 2 half days?

Praise God and well explained!

I've struggled for years figuring out what to charge and of all the videos I've seen yours was BY far the most helpful. Thanks so much 🙏

CHUCK LIDDELL! That is all... 😁

No. Just no. You are you. Your equipment is material you invested in, and need to recoup. It needs to be charged separately. Otherwise you will never be able to upgrade or pay off your loans. Also, what does "your equipment" even mean? A GH2 is not the same as a Red, or a Red + a dolly, a jib, a pro drone and a 10 light kit. We own a ton of equipment that costs a lot just to maintain, store and insure, let alone buy. No way I am just bringing it along as part of my day rate.

Thanks for sharing. That's interesting. As a client I don't entertain freelancers or agencies that talk about budget first. In fact I'm currently working with freelancers that I'm paying way more than the others who quoted me less, only because we discussed about solving my business problems and form the quotation around the solution. Clients rarely will be honest about available budget and sometimes budget can be stretched if the solution is justified.

So I would advise freelancers to approach prospects as a problem solver and build a good relationship with them. Budget is always negotiable and rarely the real problem. I care less about skills or your past client portfolio, and more about paying someone who cares about solving my problems.

Thanx so much, your video was very helpful in my decision making process, I've done still photography for over 30 years and didn't want to go back into the business but I may do so with videography, I have almost everything I need equipment wise anyway, to start, lighting, cameras, camera dolly track, and sliders and video editing software, wish me the best. JD from toledo.

Thanks man! Very clear👍🏼

This is a great source of information. I would like to add that our service is not limited only to the mentioned ones, but also the concept creation, the preparation of scripts, interviewing and selection of talents, music selection, all these must be charged by the hour spent, in case it is not provided by the client. Overall a great video, thanks for sharing.

Assaali from Kenya Mombasa Kenya

Always love your videos brother I love to join your team

Hi thanks for the video, just wanted to know what your opinion was on charging for licensing or usage?

Extremely helpful video. Thank you.

Very helpful thank you

Good breakdown, BUT don't forget a travel rate. Some co's will pay or ask what your travel rate is if you have to fly or drive over 2 hours or so. The other good point ya made is definitely clock your editing. I use a real basic app for mac called time tracker and I've clocked start to finish edits of all kinds for over a period of years so I can pretty well guess how long it will take to edit various projects so if you are pinned down to a flat rate you can best guesstimate a flat rate based on what you believe your time will be but then always add extra time for whatever revisions you limit client to.

Very well laid out and explained pricing plan. As you get further along in the business, another thing to think about in your negotiations is licensing. I always issue a standard non-exclusive license and have had clients pay $2,000+ just to secure exclusivity, turning a $350 gig to a $2350 gig but regardless I only shot for 3 hours. Also, as I continued to grow and experiment, I chose not to think of my rates as an hourly mode like I used to, or a per minute rate, but rather just a flat fee that I would feel comfortable editing the video for. This way, I'm not concerned with how long I'm working on a project, but rather just doing what I need to do to make it fire and being able to take my time while I do it.

Very helpful..I need this type of video very much

Many clients will ask for last minute revisions; even when you've done everything exactly to their specs. It happens every time.

Great tutorial. I love your shirt too.

One thing i don't understand is that lets say im out on the shooting site for 6 hours but the time the i actually record footage is way less beacuse i capture 30-60 second the whole day. How would i charge that ?

How does the half day and full day rate apply for post-production?

$1500 is very cheap I have seen a wedding filmed for $20,000

Very interesing, thank you!!

2k to cut down a basic tree is high as fuck

Excellent pricing plan. I like it. Will used it.

Super helpful video, thanks so much! Just wondering, why does it take you 4-5 hours to edit a 30 second ad? Thanks!

wow this was extremely helpful thank you

Bro, love your shirt!! And great content! Greetings from Germany and God bless!

bravo

you gave me a foundation thanks

I've been a successful businessman since 1992. I was a terrible amateur for 10 years before then. Almost all my businesses have been service based with a crew of 4-10. I video a lot of cars and car repairs as a hobby. That's one of the reasons why I enjoy Tomorrow Filmmakers so much. There are many other reasons I like T Filmmakers. However, I believe all the pricing mentioned here is for a student & or amateur filmmaker just starting out, or a subcontractor. $55 an hour per person is about half what any legit business needs if they are going to pay a helper and actually pay all the taxes and other hidden expenses of running a business. Once you get to the point where you can produce competent competitive work. You need to figure at least 80-90 per hour X the number of people on your crew. It's a lot safer to figure $100-$125 per person. This is why a crew of 5 tree workers spends all day cutting a tree for $2000 and wonders why they are still broke. Do the math, $2000-5 = $400-8 hours = $50 per hour. Someone as experienced and knowledgeable as the man in this video should be charging at least $200 per hour per person. That doesn't mean the person watching the video should charge that much. I still film Children's charity car shows and some other things for free just to get practice and experience.

Has anyone tried out their course yet? Want to know how good it is?

Very very insightful video... God bless you

Me: Sir,What is your budget?(plz let it be closer to 2000$)
Client: Well About 20000$....is that ok?
Me: um...😐...ok it's gonna be fine😐🙂

I NEEDED THIS!

Makes good business sense. Seen so many creative entrepreneurs fail because they do not break down their chargeable content.

Yeah right. It's more like $1k budget for a minimum $3k project lol

Good for freelance. Also, consider overhead (insurance, rent, gasoline, marketing, sales), pre-production (creative, design, writing, hiring crew, hiring talent), post production (music, editing revisions, gear), and production (gear rental for your own gear or others gear, parking, travel, food, consumables). Work into the estimate the entire cost of the production.

Great basic starting point... but could get more complex as we all know 😀

Nailed it.

us 415 $ per 30 days
For editing videos a whole month in a job as a editor.
Give me tips plz

God bless you sir.. i really appreciate you

1312 acab

Started timing myself and had to tighten up on my editing skills.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

thank you

Really informative and to the point. God Bless you guys! Good stuff..