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Pricing Guidelines?

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Pricing Guidelines?

Postby ridon127 » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:32 pm

I am not sure I posted this in the right place, so if not, please post to proper topic. I might even be out of line asking but... could someone maybe give some suggestions as to what is considered fair pricing? I have done one I charged for and it was for a friend so it was dirt cheap. I am so clueless about pricing. I know you have to get a license for music and stuff but I don't have an idea as to what that costs. Like I said, if this isn't a proper question or proper topic, please feel free to move or delete.. Just don't revoke my muvipix priviledges!!!!LOL
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby roadsideron » Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:58 pm

What exactly are you doing and what's involved in doing it?
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:01 pm

Hi Donna,
No problem asking the questions but I did move this to the water cooler.
I would also like to know what you are going to be doing, slideshows/memory type videos,
weddings, are you shooting video or just putting it all together on DVD?
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby ridon127 » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:36 pm

Thanks Chuck & roadsideron. For now it would be putting together stills with effects, video,
transitions, adding some motion backgrounds, and a menu. I am not shooting the video. It would probably be about 30 minutes. I just need a ballpark figure. As I said I have no idea what people charge. The first one I ever did was about 1 hr & 20 mins long. From what I could gather on my searching the web, the place I used to figure pricing on that was about $1200, I thought that was a little pricey. I could be wrong. I did this for family and it was for practice. They loved it and that was all that mattered on that one.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby Bob D » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:46 pm

I did a 15 minute video with 50 still pictures as a birthday gift for my boss's brother and she paid me $100.

The best way I found to set pricing is to search the internet, figure out what you are willing to offer (some sites get pretty complicated), determine what your time is worth, consider that you are just breaking into this as something for profit and price accordingly.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby roadsideron » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:01 pm

I just googled "Standard video editing rates" and got back a lot of information on rates. Try that.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:38 pm

As suggested already, just starting out generally calls for a little cheaper pricing, even free.
I did 2 free videos, I shot one of the two (three camera shoot and I got my daughter and a friend to help for free).
One wedding I did not shoot just edit and put together the DVD and case. In return I get to use any of the footage in any way I choose.
The best parts will go in my portfolio, I will create some demo DVDs and put something on my web site.

For the paying stuff I get a minimum of $300 and $500 per hour of finished video.
For each hour of finished video I probably have 10 hours or more of my time.
There are also rates you can charge by the image for a slideshow and if the images are pre-scanned
or if you have to do the scanning makes a difference.

For a 30 minute slideshow on DVD I think that $300 - $500 is very reasonable.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby Cinde » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:12 am

Donna, the others have already given you some really good advice.

My pricing structure is quite low because I live in a rural area that is very economically depressed. Most of my clients are blue-collar workers or those on fixed incomes. So, I think pricing structure will depend quite a bit on the economics in your area and the class of your clients.

I started out doing memorial videos from still pix. The first one I did was a freebie. Then I set an “introductory” price of $75 for the first 25 pix + $1 for each additional pix up to a total of 50 pix. I guarantee a 24-hour turn around so more than 50 pix can be very time consuming. I open with a simple background pix, scrolling credit of the person’s name and dates, followed by a zoom from 0 to full screen. After that it is cross fade transitions until the end where I zoom from full screen to 0 on the last pix.

Now I am also doing videos to be shown at reunions — like a family history. I did one with 102 pix and charged $150. When asked to do 20 copies after the reunion I charged $8 each and made another $160 in far less time than doing the original video.

I just finished a reunion video (for my best friend’s sister) of all the pix that where taken during the weekend reunion. I charged the sister only $200 for about 300 pix because the pics were already in digital form and I didn’t have to do any scanning. I did, however, have to convert to 4:3 and downsize the pix to 1000 x 750. Batch processing makes this an easy task. The 35 copies I made were freebies, because… well… to be quite honest I did 80% of the work for the original video at my best friend’s home using her computer while doing hospice care for her husband.

The one thing that bothers me is music. I accept only original CDs. If the client has a specific song and does not have an original CD I purchase it online and get reimbursed by the client. I recently ran into a problem in that the client didn’t know the title or artist of a song. I spent about 2 hours online and finally found it on a soundtrack for a movie. From now on I’m going to ask for a list of additional songs to choose from, and if they really have to have that one special song, I’ll tell them if they don’t have the correct title and artist I’ll charge extra for search time.

About the length of the video. I don’t charge by time length. I charge per pix. The younger viewers like a faster pace, while the older viewers want more time to focus on the pix. So, depending on the audience one pix could stay on screen for 5 seconds up 10+ seconds.

About freebies… I always get a written consent to use their pix/video in my portfolio.

I hope this helps you a little. I think a lot of us are still learning to do still pix videos, and we can learn together.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby ridon127 » Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:55 pm

Thanks for all the info. I did do a web search a few months ago and I was suprised at the prices so thats why I asked. I have a friend that does interpreting and we are thinking about doing Christian Sign Language videos. I don't like being in front of the camera and she doesn't like not being in the spotlight so this may work well..I appreciate all your responses.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby estherlouise » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:04 pm

I recently did a funeral of a person I did not know. The family had about 100 photos to be scanned and repaired/fixed. They also had a VHS video they wanted a clip from. I charged $50/hour and from an approx 24 min DVD I made $500. I timed the scan (of multiple photos that Elements divided) and the time it took to fix them. Then I made a slide show in Elements with pan/zoom and moved it to Premiere Elements in sections to allow the video to be placed between sections. I added music of their choice. I gave them multiple copies of the DVD, plus a CD of the original scan of the photos and another of the retouched photos.

You need to know that people who want your expertise are often in distress (funeral) and allow a free initial interview and also some other times when they want to see what you have to show them that you don't feel like you can charge time for before the final cut. This particular job was for a young man that had committed suicide. It took me weeks to emotionally get over the whole episode with meeting the many members of the family who wanted to be included into the process.

If you are going to do business you need to be aware of jobs coming to you that are not 'happy' occasions!

I followed this with a 'freebie' wedding of a friend of the family. That helped get me on an emotional high!
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby Chuck Engels » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:31 pm

Wow, that is some story Esther, sad but true, and very good advice.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby ridon127 » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:08 pm

WOW...That is quite a story. Thanks for the advice. Thanks for all the info about pricing.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby momoffduty » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:33 pm

Cinde & Esther, what a wonderful service you do for a grieving family. I can see where it would take an emotional toll. I am sure your video helps the family in their time of need.

Cinde, congrats..you have really expanded your business in such a short time!
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby estherlouise » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:21 pm

Thanks for the encouragement. I knew what to say to the family and what to expand on in the video because 3 years ago a DSIL died suddenly. Our DD asked me to scan and print photos of him to give to their 4 children in scrapbook form. I had just started using Elements and when the light bulb flashed overhead I decided to do a slide show of his life. But, wait a minute. Ninety-five photos of him was not the story of his life. By the time the first anniversary of his death came around, I was prepared. I had put together approx. 500 photos (3 sec. each) of his life, and we showed it to family and friends to celebrate his first birthday in heaven.

Two separate slide shows were made, as well. One was scanned newspaper action shots of his high school days on the football field and the basketball court. I set that to "Chariots of Fire." The other was photos taken by someone else of the graveside service and the memorial service. At that time I didn't have Premiere so I couldn't use the footage of the motorcycle run from the church to the cemetary. By the next year I had Premiere and was able to reformat into a combination video and slide show. I think this is by far my most interesting and moving challenge.

Of course the upside is that I was given the opportunity to grieve and to come up with an uplifting program to help others who wanted to view the good times as well as the sad ones. The music still resonates in my mind and I can hear the motorcycles as they approached the cemetary where we were waiting.
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Re: Pricing Guidelines?

Postby momoffduty » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:55 am

Esther what a touching story of your SIL. And what a wonderful gift you gave to your daughter and the children! I am getting a tad teary eyed thinking about it.

I have only been working with PE3 since January and trying to learn as I go. Mostly fun stuff for family. Last month a friend needed a demonstration video, a grad kinesiology major. Thought it would take only a few hours. Started at noon and had the burned DVD by nine. He forgot to tell me he needed it ASAP. A long day under the gun, but it turned out good. Wish I would have had more time to work on it. Had to triple check the Latin titles for each segment. It is a good feeling to know you can help someone out.

Of course this is in no comparison to a memorial video. I can imagine all the work that would go into that type of project.

Thanks for the inspiration!
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