30 sec commercial general project costs

[Luke Mullen]

Hey guys...

I'm helping some friends here in Austin, Texas get a production company up and running and we're wondering what other people are charging for productions. Do you guys charge hourly rates or per project? For example, if someone came to you with a job to do a one-day shoot with your RED package for a 30 second commercial for a local business what kind of rate or cost would you think about charging. For the sake of being specific, lets assume the script is already written, it's a one location shoot at the business. Your job is to bring in your RED and lighting, light it, shoot it, then post it. Edit in HD for a final delivery on DVD and as an HD QuickTime file. If you guys don't mind helping me out, I'd like to know what others are charging for this type of work and whether to do hourly rates, day rates, or flat-rates per project, all the kind of stuff. Thanks for reading this and (hopefully) for taking the time to help us out.

Luke

[Vigen Vartanov]

If you are interesting in Prices in Rep Of Georiga i can share it with you.
I do not thing that some body can calculate it like this.
Share more information about project , what you need from shoot , will
it be static shoot , or you want dolly , crane , and etc.Will it need
some VFX job .

[Jim McKinney]

You probably want to bid it on an AICP bid sheet or some facsimile of that.
There are so many variables, it helps to sort out exactly (as far as possible) who's responsible for what. Otherwise, it's sort of like asking a contractor how much he'll charge to make a building.

[Noah Posnick]

Definitely get your hands on an AICP bid form and bid out each job individually. Like the two guys before me said, there are too many variables to just say X is the price and have that be that.

For the production, consider you'll want insurance at least for the location and equipment you rent (if you're renting). Charge for the rental of your own equipment if you are using it. As far as labor costs, it's generally done based on a day rate - and then hourly rates based on a percentage of those day rates for overtime - if you know it's going to be a really long day, make sure you budget in for overtime. Basically, just make sure to cover your costs, bad the budget for unexpected occurrences. You may have a friend who does sound who will only charge you $300 a day with his kit and you'll put that in the estimated budget, but then just before the shoot he gets a call for a better gig and you have to hire a professional sound guy based on a referral who you can't expect to cut you that deal and charges a full day rate + kit fee. With a few of these mishaps, your budget all of sudden goes way over. I learned this the hard way as I'm sure many others have. You'll eventually get to a point where you're good at bidding - it does take experience though.

I learned the most of what I know by coordinating at a small production company that did similar work to what I wanted to do (at least at the start). I developed a close relationship with the exec producer who would always answer my questions and didn't mind me looking through past budgets once they were actualized - this was extremely helpful as I saw where things were under and overcompensated for.

As to directly address the original question of how much things cost, I can't say because I live in New York and even here day rates vary extremely - due to the type of the work and the skill level and experience of the person. I would call up some local crew members in your area to get a gauge for what to put in your bid form and just be open and honest with them. Tell them you are starting a production company and you're curious about their day rate. This is just a natural part of the bidding process whether it be from equipment estimates or locations. You're just starting, so start with the first section of the AICP bid form, which is crew.

[Luke Mullen]

Wow, thanks very much. I had never heard of the AICP bid sheet, that's new to me, but definitely looks like something I need to familiarize myself with very soon. Thanks for taking a minute to give me some great advice!

[Fredrik Callinggard]

It's all about mark up. A general is 25% and then you deal from there.

The tough part is to estimate the cost of the production, because you will bind yourself to solve it for the budget you claim is possible. Out of that budget you are in charge to keep your mark up.