Comments on: How to turn a $3,000 job into a $30,000 job

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:03:34 +0000

Hi Lucy! Photo I received! Thanks!

By: Laughing too hard to remember

Laughing too hard to remember — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:45:25 +0000

If you have to go to such extremes for business, you should look at another career.

By: Josh Mellicker

Josh Mellicker — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 17:53:50 +0000

Well, unless the client has a long proven history of success in this market, I would make sure the project is worthwhile upfront without counting on massive residuals… that being said, if it’s a fun project, and you are part owner, hane fun and go for it!

By: Jason Freedman

Jason Freedman — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:51:27 +0000

Thanks for the quick reply, Josh.

Ooops. I guess I managed to completely miss my original intention of posting!

My quandry is not really how much to charge, rather the method of compensation:

Flat Fee vs Hourly Rate vs Percent of Profits vs a Combination of Those Options

I’m typically in the flat fee/hourly rate realm, but this is a whole different ball of wax in that there is the intention of putting this project out to sell to The Masses…All my previous work has been sold to a select group (event participants) or delivered singlely to the client (training/demo videos). In the first case, there’s a been a finite number of potential sales - a few hundred copies up to about 2,500.

So, the person I’m working with (”client”) has a vision of this thing being sold everywhere from Amazon.com to Wal-Mart and all the places in between. His intellectual concepts my creative vision = a project so amazing that Disney will buy him out…or he’s lucky to recoup his costs…

Yes, we’ll have a contract, but while I’m prepared to do this on spec, I’d like to include seeing some residual income if/when this thing takes off.

Hopefully this post makes my question clearer!

By: Josh Mellicker

Josh Mellicker — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 09:18:44 +0000

Thanks for your comments!

Here’s some thoughts on how much to charge:

http://dvcreators.net/discuss/showthread.php?t=9550

By: Jason Fredman

Jason Fredman — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 02:05:37 +0000

Thanks for the inspiring article, Josh. I just re-discovered it this evening.

A philosophy I subscribe to:

PROSPECTIVE CLIENT AT FIRST MEETING: How much will this video cost?

ME: How long is a piece of string?

That being said, I currently find myself in a new situation - For the first time in my 15 years of production experience, I am in talks for a DVD project that plans to be marketed nation-wide. It’s not tied to a retail company, as in your articles example. More along the lines of an educational program modeled on the Baby Einstein brand.

Up until now, all my projects have been one-offs, very short runs (under 1,000), or as a camera operator at live events.

I’m looking for your feedback on how to go about pricing my services.

Thanks and have a great day!