Matti Haapoja I charge people what they can afford. If they’re a small mom and pop shop I charge less than I would for an institution wanting video work done.
I really have this issue in dubai .. To work as a freelancer with production companies .. They require freelancers for small tasks like 1.5 mnt video including edit shooting and everything .. Could you give me a figure if you know anyone in dubai ? Thank you :)
TIPS ALERT: I'm totally all about the incredible inspiration in this video, you're both super awesome in this! (just discovered your channel recently and as an full time fashion blogger for 6 years who has spend a lifetime in photography, you both gave some super helpful tips.) But however I know tons of people won't have even found out what their rate is, so just to break down for anyone who needs the basics: 1. Most clients & brands I've worked will always charge their videographers 1.5x more than the hourly rate onwards as beginners, yes this is basically the freelance rate in the UK, and it needs to be hell MORE! So beginners don't be afraid to charge £20/30 per hour - also this is without editing, sound etc. Don't let people charge you because you do work in half an hour, charge people because it took you 10 years to learn how to do it - never forget fellow padawans. 2. (This is particularly if you're still mingling into the industry) sadly you might get a few jobs that are underpaid, for friends, local companies and portfolio building stuff - take them on, but don't let them take the piss, you've worked so hard for your craft! Be honest, and be like dude.... this takes time, pay moiiiii! 3. ADD YOUR EXPENSES. You've got expensive gear, so add your fuel, add your taxi money - you haven't got a crap camera, so it needs to be shipped like it's a celebrity, in a limo, with bubbly and a fancy cushion (just joking, but do take care of your gear!) GUYS, you're doing a smashing job and cannot wait to see the next vid! @StephiLaReine xxx
No matter how amazing your work or service is - if you fail to communicate your value you will have a VERY hard time standing out in today's video production market. 👥👀 Thousands of new filmmakers are flooding the market every single day. 📹🤓 They are talented, hungry and worst of all they are willing to work for free or less money just to build up their portfolio or gain experience. If you don’t stand out or fail to communicate your value you’ll eventually get cut. Here’s the deal: You need to know your target customer - who exactly is it that you serve? 🤔 Know your target customer so you can craft messages that actually resonates with them. The more you can position specialization for a particular type of buyer, the more you will differentiate from the competition. 👥🆚👤 You need to understand their business needs and problems - What types of needs and problems do you help them solve? How exactly can you help? Accurately define the Impact of solving the need - What are the financial and emotional benefits of solving the need? Learn to present your offerings in a customer-centric approach and frame your service within the context of the needs you can help solve. You’re not just selling a video or some dude with a camera! 📽️=📈 The most important part: If you’re not confident or simply fail to communicate your value the sales conversation will most likely end in a no or some form of objection. 🙄 And if you produce videos for any type of business and take on everything from music videos over real estate to commercial and narrative work, then good luck! 🎲 The man who catches two rabbits catches none. I recently uploaded a video explaining 8 crucial mistakes filmmakers make when pricing their work if you want to go a bit more in depth :)
I recently got a job to shoot a commercial for Libyan Air Ambulance service, I showed them my previous work and they literally loved the quality of my work, then they asked me how much the commercial will cost them ? ... I gave them a much cheaper price than their was expecting! So they was thinking that I’m not professional enough, and they agreed with another guy who gave them much higher price.
I've had similar experiences too quoting project from referrals. They knew I did good work, but something about that low of a price (something like $200 for a day shoot while I was in college) really scared them and they hired someone else. I bumped my camera operator day rate up to 500 and have been getting MUCH better quality work since then.
Interesting topic. My company has been producing for 31 years now. Back in the day, we could price out a job based on what we thought the worth was, the impact the finished project will have, and it’s distribution. So a project that may actually not take that much time, we could charge a rather high amount. But now, for the past 10 years I no longer do that. I strictly, and I mean strictly charge by the hour. I have an hourly rate, and a day rate plus any expenses. Now both rates include ALL my production assets, aerial film, original sountracks, flycam/steadycam work, editing, color grading, audio sweeting, and most importantly, scripting/storyboard/writing and even flight plans. The key and what I explain to our clients, we charge the same hourly for all aspects of production. All we do is figure out how long it will take, for example 5 days of total production. And so 5 times daily rate, and that is the budget. This works well because if a client wants to haggle you down, or skimp on the budget, then you already know that the project is not worth your time and you move on. If they do agree to your budget, then you are getting paid exactly for the time it takes to produce and that is it. Very fair. Because we work a lot in television and print, we often can sweeten the deal by providing some distribution, etc, and we get paid for that as well. So in the end, what we do is have a hourly and daily rate. Here in the mid atlantic USA a day rate between 900 to 1500 is about what you can expect to charge. We fall somewhere in the middle. Godspeed, Jim Baugh Jim Baugh Outdoors TV
When I first started doing free weights video I was charging around $500 a day and then it went up to $650 day rate then it went up to $850 and now it's at a $1000 or $1200 depending on the clients. That being said I got a lot better as I started charging more. also if your beginner make sure you are charging for expenses if you have to rent gear drive to the shoot get a hotel room whatever the expenses are charge your clients.
I think you need to be honest to yourself. How much would you pay for your own work? What do you want to make? How many clients do you have? Think about the money you invested in your gear etc. Put everything together and you will have an amount of money you need to charge :-) Never undersell your work.
Great topic here and i agree on a lot of your points. When starting out you also gotta consider that you are building up your own portfolio, and the more work you have in your portfolio the easier it'll be for you to get clients in the future. You also gotta see the time you spend as some kind of investment towards getting more clients even though you might not get paid for all of your spent time. I also think that there's a huge difference depending on where in the world you are and how the market looks in your country. Personally i charge per project which i think is great for my kind of workflow! Thanks for the video Matti!
Great video Matti! Many people talk about the industry standard, but I have really felt that if client really wants your work, they are willing to pay for it. I am somewhere in the middle of this journey that you decribed. Have been working for 1,5 year in a row without break (burned out hard), because there is just so much work and clients, asking twice-three times as much as I did when I started out 2-3 years ago. But there is still so much work, so now I’ve really comed to value my time and rather charging even more or turning down work. For me it has hard to turn down work because starting out as a freelancer there used to be the fear of running out work. But health comes first and learning to say no (or charge more.) I like to think that when client has never asked for a lower price/always agrees with your first quote, you are charging too little haha.
Toughest thing I've faced becoming a film maker. I've realized that even when you're small and think you have no leverage and aren't worth anything, time is always your leverage. People that are big have skills and money, but they can never buy more time.
Charging for your gear: I was hired to shoot stills on a location TV shoot, and I was shocked when the contract included a "box rental" (I think that's what it was called), which was basically me charging them for using my own camera gear. But apparently this is standard in the industry. Nice perks.
Just want to say, you've been KILLING it with these more recent videos Matti. Not that your older vids were bad or anything, but lately they just seem snappier or something. Anyway, great work and thanks for all the tips and great content!
A friend and I just did a job for a large construction company. Internal video for their annual engineering conference. We charged them $8600 for 3 1/2 full days of hectic but organized shooting and editing the 20min final product took us 4 solid days of editing with the two of us. We rented a Sony a73, Ronin S, a nice shotgun mic, extra batteries, etc.. That came out of our pocket at about $600. We also rented a car as we just wanted to keep gear in one vehicle and carpool to the daily “set”. They were happy with the final product and it won them first place in the regional video contest which makes us feel like they’ll most likely hire us next year. Something else to add is working for a little less with a first time company is also a great way to “get your foot in the door” for future potential work. At the end of the day, don’t undervalue yourself as it will be more difficult to get a fair rate after the fact. I should also add that I’m in Hawaii so everything is more expensive. I feel like in 2019, creators wear most of Not ALL of the hats on a smaller productions. Don’t sell yourself short and start focusing on a minimum of at least $500 per day to have you show up with YOUR gear and YOUR time. Good luck creators!
We've all done jobs too cheap when we were starting out and trying to make a little money and gain experience. The problem is, this takes value away from the whole industry. All the people doing stuff too cheap end up ruining their dreams of making bigger rates down the road because clients don't understand the value of our craft. The industry is so oversaturated it's hard to find that balance of being fair enough to get the jobs but high enough that you cover your time and talent and help build value in the industry.
Matti...thanks for making all these great videos, I've spent so much money since I've started following you on RU-vid and its paying off. I've downloaded your Lux files and they have really made a difference in color grading. Better quality = high prices. Thanks again I've learned a lot from you. Don't stop anytime soon.
Contracts. It's important to have it all laid out in a contract that both you and your client(s) agree to. You can even put clauses in the contract that state you get paid extra if the day goes over: e.g. round to the nearest half-day, add contingency that may be refunded, etc. There will be trial and error throughout your process of figuring out how to charge clients but keep at it and you'll get it!
My first two clients I had for editing, I charged about $20 for videos up to 15 minutes. It was definitely a huge undersell but no one wanted to pay a lot. The workload was easy, so that's a plus. I never had any other clients after (cause I stopped it) but once I get better at the craft, hopefully I don't undersell again lol. This is a video i'm definitely saving in my filmmaking playlist.
Excellent info! This should help out a lot of people! I remember how lost I was starting out with what my value was and how much I should charge, it took a couple years before I started to grasp what worked in the Toronto area.
Excellent topic...even though many factors play in...as creators we tend to undercut ourselves and not realize how much we really are worth and what it takes to produce quality work! Dope video matti
You don't even know how unbelievable timing this video was uploaded, this morning i was offered a job at a marketing company I've been interning at for a pay by project basis and my boss told me to think about a price that I was comfortable working for, and this video was unbelievably helpful Matti. Thanks so much!
I tend to think its a mix of supply and demand. You need gig's and doing it relatively cheap you can get them. Then when people are happy word of mouth picks up you get more gigs. When you start to get more gigs than you can take increase the price. Demand will slow down and if it picks up repeat the same process. At some point you will reach a supply and demand balance that will reflect you price you should charge. Thanks for the vid Maatti, great tips!
Thanks Matti. This video couldn't have come at a better time. I work as a videographer in a small company but have just started advertising my services as a freelancer to make a bit of extra money. Now I have had two people contact me already requesting quotes but had no idea what to change until I just watched your video. Thanks again for you great content as always. Cheers, Matt.
Love this, Matti, and the Distillery District scenes in the opening! We filmmakers cannot get enough of awesome filmmakers like you sharing their insights on this topic of how much to charge. It's a fluid subject depending on where everyone is in their journey and this adds more insights into our neverending planning about how much to charge. Also, please tell me Mark was kidding and the DD has not implemented a No Vlogging Zone lol
Please make more this type of videos! Sooo many content creator talking about gears and technical stuffs, but this kind of topic is rarely discussed openly.
Thanks for sharing this Matti! Some great tips that gave some clarity and guidance to a struggle I have with my own filmmaking. Please keep posting videos like this, really helpful :)
It is so inspiring watching successful filmmakers from the same area as me. Seeing my favourite areas of the city in your videos makes the dream seem so real.
Charging a client is one of the most difficult decision for everyone generally. What I do is I prefer to charge higher and give the clients reasons why.... having a feasibility study on your plan should help you know what you'd need for the shoot. Thanks Matt for sharing. Its a problem for everyone.
I'm definitely with you on not doing anything for less than $500. I charge differently based on each situation, but none of your clients really know what goes into the production of a single video, the recording part is just one aspect. In the age of the cell phone, everyone thinks it's fast and easy. Good vid.
Great video matti! super informative, and glad you put out this video! i'm currently in wedding photography and i'm wanting to go into wedding films so this definitely will help!
Just getting into making short films for myself and a few businesses. Definitely need this for sure!! If i wasn't a full time business owner and fishing guide, I would make an attempt at full time film making and marketing :)
Don't forget to include cost of operating a vehicle including repairs, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation. Also include overhead such as utilities for your office, depreciation and maintenance for your computer.
love that location its full of life and greatness in summer careful not to charge cheap often cause those small amounts will be tattoo on to you for a long long time, don't be a freelance that charge cheap but see your quality of work and base on that people will pay you for your work your quality of work your experiences
I have that problem. And I can't charge day rates because I'm a student so I charge per hour. But in my area in Belgium, there are almost no professional filmmakers and I have absolutely no idea what rate to ask clients... I have nothing to compare to. Luckily, RU-vid helps 😅 Thanks for the video!
Great video. Funny thing, years ago before digital I worked as a wedding photographer with medium format film. After several years of shooting weddings I burned out and didn’t want to do that kind of work anymore. So I thought if I raise my price I’ll get less bookings and I can concentrate on other things. Well, I got busier after raising my price lol. So that was good point.
Offer distribution as well and you can get a recurring revenue not just one time shooting and editing fee.Most Businesses dont really care about the video itself but the results it gets aka clients.If you figure out how to get clients for the business you can charge a lot.
Hi Matti, thanks for this very informative video! Money conversations are usually so hush hush. It is very difficult to figure out where to start and what is acceptable. Thanks so much for sharing and creating this video.
one thing that i really curious is how you brand yourself. like what do you do so the people know you're the videographer, filmmaker, or the photographer that they need. and they know you had the best quality to pay more than average.
I personally have monthly deals with small businesses, so we agree on fx. 4 videos pr/shoot and do 1-2 shoot (2 hours maximum pr/shoot) pr/month. Some of them i charge 100 dollars for a video - some of them i charge 250 dollars+ pr/video. It totally depends on the videos though.. but atm i only need my Canon 80d, røde video mic pro + and i make a couple thousands a month. You mention paying for DP'ing, editing etc... What i do are simple small videos, that dont need all of that jazz - for me it has worked like magic, and i dont see many small videomakers doing it this way. You guys reading this comment, should deff try it out. Btw i dont call myself a filmmaker, just a videomaker :) nothing fancy about the videos a make, but i do get paid pretty good for the actual work i put in.
There was some really good information about the how much to charge and learnt concepts on how to charge that i didn't know about. But, i wanna ask you the main question. A person can charge a certain amount of money only if he/she gets a client and I have been struggling to find clients who will actually pay me a descent amount, or it may be just because I have just started out. If you can do a video on how could one find clients and how to start making some money in this industry. Thank you Mattie for the great content.
It is always a complicated issue about how much should a freelancer charge especially at the beginning of our journey, I've been in this position and I know how frustrating is, thanks man for this video and your brilliant infos
Nice vlog and subject bro... But I think it is important to mention and point out to up comers and young creators, that even do you are a fulltime professionel DP, director/creative professionel you still offend do "free" work for your own benefit. with this I mean it is not always important to charge X amount of dollars on a single project, if it will help your career to take a step to the next level. I have personal worked for "free" many times in my life, just to double my day rate off the road... my best advise is to be a cool dude and work hard, and then the money will come all by itself! Love from Denmark!!! =)
Thank you so much for this video! I think I asked on one of your recent videos how much to charge, and then you uploaded this video! Thank you so much Matti!
Great video but I would have loved it if you would have touched on run and gun 1 man crews. I'm 2-3 years into making videos and I have day rate of 300. Eventvideos around influencers and social content mostly. Am I undercharging?!😱 I direct, shoot and edit...
Yes you are undercharging. 300 for that amount of work is pretty unsustainable. With a couple years experience you should have a decent portfolio, if you don't ask yourself why
I think that depends on the type of work that you are doing and how much the rate is in your area.. $300 is considered a good rate in my country for a one man crew event videography, include the edits. I think Matti is mostly talking about commercial project that require a team work of director, dp, ac, art department etc.
@@arithmafajartrilaksono2905 Makes sense, I'll be doing anything from high end Esports to Football Premier League gigs this year. I'll charge more for those but still, those numbers Matti mentioned are insane to me. But you're right, most of us are probably run and gun filmmakers doing their own thing, only a few probably work on bigger productions like you mentioned. maybe I'm wrong. oh well, good video to look back on in the future :)
@@arithmafajartrilaksono2905 He's not, it can be any job. Events have budgets/marketing teams, they can afford to pay, if they want a professional product, and you can deliver that, then you need to charge accordingly. Your not taken seriously until you know your value. If you have regular clients getting you at 300 quid a gig, they know you are cheap so keep hiring you, that works in their favor but not yours. I've had more experienced DOP's tell me off for charging so little, it hurts the whole industry when someone undercharges. If you don't ask you don't get and sometimes you have to be willing to walk away. I know that's tough when bills need to be paid, but until you are charging what you are worth your always gonna be in that position. Charging more allows you to work less. Would you rather do 10 jobs for 300 that takes you a month to do, or 1 job for 3,000 that you can do in a week?
Can you do a video about how to find the community in your area of expertise? And the polite way of finding out what everyone else charges as apposed to what you are thinking about charging? I think that would be really interesting.
Matti, I’d love to be a guest on your channel. I can talk about being a blogger, rates and why we all need to make that conversion to include more video. (It’s in my plans, yes. Don’t judge my channel today) But as a blogger, I’m respected in the industry!
Gotta have that disclaimers now a days.. internet.. Thanks for the tip Matti! Im currently just starting hopefully I could build a career out of this hobby 😁
