Pricing a $15,000 Video Shoot - Full Budget Breakdown with Real Client 

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One thing I try and teach everyone is to NEVER break costs down to the client. They can either afford it or they can't. How it breaks down on your end shouldn't matter to them because they're paying for the end result, and not how you got there. If you go to a steakhouse and buy a steak, you will get a bill for the steak. You won't get a bill listing how much the raw meat was, the prep cook, the chef, his knives, the rental of the kitchen, etc..., because it doesn't matter. We're currently doing 5k-40k projects and have never, and will never, break costs down for a client. It does zero to help them, they don't understand what it means anyways, and it only gives them something to potentially pick apart should they feel like questioning why you need X for this line item. For those who may say that their client must have that breakdown I ask why? The clients accounting is categorizing the whole thing as marketing/PR. They are not dividing it on their side. If anyone every fought back against it they wouldn't be a good fit for us anyways, but we've never once had anyone bat an eye when theres a single line item for 30K for the whole project, because like I said, all they care about is the end result and not how we got there...

You ain't a RU-vidr, bro. You're the real deal. Your channel is more useful than many "film" channels combined.

Great info here. Much appreciated.

Amazing. The light has turned on for me! Thanks.

Very helpful! Thanks for showing us your process on quoting a real project.

Best Video on budgeting i ve ever seen, thanks for the walkthrough

Thanks for the in-depth video!

Great Job, Love this video.

This is fantastic. Thanks.

This was great!

this is actually one of the few video where people show real prices. Most RU-vidrs dont want to say any numbers

Thank you for this! I've previously thought of video production budgets in 3 basic buckets (labor, overhead, profit) but the nature of large "pass through expenses" including both labor and equipment really does make more sense (higher fixed costs and a modest 20% calculation of profit margin across the board). I also really appreciate how you shared the thinking process behind the calculation of unexpected costs and risk management. Final comment you made about including the 20% in calculated line items also seems like a best practice for you and the client rather than breaking it out as you described many other doing. Really really valuable content here expertly presented. Thanks again! TJ

This is justwhat iw as looking for. It's hard to accurately estimate everything when you're firt starting out. This video gave me a list of things to plan out for! thanks

this is gospel on a Sunday!

Thanks

Great video! And your thought process is spot on and very informative. The one thing that I would highly recommend is using Blinkbid instead of the back and forth of a spreadsheet, Quickbooks, etc… Anyway, I really learn a lot form your videos and always look forward to the next. Thank you!

this was so helpful 👏 going to apply these tactics. is there anywhere to watch the three videos from the breakdown?

Ad agencies will double your price when you're working through them. If they're entitled to a 100% markup why aren't we entitled to a 50% profit when working independently? Anyway, that's my view after 40 years in the business. $3-4000 net profit on a $15k project is a lot of responsibility for a small amount of compensation. I get what you're doing and the lesson's you produce are outstanding, especially for the novice or person who sees the business more as a job than as a business. I try to keep it at 50% including margin AND what I make for the tasks I perform. I think your process really works for growing a company IF you have a market that supports the volume of video companies. In Chicago, absolutely. You're clearly killing it with sales and closings and that's very admirable. Keep the good stuff coming. Great job and even after 40 years in the business, mostly struggling now, I am wide open to learning and trying new things.

Another wonderful video! I assume your Director/DP will be the camera operator as well based upon this budget breakdown...normally they have a camera and lighting package - but do you always assume you as the production company is going to provide that (in stock or rental) so therefore the matching charge? No teleprompter, no food budget?

AMAZING info as always! my question is, when you first meet a client, WHO initiates the budget topic? and how to go about it on that meeting? thanks in advance for answering

Must have missed this one when it came out. Great breakdown of costs. Do you build in any cushion for price negotiation if the client wants to bargain the overall price they're willing to pay? In my experience I get some clients who want to counter the estimate a bit. Enjoying the content. Thanks in advance.

I almost died when you opened the calculator app when you're in Google Sheets!!! Hahaha thats too much

This was really great. Question: as a production house, when you sign on a freelance DP, do you get them to sign something saying the raw footage copyright belongs to you? Or do you let them keep the usual copyright kept for the footage? Also what do you do if the client asks for the raw footage OR if the client wants full copyright ownership of the raws?

Great video. There are very few people on Yourtube breaking this process down with this amount of detail. What did your deliverables list end up being in the end. You mentioned 3x spots with music and gfx. how long each clip? any broll and stock footage costs? did you deliver one format/size?

Thank you for a very helpful and insughtful video, as always! I have a few questions coming from my experience as the head of my little "production studio". I live in Kazakhstan (wonder if you've heard of the place, hehe), and we have a really shallow market flooded with "videographers" that have a camera and a gimbal, that would take any job, for any money, just to earn some pennies for a living. What would be your best advice on how to stand out and justify higher prices, and counter clients' habitual desire to cut costs wherever possible? Thanks!

💰💰💰

Great video! What about taxes? Are they included in the 20%?

I have my first $10,000 budget presented to me. I'm so used to shooting with my in-house gear and one-manning it, maybe an assistant here and there but that is rare, because it's hard to find help where I am located. Zoom meeting scheduled and I have no idea where to start besides asking what the concept is. HELP?!

You forgot lunch!

Thank you for this video. Not sure where you live but just renting a SKYpanel is about $275 for a day. Not sure how you calculate $350 for lighting? Is this just an arbitrary numbers?

I think StoryBoarding, Music production, and mixing engineer Prices are missing. Thanks for the info

If you are using spreadsheets why do you use a calculator instead of using formulas D:

LOL I wish sound mixers were $750 ... everyone here in houston is $1000+

I have often wondered this, especially as a one-man band who does all the pre-production, production, post, etc. When you talk about hourly rates, aside from the obvious-crew who are actually there on the day, how do you maintain accountability? So the editor is 75 bucks an hour. How does he/she, or even you, actually track that information? You just take their word for it that they did X hours of actual work? I’m not especially cynical or anything, but it’s easy to picture a guy sitting at his workstation at his house sucking hot sauce off his fingers like “yeah man, grinding along. I’ve been at it for 6+ hours now” when they zipped through 3/4 of the project already… Or barely any of it. Also with this, what if they have been sandbagging, or it turns out to be a particularly arduous editing process and they go over their projected time? Do you eat that cost? Again, as a one-man band, if the client MUST know, I just charge a certain amount per finished minute of work. But this is just me, I can either totally overwork myself or have an easy day. Working with an outsider is a whole different dynamic.

So, you send your client a $14K Invoice. Now, how do you deal with taxes and all that for the end of the year? So, it doesn't seem as though YOU made $14K, but only a small portion of that.

Thx lil nigga u da goat