|
Why Do You Charge Flat Fees for Video Production? Why Do You Charge Flat Fees for Video Production? We constantly have videographers quoting us flat rates for video production.
I will charge you $500 for a 10 minute video they say.
I don't get it and I don't want it! You are fired before you even have the job.
Why?
One, because you are an idiot, since you have no clue what is involved, how long I expect you to film, how many different scenes or what is involved in set up or editing.
The only way you can make a stupid statement like "I charge a flat rate" is because you have zero experience, have no clue what a real video production is like and you already have in your mind, how much time you plan to spend on the project. That means I am not getting a 100% effort for my money.
No doubt, you have no ability to add special effects because some of them can take days of editing to get right. Some take countless hours just to set up. Hell, it sometimes takes hours just to find the right sound effects.
Sure, you can video me feeding my cat and go home and edit it for $500 and give me some shit which is what I expect from someone that is charging a flat rate.
You are being hired as a videographer and editor to provide a finished product, but you are expecting to show up, point your camera for a few hours and take the crappy video home and edit it into some shitpile of a REEL and call it a day.
OK, I will conced that you could price a one day shoot on a flat rate, but lets see, that means you have a fixed amount to charge based on a fixed number of hours. OMG, that is just like pricing by the hour and not flat rate at all.
This is why you are a videographer instead of a content creator. Working for other people on the cheap!
Your pricing is completely ignoring what the content is going to be, whether it is any good and if the client will be happy with it.
Some of our 2 minute videos take days to shoot and we often go back and re-shoot scenes that we realized could have been better or needed different dialog.
That is just shooting scenes, the editing is another story entirely. Some edits take 40-50 hours on a 2 minute video. Ask anyone that has made content and not just videos of their grandmother baking cookies.
OK, that is a very hard assessment of how we feel about flat rates. But if you are charging flat rates, you need to hear it. Because this is what your customers are thinking.
I understand the need to put caps on pricing, everybody wants cheap. But do you want to make cheap videos?
Don't you want to have opportunities to do better?
Don't you want to take on bigger projects that challenge you, push you and educate you with new skills?
Then stop quoting flat rates and charge a fair wage based on the effort you put in. Don't put in a crappy effort because you told somebody you would do the video for $500 and you reached your time limit.
If you are a good videographer, then charge for it and produce some good content instead of the shit you are putting out at flat rates.
|
