Pricing freelance videography work is a complex, fluid process heavily dependent on understanding project scope, client needs, and delivering value, rather than relying on static rates.
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Figuring out how to price your work is
one of the most challenging parts of
being a freelance videographer,
especially when you're just starting
out, but really in all parts of the
journey. Partly because talking about
money is kind of taboo and kind of
intimidating. Partly because pricing
video work isn't static or singular.
It's fluid. And generally, it's based
projects. The [music] numbers change.
And without references, without the
ability to talk to other people in the
industry, have candid, honest
conversations about what they what they
charge, how they price, it's really hard
to get your bearings and understand what
your value and what you're worth
actually is. So, in today's video, I
want to break down exactly what I charge
and how I approach pricing real client
work in hopes that it will help you in
your journey figure out what you should
be charging and how you should be
pricing. And if you're farther along in
the journey than I am, you can let me
know down below what you think about my
pricing model. Maybe I'll learn
something as well and be able to shift
or change or up my rates based on your
input, feedback, and experience, which
is one of the beautiful things about
YouTube. Hopefully, honest, candid
conversations without any gatekeeping
can help us all advance and all grow in
our career. A rising tide raises all
ships. So, let's dive straight in and
talk about [music] money. Now, first and
foremost, like I said, every project is
a little bit different. It's really hard
just to give out one singular number and
say this is what you should be charging
because probably the most important word
is understanding scope. And this is
where communicating with clients is a
really big deal. Before you ever throw
out a quote or begin talking numbers or
money, you first have to understand the
scope of the project that you're being
approached to execute on. What are the
deliverables? How is the video going to
be used? What is the pre-production and
post-production requirements of your
time? What kind of gear is necessary? [music]
[music]
All of these pieces play a factor in how
you're going to price work. There's a
difference between just showing up as a
freelance videographer where you're
bringing a camera, you're pressing
record, and you're handing off raw
footage versus being involved in a
multi-day shoot where you're involved in
post-production and pre-production and
you're running multiple cameras and
running a team, right? They're totally
different beasts. So having
pre-production conversations with your
client, understanding the scope of what
they're expecting and what the project
actually entails, what the deliverables
are is absolutely paramount in pricing
your work appropriately. And I found
that most pricing or money stress in
client conversations really comes down
to an unclear scope. Pricing problems
are usually scope problems. And that's
the first thing we have to understand.
And so here are a couple questions I
like to ask clients to get a better idea
of scope so I can make a more informed
quote. Right? Those questions are, what
is this video for? How are you going to
use it for your business or your
company? What is the outcome or the call
to action that's a part of this? This
just helps you understand the value to
the client. Helps you understand the
scope. I'm going to use that word a lot
of the video that you're creating. Where
will it live? Is it a website video? Is
it a social media piece? Are they going
to be running paid ads against it? Is it
just internal? How many deliverables are
expected? Are you just shooting one
talking head interview? Do you need to
deliver cutdowns? Do you need to deliver
multiple videos, multiple interviews? Is
there uh a brand story piece, a mini
dock piece? Is there a campaign in here?
Right? These are all questions that help
you understand what's the timeline. Is
there a hard deadline or is there
flexibility? How involved do I need to
be in the project? Am I just showing up
and shooting? Am I directing, producing?
Am I editing and coloring? And right,
that's a really important question. and
how involved do I need to be in the
process? And then of course, it's
important to ask a client, what is the
budget that you have set aside for this
project? Now, I know in my experience
when I was first starting out, I hated
asking that question. It made me really
uncomfortable to ask clients about
budget. I I don't know what that was
exactly. There was just something in me
that had a little bit of fear about
asking clients about budget. But it is
so important to set the stage early in
the conversation to understand how the
client is approaching this project, what
budget they have in mind to just to make
sure you're even on the same page and in
the same ballpark. Clear scope [music]
equals clear pricing. Understanding your
value and charging accordingly. So with
all that out of the way, now let's talk
some hard numbers. There are sort of two
hard numbers that I use and that's my
day rate and my half day rate. Now like
I said, sometimes this applies,
sometimes it doesn't. But in full
transparency, my day rate, [music] which
is eight hours of shooting for me, I'll
bring two cameras, I'll bring two
lights, just a little threepoint
lighting setup with no pre-production
and really no post-production. I'm
showing up, I'm filming, I'm handing you
the raw files. For me, that's $1,200.
That's my current day rate. That's what
I'm charging. And so far, that has felt
good to me. And clients have been
willing to pay that. So, I know there
are people who charge more. I know there
are people who charge a little bit less.
That's sort of been the sweet spot. The
half day rate for me is 700 which is
just a little bit more than the full day
half of half of the full day rate just
because there is work on and packing and
loading and prepping gear that I want to
charge for right 4 hours 8 hours it's
not just half the amount of time because
of the prep work. So 700 1,200 those are
my baseline half day and day rate fees.
I found for me if I'm going to be away
from my family for 8 hours if I'm going
to have to take a day off from my my 9
to5 job put in for PTO 1,200 is the
number where that makes sense. When the
number starts to get too too much less
than that the work doesn't become as
worth it for me. So that's part of
figuring out your day rate is just
figuring out how much money you actually
willing to do the work for. Industry
standard aside, what is worth it to you?
Now, you want to be careful that you
don't go too low when you're just
starting out. Kind of shoot yourself in
the foot because you can set a bad
precedent and, you know, you can kind of
dig yourself in a little bit of a hole
where you're all of a sudden doing a lot
of money or you're all of a sudden doing
a lot of work for not a lot of money.
And you you do want to avoid that so
that you have room and opportunity to
grow as a professional moving forward.
But having a starting point is really
important. But like I said, that's not
the final quote. That's just where I
start. Now, occasionally I am hired just
as a a videographer to show up with my
cameras and my couple lights, shoot a
couple interviews, hand off raw footage,
but I found a lot of my projects are
more involved than that. But having that
day rate number is still a helpful
starting point as I begin to piece
together a larger quote. So, when do I
begin to expand off that day rate? Well,
like I said, it's when the scope begins
to shift away from just that basic
package. And you learn this really early
on in the conversation. So, one of the
things I like to do when I'm talking to
clients is help them understand there's
sort of this like golden triangle of
pricing. I this is didn't come up with
this, you've heard this probably other
places, but you can either have
something done fast, done well, or done
cheap. Generally speaking, you can't
have all three, right? So, if you want
it fast and good, it's going to be
expensive. If you want it fast and
cheap, it's probably not going to be
that high quality. So, you can kind of
use that to help your client understand
how they want to invest their money for
the final outcome that they're going to
get. So depending on the time that they
need to shoot the project, the
complexity of the project, the amount of
gear needed, how involved I need to be,
like I said, in editing the project or
in the pre-production, am I hiring and
bringing on crew? Uh what is the urgency
or the rush on the project? What is my
role other than just the shoot, right?
All of these things are scope
conversations that [music] increase my
price above that $1,200 day rate. And
these this is the piece that's a little
less defined for me. This is where I
still kind of have to figure out some
things project to project. I don't have
a set template where I just say if
there's this many extra hours of
shooting, I charge this much more. If
I'm editing, this is how much I charge.
And I do need to get a little bit better
about that probably. Generally speaking,
for editing jobs, I tend to float in the
$90 to $100 an hour for extra hours on
work. You know, $100 an hour, somewhere
in that range. But overall, this pricing
triangle helps me have conversations
with my client [music] about how we're
about the quote and helps me approach
those conversations with a level of
confident. It allows me to frame pricing
as a problem-solving exercise and
opportunity. [music] Right? We can tie
monetary value to specific outcomes
aligned with their priorities for their
specific project. So I can say things
like, hey, if we want to keep the
quality really high and still deliver on
the timetable that you need, we're going
to have to increase our budget a little
bit in these areas. And it's really
helpful to be able to ground that
conversation in in tangible outcomes
such as quality and time. So of course,
these are all soft rules and there are
of course cases where I break these
rules. Like I broke down in a video a
couple video ago about this podcast that
I'm editing, right? I'm breaking some of
my own rules because that is a client
that I have a previous relationship
with. It's work I was excited about. And
these are some reasons why you might
charge a little less than you would
otherwise, right? Long-term clients,
editing only projects, flexible
timelines, slower seasons, uh ministry
or church work for me is a big deal
where I like to give a little bit of a
discount, relationship building
opportunities. [music] These are all
maybe different scenarios where you'll
take a little bit of a pay cut because
you really want the work. You're
invested in the work. You care deeply
about the relationship. And that is
totally fine. There are no hard fast
rules when it comes to video work. And
you can absolutely charge what you want
for a project. Really, what matters at
the end of the day is that the money is
worth it to you, not what anybody on
YouTube or any other platform says that
you should be charging. So, take this
all with a huge grain of salt. Like I
said, I'm still fairly new in my career.
I I'm just putting this out there as a
helpful resource for you. Not not trying
to say this is how you need to do it,
but I know I would have found a video
like this helpful [music] when I was
sort of just beginning and figuring out
my pricing structure and strategy. And I
hope if you disagree or if you have a
different structure strategy that you'll
let me know so that I can learn from you
as well. So just a couple closing
thoughts, right? Pricing will never feel
perfect. It's always going to be a
little bit of a challenging conversation
where you're having to adapt client to
client and that is okay. I think
flexible pricing is really important
because projects are flexible, right? So
generally speaking, clarity is
important. Clarity equals confidence.
clarity on scope, clarity on pricing,
clarity in communication, that will help
the relationship so much. So, I know
it's challenging, um, but I found the
more just direct and upfront I can be in
having conversations around finances,
the better the relationship is, the
better the project goes, the more
smoother things run for everybody.
Actually being afraid to talk about
budget, to be talk about money has sort
of hurt me in the past with clients and
it just creates a weird vibe. So, just
be honest, be upfront. This is a
business transaction and that is an okay
thing. So there you go. That's how I
approach pricing my video work. I hope
that was helpful for you. I'd love to
hear down below if you think there's
ways in which I could approve or where
what you're doing, how you're
approaching charging and pricing your
video work. Catch you in the next one. Peace.
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