Posted by Steve King on 10/11/05 23:06

"Seattle Eric" <noone@erehwon.gov> wrote in message
news:434bf4e2$0$4862$8b463f8a@news.nationwide.net...
> Larry J. wrote:
>> Well, many producers sill swear by the tried and true, $1,000 per
>> finished minute, as a general rule.
>
> Many producers don't think very well. I'd say $1,000+/minute, UP TO
> FIFTEEN MINUTES. After that, it starts dropping off.
>

When you say the above, you must have a general type of video in mind. As
Larry said, graphics laden videos might cost less than the ROT (Rule Of
Thumb;-). On the other hand, I am starting production of an approximately
15 minute video that has a day of aerials. There are 6 locations. Three of
those locations are for interviews. The interviewees locations and
availabilities are such that I cannot do more than one in a day. One of the
interviews will require travel and overnight accomodations. My client wants
high production values, which means pretty lighting and at least two days
with a dolly and one with a camera crane that can get the camera up 16 feet.
This project will bill out at considerably more than $1k per minute. As an
example of a video that comes under the ROT, last week I shot some footage
of a client demoing some test equipment. Each test was shot as a single
camera shot. It took about two hours. I put the project together today in
about four hours. Maybe a total of 10 minutes of video for a web site.
That will fall considerably under $1k per minute. In short, I still think
RsOT aren't worth much unless one's work is all pretty much the same. I
hope mine stays sufficiently diverse that I have to pull out the spread
sheet each time to stay solvent.

Steve King

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