I've been flying and shooting as a hobby mainly but lately have been getting offers for money to shoot aerial video. I decided to take someone up on it and they told me to just shoot them a quote and they will take care of the rest(good friend of mine). This will be all indoor flying in a warehouse which ive done plenty of times so no problem there but I have no idea on the cost of something like this. What to charges etc... I am not a master at video editing but I would say I am intermediate and I can do some advanced stuff but just takes me longer. Anyone have any advice on pricing? I know it kinda depends on location and everyting. I was thinking about quoting $400 for a 4ish minute video with several cuts to flying through corridors and the warehouse etc...
I generally charge $100/hour with a 1 hour minimum. This doesn't include film industry work, which is a completely different billing package. My invoices are "portal to portal" which means the clock starts as soon as I walk out my front door and doesn't stop until I'm back in my office. If I have to take time to get permits, they pay for that, too. Why hourly and not hard bid? Because the customer never knows what they want. I charge $100/hour for video editing. So if they just want raw footage, I'm paid to fly and paid to deliver the footage. If they want a finished, polished video, they pay for editing. Finished commercial real-estate videos generally invoice out at $1500 - $2000 for a 1 - 2 minute video, which assume about 10 - 15 hours of editing.
One client wanted me to do everything, which included script, voice-over, aerial, ground footage, editing, producing and on and on. I invoiced that one @ $2500 + tax, which was a very good deal. I probably should've charged closer to $4K, but this was my first "fully produced" video. So I was easy on the invoice.
Worth noting: Aerial was shot with my Phantom 1 and a Hero 3+ camera on a DYS gimbal.
Beware the sales tax monster...
I charge tax 90% of the time. But if the customer doesn't want to pay tax and just wants to write me a "quick-n-dirty" check or pay in cash, I'm fine with that. But some customers, ESPECIALLY Real Estate, will come at you toward the end of the year with their accounting department wanting your tax information. At that point I give them the option to either pay the tax retroactively, or back off. Some back off and others pay the tax. I started this practice after I was audited by the state twice the first and second years of my drone business. They went back 7 years both times, demanding retroactive payment for every lawn I mowed, music gig I did, every network I set up, every old lady I helped across the street...EVERYTHING. Needless to say I learned the state tax system inside and out REALLY quick. So now I only pay what I have to (what they can track) and not a penny more. But I digress...
Good luck.
D