Hourly Rate

Thank your lucky stars you have a job!

If you want more, then, figure out a way to “go for it”. Instead of, trying to figure out a way to get more out of your employer.

Did I mention ” Thank your lucky stars you have a job!”

"...Does anyone have a rough idea of what would be a fair hourly rate for this kind of work?...

It all depends on your particular market.

Try this: find 5 different vendors in your area that are doing what you want to do. Call them up and act like you're interested in booking them for a gig. What do they charge?

That would be one way to start the research.

DP 1 GHZ Quicksilver, 12" Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Are you using your own edit system? Remember, you have to include that in your hourly rate if you use your own system.

I don't know much about the wedding market but if you're working on film, documentary, tele-series...basically stuff for TV or even budget indie stuff and granted you're really good at what you do and have your own rig...you should easily get at least $ 50-75 an hour.

No

I think you should thank your lucky stars you live in Australia!

Anyway, there are so many variables to your question. Do you like editing wedding videos? Or are you looking to change to something different?

Its hard to make general comparisons like this. If your happy where you are but just want the opportunity to earn more then determine what percentage of the overall budget editing is, see if its out of wack with the rest of the expenses. If not, and giving your employer the benefit of the doubt that it isn't, then you have to find ways to add more value to your services.

Can you do some effects or create a look that your employer could charge more for? Can you complete more projects now than you could six months ago and if so does he/she have more projects for you to do?

You need to be careful trying to change how your compensated from a flat rate to an hourly wage, that cuts both ways. Here in the US much of it [unfortunately] based on upward mobility. Learn what you can, enough to move up the food chain to make more money. This itinerant work force along with a lower barrier of entry means that the main differentiation from one editor to another is the price. And we have begun eating our young...

I think its great to want to make more money, but if you are going to stay where you are then the Bride either has to pay more for that special day so your going to have to do something compelling to separate her from her money, or you have to be able to do more with less work.

Where are you in Australia? I'm from Geelong.

Here in Canada .. and most of North America, actually .. wedding editors are paid a flat rate by the job. That's how I've been paid for 20 years and that's how I pay my editors.

The definition of job varies:

A documentary, mostly in-camera with some BG music and a few basic titles is one charge. A full blown, edited to the point you want to vomit, custom titles, lots of effects and filters .. that's another charge. A studio charges their clients different rates for different video styles, so you should be paid accordingly

On top of that, there are different rates for how you, the editor, deliver these different formats:

Sometimes I do all the capturing, all the photo scanning, select the music, dump it all onto an external HD, give it to the editor; he/she does the edit, saves the project file and hands me back the drive.

Other times I want the editor to do the capture, the scans, etc and give me an output on DV tape. Sometimes I want him to do the DVD authoring ... all could be different rates. Client requested changes are included in the price.

Nobody in my market pays editors an hourly rate for wedding work. I've never been paid hourly for it.

You're right, HD is enough extra work to constitute an additional charge .. but this market is big and filled with barracudas ... so if an freelance editor wants to charge me more, I turn that job over to the film students I have shackled to the edit desks.

What it boils down to: Are you being paid a fair market price for your work? Do you have the opportunity to take on more than one client? Are you just an editor, or do you have a proper shooting kit ... really, that's the way to increase your fees .. cut out the studio entirely and go on your own .. of course, now you are dealing directly with brides .. and their mothers.

Darn ... I need a beer

I've done one wedding, no one warned me about the mother of the bride...

Never again.

How much is your hourly rate now?

One more thought:

I wouldn't want to charge an hourly rate. A flat rate means the faster I do the job, the more profit. That is how you increase your margin; work quicker and make more money. Most of my guys take several days to crank out their first job; if they are good and apply themselves and learn the job properly they can eventually do the same work in 10 to 14 hours.

Keep plugging away, concentrate on your organization skills, really get to know your software/hardware, if you work at home set yourself rigid "office" hours and you will see your speed increase.

I charge hourly. I have had too many clients come back with changes, changes and more changes. If I were on a flat rate (which I did twice...and twice only) then the amount of money I make per hour drops drastically. And there are clients out there that seem to never be satisfied and will nitpick until the cows come home. If you charge hourly and the money is coming from their pocket, then the changes will be less frequent.

Shane

Doing research into your market is definately important - you don't want to miss the ballpark.

However, at the end of the day, you need to charge something that's going to keep you happy. It might seem obvious to price yourself competitively, but if that won't allow you to pay the rent, then it's clearly not an option.

An hourly rate for you as freelance is going to be more than an hourly rate for you as an employee. You'll be providing all your own overhead: equipment, insurance, etc.

Figure out what you need for personal expenses: house, car, food, insurance, etc. Then figure out your business overhead: equipment and operating costs. Then figure out how much you want to take away as pure profit - for both personal savings, and the growth of your business. These are the factors that are most important to determining a rate, not what Videographer Joe charges his clients.

Also, it is vitally important you do not underprice yourself. Ask anyone who sells a product or services. To the consumer's mind, inexpensive equals inferior. People will pay higher prices simply because it feels like they're making the safer choice.

Of course, if a client asks you why you charge $$$ and competitor A charges $$, you should be able to justify it. Know what you can provide that your competitors can't. A little FUD can never hurt, too.

Also, in response to people saying wedding videographers charge a flat rate. I'm sure it varies from business to business. I worked with a wedding company for a little while. They charged their clients a flat rate, but their employees were paid by the hour. It's possible to estimate a number of hours at an hourly rate, and just roll that into a flat rate as well.

Mac Pro 2.66Ghz - 3GBs RAM - X1900XT Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You've gotten some great advice and probably way more than you wanted to know. I do freelance work, I have my own clients and I do the occasional wedding.

If I hire someone to help me with a wedding, I pay a flat rate. No way would I hire by the hour. Brides and weddings are too unpredictable. I've worked with many "wedding" folks in my local market and often we "trade" service. "Hey, I'll shoot your June wedding if you'll shoot my July wedding"

For freelance work I generally go with the dayrate offered or turn down the job. Most day rates in my area are fair and if they aren't, I don't want to work for them.

For clients of my own, I charge $75 an hour which is way below market but works for me. I charge a little less to non-profits. My philosophy is that there is a market for and a need for high quality professional production, but they want that production simple and don't want to pay for a high end editing suite in a building downtown that cost $15 a square foot. I keep my overhead low and my prices low. It creates and image problem to a degree, but it works for me.

That's the cool thing. It works for me. I wouldn't say that my path and my way of doing things is the path for any given person to take. Read all of this advice and take what you need and throw the rest out, but remember it's all valid good advice.

I rarely do a flat rate on a project. I only do them with trusted clients that I do a fair amount of work for. Weddings will almost always be a flat rate. Remember, people want the best video possible, but only want to pay $200. This is why I don't do weddings, for the amount of energy required it's rarely worth it.

My preferred is day rate. At least that way I know I have a full day's (10 hours) worth of work. I'll bid the job with an extra day budgeted in. If I'm going to finish early and it's a client I'll do a bunch of other work with I'll drop the day, other times I'll bill it. It all depends.

If you want to go hourly you need to figure out what you're worth. If they're paying you $250 to edit the piece and it takes you 10 hours on average, then $25/hr is your minimum rate. I woudln't go too much higher unless you plan to edit quicker. If you want to charge $35/hr, then expect to complete the project in about 7 hours.

Back to why I don't do weddings. I figure a wedding is about 3-4 full days of work, 1 at the ceremony, 2-3 editing. If each day is 10 hours, that's 30-40 hours. If I want a base rate of $50/hr to shoot and edit it will cost them $1500-2000 to do the video. Most people don't want to spend that. Charging anything less to me isn't worth my time or equipment.