I am interested in comments as to what people feel would be the going rate for employing somebody to film weddings. There are obviously a lot of variables such as whether they use their own equipment and if they edit to final master. Also what about travel costs and as we all know the bulk of the work is during the summer months. Should the price for a summer job reflect this or should a proportion of out of season work be promised ?
The words "cat" and "pigeons" come to mind.
BTW: Welcome - I hope you get some useful information, and eventually come to stay here.
Blimey! Quiet 'ere, innit? I bet innerwhirl didn't bother to stay, and I don't blame him/her.
Perhaps we are all shy and do not want to give our prices away.
ok, let me ask this. I have a friend that is training me and paying me $125 per wedding ceremony. I haven't committed yet, and I haven't done a shoot yet. I am using 100% my stuff, am I getting RAPED? Thanx.
How many hours do you expect to spend for the "$125 per wedding ceremony"?
My point is this - we spend maybe ten hours on the day, but then about 50 more hours editing it afterwards. Will you be finished after the shooting is over?
Spanky, can you clear up your last post please,
You day you are being paid $125 per wedding and using your equipment but have not done a shoot yet.
Are you just observing? are you shooting you own footage to practice?
I found that if you can edit a wedding you have a better appreciation as to what you need when filming, as you know what shots you need and the cut aways required.
In the UK you can get as much as £300 per day, using your own gear and transport, but this can be for a very long day, up to 16 hours.
Going rate in Scotland seems to be between £100-£300 per day. Variables include kit supplied/use own and how good an operator you are.
Tony.
This is the sort of feedback I was looking for.
how about payment for filming and editing to a DV master. The job I have been offered pays an average of £400 per job to include travel,use of own equipment and fully edited. My feeling that this is too cheap for an experienced person using full size dvcam kit and own transport.
Personally I would not film and do a full edit for a wedding for £400 to give to someone who will then "cream the profits" so to speak.
Depending on your editing time work out how much an hour this is and also your time on the day and preparation.
Saying that it depends on your "contact", he/she must trust you in the first place to do the job.
Also depends on your standards how long you spend on the edit and shoot.
Just my opinion.
In Scotland, most brides won't pay any more than £400-£500 for a wedding. For that sort of money you can have a 10 to 12 hour day filming, then around 8 to 10 hours for the edit.
Most operators prefer to do their own filming / editing, as customers have booked them so expect to see them on the day. Therefore, if i get an enquiry for a date i'm already booked, i tend to pass it on.
On the odd occasion that i find myself with 2 jobs on the 1 day, i usually half the money.
I.E. £200 for someone to film, and £200 for me for the edit.
Hope this helps.
Oh, and welcome to Tony Nimmo, IOV rep, Scotland.
I am only a "foreigner" so don't know much about UK/Scotland prices. I live in Netherlands and have a very simple pricing model. For a wedding I need, 2 hours pre-discussion to understand what they want, filming 1 day including party in evening on my own equipment etc. 1 Full day of editing (app10-12 hours), delivery plus few modifications if required adds up to about 30 real-live hours. Anybody delivering quality and doing it a lot quicker is either a great hero or a great liar. Anyway I only accept that for 1,000 euro minimum(ex VAT).
I do handover copying rights though, so they can copy whatever they want :)
And yes its a lot of money, but then again its a lot of work with expensive equipment.
Hope this helps as wel,
Regards Peter