Day Rates for color grading

[chris ware]

Hello

I was asked to bid on my first grading project. It will be a 2min piece for the web. I'm not sure how to bid on something like this. It's prob a 1/2 days work. Can anyone give me some insight plz?

thanks!

 

[Dermot Shane]

what is your cost for a month of ;
- biz taxes, rent, heat, light, internet, bookeeping, promotion
- ROI on machine, mon, scopes, disks etc
- machine manitence & upgrades
add it up and divide by 40 (1/2 of 20 working days)
then add what it would cost you to hire a similarly skilled freelancer for 1/2 day should a buss hit you on the way to work

that's what it costs you to keep the doors open
now add in a margin to make it worth the hassle and keep you healthy

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Dermot is right, you need to take those numbers into consideration. You may have very low overhead and can charge less than say someone with a ton of overhead. But talent/demand factors into it as well. On the low end would be somewhere around $50-75/hr and on the high end probably around $500/hr (if anyone is even getting those rates anymore). It’s a competitive field and your market will also determine what rates will fly.

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

Besides the list already provided, be sure to have the deliverable clearly defined.

For your formal quote, will it be specified by the hour or project.
Whether by the hour or project, will you have a maximum level of effort listed?
If there is rework required, who pays at what rate?

Color grading - just like SFX, can be a rabbit hole.
Plan accordingly.

 

[Marc Wielage]

And watch out for "package deals." It's hard to give somebody one low, low price for everything, then they sandbag you and want to make 79 changes, then the "1/2 day" project turns into 2 or 3 days.

I have had projects that were such trainwrecks, the conforms took longer to piece together the whole edit than it did to do the color. And much of it could have been avoided if they had just been more organized, had more experience, and asked more questions.

There has been quite a bit of conversation over the years about colorist rates on the LiftGammaGain.com forum. A lot to me depends on the colorist's experience, the hours involved, the nature of the material, and the client's expectations. A no-budget 3-minute YouTube music video might be a coupla hundred bucks down to free, and then there are the 3-minute music videos that take a week and cost thousands and thousands of dollars to do. I try to be reasonable with clients (particularly when they're struggling filmmakers), but there is a point below which I won't go.

 

[Björn Benckert]

To calculate your cost and break even from start is usually not best practice when starting a new buissness, normally you need to invest first and harvest later. Putting your own time into it is normally a good way of investing. So first build a reel and reputation, then what to charge you can start to think of when you got more clients than you know what to do with.