Learn the exact blueprint I used to go from a struggling videographer, to running a profitable video production business, in this one-hour free training. www.filmmakingmentor.com/Video_Production_Accelerator_Opt_In
One thing I try and teach everyone is to NEVER break costs down to the client. They can either afford it or they can't. How it breaks down on your end shouldn't matter to them because they're paying for the end result, and not how you got there. If you go to a steakhouse and buy a steak, you will get a bill for the steak. You won't get a bill listing how much the raw meat was, the prep cook, the chef, his knives, the rental of the kitchen, etc..., because it doesn't matter. We're currently doing 5k-40k projects and have never, and will never, break costs down for a client. It does zero to help them, they don't understand what it means anyways, and it only gives them something to potentially pick apart should they feel like questioning why you need X for this line item. For those who may say that their client must have that breakdown I ask why? The clients accounting is categorizing the whole thing as marketing/PR. They are not dividing it on their side. If anyone every fought back against it they wouldn't be a good fit for us anyways, but we've never once had anyone bat an eye when theres a single line item for 30K for the whole project, because like I said, all they care about is the end result and not how we got there...
A lot of clients are ok with a rough breakdown into (1) preproduction and director (2) production team, camera, lighting, grip, audio (3) location and art (4) talent and styling (5) postproduction Some agencies require super detailed breakdown to be considered for the job. Of course you can just pass on the project if you’re not cool with that, but if you want to be considered sometimes it’s what is required. I don’t mind including a rough breakdown actually, because if requirements for the project change, like adding actors, adding locations, adding lighting, etc, it’s much easier to justify the price increase.
Good comment but you do the budgeting anyways for yourself to make calculations about how much the Project will cost and how much you have to charge to make Profit, right?
This is justwhat iw as looking for. It's hard to accurately estimate everything when you're firt starting out. This video gave me a list of things to plan out for! thanks
Thank you for this! I've previously thought of video production budgets in 3 basic buckets (labor, overhead, profit) but the nature of large "pass through expenses" including both labor and equipment really does make more sense (higher fixed costs and a modest 20% calculation of profit margin across the board). I also really appreciate how you shared the thinking process behind the calculation of unexpected costs and risk management. Final comment you made about including the 20% in calculated line items also seems like a best practice for you and the client rather than breaking it out as you described many other doing. Really really valuable content here expertly presented. Thanks again! TJ
Ad agencies will double your price when you're working through them. If they're entitled to a 100% markup why aren't we entitled to a 50% profit when working independently? Anyway, that's my view after 40 years in the business. $3-4000 net profit on a $15k project is a lot of responsibility for a small amount of compensation. I get what you're doing and the lesson's you produce are outstanding, especially for the novice or person who sees the business more as a job than as a business. I try to keep it at 50% including margin AND what I make for the tasks I perform. I think your process really works for growing a company IF you have a market that supports the volume of video companies. In Chicago, absolutely. You're clearly killing it with sales and closings and that's very admirable. Keep the good stuff coming. Great job and even after 40 years in the business, mostly struggling now, I am wide open to learning and trying new things.
You are absolutely right. I think it’s very possible to have much higher margins as people get more experience and focus more on what the specialize in. I found 25% to be a simple number to communicate for beginners. At higher priced productions, it ends up being significant
Great video! And your thought process is spot on and very informative. The one thing that I would highly recommend is using Blinkbid instead of the back and forth of a spreadsheet, Quickbooks, etc… Anyway, I really learn a lot form your videos and always look forward to the next. Thank you!
Another wonderful video! I assume your Director/DP will be the camera operator as well based upon this budget breakdown...normally they have a camera and lighting package - but do you always assume you as the production company is going to provide that (in stock or rental) so therefore the matching charge? No teleprompter, no food budget?
Must have missed this one when it came out. Great breakdown of costs. Do you build in any cushion for price negotiation if the client wants to bargain the overall price they're willing to pay? In my experience I get some clients who want to counter the estimate a bit. Enjoying the content. Thanks in advance.
No don't build in cushion, but I will take a haircut on the profit margin if I really want the job. From time to time, I will trim something off the quote or user a cheaper alternative. For example, I have rented cheaper locations if the location was too expensive or even used the one client offered us to use if it fit the shoot and I was able to pass the savings to them.
I have my first $10,000 budget presented to me. I'm so used to shooting with my in-house gear and one-manning it, maybe an assistant here and there but that is rare, because it's hard to find help where I am located. Zoom meeting scheduled and I have no idea where to start besides asking what the concept is. HELP?!
AMAZING info as always! my question is, when you first meet a client, WHO initiates the budget topic? and how to go about it on that meeting? thanks in advance for answering
Hey thanks man. In the initial call, I usually ask the potential client if they have a budget in mind for this investment. They usually do but if they don’t, and they ask first, I give them a budget range. I then put a proposal together based on this call. Sometimes, they have a lower budget range than my minimum. In that case, they are not a qualified lead for my company and I won’t take them on as a client.
Great video. There are very few people on Yourtube breaking this process down with this amount of detail. What did your deliverables list end up being in the end. You mentioned 3x spots with music and gfx. how long each clip? any broll and stock footage costs? did you deliver one format/size?
If I recall, these were 30-second social spots using the same music track and simple graphics. No stock footage was purchased for this project, but I usually pass that cost to the client. These days, I almost always deliver two formats. Regular and vertical if appropriate for the project.
@@Filmmakingmentor Thank you. This is super helpful. I am working on building a legal video focused production company much like what you were doing at the beginning. I have a background as a producer who worked in advertising for many years, and while I handled budgets they were in the 10s of thousands, and I was rarely doing the nuts and bolts of creating the work just managing people budgets and timelines. Now I'm a one man show trying to learn by doing so I can then begin hiring folks to do the work on a smaller scale in NYC. You videos have been extremely valuable in showing me a path to generating leads. Thanks for the good work.
This was really great. Question: as a production house, when you sign on a freelance DP, do you get them to sign something saying the raw footage copyright belongs to you? Or do you let them keep the usual copyright kept for the footage? Also what do you do if the client asks for the raw footage OR if the client wants full copyright ownership of the raws?
Your production company owns the footage. I’ve never had a DP sign anything though and never had any issue. For the clients that ask for ownership, I usually give them ownership. I don’t do anything with the footage typically for most of our videos anyway.
Thank you for a very helpful and insughtful video, as always! I have a few questions coming from my experience as the head of my little "production studio". I live in Kazakhstan (wonder if you've heard of the place, hehe), and we have a really shallow market flooded with "videographers" that have a camera and a gimbal, that would take any job, for any money, just to earn some pennies for a living. What would be your best advice on how to stand out and justify higher prices, and counter clients' habitual desire to cut costs wherever possible? Thanks!
@@Filmmakingmentor Thanks so much for your reply! Already watched it a few days back! Your help is really appreciated, let all the good you do return to you threefold!
I have often wondered this, especially as a one-man band who does all the pre-production, production, post, etc. When you talk about hourly rates, aside from the obvious-crew who are actually there on the day, how do you maintain accountability? So the editor is 75 bucks an hour. How does he/she, or even you, actually track that information? You just take their word for it that they did X hours of actual work? I’m not especially cynical or anything, but it’s easy to picture a guy sitting at his workstation at his house sucking hot sauce off his fingers like “yeah man, grinding along. I’ve been at it for 6+ hours now” when they zipped through 3/4 of the project already… Or barely any of it. Also with this, what if they have been sandbagging, or it turns out to be a particularly arduous editing process and they go over their projected time? Do you eat that cost? Again, as a one-man band, if the client MUST know, I just charge a certain amount per finished minute of work. But this is just me, I can either totally overwork myself or have an easy day. Working with an outsider is a whole different dynamic.
I only hire people I trust so it’s not a concern. I also use to edit so I know how long things should take and won’t hire people that I think are too slow. You can also use upworks freelancers. That platforms tracks their activities and created a diary with screenshots and mouse clicks each hour. But if you want to hire others, finding people you trust long term is the best way. You might get burned a few times in that process but well worth it in the long run
So, you send your client a $14K Invoice. Now, how do you deal with taxes and all that for the end of the year? So, it doesn't seem as though YOU made $14K, but only a small portion of that.
Thank you for this video. Not sure where you live but just renting a SKYpanel is about $275 for a day. Not sure how you calculate $350 for lighting? Is this just an arbitrary numbers?
That picture was from my shoot this week and not this exact project even though we are shooting on the same stage. For 350, I usually just have two litepanels and couple of aputure lights and a few stands and grip gear
Yea you technically only pay tax on the profit which is that 20%. Rest are expenses and get offset by write offs. 20% is on the low end considering taxes so you get to determine the profit margin percentage based on your business
@@Filmmakingmentor yeah I need figure out how to jump on that train hiring people before they start doing industry rates. All my guys I hire are usually older industry dudes. What really hurts is when I’ve got half days and literally no sound mixer will offer half days over here
Yea I don't even offer half day shoots to my clients for this reason. My freelance list is full of people that don't do half day or their half day rate is almost the same as full day. So I always charge full day these days for any amount of time.
Learn the exact blueprint I used to go from a struggling videographer, to running a profitable video production business, in this one-hour free training.
www.filmmakingmentor.com/Video_Production_Accelerator_Opt_In
One thing I try and teach everyone is to NEVER break costs down to the client. They can either afford it or they can't. How it breaks down on your end shouldn't matter to them because they're paying for the end result, and not how you got there.
If you go to a steakhouse and buy a steak, you will get a bill for the steak. You won't get a bill listing how much the raw meat was, the prep cook, the chef, his knives, the rental of the kitchen, etc..., because it doesn't matter. We're currently doing 5k-40k projects and have never, and will never, break costs down for a client. It does zero to help them, they don't understand what it means anyways, and it only gives them something to potentially pick apart should they feel like questioning why you need X for this line item.
For those who may say that their client must have that breakdown I ask why? The clients accounting is categorizing the whole thing as marketing/PR. They are not dividing it on their side. If anyone every fought back against it they wouldn't be a good fit for us anyways, but we've never once had anyone bat an eye when theres a single line item for 30K for the whole project, because like I said, all they care about is the end result and not how we got there...
Really well said. Thank you
A lot of clients are ok with a rough breakdown into (1) preproduction and director (2) production team, camera, lighting, grip, audio (3) location and art (4) talent and styling (5) postproduction
Some agencies require super detailed breakdown to be considered for the job. Of course you can just pass on the project if you’re not cool with that, but if you want to be considered sometimes it’s what is required.
I don’t mind including a rough breakdown actually, because if requirements for the project change, like adding actors, adding locations, adding lighting, etc, it’s much easier to justify the price increase.
Good comment but you do the budgeting anyways for yourself to make calculations about how much the Project will cost and how much you have to charge to make Profit, right?
think also depends on who is on there other side, sometimes to give comfort to the client and build trust rough breakdown can be helpful
You ain't a CZcamsr, bro. You're the real deal. Your channel is more useful than many "film" channels combined.
This is how I felt watching his videos, instant subscribe from me
this is actually one of the few video where people show real prices. Most CZcamsrs dont want to say any numbers
This is justwhat iw as looking for. It's hard to accurately estimate everything when you're firt starting out. This video gave me a list of things to plan out for! thanks
Thank you for this! I've previously thought of video production budgets in 3 basic buckets (labor, overhead, profit) but the nature of large "pass through expenses" including both labor and equipment really does make more sense (higher fixed costs and a modest 20% calculation of profit margin across the board). I also really appreciate how you shared the thinking process behind the calculation of unexpected costs and risk management. Final comment you made about including the 20% in calculated line items also seems like a best practice for you and the client rather than breaking it out as you described many other doing. Really really valuable content here expertly presented. Thanks again! TJ
Ad agencies will double your price when you're working through them. If they're entitled to a 100% markup why aren't we entitled to a 50% profit when working independently? Anyway, that's my view after 40 years in the business. $3-4000 net profit on a $15k project is a lot of responsibility for a small amount of compensation. I get what you're doing and the lesson's you produce are outstanding, especially for the novice or person who sees the business more as a job than as a business. I try to keep it at 50% including margin AND what I make for the tasks I perform. I think your process really works for growing a company IF you have a market that supports the volume of video companies. In Chicago, absolutely. You're clearly killing it with sales and closings and that's very admirable. Keep the good stuff coming. Great job and even after 40 years in the business, mostly struggling now, I am wide open to learning and trying new things.
You are absolutely right. I think it’s very possible to have much higher margins as people get more experience and focus more on what the specialize in. I found 25% to be a simple number to communicate for beginners. At higher priced productions, it ends up being significant
Great info here. Much appreciated.
Very helpful! Thanks for showing us your process on quoting a real project.
Best Video on budgeting i ve ever seen, thanks for the walkthrough
Amazing. The light has turned on for me! Thanks.
I almost died when you opened the calculator app when you're in Google Sheets!!! Hahaha thats too much
Way better visuals for a CZcams video
@@FilmmakingmentorI don't know man, just admit you don't know how to write a formula in sheets :p
lol a sum formula? I think a 12 year could do a sum formula on sheets? You should see my excel templates.
Thanks
Great video! And your thought process is spot on and very informative. The one thing that I would highly recommend is using Blinkbid instead of the back and forth of a spreadsheet, Quickbooks, etc… Anyway, I really learn a lot form your videos and always look forward to the next. Thank you!
Yea I agree. I don’t use this personally and use an internal tool for estimates.
@@Filmmakingmentor I'm curious what your internal tool is?
Another wonderful video! I assume your Director/DP will be the camera operator as well based upon this budget breakdown...normally they have a camera and lighting package - but do you always assume you as the production company is going to provide that (in stock or rental) so therefore the matching charge? No teleprompter, no food budget?
this is gospel on a Sunday!
Thanks for the in-depth video!
Great Job, Love this video.
this was so helpful 👏 going to apply these tactics. is there anywhere to watch the three videos from the breakdown?
Must have missed this one when it came out. Great breakdown of costs. Do you build in any cushion for price negotiation if the client wants to bargain the overall price they're willing to pay? In my experience I get some clients who want to counter the estimate a bit. Enjoying the content. Thanks in advance.
No don't build in cushion, but I will take a haircut on the profit margin if I really want the job. From time to time, I will trim something off the quote or user a cheaper alternative. For example, I have rented cheaper locations if the location was too expensive or even used the one client offered us to use if it fit the shoot and I was able to pass the savings to them.
@@Filmmakingmentor got it. I see your strategy of dial something back to offset costs.
I have my first $10,000 budget presented to me. I'm so used to shooting with my in-house gear and one-manning it, maybe an assistant here and there but that is rare, because it's hard to find help where I am located. Zoom meeting scheduled and I have no idea where to start besides asking what the concept is. HELP?!
This was great!
This is fantastic. Thanks.
You forgot lunch!
Oh yea totally forgot that
AMAZING info as always! my question is, when you first meet a client, WHO initiates the budget topic? and how to go about it on that meeting? thanks in advance for answering
Hey thanks man. In the initial call, I usually ask the potential client if they have a budget in mind for this investment. They usually do but if they don’t, and they ask first, I give them a budget range. I then put a proposal together based on this call. Sometimes, they have a lower budget range than my minimum. In that case, they are not a qualified lead for my company and I won’t take them on as a client.
@@Filmmakingmentor awesome! thanks for sharing!
I think StoryBoarding, Music production, and mixing engineer Prices are missing. Thanks for the info
This is for a really simple talking head video at a studio. I usually have my editor use royalty free music and simple mixing.
@@Filmmakingmentor ohh got it thanks
Great video. There are very few people on Yourtube breaking this process down with this amount of detail. What did your deliverables list end up being in the end. You mentioned 3x spots with music and gfx. how long each clip? any broll and stock footage costs? did you deliver one format/size?
If I recall, these were 30-second social spots using the same music track and simple graphics. No stock footage was purchased for this project, but I usually pass that cost to the client. These days, I almost always deliver two formats. Regular and vertical if appropriate for the project.
@@Filmmakingmentor Thank you. This is super helpful. I am working on building a legal video focused production company much like what you were doing at the beginning. I have a background as a producer who worked in advertising for many years, and while I handled budgets they were in the 10s of thousands, and I was rarely doing the nuts and bolts of creating the work just managing people budgets and timelines. Now I'm a one man show trying to learn by doing so I can then begin hiring folks to do the work on a smaller scale in NYC. You videos have been extremely valuable in showing me a path to generating leads. Thanks for the good work.
This was really great. Question: as a production house, when you sign on a freelance DP, do you get them to sign something saying the raw footage copyright belongs to you? Or do you let them keep the usual copyright kept for the footage?
Also what do you do if the client asks for the raw footage OR if the client wants full copyright ownership of the raws?
Your production company owns the footage. I’ve never had a DP sign anything though and never had any issue. For the clients that ask for ownership, I usually give them ownership. I don’t do anything with the footage typically for most of our videos anyway.
💰💰💰
Thank you for a very helpful and insughtful video, as always!
I have a few questions coming from my experience as the head of my little "production studio". I live in Kazakhstan (wonder if you've heard of the place, hehe), and we have a really shallow market flooded with "videographers" that have a camera and a gimbal, that would take any job, for any money, just to earn some pennies for a living.
What would be your best advice on how to stand out and justify higher prices, and counter clients' habitual desire to cut costs wherever possible? Thanks!
I would be super niche and specialize. Watch my last video about this topic
@@Filmmakingmentor Thanks so much for your reply! Already watched it a few days back!
Your help is really appreciated, let all the good you do return to you threefold!
I have often wondered this, especially as a one-man band who does all the pre-production, production, post, etc. When you talk about hourly rates, aside from the obvious-crew who are actually there on the day, how do you maintain accountability? So the editor is 75 bucks an hour. How does he/she, or even you, actually track that information? You just take their word for it that they did X hours of actual work?
I’m not especially cynical or anything, but it’s easy to picture a guy sitting at his workstation at his house sucking hot sauce off his fingers like “yeah man, grinding along. I’ve been at it for 6+ hours now” when they zipped through 3/4 of the project already… Or barely any of it. Also with this, what if they have been sandbagging, or it turns out to be a particularly arduous editing process and they go over their projected time? Do you eat that cost?
Again, as a one-man band, if the client MUST know, I just charge a certain amount per finished minute of work. But this is just me, I can either totally overwork myself or have an easy day. Working with an outsider is a whole different dynamic.
I only hire people I trust so it’s not a concern. I also use to edit so I know how long things should take and won’t hire people that I think are too slow. You can also use upworks freelancers. That platforms tracks their activities and created a diary with screenshots and mouse clicks each hour. But if you want to hire others, finding people you trust long term is the best way. You might get burned a few times in that process but well worth it in the long run
@@Filmmakingmentor right on. That upworks thing sounds legit.
If you are using spreadsheets why do you use a calculator instead of using formulas D:
I just found it quicker for the video, but I usually use the formulas
So, you send your client a $14K Invoice. Now, how do you deal with taxes and all that for the end of the year?
So, it doesn't seem as though YOU made $14K, but only a small portion of that.
You hire an accountant to take care of it for you: they deduct the expenses against the income and you only pay tax on the profits after all deduction
@@Filmmakingmentor Okay, and wouldnt it be easier/faster to not include the 20% fee to every line item, but have it separate?
Thank you for this video. Not sure where you live but just renting a SKYpanel is about $275 for a day. Not sure how you calculate $350 for lighting? Is this just an arbitrary numbers?
Yea it was just an example. The picture from set I used actually had a 600 lighting budget. So I think the skypanel was around 250 for the s60
That picture was from my shoot this week and not this exact project even though we are shooting on the same stage. For 350, I usually just have two litepanels and couple of aputure lights and a few stands and grip gear
Great video! What about taxes? Are they included in the 20%?
Yea you technically only pay tax on the profit which is that 20%. Rest are expenses and get offset by write offs. 20% is on the low end considering taxes so you get to determine the profit margin percentage based on your business
LOL I wish sound mixers were $750 ... everyone here in houston is $1000+
yes same in chicago with experienced sound mixer. But a lot of my audience is younger and they have access to up and coming sound mixers.
@@Filmmakingmentor yeah I need figure out how to jump on that train hiring people before they start doing industry rates. All my guys I hire are usually older industry dudes. What really hurts is when I’ve got half days and literally no sound mixer will offer half days over here
Yea I don't even offer half day shoots to my clients for this reason. My freelance list is full of people that don't do half day or their half day rate is almost the same as full day. So I always charge full day these days for any amount of time.
Thx lil nigga u da goat
😂