For the completion of my project I have carefully selected a crew that would help me in the execution of the commercial video production.
As a producer, I would also need a
DP/Cinematographer to be in charge of the camera/ lighting equipment.
Lighting director, responsible for coordinating the lights to achieve the desired effect by the DP and the Producer. An
Audio technician to record audio as well as to monitor and adjust levels. An
Editor to help achieve the desired effect whiles in the planning stage and in the post-production stage for the final video. A
Hair and Makeup artist for the actors. An
animator for all of the animations used in the postproduction (
go to Cost Summary for details).
First i started my research on
Fiverr (
https://www.fiverr.com/?source=top_nav) for a
video editor. The prices varied from as low as £17, up to as high as £500. Overall the results weren’t promising and the quality was questionable.
After gathering some research I found a few stats on how much a video editor would cost me.
"This example is based on 2 hours of source recording edited down to a 3 minute marketing video with an average of 10 cuts per finished minute. Using a source video to editing time ratio of 15:1, that comes to 30 hours for the first element of the equation. Next, add in the cuts per minute factor. Let's say your video has already been imported and had some preliminary editing done and that it takes an additional 8 minutes to implement each of the 30 final cuts you are planning for the video. This would yield 240 minutes (4 hours) for the second part of the equation. The total time for both parts of the equation comes to 34 hours. At an average rate of say $100 to $125 /hr, you could anticipate the editing cost to be between $3,400 to $4,250."With this estimate in mind, I wanted to find other prices with more specific numbers to the UK, so I found this estimate(2):
I also decided to find out how much was a video editors salary in the UK per hour for an even better picture(3),
After my research, I found that for professional editors, if i use my first estimate I would be looking at the numbers of roughly $3400 (
£2767) to $4250 (
£3459), which would be significantly higher than hiring a freelance editor where the price per hour would be around £13 to £25 and if we use the same hours as the first example we'll be looking at
£442 (£13 x34) to
£850 (£25 x34), however there is the ethical issue of not paying tax, and initially taking the job out of a skilled professional editor.
For this specific project I would focus on the price of a professional editor, so I took in consideration all prices found- £3459, £25 x 10hours of work=£250, £13 x10hours of work=£130, however the last two prices seemed to me to be highly underpaying the editors, so for this example I would use the highest estimated sum out of the three
£3,459, which is based on 2 hours of source recording down to 3 minutes marketing video, which is very similar to the estimated timings in my video project.
The next role I looked for was
Cinematographer.
The prices again varied, however I found them more similar compared to others, as the rough estimate was from £20 to £50+, but overall most prices stayed in the 20-50 per hour, making it one of the most expensive jobs on the set.
I wanted to have a final price, so I decided to use the average salary of a cinematographer and times it by the hours on set each day of shooting, therefore that would end up being ($29~£24) £24 x 5 hours a day is £120 a day or
£240 altogether.
'Rates are dependent on the types of production you’re working on. Morgan casts some light on the process: “If you’re on a commercial or music video or short, you are paid per day.
On TV and movies, you get paid on a weekly basis. Bear in mind, you do get paid a little less for prep than you do on shoot.”
There used to be a “quote system” in place where a Director of Photography would expect to earn the same or more than their previous production. But, Morgan explains, “The quote system has practically disappeared so you just negotiate your quote on a per-production basis — it’s dependent on whether it’s a studio or indie project.” (4)
What i looked for next was the
Lightning designer. as not many options came up, I used the limited numbers I found. (5)
When adding the numbers I found id need to spend rougly around (28+16 devided in 2), £22 per hour of work, which in my case would be £22 x 10 hours of work=
£220 for the 2 days of shooting.
The
Audio/sound technician, was similarly hard to find as the previous. (6)
For the Sound director the rough hourly pay was also ($18.53~ £15.11) £22 per hour, (£29 +£15.11 =£44.11/ 2 = £22.055) which would cost the overall production exactly the same as the lighting designer or
£220 for the 2 days of shooting.
F
or Hair and Make up artists I found a few numbers. One thing I noticed is that most artists do one or the other, very rarely both hair and makeup, therefore that’s another thing to take into consideration when making a budget.
The average cost on one place was £17.84 per hour, and on another I had to find the average make up artist salary and then the average hair stylist salary and combine them, therefore $18.44+ $10.16= $28.6 (£23.32) per hour. As I would need them throughout the process of shooting in the 1st and the 2nd day, the overall cost would end up being £23 x 10 hours of work= £230 for the 2 day shoot.
Finally for an
Animator I found that most places require a quote or a short survey which demanded I leave my phone number or email and I would get a quote of prices for different animators. (7) Like most of the other jobs I was searching for on my list, I found the market for 'freelancers' to be yet again the largest, finding it hard to seive through and find professionals, or even how much a professional animator would charge.
Overall I managed to find the average salary for an Animator in the UK which is £17.58 per hour (8), and if we estimate the work needed for a 45 to 60 seconds of animation (
for more information go to "Treatment") using
this guide(9) if we use the highest prices provided as a guide would be for a freelancer (
£250+
£750+
£1,250+
£200+
£500+
£500) is £3,450 including
everything provided on the website ( going in order,
Script Process costs,
illustration costs,
animation costs,
voiceover & sound costs,
consultation costs, and
revision costs), however thats taking into acount
everything provided by the animator, which for example we wont need things such as voiceovers and sound for the animation, as well as these are all
the highest possible prices we would have to pay.
For a professional/studio the price would be, (£2,000+ £10,000+ £20,000+ £1,000+ £5,000+ £5,000) £43,000 which is very significantly higher, and is again taking into consideration the
highest possible sums as well as including everything on the list as the previous example. As the numbers are so varied, as a setting point I would use the example set by the website "
The average cost for a 60 second explainer video is $7,972 or around €6,500 or £5,700
At the end the price for my crew would come up to: £3,495 + £240 + £220 + £220 + £230 + £5,700= £10,105
(1)
https://www.directimages.com/blog/how-to-determine-professional-video-editing-costs
(2)
https://www.bidvine.com/video-editing/price-guide
(3)
https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Skill=Video_Editing/Hourly_Rate
(4)
https://www.careersinfilm.com/director-of-photography/
(5)
https://neuvoo.co.uk/salary/?job=Lighting+Designer
(6)
https://neuvoo.co.uk/salary/?job=sound+designer
(7)
https://www.bidvine.com/animation-services?utm_campaign=con-ppc-Animation+Services&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Google&criteria_id=1006966&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2PP1BRCiARIsAEqv-pSetA7miBM283zutFflSppH57npaXUSDDbLwvibTzoo7uvm-ldpgcMaAhOxEALw_wcB
(8)
https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Animator/Salary
(9)
https://www.wyzowl.com/how-much-does-animated-video-cost/
Bibliography