How much?
7 messages in this thread
I begin by admitting that is has been a really bad week and this may be the
direct cause of my "poor me" attitude, but I am interested in how much any of
you folks would be charging for one of my typical jobs. I am getting nothing
but grief these days about the cost of my stuff. We all know that the reported
version is usually only a fraction of the actual time spent, which includes
creative experimentation and stuff that never makes it into the final version.
So, here is an outline of the last job and maybe some of you would like to just
throw out some ballpark guesses at a real going rate:
Setting: An environmental remediation pilot project.
Components: 24 major pieces of equipment – all to be realistically modeled,
including duct and piping between components.
Storyboard:
1. Fade out buildings / structures that hide components
2. Show – highlight 3 major treatment systems (solids, liquids, gases)
3. Label and identify flow path through the entire system which is broken down
into 5 sequences
a. solids – thru 3 of the components
b. gases – thru 7 of the components
c. 3 separate liquid systems – each thru a minimum of 6 components
4. Describe one specific component in detail: a soil rotary dryer
a. two concentric cyclinders
b. soil in the inner cyclinder which is feed from a hopper/conveyor
c. heat applied from the outer cyclinder to the inner cyclinder
d. inner cyclinder roatates and is at a slight incline so soil tumbles and
moves down the
length of the cyclinder
e. evaporated contaminants from the soil contained in the inner cyclinder
and carried out
via nitrogen gas carrier.
Process:
Provide client initial storyboard
Receive approval of model
Provide 1st offline (VHS)
Provide 2nd offline – to include changes requested by client (VHS)
Provide final online – to include additional changes requested by client
(Betacam SP)
This part isn't important, but is what I provided:
Total length on tape (including all fades=2sec, 5sec hold at the end of each
segment, 5sec gap between segments to aid post-production guys) = 12 minutes
Well, what do you think? I know it is tough to guess, but any guess would help
me out.
I'll give you some place to start, I will submit a bill which includes my time,
machine charges, and tape that is just over $6,000. Am I wacko? Or what?
Thanks
Chris, I can't help you much with your pricing, but I'm curious to know what
(or where) PRC is – do you do a lot of environmental projects? How about
landfills? I'm with an environmental consulting group that's been toying with
3ds, but we haven't had the time to make much progress with it. Doug.
Doug,
PRC-EMI which is the group I am with consists of 800 environmental folks in 27
offices across the US and a few international. I am a SW Hydrologist that has
moved into the video relm. PRC does alot of superfund clean up work and under
certain circumstances provides demonstration videos on recent pilot programs.
That is where I come in.
Landfills, lots. Personally I am trained in the HELP model along with 2 other
folks in my small office in Helena. Ocross the company, we have done alot of
landfill design, review, and oversight.
What specifically could I answer for you regarding dumps <g>?
Whew – ok, you win, you're bigger than me (g). We have about 20 people doing
wastewater treatment, municipal water supply, and contaminated sites work
(Phase 1-3 assessments, drilling, soils & ground water remediation). The
contaminated sites part is my division. Oops – we do some landfill work also,
and bioassays, toxicity etc – essentially a team of consulting scientists with
environemntal experience (biology, geology, process engineering, chemistry).
But we're run off our feet – having someone dedicated to 3DS (or even just 1
guy dedicated to "general" computer modelling) – what a dream! This is
something I tackle on weekends and after midnight (i.e., at the end of the
office day…). Doug.
What are you planning on doing with 3DS? Maybe I can offer some (probably very
little) assistance.
Chris
Primarily apply it to our projects – short, VHS grade videos of proposed
projects, treatment plants, 3d representations of contaminant plumes- so
clients have a visual idea of where we're going with their money. Of course,
this is still a pretty much open ended project. Presumably you're doing
something similar?
Ah, now we're back to my original point…client education regarding the time
required to develop a presentable project is extremely important if in fact you
have a desire to be compensated reasonably for your efforts. Good luck.
A gentleman responed to my orignal message with a little phrase which I thought
was great and deserves repeating: Good, Fast, Cheap -> pick any TWO.
Chris