CompuServe Thread

You might do well to start reading AVID (Amiga Video Journal) there have been and will continue to be a series of articles called Making Money/Paying the Bills, that give pricing for various types of video work. Rates in general will run the gamut depending on a lot of factors such as aquisition/edit format, original, canned or no music score at all, how much graphic design, animation work is needed, copywriting, narration or on camera talent, location shooting etc. There are so many variables it's hard to state a given rate, and even with some sort of standardization of rates, Toaster's proliferation will undoubtedly create an entirely new pricing category just by virtue of some of your client's awareness of it's affordability. Bottom line rule of thumb has been around $1k per finished minute of industrial quality production with "cuts" type edits and basic graphics. Larger projects with more sophistication obviously more money, smaller scale jobs tend to be much, much less. Up until very recently (in other words "BT"[before Toaster]) you couldn't "roll your own" without investing either $250-$400 per hr in an expensive post production enviornment, or sinking $40k or more in your own gear. I use mine for everything from how-to vids to TV spots, and so far I have been showered with many cudos for bringing more to the projects in the way of frills without having to charge heavy rates, it's a great time to be in the vid biz! (not a paid endorsement)

ther going rate for what tho?ya need to be a bit more specific for example 24 bit animation is charged per rendered second and runs from $150-$1000 and up per second depending on the job and output media etc…