Factors in Pricing Multimedia Projects
[by Paula Lerner]
Pricing a multimedia project is not unlike pricing a still photography shoot: usage is the key factor. As a parallel example for a stills only assignment, I would price a shoot for photo usage in a hospital brochure or a university view book quite differently than I would price a print ad shoot for a consumer product — different usage requirements fall into different pricing categories.
When writing a project proposal for multimedia, take the usage into consideration when you come up with a base price for the project. Your Assignment Agreement should spell out what usage is included, along with specifics of how many hours of production time, how many iterations of the feature are included, out-of-pocket expenses, and so on. Anything above or beyond that agreement incurs additional charges, and this should be discussed with the client up front. That way if they keep sending you back to tinker with the audio or images, they know that they will incur additional costs and you will be compensated.
Keeping good time logs to track the work you do is important. I use a simple excel spread sheet to log the total hours I’m spending, and what I spend them doing. This serves two purposes:
1. I have records to use to make sure I will bill the client for anything over and above the original agreement;
2. I have good records to use to estimate the next project.
If you are doing your first project and don’t know how long things will take you, go out and produce a project on your own to get a sense of it. Yes, there will be a learning curve and hopefully you will get faster as you get more experience (just like with stills), but at least you will have a starting point.
In addition, it is a good idea to find out what it costs in your neighborhood to job out any piece of the project. This is basic research: make some calls to production houses or independent producers and see what it would cost to hire someone. This will educate you as to what the market will bear in your region, and will help you develop a network of contacts should you need help. Whether you do the production work yourself or hire someone else to do it, you want to make sure there is enough money in your budget to cover it.
3 Responses to 'Factors in Pricing Multimedia Projects'
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[...] from Paula Lerner, is Factors in pricing multimedia projects which poses the question: how should you charge for multimedia works, and how should that fee be [...]
Usage is how you lose business. Price your product for what it costs you plus your profit. Be clear and fair. Do that and you’ll have more referrals than you can handle.
Creatives think their product is different than others and price based on usage. Most of your customers can’t do that and won’t like it when its done to them.
Clients deal with usage every day. It’s not unusual or a way to lose business—it’s how business is done.
From the software they use every day to their office to their insurance to their alarm service, they’re being billed based on the fact they’re a business, the size of their business, and their industry.
Costs (and client budget) scale with all of those factors. That’s why they’re commonly used, and why usage isn’t shortchanging the client (in fact, it’s beneficial to both the client and the photographer). If a fashion designer wants to shoot a spread for a doubletruck in a tabloid-size glossy magazine, that’s an entirely different shoot demanding different equipment and deliverables than a local florist that wants to send some 4×6 postcards to her customers.
Without usage, how do I readily and fairly account for clients in lower-budget industries, or with lesser demands? Do I tell them to go to hell because my business can’t scale to meet their needs? How do I shoot and process to give them the deliverables they need without a grip on the end product?
Whether you _call it_ usage or not, you’re charging usage fees if you’re billing your clients by their needs and your associated costs. That’s usage.