I had a friend ask me the other day how much it would cost to start a small studio for photography. I said:
Why are you asking me? I am crazy-ignorant of that stuff!
To which they responded with something to the affect of how rude I was for answering that way.
Oh well. But, if you’ve got experience here, let me know… anything from the super do-it-yourself to the large would be neat to know about.
Matthew Fridg says
We have a studio at my production company in Pittsburgh. We just restructured our pricing and are pretty competitive in our market – $75/hr. Check out our studio link: http://www.pmi.tv/studio/studio.html
Kevin says
It’s because you know everything, except that you know everything…I can’t tell you how many times IT gets asked how to use the microwave.
Eric says
i’d guess $5,000 a 5dmkii a few lenses and $1,000ish for lights.
Daniel says
I wrote this thinking maybe the next time someone balks at the fact I want to actually get paid for a project I could share it with them. Then I thought you know what why don’t I go ahead and share it that way people are a bit more informed about the sort of things that I do and why they cost money to do in the first place.
Video Production Costs-these are overhead costs-Cameramen incur these just to be Cameramen but they require upkeep and therefore figure into costs.
1x Top of the line computer (PC custom built) $2,000 (this is actually cheap…)
1x Copy of Adobe(c) Production Suite $1700 (with tax)
1x Camera (SD to HD) $900-5000
1x Mini-DV Deck (HD) $3000
1x Duplicator $900
Basic Video Production setup ~$8-9,000 (basic estimate yes we can find things cheaper sometimes and often do but if I were to go out and buy everything New right now this is what I would have to pay). Next time you ask a videographer to do a project for you keep in mind their costs.
Event Setup for Video Production (I say event but this includes camps and conferences)
1x iMac for editing ~$2500 depends on quality of mac
1x Additional computer for rendering ~$800 (This assumes the camp wants After effects)
1x Copy of Adobe Production Suite for Mac ~$1700 (After Effects and Photoshop)
1x Copy of Finalcut™ Studio ~1000
1x Camera (SD) $1200-3000 or (HD) $3000-7000
1x Mini-DV deck (HD) $3,000-5000
1x Duplicator $400-$2000 (depends on number needed)
Cost of basic (non HD) camp setup for a cameraman is ~$9500 (with a small semi pro camera the camera is the biggest variable and it will depend on the camp which one is necessary). HD setup instantly increases the price tag by several thousand dollars though.
All these costs so far do not even include time or expendables such as tapes and hard drive space. Which I shall now detail for you now
2hr Wedding Specific cost breakdown.
$40 for minidv tapes (assuming I keep hard copies as opposed to using hard drives)
$15 for Hard disk space (since they will be keeping your wedding backed up for you) (5 tapes * 14 gigs) (Again this is entirely optional and has to do with the contract)
$150 for second camera person to film ceremony (we can’t be in two places at once to ensure results)
$ 1 per dvd copy (give or take depends on the DVD costs)
$ + any additional rights fees for music or other items.
$ + wear and tear on machines
Avg cost of 2 hr wedding before taxes ~$220 for the primary film person. That is all before adding my personal time to the cost in other words I personally break even at $220.
Bottom line is Video is expensive. Please respect your local videographer when they give you a fair price: videographers are people to you know.
People ask me all the time whether I will do this or that for free and I have to say 99.99% of the time I have to say no, not because I’m a mean person but there are alot of costs to doing this sort of thing, If you are going to provide everything for me we can talk but I’m still going to have to charge something for my time and any other peoples time that I have to use (or other items such as song rights).
I’d Imagine photography is cheaper as average photography cameras (at least at wholesale places range from $300-$900 so the cameras are much cheaper and you may be able to find some of the equiptment cheaper as you won’t be editing as much video you won’t need as high a cost of computer but you are still going to need all the items and then with a studio your talking adding extra lighting sets and such to this (which I would use on video except I don’t usually have that luxury). I do hope this is helpful though.
John Saddington says
holy poop. this is an amazing response. thanks so much! would you consider guest posting this article?