I am starting a small company aimed at independent filmmakers that will provide a high quality soundtrack and foly to your work, finished with professional mastering. This will provide the film maker with a piece of work ready to take to a publisher. I would like to know , given a realistic indie film maker's budget, how much people would pay for this service. Any comments are appeciated!
I typically allow 3 to 5 percent of the total budget to mixing, effects, foley and sweetening.
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
how much people would pay for this service. Any comments are appeciated!
Well, big question here for sure. Let's say that anywhere from $0.00 on up. Not to be flipant at all about your question. it's good to have established some sort of regular rate for yourself. A "Rate Card" would illustrate to your potential clients that you're serious and "in business". Then at least you and your clients know what you're worth. Then negotiate the price for your work on each project, called "bidding on a per project basis."
I my 35 years in this business, the only hourly rates I ever billed were to Ad agencies and believe me, you don't want to work with agencies. Some are OK, but most don't have a clue when it comes to post audio.
The Indie film market is great to break into, but keep your day gig. These are low-no budget projects that may get you credits/copies of the project and maybe some postage, etc.. This business is all about relationships. Building your catalouge from projects you got paid for is great, but that may need to be substituted for no $$ to get your name out and establish a relationship with a director/production company that will remember you when their budget ship comes in. It's worked for me these many years and I still pay rent +++.
BTW- I am ususally getting clients to sign a royalty agreement thats worth 1-2% of net sales plus some $$ up front to cover musicians, recording of Foley/SFX, materials, etc..
Jim Rieder
Sound Designer/Composer
http://www.suiteaudiosounddesign.com
Jim Rieder
Sound Designer/Composer
http://www.suiteaudiosounddesign.com
Hi Jared,
I've been in the post business for almost ten years now. It all depends on the lenght of what you are working on. I assume you are working on low budget independant films. Let me talk in canadian dollars though. You have to think about sound editing, dialogue editing, music and foley and mixing - usually 5 different persons. When you talk about publisher I assume you mean broadcaster? Again, it depends on their technicals specifications. You have to find out what they are before you begin a project, some of then can be really picky. Nevertheless, the budget for music is all to you, the producer and find out what kind of rights he or she will want.
Let's imagine a 2 hours feature film: for sound editing, allow 350$ a day for a professional editor. A feature will take 6 weeks. The same for dialogue, foley will take 2 weeks at 400 bucks a day, and mixing will take 3 weeks at about 50K in total. But don't worry that's for professional stuff, it can be lower, if you lower your standars.
Hope I did help a little
Nijni
24p?
24p?
