--- In [email protected], "caminofilm" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi > > I have a hypothetical question the wise heads here may be able to answer. > > Lets say you travel around your country, producing short videos at > different locations. Lets say, market research (youtube) show that > your concept is extremely popular. > > Lets say a local tv station contact you and want exclusive rights to > your videos, in your country, for one year, to list on there online > site. This means you can't list your videos on local sites that they > see as competition (other tv station sites, newspaper sites)
If a TV station or *anybody* wants exclusive rights to your videos, you've become a producer for them for the time being. Your consideration of payment should include the value to them of not having to hire a producer (or production TEAM, depending on how intricate your work is) as well as how much YOU will benefit from being associated with the group making you the offer. Then again, that has to do with videos you're GOING to create, and the time it's going to take you to create them. Time is Money. Period. When you're doing something for somebody, you're not doing something for yourself (work or pleasure), and you're not doing something for someone that would pay you what your rate is for whatever you're skilled in doing. Working for someone for less than your normal rate is either a gesture of wanting to do business with them even though you know they can't afford you, a gesture of friendship, or in the worst case, a gesture of charity. > Lets say they ask you to name your price. > > If you have produced these videos with your own funds, and know that > to do them commercially would cost anything from $1500-$3000 per video > > WHAT DO YOU CHARGE THE TV STATION TO LIST YOUR VIDEOS EXCLUSIVELY ON > THEIR SITE IN YOUR COUNTRY? Well, something like that varies depending on the market you're in. In the USA, New York is the #1 television market. It's going to cost you way more to get something made here than, say, in Arkansas. So depending on where you're standing, regardless of how much your time is worth to you, that particular market won't sustain your rate. Then again, the work is probably easier and less quality-based anyway, if that's worth anything to the producer. > Do you charge all of what it would cost to make them commercially? Or > do you take into consideration the advertising revenue they may make > from your content over a year, and charge more...or less? I like what Kfir had to say in this situation. If there's a benefit to you of being in an exclusive relationship with this station, such as the station publicizing your work AND YOU utilizing their promo department for an entire year, factor that in and charge them less since you don't have to advertise yourself. It's like the difference between being staff and freelance. You charge more as a freelancer because you have to cover your own "benefits", and you're normally brought in during crunch-time or to fix someone else's mistakes. When there's a story about fly-fishing, they can get the staffers to do it... plus, they don't have to pay the staff overtime. If there's no benefit to you in being associated with the TV station, charge them whatever the market rates for production are. If there's potentially LESS benefit, for instance, you do something for them for a flat fee, then they turn around and put your video in some revenue-sharing setup and make way more on it than they paid you to make it, you might want to charge them more than usual. > Or does one take into account that, due to this tv station being the > biggest in your country, the publicity in itself, will be beneficial > to your brand It depends on what the publicity consists of, and how much of it will translate into benefits for you after your deal with the station is over. For instance, depending on where you are in your career, if you could get paid more to create a music video that plays on a band's myspace account or get paid less to create a music video that plays on MTV, VH1, etc, you might take the lower-paying but way more prestegious gig. In this case, they're asking you to name your price. Tell them what you think your work is worth. If it's over their budget, they'll tell you so, and then either you'll work with them or you won't. If you actually want to work with them regardless, the negotiations are over before they started. > Where is online video at? Can we get the money that we charge to do > commercial work? This has nothing to do with online video vs MSM or Corporate Video. It never did and it never will. Time is Money. Period. > I really need to know...and soon...hypothetically :) Even within MSM, Time is Money. At one point, while I was permalancing for an ad agency 32 stories above Manhattan with the ad execs ordering sushi for lunch while we were cutting $600,000 commercials, I received an offer to interview with a different agency for a staff job. I went to see what they were talking about and had an interview with 3 or 4 people, but not the guy in charge of hiring. They were impressed with my demo reel and I left a copy there for the main guy to watch before going back to meet with him a different day. When I got back to that agency, what the main guy was talking about as far as salary, duties and working hours was so off-the-wall and retarded that I had to interrupt him with a very important question... "Did you watch my demo reel?" This clown had to admit that, no... no he hadn't watched my demo reel, which was currently sitting between us on his desk. So, this guy was wasting my time because he thought he was talking to a junior editor, when meanwhile I was currently *freelancing* for an ad agency that could have eaten his agency alive, AND there were commercials on my reel that were currently running on television, and had been for more than a year. What he SHOULD have done was watch my reel and either realize I was a fit for the job and interview me or realize that I was NOT a fit and NOT interview me. Same thing goes for the television station in your situation. They either need to recognize you as A PRODUCER, PERIOD... or not. If what you've produced is good enough to be on their station, that means they didn't have to hire on-air talent, a videographer, an editor, a producer OR an EP. They didn't have to pay for script-writing, travel, materials, graphics..... So, regardless of what your delivery medium is, YOUR time is worth what YOUR time is worth. If you choose to make a deal with them for less than that, it's because YOU decided to 'hook them up' with a discount... It's *NOT* because your time was automatically worth less because you created a video for online distribution instead of for television. Good luck. Let us know how it goes. -- Bill Cammack http://billcammack.com
