Event: Club night shooting pricing

[Yella Fella]

Hello,

I have been approached to cover a club night event in London, typical hours are of 9pm till 3am which means i have to travel easy 3 hours round trip to get this done. Not to mention PP work.

The T&C's not mentioned clearly as of yet, but its typical shots of clubbers posing etc, and no prints required, just images for their web site gallery. With possible future work an all.

How do people factor cost? just purely based on per hour basis or assumption on all night basis? Thanks.

[Gary_Evans]

You cant do a proper quote yet, as the T&Cs arent confirmed.

Say you quote to shoot and for the web. Then it turns out that the club want a logo adding to all the images because they are selling souviner prints.

Get the full facts first. First rule of business

[Yella Fella]

their logo for the web site will definately be on the site. As for them selling the pics, i doubt it, as their not that kinda company. They just promote dance nights, and has a collection of galleries on their site to view, thats all.

[staereo]

According to MY pricing, USD $1,201.50 would be my estimate for the labor. I charge for travel when it is a distance (3 hours, I assume around 180 miles worth of distance, R.T.), plus I count that as an overnight which I also charge (I am a family man, if you want me away from my daughter overnight, I charge.) That also allows me to finish the shoot and get a room on THEIR wallet, not mine. Much safer for the drive home. But it really doesn't help you, as you are in such a different market than myself it may not be comparable. Take out the overnight charge, if you don't mind driving at 3 am, and my estimate would be: $1051.50 for the labor/Creative Fee/whatever you happen to call it.

As far as usage on the images, you don't have enough information to make an official quote. Some things you don't have listed that I would want to know:

Size of images.
Number of images.
How popular is the club (and thus, the website)
Where on the site will they be used.
What content will the images accompany (this is a reputation thing.. I charge more if I have my work being used in ways that could adversely affect my reputation....)
How long will they be able to use the images?
Does the client want exclusive use of the images? (I am already assuming that you're not giving up your copyright...)
Cost of production of the images.

I mean, thats just a taste. What are the images worth to you? Then add the usage fees to the labor to get your total estimate.

Something to chew on.

Bruce

On a side note: This is DEFINATELY a situation where your contract ought to state that liability is on the club for your images. That is, responsibility for model releases, as well as any sort of damages sought for images' consequenses on attendees. Last thing you need is some attorney going and getting hammered at a club, then regretting it the next month when his drunken picture circulates his office and his boss doesnt like it and fires him. Definately have a strong contract that puts that responsibility onto the club.

[sspellman]

Ed-

I do tons of nightclub work in the US, and I always charge by the hour so that I do not have to be there all night. $1000+ for a night would be nice, but not at all realistic. Try the equivalent of $150-200 an hour for a few hours max. It would be very unusuall to make more unless you are providing many other services. Tansfering image use liability to the client is fundametal to any job.

-Scott

[staereo]

Ed-

I do tons of nightclub work in the US, and I always charge by the hour so that I do not have to be there all night. $1000+ for a night would be nice, but not at all realistic. Try the equivalent of $150-200 an hour for a few hours max. It would be very unusuall to make more unless you are providing many other services. Tansfering image use liability to the client is fundametal to any job.

-Scott
9pm to 3am is 6 hours. 6x$150=900. 6x$200=1200. Which means you're saying $900 - $1200. Seems we are right in line with our prices. :( ;)

[sspellman]

9pm to 3am is 6 hours. 6x$150=900. 6x$200=1200. Which means you're saying $900 - $1200. Seems we are right in line with our prices. :( ;)

Yea-but no club owner will pay you that much, nor do you really want/need to be there that long to do a great job. 2-3 hours is a common shift for me even on a big night. There are many many photographers who will do this work for $50-100 per night which drives down market pricing. Plus there are many nightlife pix websites that shoot for free and often provide pix to clubs at $0 or included in advertising. Skilled architectural work is better paying, but not club web pix.

[staereo]

Hehehe.. still.. I say quote the amount for the 6 hours. Then when they hem and hah about the ordeal, offer to shoot for less time to help cater to their budget requirements. :D

I completely agree about the GWCs, but I don't mind them anymore. You get what you pay for, and you just need to sell the rate you go for. Having said all of this, I've NEVER shot dance clubs. But the market behaves like you said. The way I see it, the buyers really help this problem get bigger by being willing to be a consumer of CRAP, for a cheaper price. But that is getting on another tangent, and would take away from this thread. Either way, I completely agree!