EvilBilly wrote:Wouldn't the profit potential for a custom be higher? Since the person who ordered it probably covered most (if not all) the production costs? So if you sold the piece on a NicheClips type site after the 40% processing fee (WOW, that's a BIG bite!!) the leftover would be profit?
True, but consider this:
20x$15=300-40%=$160
That would be total profit if I don't figure in these costs:
90min commute to studio
% of studio rent
1-2 meals
Transportation of actress
and the biggest thing I never calculate is my hours.
For instance, the standard rate for a really crappy videographer is $35 an hour. A decent videographer make 80-100/hour on a typical non-production gig, like a concert, weddings, etc.
Editors in high-school/college that you can find off of Craigslist that will have no idea how to edit fetish content go for as low as $15-30/hour. Average rate for a decent editor is $120/hour in this region.
For a typical project, I spend from 4-8 hours doing a rough edit, another 1-2 hours to clean it up, effects add from 1-8 hours, and rendering, compiling and uploading add 3-4 hours. An addition 1-2 hours is probably spend posting and spamming and general support for the product.
At that point, making $160 for all that labor does not seem all that great. So, if given a choice, I would have to choose the project that would more likely compensate me for all my time involved in bringing the the project to the customer. The other alternative would be to quote a really high price for customs where the prospects of sales were low and I would want compensation up front for all the work since there would be little return.
This might be just me, but I feel when someone orders a custom or when I produce a movie, regardless of cost, the price is incredibly low compared to a local production company producing something as simple as a commercial or training video. You see, they pass the rights to the customer, so the price is really high. I retain my rights in anticipation that I can make my time worth it from sales of the movie.
That is the big difference I think.
Thanks,
JohnM