Ultimate Pricing Guide for Freelance Filmmakers and Videographers in 2024

I want to share everything I’ve learned about pricing in the last 15 years or so, working both as a freelancer and hiring hundreds of freelancers through my production company.

And I want to be as transparent as possible, because I felt like I was confused for a long time about pricing and no one would share this information with me.

First, let’s talk about how to actually charge for what we do.

In this business, people invoice based on “half day” and “full day” rates. Almost no one charges hourly for production. Hourly rates are common in pre-production and post-production. But I’ll keep this video mainly to production or shoot days.

The number of hours in full day depends on the type of product. For corporate and commercial type projects, it’s usually 10 hours from call time to wrap.

And for more narrative type projects and some commercials, it can be a 12 hour standard.

Half Day is 5 or 6 hours, depending on the project.

Typically, more seasoned people never offer any half day rates. They only have full day rate. They may have a half day rate for travel or maybe a location scout.

A big thing that I’ve noticed with newer freelance filmmakers is that they don’t separate their gear they bring from the labor. This is critical. You have to charge separately for your time and for your gear. Even if you don’t show the producer or production company the breakout, you have to keep track internally.

What I did was I just didn’t take jobs that provided the gear. I came with the gear. But I still charged separately for the two. Here is my labor rate and here is the cost of my gear rental. I’ll talk about gear rental a little later.

So how time is tracked and how labor and gear is invoiced separately has been the norm for as long as I’ve been doing this. And when I ask guys that are still doing this in their 70s, they tell me pretty much nothing has changed in that.

If you are doing it differently, it’s ok. Just know that it’s not the industry standard.

Now let’s get to the numbers. I’ve hired people in close to 25 states and have a little experience in Europe. So I’m using that as the baseline. And keep in mind, my experience is in corporate shoots and commercial work that is non union. For union work, the rates are usually higher and for indie film, it’s usually lower.

Your rate is first based on your roll and then your experience.

I’ll cover 7 common roles in any production for a 2 person to a 20 person crew.

If you are a solo filmmaker and you do the entire production on your own, I’ll share something for you in a few.

Here are the roles:

Production Assistant - Day Rate $250-$300
Grip - $600-$700
Gaffer - $750-$800
Audio Tech - $800-$900
Camera Operator - $600-$900
Director of Photography / Cinematographer $750-$1500
Director - $900-$1500 (Most directors have a project rate that includes pre-production and post-production)

For gear, it depends on the role. Some roles like audio tech won’t agree to work without gear. They usually charge a based line of $400 for a basic package.

Some DPs won’t work without gear. They charge based on what is required. A camera like FX9 package can be $400 per day.

Gaffers may want to use their own grip truck. That can be $400 per day just for the grip truck and gear and they charge for each light they add to the package.

So as a gaffer, you can make closer to 2k a day depending on how much gear your bring. Audio tech can make $1200-$2000 a day. DP can make closer to $2500-$3000 per day if they have a high-end camera package and bring in additional accessories like wireless video package.

If you are a one person crew and do everything on a shoot, you shouldn’t charge this way at all. You should charge as a video production company. That works entirely different and I made a video showing exactly how to price things if you do the entire production and are not a freelancer. Even if you are a freelancer but want to learn how production company price things, I recommend you watch that video next.

If you want to turn your freelance business into a video production company, check out my free online training. https://www.filmmakingmentor.com/Vide...