Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine
Concept: Professional talent interacting with various beverages in a residential property
Licensing: Collateral use of up to five images for one year
Photographer: Food/beverage and portraiture specialist
Agency: Mid-sized, PR-oriented, based in the Northeast
Client: Beverage brand
Here is the estimate:
Creative/Licensing Fees: We learned early on that the goal of this project was primarily to create content for social media, and there was also the possibility of the images living on the client’s website and being used for other collateral purposes. They only needed five shots and were willing to limit the usage duration to one year. These restrictions put downward pressure on the fee, as did the photographer’s limited experience working on commercial productions. I felt that each image was worth $500-$750, and on top of that I wanted to add $2-3k for the photographer’s creative fee. I ultimately decided that $5,000 was appropriate for a combined creative/licensing fee given the factors.
Photographer Scout Day: I included one day for the photographer to go see the location and do a walkthrough with the team. Typically I’d include a fee closer to $1,000, but I had a feeling the budget would be tight on this project, and the photographer was willing to go with a $500 fee for this.
Assistants: The first assistant would double as the photographer’s digital tech, and we included a second assistant as well for the one shoot day.
Producer: I included five days for a producer to help pull the project together and handle all bookings and logistical elements.
Hair/Makeup Stylist: I included one stylist to help prep the five talent we anticipated booking.
Wardrobe/Prop Styling: While I often break out these roles, I felt that given the minimal number of talent, a stylist could help arrange both of these elements, depending on the creative direction. I included appropriate shopping and return time for one stylist along with an assistant. I also included $500 per talent for wardrobe, and based on a conversation with the art producer at the agency I marked props as TBD which would be dependent on the final creative direction and location provisions.
Location Scouting and Location Fees: I included three days for a scout to help find a location and to be the liaison to the homeowner on the shoot, and I marked the location fee at $3,500. Additionally, I included $500 to cover floor protection and cleaning supplies.
Casting and Talent: As a cost-saving measure, we’d cast from cards rather than hold a live casting. Oftentimes I’d charge $500-$1,000 to handle this process, but we waived it and integrated the work into the producer’s time. I included $1,800 per talent based on a rate of $1,500+20% agency fee.
Equipment: This covered the photographer’s camera bodies, lenses, lighting, and grip equipment.
Catering: This was based on $65 per person for a light breakfast and lunch.
Production RV: I marked this as TBD, as it’s nice to have for a production like this, but the location could also serve as a staging area. We planned to discuss the potential need or lack thereof after we had a sense of what the location options were.
Post Production: I included $300 for the photographer to do an initial edit and provide a gallery of content for the agency/client to consider, and $100 per image for basic color correction, file cleanup, and delivery.
Mileage, Parking, Additional Meals, Misc.: I included $500 to cover transportation and miscellaneous unforeseen expenses that might arise during the production.
Feedback: After submitting the estimate, we were told that they had a $25k budget, and we were asked to revise based on this. Fortunately, the agency was willing to handle location scouting as well as retouching, and we compiled a revised estimate based on this. In addition to addressing those items, we also marked the scout day for the photographer as TBD and reduced a day for the producer. While we couldn’t quite get down to $25k, we felt that dropping it to under $30k would still be in the ballpark. Here was the revised estimate:
Results: The photographer was awarded the project. During the pre-pro process, the agency requested two additional talent to match an updated shot list, which impacted talent fees, wardrobe costs, catering, and a few other misc. expenses. Additionally, after the agency chose a location and had a conversation with the prop stylist, they approved additional shopping days and prop costs. In total, they approved nearly $10k of overages.
If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at 610.260.0200 or reach out. We’re available to help with any pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.