Posts
Wednesday November 9th, 2011
by Jess Dudley
I recently helped one of our industrial photographers quote on an annual report for a New York graphic design firm. The client was a large, US-based oil company. The design firm described the basic elements of the project to the photographer—4 shoot days creating photojournalistic (including aerial) pictures of oil rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico and southeast Texas. The primary use was for the oil company’s annual report, but with other possible uses in mind, they were asking for a “buyout.”
After getting those details from the photographer, I called the design firm. First, I wanted to find out what their idea of a ”buyout” was. It’s a term we hear a lot, but it means something different to everyone. For that reason, we don’t use it in any of our paperwork. I wanted to find out if they really needed all those rights or if they were willing to accept limitations on the number of images, geography, duration of use, type of use or degree of exclusivity. I always make sure the client understands that as the usage rises or falls, so does the price. And if they want to contain the costs, we can tailor a licensing agreement to fit their needs so they’re not paying for anything they aren’t going to use. An “all rights” deal is certainly the most convenient solution for everyone, but it’s also the most expensive option for the client. (My first thought was that most design firms don’t get involved in advertising, so I figured we could at least eliminate advertising use.)
The design firm’s project manager and I discussed the creative, licensing and budget. She needed a variety of candid, ambient-light images of workers operating three off-shore rigs and one refinery, architectural shots of the refinery and aerial images of each rig. They wanted the photographer to capture what was happening, without staging any pictures, so the pre-production would be minimal. The helicopter was the only serious production component and it would be provided by the client.
They would be using the images in a number of internal and external collateral pieces and for press kits and other publicity. They didn’t need advertising use and their audience was limited to North America, but they wanted to be able to use any of the pictures from the shoot and they wanted to be able to use them without time limit. With all that information, I went to work on the estimate.
Fee: Clients tend to view these shoots as an opportunity to build a library of images that they can use in lots of different ways for years to come. But this presents a pricing dilemma for photographers. It’s easier to estimate the value of one-time annual report use than collateral use of all the pictures forever. How many useable pictures is the photographer going to make? What’s the likelihood that the client will use them all? How long before the photographs look dated and can’t be used anymore?
In this case, the photographer could potentially create 100 usable images per shoot day. Pricing this out on a per image basis in Blinkbid, FotoQuote or on a stock site will yield astronomical numbers. For example, five years of national collateral use for 400 images in Blinkbid yields $2-4 million for the licensing fees alone. If the licensing were limited to one-time annual report use, I would tend to quote 2500.00/day plus expenses for an average photographer on a multi-day project. With the additional uses and duration added in, my experience is that it’s worth around twice that amount. So I quoted $20k for the creative fee.
Assistant: The photographer only needed one assistant for the project and he wanted to work with his regular first assistant, who he pays 350.00/day for commercial assignments. (I’ll normally have the first assistant travel with the photographer and hire a local one if we need a second assistant.) We budgeted for two travel days, a scout day and a prep day to pick up and return the rented gear and to pack. Assistant rates can vary widely depending on the assistant, the photographer, the client, the shoot. I have found that I can get good assistants in most cities for about 300.00/day.
Capture Fees: This fee covers the time and equipment/software necessary for the initial image download/editing/organizing/tweaking/web-gallery-making. The client wasn’t going to be reviewing the images during the shoot, so we didn’t need a digital tech on site.
Photographer Travel/Scout Days: The photographer would have two full travel days and one scout day to prepare for the shoot once he arrived in Texas. He wouldn’t be scouting the rigs, but he would be meeting with the client and scoping out the processing facility.
Airfare: I priced out two round trip tickets to Houston for the photographer and his assistant. I found tickets for 390.00 per person on Kayak.com. I padded the airfare a bit to account for potential increases in fares between estimate submission and approval. I hate going over budget on anything.
Baggage Fees: These days, if you forget to account for excess baggage, you could be in big trouble. The photographer told me that he’d be checking three bags of gear. I accounted for two more bags for personal items and priced out the baggage fees on the airline’s website. 50.00 per person for the first two bags and 100.00 for the third, each way.
Car Rental & Gas: The photographer and assistant would need a vehicle to get from their hotel to the heliport and processing facility. I priced out the car rental, insurance and gas for the week. I always look at Kayak.com and Enterprise.com for car rental rates unless the photographer wants to use a specific agency for rewards purposes. (Check out the Wonderful Machine discount we have with Enterprise. You don’t have to be a member to get it.)
Lodging: The photographer and his assistant would be staying at the same hotel all week, each with their own room. Unless the photographer specifies a brand, I use Kayak.com or Hotels.com to find rates.
Equipment Rental: The photographer wanted to get gear from a rental house he was familiar with close to him. He rented two camera bodies (300.00/camera/day) four lenses (~50.00/lens/day) two Scrim Jims (100.00/day). 900.00/day x 3 days (same as a week) = 2700.00.
Post Processing Days: For most jobs, photographers deliver a web gallery of roughly processed, low resolution files for the client to choose from. Then they custom process the client’s selects and deliver high resolution reproduction files. In this case, we were going to deliver “all” of the pictures processed and ready for reproduction. As a practical matter, “all” means a moderate number of similars from each situation, with lots of duplicates removed. In these cases, I’ll typically quote a day’s worth of image processing for each shoot day. If we end up with 100 pictures per shoot day, that will give us about 5 minutes to process each file.
Delivery of Hi-Res by Hard Drive: This covers the cost of the hard drive plus the other equipment, software and time required.
Meals, Insurance, Shipping, Misc: This covers 75.00 per person, per day for food (including travel and tech days), the costs and time associated with getting a certificate of insurance, shipping for the hard drive and a little extra for any unanticipated expenses that might come up.
Finally, I made sure to itemize the various production elements we were expecting the client/agency to provide and I specified that we needed a 50% advance prior to the shoot. After reviewing with the photographer, I submitted the estimate and terms & conditions to the design firm and called to follow up with the project manager. She confirmed receipt and said she’d review it with her team and get back to me.
(click to enlarge)
A day or so later, the project manager called asking what we could do to bring the costs down by about 5,000.00. This was a little disappointing because I felt that it was pretty lean to begin with. We talked about what we could scale back. (I never give up money without cutting back on what I’m delivering.) There weren’t any expenses that we could do without, so it was going to have to come out of the fee. To do that, we were either going to have to limit the number of images or the duration of their use. I asked if we could limit the number of images. She wasn’t enthusiastic about limiting the number of images, but thought a limited duration would be more palatable to the client. So I talked with the photographer and we decided to bring the fee down to 3750.00/ shoot day in exchange for limiting use to 3 years. I should mention that I wouldn’t go much lower than that even if the client was willing to cut the duration down to 1 year. We revised and resubmitted the estimate (click to enlarge):
The client approved it and the photographer shot the project.
Wednesday January 12th, 2011
by Jess Dudley
Recently, one of our East Coast photographers was contacted by a multicultural ad agency asking him to bid on a print campaign for a major airline. After the photographer got an idea of the concept and the picture requirements from the art buyer, he passed the comps, shot list and contact info on to me to work out the details of the estimate.
Interestingly, the photographer had met the art buyer years earlier when the photographer was just getting started in the business. The art buyer asked him to keep in touch. So he did—by sending him regular updates on the progress of his portfolio. Over time, the two became friendly enough that the photographer invited the art buyer to his wedding. Finally, years after meeting, the perfect project came across the AB’s desk and he called the photographer to quote on it.
The campaign consisted of 10 ads, each featuring a single image:
- Two pictures depicted small table-top still-lifes on a white background (of a passport, tickets, etc.)
- Three showed slightly more elaborate studio situations with some props and a small set, simulating a person sitting on a plane looking out window, a glass of wine on a tray table, and someone checking their PDA in the first class lounge.
- Three were environmental portraits to be shot in New York City (but made to look like foreign destinations) and two were environmental portraits that needed to be shot on location in Europe. These five would be shot in a casual, editorial style. We would also need to shoot backgrounds separately from the subjects in case we needed to make composite versions of the portraits.
The client needed unlimited print advertising, collateral and web use of ten images for a year.
After speaking with the photographer, we agreed that we’d be able to handle all five of the studio shots on one shoot day (plus a pre-light day). We would need one shoot day for the three local environmental portraits. And we’d need one shoot day for the portraits in the European city. With that in mind, I started pulling together the first version of our estimate.
Fee. I usually think in terms of a fee for the first image, then a discounted fee for the additional images within a project. In this case, given the caliber of the photographer, the complexity of the shoot and the usage, I would normally quote about $10k for the first and half that for each additional image. There were a couple factors creating upward pressure on the value; the client was a big (Fortune 500) company and the project required international production. But more significantly, there was downward pressure on the price by virtue of the fact that it was a “multicultural” campaign, and it was likely to have a much smaller audience than a mainstream ad (though it’s possible that it could still be viable as a primary market ad). I figured on $8500 for the first picture and $4000 for each additional, leading me to the sum of $44,500 for the project.
Casting Days. We estimated two days to do the ”digital” casting. To save some time and money, the client agreed that picking from still pictures of the models (provided by model agencies) would suffice. I usually like to see talent in person before booking them. But we weren’t going to be able to do a live casting for the European talent anyway. (I tend to separate this out as a line item instead of lumping it in to the producer days because it might be done by the photographer, the producer or it may be farmed out.)
Film and Processing. Oddly, the art buyer asked us to quote on “film and processing” rather than a “digital processing” fee in order to keep their cost consultants happy. Through the course of our pre-bid conversations he mentioned that “digital processing” was always a bit of a sticking point for his cost consultants, and for whatever reason, they refused to update their jargon to reflect the current technology. Normally I bill a 500.00/shoot day to edit and tweak the files and to run and upload web galleries. (This is different from what the digital tech does. The digital tech helps manage the file captures and make it easy for the client to view the results in real time for approval.) The photographer asked me to quote a lump sum of 2000.00 for processing.
Digital Tech. We only budgeted for two digital tech days because we planned on running a light and fast production in Europe, and wouldn’t even have the time to review images at each location.
Producer. The producer days broke down as follows: three prep days to get the production lined up (travel, talent, equipment, lodging, stylists, catering, local transportation, scouting, assistants, etc.), one tech/scout day in NYC, two shoot days in NYC, one travel day to Europe, one tech/scout day in Europe, one shoot day in Europe, one weather day in Europe, one return travel day, one wrap day to coordinate payments, conversions and billing.
Assistant. The assistant would need almost the same number of days as the producer (one less prep day). Since we were planning to scout the day before the first NYC shoot day we’d need an assistant to pick up gear and drop it off upon our return. Doesn’t take a full day but it prevents the assistant from booking anything else.
Equipment Rental. A moderate amount of equipment for six days.
Wardrobe/Prop Stylist. Our wardrobe stylist provided us with an estimate for her and her assistant’s time, along with estimates for the wardrobe and minor props. We decided that in order to keep things simple and cut down on costs, we would plan to have the NYC stylist get the European wardrobe and we would take it with us to Europe and handle the primping ourselves.
Props. Hunting down the airplane set was a bit of a challenge and turned out to be rather expensive. We considered using one of the airline’s planes but realized it would mean an extra day of shooting along with all of the associated production expenses, since we wouldn’t be able to shoot the table top on the same day.
Hair/Make-up. We got quotes for hair/make-up stylists from the stylist directly in NYC and from an agency in Europe. Whenever I’m working in an unfamiliar location I prefer to work through artist reps because I find it easier to trust a company over an individual.
Studio Rental. For the studio rental, I negotiated a rate that would allow us to load in and set up lights the evening before the shoot.
Models. Model fees were dictated by the ad agency. If you were to call up a model agency and request a quote for this use, you could get a huge range depending on the agency and talent. I’ve found that being clear about your budget up front saves a lot of time and aggravation for the ad agency, model agency and photographer/producer. Knowing the budget ahead of time, the agencies only sent pictures of models who were comfortable with the fee.
Locations. The location scout wouldn’t be needed on set and our approach to the European leg of the shoot allowed us to save a bit on the scouting. The fact that the NYC locations needed to be close to one another limited the amount of time that could have been spent scouting as well. We expected to be able to mostly use free locations, but I added in 500.00 in case we needed to pay for one.
Per Diems. My estimate was starting to get pretty long, so I lumped together per diems, production books and shipping. Per diems are typically 75.00/person/day (factoring in that the catering charge will cover some of the meals). Production books (showing all the details of the cast, crew, locations, props, wardrobe and schedule) usually go for about 750.00 (it takes about a day to put together a nice one). And I accounted for 200.00 in shipping and about 200.00 in miscellaneous expenses for unexpected odds and ends.
Local Transportation. Cars, taxis, shuttles and trains in NYC and in Europe (client was providing air transportation to and from Europe).
Photographer Travel and Tech/Scout Days. I normally charge about 1000.00/day for photographer days that don’t involve shooting pictures.
Insurance. The Insurance line covers the cost of obtaining a certificate of insurance from the photographer’s insurance company. Sometimes insurance companies charge a nominal fee for this, but most offer it as a courtesy. Either way, it’s additional time for the photographer or producer. In this case, the charge was higher than normal because we had so many locations to provide COIs for.
Catering. I figured on 10 people at 40.00 each.
Production Truck. I call it a production truck, but it’s actually an RV that’s decked out like a salon on wheels to make easy to handle the hair and make-up, it has racks built in to handle the wardrobe. And it gives the caterer a place to put out the food. We happened to get a very favorable quote on this one because the RV guy wanted to work with the photographer.
Lodging. Last was the lodging in Europe. I wanted to make sure we were close to the shoot locations. I found a great little hotel close by with American-style showers that quoted me 100.00/night. I would need three rooms (photographer, assistant, producer) for five nights. The art director billed his hotel separately.
Lastly I made sure to note that the airfare would be provided by the client. It’s important to explicitly state which line items the production is not responsible for.
Here’s the first estimate we provided:
My early conversations with the client gave me some hints that they were fairly budget conscious, so my first quote was about as lean as I could justify making it. As it turns out, it wasn’t lean enough. The agency came back to us after a few weeks of consideration and meetings with their client and asked what we could do for $75k. The only way we could fathom shaving almost 50k off the estimate was to cut the number of days and shots. I asked them if there were pictures they could do without. They replied with a prioritized shot list. By cutting the studio day and one of the environmental portraits we were able to come close enough to their budget to do the trick. Of course, cutting the number of images in half didn’t cut the licensing/creative fee in half. I had to explain to the art buyer that the first image was worth more than the tenth.
We presented the following revision, which they accepted.
Wednesday December 8th, 2010
by Jess Dudley
We recently helped one of our food/people photographers quote on an ad shoot for an agency that specializes in reaching Hispanic audiences. The ad agency’s client was a major food brand, and the product they were promoting was a household name. The campaign was aimed at Hispanics and was to be used only in Spanish language media (primarily grocery store point-of-purchase). The agency needed pictures of a celebrity chef (standing, wearing chef jacket, looking at the camera), a recipe she makes using the product, and four still-life pictures of various products in their product line. All of the pictures would be shot on white background, at a studio near the agency and talent, in one shoot day. The usage was six images for “unlimited use in the U.S. for one year.”
When I build an estimate, I like to figure out the production costs first because it helps me really understand the scope of the project, which can influence the licensing/creative fee. One of the things that made this estimate interesting was that the agency asked us to use their estimating form (see below). That was nice because it gave us prompts for all the information they expected to see. And from their perspective, it makes it easy to compare quotes.
Production Crew. The photographer would have to fly in from another city for the shoot. She would plan to take her regular first assistant. She didn’t feel the need to add on a local assistant. My ideal is having one assistant who is familiar with the photographer traveling along, and one local assistant who is familiar with the local people and places who can help get us out of a jam when the unexpected arises. I put in for one assistant shoot day and two assistant travel days.
I find that hair/makeup, wardrobe, prop, and food stylists tend to be in the same general price range. But for this job, the food styling was the most critical component, so I budgeted more for that. The product itself isn’t very glamorous, so the recipe really needed to shine. In addition to looking through every food stylist website I could find, I spent a lot of time talking with local food photographers, folks at kitchen studios, and local magazines, to make sure I knew who the best food stylists were in that area. I planned on a day of prep for the food stylist to sort out the recipes and to buy the food, and a day on set for the food stylist and their assistant.
For this type of shoot (one subject, non-cosmetics shoot) one person can handle both hair and make-up. One stylist could handle the wardrobe (which would be provided) and propping with one prep day and one shoot day. Even though the wardrobe was to be provided, we still needed someone on set to steam the clothes and fuss with the fit. Chef uniforms are not the most flattering, so some time and attention would need to be spent pinning the uniform properly to give it a more fitted appearance.
I factored in three days for the production coordinator (me). It would mostly be pre-production to pull all the elements together and make the travel arrangements, and then just tying up loose ends after the shoot. The shoot was simple enough, and due to the photographer’s needs and the client’s budget concerns, I didn’t need to be there for the shoot.
Photographic Medium. We put in 300.00 for basic digital workflow. That’s less than we normally charge for a project like this, but it reflected the photographer’s comfort level. The retouching needs would mostly be file clean-up, smoothing wrinkles, smoothing skin, and fussing with the food a bit. I figured an hour for each image. The client requested a proof print of each of the final images because the final colors of the labels and product itself are so important.
Studio Rental. I had a couple places in our database, and got some more from some friends in the area. We found a great studio with a nice cyc wall close to the agency. As I’m checking on price and availability for all my support services, I generally put my favorites on hold. That way, I don’t have to scramble when the job comes through. When you put someone on hold, it’s like a tentative booking. If something else comes in for them on that date, they call you and ask you to confirm or release them from the hold. If you confirm and then cancel, you are obligated to pay them whatever cancellation fee you have negotiated. If you release them from the hold, or if the job doesn’t come through and you haven’t confirmed, there’s normally nothing to pay for.
We expected a cast and crew of about 10 people for a light breakfast and a normal lunch. I normally factor in about 40.00/head for that. If I have time, I’ll make some calls to confirm that with some caterers. If not, that amount is a safe bet to account for.
Equipment. The photographer was traveling with her own gear, for which she was charging a modest rental fee.
Location. Just needed a certificate of insurance for the rental studio.
Travel. We’d need round-trip transportation for the photographer and her first assistant. Estimating travel costs can be tricky. Airfares can vary wildly depending on when the travel is taking place and how much advance notice you have. Between the time you quote on a job and when you get it, fares can double—especially if the shoot dates change. Make sure you’re clear in advance about who is going to pay/get the difference when the fare goes up/down. In this case, we were charging our actual cost on the expenses and the client understood that it was subject to change. I normally figure on single occupancy hotel rooms. It wouldn’t be unusual to ask two assistants to share a room if the budget is tight, but it would have to be an extreme case to have the photographer share a room with the assistant. I chose to rent a car so we could run last minute errands. But I could have shaved off a few bucks by using a car service to and from the airport. Excess baggage is important to pay attention to these days. It’s a good idea to have your own scale to make sure your equipment cases don’t exceed 50 pounds. And unless you’re flying Southwest, you’ll have to pay close attention to the baggage charges, because they add up fast. In the past, I’ve been able to get discounts from airlines for photographic equipment (especially if the photographer had a valid press credential). But these days, with airlines trying to make money any way they can, it’s rare to get that kind of treatment.
Props, Wardrobe and Sets. The pictures required only simple plates for the food, no props for the chef and just white background for all the pictures including the product itself. But it’s better to have extra stuff that you don’t use than wish you had a wooden spoon or an oven mitt to put in the subject’s hand when the art director feels inspired. I talked to the prop stylists and the food stylists to get a better sense of what I should budget for plates, pans, place settings and the food. Depending on what else they’re responsible for, it would be reasonable to have the food stylist or the prop stylist handle the cooking-related props. It’s not unusual for food stylists to bring along a small selection of serving dishes which can fill in for whatever the prop stylist gets. Just be sure to be clear on who’s bringing what avoid any confusion on the shoot day. And of course, you can plan on the prop stylist being able to buy and return items that don’t get used.
Talent and Casting. The celebrity chef was the only talent and we didn’t have to pay her out of the photography budget.
Miscellaneous. The client requested delivery by DVD. More often we simply upload the files to our FTP and send the client a link. The “Shipping and Messengers” is actually a car service for the chef.
Photography Fee. Lastly, I nailed down the fee. The key points to consider were: national brand enlisted a mid-size agency and relatively unknown “celebrity chef” to promote a small segment of their business to the Spanish-speaking population of the U.S., using six images for one year (see “usage license required” on last estimate page). Some of these factors create upward pressure on the value and some push it down. The fact that only 17% of the US speaks Spanish as a first or second language seriously limits the audience of this campaign and drastically lowered the licensing fee. This brought the fee down from what would have otherwise been 10-12k to under 7k. Majors and minors refer to the prominence of the image in the ad. In this case, they expected to use the portrait and a couple of the other pictures big, and the rest much smaller.
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