A price is not a number: it is the sum of three lines, one of which most creators give away without realising.
The three lines
They are read in that order, and never mixed.
Production: the preparation, shooting, editing and delivery time. That is the visible part, the one everybody prices.
Rights: the permission to use the video, for a duration, on media, in a territory. That is the invisible part, and the one with the most value.
And the constraints: travel, urgency, exclusivity, appearing on screen, additional languages.
A quote showing only a total line is compared on price alone. A three-line quote is discussed line by line, which is exactly what you want.
The line that decides your year
It is the second one, and it is the one most often given away.
Advertising rights
A video run in paid advertising works for the brand well beyond its publication: it is seen tens of thousands of times, sometimes for months.
That is not the same product as a single post on an account. It is invoiced separately, with a written duration and an end date.
The deadline
Work delivered in seventy-two hours moves everything else in your week. That is invoiced, and refused when it is not paid.
So write the standard deadline into your scale, along with the urgency supplement. A brand that knows both chooses without negotiating.
The mistake that caps your rate
Selling time rather than a result.
An hourly rate pushes the client to compare your speed with somebody else's, which makes no sense in this line of work.
A rate per deliverable, with clear rights, pushes them to compare what they can do with the video. That is a different conversation, and it concludes at a higher price.
Why comparing with the neighbouring market misleads
That is the question coming back in every conversation between creators.
The rates displayed in the large neighbouring markets are not transposable as they are: costs, taxation and the size of budgets differ.
But one point counts more than the comparison: the place of publication. A video shot here and run for a wider market is not invoiced like a video meant for a small local brand. What sets the price is the use, not your address.
So systematically ask where the video will run, before quoting an amount.
What a price is made of, line by line
| Component | What it covers | How it is billed |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Script, location check, any purchase | A flat fee per order |
| The shoot | Time on site and the gear | Per video or per half-day |
| The edit | Cutting, subtitles, exports | Per version delivered |
| The licence | Media, duration, territory | As a separate extra |
What explains a gap between two quotes
Rarely the shoot. Almost always the licence and the number of revisions. Two distant prices often cover two different scopes.
What is re-read before sending a quote
What is included, what is not, the validity date and the payment date. Four lines that remove most of the discussions.
What to write in the quote
Six elements, always the same.
The number of videos, their formats and their lengths.
The number of revisions included and the price of the next one.
The duration of the rights, with a start date and an end date.
The authorised media, named one by one.
The delivery time, from receipt of the product.
And the validity date of the quote, along with the payment terms.
These elements also depend on your administrative situation, which decides how your amounts are presented and declared. It is checked with an accountant before the first quote.
