Choose a day rate or a project rate, and say which
A day rate bills the time and leaves the client carrying the risk that the shoot runs long. A project rate fixes the price of a defined film and leaves you carrying it. Either works, but the invoice should read as one or the other: a project price that quietly sprouts extra day lines halfway through is the invoice a producer refuses to approve.
Shoot days and edit days are separate lines
- Shoot days, with the crew size and roles for each day
- Edit days or edit hours, including color and sound mix
- Each delivered cut, named by length and format
- Kit rental, crew hire and travel, each passed through on its own line
Rolled into one figure, the edit disappears into the shoot, and a client who sees only two days on set cannot understand why the film cost what it did. Split out, the edit days explain themselves, and they are the number that grows when the brief changes.
Pass through kit, crew and travel without hiding them
A rented cinema lens, a hired drone operator and a hotel night for the crew are costs that depend on the shoot, not on your rate. Bill each at cost or with a handling percentage the client agreed to in advance, and keep the rental house and freelancer invoices to hand: a production client's accounts team will ask for them line by line.
Count the revision rounds on the invoice
A revision round in video means re-editing, re-rendering, re-exporting every aspect ratio and uploading again. State how many rounds the price includes and what a further round costs, so the fourth set of notes arrives as a priced change rather than an assumption.
Hold the shoot date with a deposit
Booking a shoot day means turning away other work and committing crew who have turned away theirs. Invoice a deposit when the date is confirmed, state that it secures the crew booking, and show it as already paid on the final invoice so the balance is plain.
Name where the film may run
Usage for a film is bounded twice: by your license to the client and by the music, stock footage and talent releases underneath it. The invoice should name the channels and the term the client paid for, because a film cleared for a website and moved onto broadcast breaks the music license before it breaks yours.
Common questions
- Should I charge a day rate or a flat project fee for video?
- A day rate suits work where the client controls the schedule, such as event coverage or corporate shoots run to their agenda. A flat project fee suits a defined film with a script and a cut list. Whichever you choose, the invoice should match the quote it came from so the client can compare the two.
- Do I charge for travel days?
- Usually yes, at a reduced rate stated in advance, because a crew traveling to a location is a day nobody can book elsewhere. Put travel days on their own line rather than inside the shoot rate, so a local job and a remote one remain comparable.
- Should the client pay for the hard drive with the footage?
- If they are receiving the footage, yes. The drive, the time spent copying and checking it and any archive you keep on their behalf are costs that exist only because they asked for the material, and a line for them settles the question of who owns the storage.