Budgeting for a $35k (USD) 1-Day Corporate Studio Shoot - Shorty

G' day guys. Dan here with another Shorty. It's Tuesday the 30th of June 2020. So it's the end of the financial year here in Australia. So everyone's madly spending like crazy today and I wanted to share with you a little bit about what we just talked about on our weekly group coaching call for the accelerator program. So on the five week months like this is, we do something a little bit special for our members and I wanted to share a little bit about that with you today to give you a taste of what goes on inside the accelerator program.

So on the five week months I tend to do a case study of something that I've been involved with personally. So back in January we did a complete breakdown of the FS5 launch film that I did for Sony and broke down all of the communication that I did have with Sony and how I put the quotes together. We break down the quotes and basically reveal everything about it to give the guys and girls in the accelerator an opportunity to kind of just sort of look over my shoulder and see what goes into one of these projects. And so we've done the same again today. We've actually been talking about a shoot I did for a company back in 2014 actually quite a while ago, but it was, it was a company that wanted to hire a well known British celebrity to present a series of kind of internal comms videos and promotional videos for. They were a company that had made the toner cartridge for a photocopier. So like not, not typically a very sexy company, you think, you know, oh, can't wait to make a film for them. But the truth is it was a very, very, it was a great project. I think we ended up making about 30 different videos for them with this well known celebrities. This person used to present Formula one in the UK and this company felt that she would be a great fit for their market. And so the idea of celebrity endorsement is actually one that's very effective, very powerful because this particular market would really relate to this person. And so we got involved quite early on because what typically happens is if you want to hire a celebrity to do something like this, the agents want to make sure the production company is actually legit and not a tin pot. And you know, they don't want to send their celebrity to some of something that's been badly organized. So we got involved with the agent quite early on and, and I actually liaised with the agent and negotiated, you know, rates with this celebrity or rather they told me what the rates were there Wasn't much negotiation. It's like, this is the cost. Do you want to do it? But then what I did is I organized the studio and all the crew and we put that together and it was a one day shoot and a six day edit. It was worth about £28,000, which is, you know, a decent sized chunk of change for a one day shoot. So what we did is we broke down the entire process right down to, you know, how we go about, you know, liaising. And there was quite a number of emails went back and forward between us and the agent organizing, you know, trying to coordinate dates with this particular celebrity who was running around the world at the time doing Formula one. And we had this small window, so we did that and it's probably, probably 20 or 30 emails went back and forward in pre production stage. And so what we did today was he broke down, you know, not only the practical process of what went into that, but, but some of the, kind of, some of the work went into the scripting. I think we went through sort of four versions of the scripts and how we found a director to come on board and help with all of that. And really what I was sharing was, you know, you can take on these big projects and even if you don't feel like you're capable, you can find people who are and you become the orchestrator. In fact, the client Chris said to me afterwards, he said, oh, you know, Dan, it was like I wasn't really quite sure what to expect, but I just stood back and watched you, like the conductor conduct everything and put everything in place. And so when you have the great crew and you hire great people, then as the executive producer, as a producer, you just stand back and kind of make sure everyone does their job. So all the hard work, all the heavy lifting is done way in advance. And then what we did this morning was actually broke down not only the communications that I had with this, this agency. We showed the confirmation letter, we showed what kind of things were in that. I showed my quot, showed my invoice and then we broke the quote down into the three main stages of pre production and travel and talent. Although talent was covered separately to the actual production itself. And, and what we budgeted and what we, what our actuals were and how we were able to kind of, you know, save a bit of money here. But then, you know, for example, the insurance overran and the studio overran a little bit in budget. So we were able to kind of move things around the budget to make it work. But one of the things I always put in a court is, is production insurance. Production insurance and product fee. So we charged a 15% production company fee. And you know, that was, I think the overall budget was about 27, 28,000 pounds for that shoot. And, and you know, and then we broke down everything into kind of cost versus profit. And the reason that I do this is to, to share the process. Now the guys inside my accelerator, they get to see all of this and they get to use this as a reference guide. And, and what they tell me is this is very valuable because there' quite like, you know, not quite being sure if your pricing's on point or not. So one of the reasons we held the session today was to kind of just share a pricing perspective. And then because we've got such an incredible community and one that fosters a lot of abundance and sharing, that people are actually quite happy to share the rates with each other. And, and it makes me very proud because you know, I believe strongly that there is an abundance of work available to filmmakers worldwide. So even if there's two filmmakers in the same time, in our group, for example in Melbourne, we got three companies that kind of compete on the front page of Google. And you would think they wouldn't want to be in the same room virtually. And they are, and they help each other out and they share things and they discuss things. Because Melbourne's a city of four and a half million people, you know, two production companies simply can't do all of the work. So I don't think there's ever been a situation in our community where two companies are going after the same job. It just doesn't, doesn't happen. So you know, what we did, you know, we share very openly and what that means is people are very comfortable sharing. So yeah, I mean, I'm curious, how do you measure your pricing? How do you know your pricing is on point? How do you know your pricing is close? Where do you, where do you benchmark that? You know, in the UK there's the beck to the beck two day rates, but they're not really that accurate. And I think the other thing about standardized day rates is that that's very much a freel approach to running a business and that's not how you build a business. You need to build a business based on value. You know, what is the value you're bringing to the client? I think the value based pricing, as I've heard it being called, is a much more sensible approach. You know, it's okay, you've got to be okay with making money. That is why you're running a business. And I think one of the obstacles that many people face when they're migrating from that freelance to business owner headspace is being okay with charging for services or making margin on people that you subcontract out to. And I remember working with the cameraman many, many, many years ago and he said, oh yeah, the soundo is really, really shitty. Because let's say the soundo was charging him 250 a day back at the time. Well, Steve was putting him out for 300 and this soundo really took offense. This is like, well, how, you know, that's not fair, sticking me out. 300, he's only giving me 250. But, but the fact is, you know, you have to take the, make the phone calls. You've got the relationships. When you book a member of crew, all you're doing is saying, hey, are you available on this day for this rate? And they say yes. They turn up, they shoot, they put their invoice in and boom, you're done. So, you know, I want you to get comfortable with, with adding margin on top of every single supplier you have. That is how you make your profit. That is how you're able to scale. That is how you're able to, you know, add more bottom line cash into your, into your business. And you know, cash flow is king. And so you want to make sure that you can maximize the profit on a job and minimize your costs. I mean, that is the basics of running a business. So if that's something you struggle with, then have a think about that.

I want to just say one other thing. We brought four incredible new members into our community. Last week we ran a small campaign to our email list only and we had seven people applying and we accepted four. And so we actually have one space available at the minute. In the accelerator program. I said I'd bring in five people this, this, this, this tranche. So if you are someone who missed out on that, who is interested in learning more about the accelerator, go over to denlani.com and click on the link underneath this post and, and book a call with me. And if you qualify, you could be in on these calls. And they really are really are very, very powerful. So guys, that's all for this week. I've got Lauren Kress coming in on Thursday who's the neuroscientist and she's going to be absolutely fantastic. So make sure you tune in for that. And if you're interested in jumping on that one spot, I'VE got left for the accelerator. Do make sure you go and click and book a call with me and I'll see you next week.

You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner who's hit a ceiling and and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denleny.com don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes, and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review. And don't forget to share if you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers you know, then please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in case groups that you might be in. See you next week.