s. amed hussaini Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 (edited) Anyone have accurate ideas of what a production company typically charges a company for a 30 second spot? This is assuming the production company comes up with the concept, story, idea, films it, edits it, does all the post.. everything: the company gets a finished 30 second spot (35MM). What does an average "no frills" company charge? What does a "better" company with more "interesting ideas" and better "composition" charge? Thanks! Sy edit: lol just realized i put 39 second spot in the title. rest assured, I meant 30 seconds :P Edited October 27, 2006 by s. amed hussaini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted October 27, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted October 27, 2006 Anyone have accurate ideas of what a production company typically charges a company for a 30 second spot? This is assuming the production company comes up with the concept, story, idea, films it, edits it, does all the post.. everything: the company gets a finished 30 second spot (35MM). What does an average "no frills" company charge? What does a "better" company with more "interesting ideas" and better "composition" charge? Thanks! Sy edit: lol just realized i put 39 second spot in the title. rest assured, I meant 30 seconds :P Hi. Anything from $10,000 to $1,000,000 plus. Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hayes Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I?d say commercials budgets for what you are talking about fall between $2,000 and $1.5 Million. But, your question is misleading in that most commercials aren?t created by the production company. Usually there is an ad agency with a strong creative team of writers and art directors who have created the spot in conjunction with the client. The ads are probably part of a sophistical marketing plan involving print, radio, promotional, and commercial spots. Even smaller commercials in the $50,000 range may fit into a multimillion dollar campaign. So production companies that see themselves as fitting into creating and producing spots are sort of a small niche. I would say those commercials would fall into the $2,000 to $100,000 range. But the company would have to find a client with out an ad agency. Or pair up with an ad agency that doesn?t feel comfortable writing commercials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james smyth Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 I intern at an advertising agency which does 35mm spots. The average range I tend to see can be from 50k to 150k. Of course it is an order of magnitude more when digital effects need to be produced for it. The agency itself has about five people (director, producer, executive producer, office PA, and myself) devoted to the TV commercials and everyone else is freelance, but it is generally the same crew. Our PM is freelance, but she works with us on every spot and has her own cubicle that only she uses. Just keep in mind that 35mm commercials shoots are becoming rare. Mine is one of the few agencies on the east coast still using 35. Everyone else has moved to HD by now. I'm in Baltimore, and being the intern, I get the lucky job of taking a train to NYC to pick up the dailies from PostWorks. Luckily I've managed to avoid having to take 6000' loads of film to the lab on the train (and taxis), but I'll get the task one of these days. An HD workflow would be faster and cheaper, but our director is more comfortable with 35. And, frankly, it's just more fun in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Hughes Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Luckily I've managed to avoid having to take 6000' loads of film to the lab on the train (and taxis), but I'll get the task one of these days. OK, film mathematicians. 6000' feet of film for a 30 second spot. What's the shooting ratio? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Winchester Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 (edited) 6000' of 35mm = 1 hour, 6 minutes and 40 sec @24fps. 133:1 ratio ??? Edited January 15, 2007 by Joseph Waingezheyaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Luke Prendergast Posted January 15, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted January 15, 2007 OK, film mathematicians. 6000' feet of film for a 30 second spot. What's the shooting ratio? Freakin' Ridiculous:1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted January 15, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted January 15, 2007 Freakin' Ridiculous:1 Hi, Thats nothing, I know of productions where over 100,000 been shot! I heard a tale of a British Airways commercial that used 10 times more than that! Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james smyth Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 (edited) Freakin' Ridiculous:1 You haven't met our director. We spent all of thursday (14 hour work day for me) filming water falling on an umbrella in super slow-motion to fill in some shots we didn't get when on location the previous shooting day. We made four shots with several takes each. One or two shots might make it into the spot itself. We used up 6000' for those shots (six mags of 1000' rolls). The actual amount of film shot for the commercial is closer to about 11000' all told. Ridiculous? Certainly. But hell, we got some really awesome shots. It's one thing about commercials that you don't get with feature films is that you often do have the time and budget to use as much film as you want and take as much time as you want. One day a camera assistant accidentally ran a 400' roll with nothing but blue sky (it was loud outside and he didn't hear it turn on). Our director being our director (sorry, no names) decided he wanted it to be developed and transfered anyway. Edited January 15, 2007 by james smyth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Panczenko Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Would this be Charles St Productions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james smyth Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Would this be Charles St Productions? Maybe :unsure: You ever worked with them? I'm not sure what the rules are for things like this, so I'm trying not to name specifics. But my description does make it pretty easy to narrow down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Panczenko Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 (edited) Maybe :unsure: You ever worked with them? I'm not sure what the rules are for things like this, so I'm trying not to name specifics. But my description does make it pretty easy to narrow down. I have not worked for them, but I know all the usual suspects who do the Charles St jobs. No one can argue that they do great work! Probably one of the best places in the area to intern at, if this is indeed where are working ;) . Mabe I will run into you someday soon around Bawlmer! Edited January 16, 2007 by Mike Panczenko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Brad Grimmett Posted January 17, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted January 17, 2007 Hi, Thats nothing, I know of productions where over 100,000 been shot! I heard a tale of a British Airways commercial that used 10 times more than that! Stephen Yep, it's quite common. I remember a particular job from when I was a P.A.....it was the first day of a four day shoot for a shoe commercial, and about 2/3rd's of the way through the day the UPM started scrambling to find more film (this was in Orlando, FL). I soon found out that 40,000 ft. had been purchased for the whole job, and we were almost out of film.....on the first day! I think we ended up shooting about 100,000 ft. over the 4 day shoot. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think this was for only two 30 second spots. I remember the first take was at 24fps, then the second was at 72, and after that everything was 150fps for the rest of the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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