Whats the goin rate ?

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I am curious as to what the going rate is for tornado and severe weather footage these days. I have some people from the Discovery Channel who are offering to pay to use some of my videos in an upcoming show. If someone who has some dealings with this type of situation would please PM me I would appreciate it. I dont want everyone posted the loot your makin off your video for everyone to see but I also dont want to shoot them an offer that offends them or vice versa. The video im refering to is the 5/4/07 Arnett Ok Tornado from birth to death and no stops in the footage.
Anyways any offline help would be appreciated....id also be interested in how many people the Discovery Channel is actually talkin to for video this year or for shows next year?
Jason Brock

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I am curious as to what the going rate is for tornado and severe weather footage these days. I have some people from the Discovery Channel who are offering to pay to use some of my videos in an upcoming show. If someone who has some dealings with this type of situation would please PM me I would appreciate it. I dont want everyone posted the loot your makin off your video for everyone to see but I also dont want to shoot them an offer that offends them or vice versa. The video im refering to is the 5/4/07 Arnett Ok Tornado from birth to death and no stops in the footage.
Anyways any offline help would be appreciated....id also be interested in how many people the Discovery Channel is actually talkin to for video this year or for shows next year?
Jason Brock

You might want to move this discussion to the CB&G, which isn't visible by the public -- the W&C forum is. Licensing is often a negotiation, and you can usually get a better price if they believe that you've done this a million times before and are familiar with market value. If they read this post, they may try to lowball you.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Anyways any offline help would be appreciated....id also be interested in how many people the Discovery Channel is actually talkin to for video this year or for shows next year?
Jason Brock

I imagine a lot. I've gotten the same exact e-mail 3 times now. I should probably reply to one, but hell it's a form letter anyway. I shouldn't have to reply saying I sucked it up in 2008. They can just look on my site if they need to know so damn bad, lol. My past experience tells me not to bother with video unless it is something nuts you get. One of the last ones I bothered with was some Japanese news show. They wanted stuff from my youtube video. Like always, they needed it 10 hours before they first asked. I jumped through hoops with them on that, trying to get it to them asap. I get it to them and they come back with the, "we used something else, we don't need your stuff". It's damn annoying when they KNEW what they wanted and got it. They were also really rather rude during the whole process. Sad things is, from what I've seen, this is far more common than it going smoothly and being worth ANYTHING. Best of luck to you.

 

[scott r currens]

Like Mike, I too have had to jump through hoops for several production companies in the past with little or nothing return. I'm not saying that will happen with DC but don't spend 10 hours getting footage together if they are't even going to pay for a screener.

First of all I would suggest negotiating the terms of the agreement before you talk about a price. Do you get paid one lump sum or do you get paid for every airing of the show? How much do you get paid for 50-seconds of X5 time-lapse footage? If you don’t negotiate it before hand they will try and pay you for 10-seconds of footage. When negotiating price always try and get them to make an offer first. The last person to give a specific number is usually the one that comes out ahead.

I don’t know what others charge for footage these days so all I can tell you is about what I’d charge. There are many factors that affect the price and I don’t have time to list them all. I would charge a lot more for footage that will air on primetime network TV that I would for a smaller cable audience. For DC I'd say $55-90 per second for HD footage and $35-55 per second for SD footage. Personally, I'd push for the high-end price with DC because the shows airs so many times and they also sell DVD's of the shows. If it was just one airing I'd say $30-50/second.

My $.02 per second

 

[Brett Adair]

Discovery also contacted me as well.....they found my video from youtube. I sent the video, but I assume this will probably be a learning experience for me as well in the end. Best of luck to everyone. I think just about everyone on this forum may have gotten the same email.....

 

[Chris McBee]

They contacted me too...not sure what (if anything) to expect out of it.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Add me to the contacted list... I think they hooked a lot of folks, so don't jump through hoops. I have several demo files ready to roll based upon requests that take nothing more than an upload to shoot out. Makes it quick and easy for me.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

I am thinking that if this many of you were contacted that there will be little financial gain for anyone in the end.

 

[Billy Griffin]

+1 here too. Letter mentions "good exposure," and negotiating licensing the footage.
Perhaps I'll respond back, but probably won't sell as they're likely looking to low-ball.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

I have not verified this information from a national media source that advised me the offering rate on this channel's request was ranging from less than a $150.00 - $200.00 range total.
If this should be true, people would be selling what they have gotten on possibly multiple days for less than a one day's cost to go out.
Again, as I said, I have not verified this, as I have not, nor would I, participate for this price range.

 

[Billy Griffin]

And to think I can remember when the local OKC stations would pay up to $1k for something really good, nowadays it's all up to the i-reports from anyone with a camera. But that's already on a different thread.

Sadly, $150 would not even cover two tanks of gas in my gas-guzzling SUV. (sigh)

 

[Cris Schroeder]

Sadly, $150 would not even cover two tanks of gas in my gas-guzzling SUV. (sigh)

Don't feel bad...it won't cover two tanks in my minivan, either.

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

Add me to the list too. The going rate is what you think your footage is worth. If it is footage that is not unique then don't expect a windfall profit. But if you get the money shot, you can ask what it's really worth and you can say NO to their lower offer.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If you are asked for a demo ('screener') tape (from anyone, not just Discovery), you should charge for it (at least $100 per 30 minutes of footage). Those tapes take time to put together, time you should be paid for just like any other work you do. It is customary in the stock video business to charge for the screener tape and credit the fee toward the final license if they decide to use the footage. That way you're not totally wasting your time putting a tape together if your video is not selected.

Ask for a FedEx account number to ship the tape, it is widely accepted that the buyer pays for all shipping costs.

Bottom line is that you should do nothing for free when it comes to licensing footage. Be professional about it and you'll get treated (and paid) like a professional. If you don't, it's not worth your time. Getting video on TV will not get you publicity or further business, so make sure you get properly compensated.

I will say that Discovery has been very good to work with in the past.

FYI, the rates I've been charging are posted on my site here:

http://stormscenes.com/rates.shtml

Always charge a minimum fee when applying a per-second rate. Many times you'll only license a few seconds, which can end up being peanuts if you don't have a minimum charge - not worth your time. I get calls every once in a while from someone wanting to license a lightning strike that is a split-second long, and only pay for the fraction of a second. I wouldn't license anything decent (like good tornado footage) for a worldwide/nationwide program for less than $600.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

The going rate is what you think your footage is worth.

Exactly, asking what the going rate for footage is similar to asking how much a new car costs, it depends on the make, model and miles, there’s a Cadillac and then there’s a Honda, similarly footage should depend on quality, location and timing. Unless some of you have been contacted by someone that has yet to bother me, your not really dealing with "discovery" but yet a independant production company who is making a show for discovery, and based on what I have received, as well as heard from other chasers, there are currently a couple of production companies who have just sent out mass emails, so there will be no shortage of footage for them to choose from, if you have something they truly want, they will pay for it regardless if others have worse footage for less, so IMO it’s best to charge based on the quality and to try and not under price, just to out beat other chasers. I hate the whole screener process, and have learned the hard way to not waist too much of my time, it's not worth the time to spend hours building the tape only for no purchase to be made, just throw some of the best footage on a tape real quick and send it off, and of course they pay for shipping. By the way incase this email hasn't made the circle yet, a production company is looking for a monsoon chaser to tag along with, and its definitely not going to be this guy so if your interested and haven‘t seen the email I‘ll send them your way...