Billing Out for Export and Upload Time

Happy 2012:

i know this isn't a FCP question, per say, but given it's the editing app i use, i'm wondering if you would be willing to answer my question, which, given how much longer it seems to take to export files out of FCP X, i think is relevant:

as pro editors, do you bill your clients for export/upload (to online video-sharing servers) time? if so, do you bill for the entire time it takes--and at your full rate?

thanks for any input you can provide!

nicolle

I bill but not at my full rate, as I'm not usually sitting there watching it happen. If I can be working on something else, I usually don't bill, but if the machine is chugging away by itself, I charge, because it is time that needs to be spent on the project. If they object, you could always supply a hard drive and they could upload themselves.

I usually bill for the time in days it takes to get a project out. Naturally, I try to leave long renders/uploads/exports to overnight processes to avoid having to bill the clients for these processes.

Overall, most post houses know enough not to hire an editor just to render, capture or to do long exports, as it is easier on the bottom-line to let the AEs handle those bits.



www.strypesinpost.com

There's no hard and fast rule. I bill a flat hourly, but good clients pay half for machine time (compression, export, upload)

thank you all for your input! very helpful.