DVD authoring pay rate

Hello,

I've been asked to author a feature with DVDSP.
to include:
a main menu
chapter menu
and special features menu

What's a fair rate to charge? Keeping in mind it's a lo budget indie documentary

Thanks,
Jay

I would charge the same as my hourly editing rate. Are they providing all the elements or do you have to create graphics, backgrounds etc? What about format conversions / encoding?

I would guess a minimum one day of work. You should be charging at least $50 per hour.

However, additionally, for one off projects I also have a rule of thumb - I won't do it for under $1000. This is from past experience - once you have back and forth approvals / testing etc involved, seriously it is never worth trying to do a job for $500. If they don't have at least $1000 to pay you then you are likely to have all sorts of problems dealing with them.....

are you creating graphics as well, or are those being supplied? If you have to design menus, buttons, other elements, etc, keep that in mind as you price the job as well. If you're just assembling existing materials, that'll be quicker and you don't need to charge as much.

I concur with Peter. $1,000 is a good minimum rate for a one-off project. There is more to an authoring project than encoding the media, designing artwork and buttons, scripting the actions, et cetera. Allow for significant time and effort during the testing and approval stages. In my experience, even a "simple" authoring project consumes more than a day of time from start to end.

Thanks for the advice.
The project got postponed til next week - But I definitely agree, finishing work always takes more time than clients assume, with proofing and all.
I'll take it all into consideration.