Starting from the finished package
Newsroom editors often ask for a single number before they have said how much footage they have. We understand why, but a fair price for Rapid Edit and Delivery starts from the finished package rather than the raw material. A ninety-second report cut from twenty minutes of clean footage is a different job from the same report cut from three hours across several cameras.
So when an enquiry arrives, Duncan asks about the shape of the output first: how many packages, how long each should run, and whether they need graphics, captions or a voice-over laid in. Those answers set the baseline. Everything else in the quotation is an adjustment to that baseline, and each adjustment is written down so you can see where it came from.
The factors that change the figure
Four things do most of the work in moving a price up or down. The first is the volume and condition of the raw footage: more hours to review means more editor time, and footage with mixed frame rates or patchy sound takes longer to prepare than a tidy single-camera shoot.
The second is turnaround. A package needed by the evening bulletin is priced differently from one due the following morning, because an editor has to be set aside and other work moved around. The third is the complexity of the cut, and the fourth is the number and type of delivery formats. We list each one in the quotation so nothing is a surprise at invoice stage.
- Hours of raw footage and number of cameras
- How soon the finished file is needed
- Graphics, captions or audio clean-up
- Number of delivery formats requested
What is normally included
A standard quotation covers reviewing the footage, selecting and assembling the story, basic colour and sound correction, and a check of the finished file against the specification you have given us. Priya checks levels, safe areas and file properties before anything leaves the building, because a rejected file costs a newsroom more than a slow one.
Delivery to the agreed format and a single round of changes are part of the price. If your producer sees the first cut and wants a different running order or a tighter ending, that is expected and sits within the quotation. We would rather get the package right than argue over small adjustments when a bulletin is waiting.
What sits outside the standard price
Some requests fall beyond the standard scope and are quoted separately. Extensive archive searching, transcription of long interviews, subtitling in more than one language and repeated rewrites after a package has been approved all add real hours. We would rather name them at the start than add them quietly later.
The same goes for repeated re-exports. Delivering one master in the requested format is included; delivering the same story in six different specifications for six different outlets is not. None of this is meant to make the work sound complicated. It is simply a question of keeping the quotation honest, so that the figure you approve is the figure on the invoice.
- Long interview transcription
- Multi-language subtitling
- Extra rounds of revision after sign-off
- Additional delivery specifications
Getting a quotation that holds
The most useful thing you can send is a short written note with the story outline, the amount of footage, the deadline and your delivery specification, ideally with a sample of your preferred file settings. If you cannot supply some of that, say so; we will state our assumptions in the quotation and tell you which would change the price.
Enquiries come through the contact page. We reply with a written quotation or confirmation, and once the work is agreed we issue an invoice payable by bank transfer. Cancellations and refunds follow the payment and refund policy. Nothing is charged until you have seen a figure in writing and said yes to it.
Why we explain it this way
Fast editing has a reputation for vague pricing, and I think that reputation is earned by suppliers who will not show how a figure is built. In my years as a news producer I was handed quotations that gave a total and nothing else, and I never knew which part I could change to bring it down.
We lay it out so that your producer can make that choice. If a second format is not needed, remove it and the price falls. If the deadline can move by a few hours, say so. A clear breakdown makes the conversation shorter and leaves both sides knowing exactly what has been agreed.
The price of Rapid Edit and Delivery follows a few knowable things: how much footage there is, how soon you need the result, how involved the cut is and how many formats you want back. Tell us those four and we can give you a written figure that explains itself. If something changes along the way, we say so before the work, not after. That is how we would want a supplier to treat us.