Paid media work - Any tips?

Well I friend of mine recommended me to a company who is starting up in media and looking for a sound guy to record voiceovers and compose back tracks for promotional videos and general mixing of all these things. They sound pretty interested which is nice to hear. I am a mechanical engineer (just completed my degree) so have no formal training in audio engineering (but 6-7 years experience). I have done a few little things like this before but nothing serious or paid.

They asked me for a ballpark rate at which I would charge and my research found that studios in Australia charge upwards from $50AU per hour (this is the bare minimum). So I figured $30AU per hour was appropriate considering my level of experience and lack of official qualifications. To put that in perspective for the US folk, a typical factory warehouse job in australia might be $17-$20 per hour. As a mechanical engineer I would probably start out on around $30 per hour. So for a job like this which is just work when there is work, I think $30 is reasonable.

No specific questions here. Just looking for any general advice or tips from people who may have done similar work before. A friend suggested I get myself some nice sound FX samples for potential use in commercials that I may mix so I'll do that. I'll have to widen my knowledge of synthesiser use as well. I guess I'll be mainly mixing for internet distribution as well so any tips for that might come in handy too.

Cheers!

also - is this is "job shopper" kind of position?  by that I mean - you're not employed by the company hiring you, but you are an independent contractor working for yourself and charging them for a service?  if so then you have no benefits.  working as a mechanical engineer for someone else for $30/hr is just the base pay, you'd also get sick pay, vacation pay, insurance, etc.  so your total compensation is greater than $30/hr.  but as a shopper you'd have to charge 1.5X to 2X the per hour rate to cover those kinds of expensese.

A very good photographer friend once gave me some great advice. First you have to calculate your survival rate. Add up your entire cost for a year to sit at home and do nothing. So that would mean food, rent, mortgage, energy costs, phone, car, all of it. This is not a bad thing to do anyway. It might come to $30,000 say. Then decide how many hours are available to work in a year. eg 40 weeks at 36 hours a week. Multiply those together to get a total number of hours. Divide this final number into your total to do nothing for a year cost. And you might come up with say $25/hr. But this is only the survival rate remember not your hourly rate. As Mike says it is only your overhead so you add what you would like to make on top of that eg another $30 per hour so you end up with your final hourly rate which might be eg $55/Hr.

It is not enough to just survive only, you have to make some money per hour as well. Take it from someone who is quite experienced at this, $30/Hr would make some production companies run a mile. It means you are too cheap and amateur. So don't be afraid to charge a reasonable amount. Remember in Melbourne people are paying over $100/Hr just to get voice overs done etc and music composers charge a lot to compose music for specific productions as well. But if you do charge a healthy rate you also have to be able to deliver. Quality voice overs and great music that is well produced.

I usually have three levels of rates. eg $60/hr for general audio work and that includes voice overs. (BTW Voice overs require editing time not just the recording time) $85/hr for mixing and $100/hr for mastering. You should be able to master a track in one hour. With music it is a bit different. You cannot charge by the hour because one 2 minute cue might take you 5 hours to make and another 2 minute cue might take 20 hours. I try to charge per finished minute. With music just try to work how much music is required in total for a given project and come to an agreement about what they are going to pay for say 20 minutes of music etc.. This is where your hourly rate comes in above. If they are willing to pay say $3000 for 20 minutes of music then you need to divide your hourly rate eg $55/hr into that amount and make sure you get the music all done in that time eg  approx 60 hours. (And you would not be using X1 to do it either This is where programs like Presonus S1 come into their own, fast and stable.

There are some copyright issues too. They will often want to own all the music and you should charge even more or load the music cost to cover it. They will re use your music cues over and over. It is good if you can keep ownership of the music but that is often hard. Just let it go. If you do create some excellent music which often happens you can always expand upon those ideas and develop them further eg for a production library etc.

You might be lucky to get a production company to take you on at a lower rate and learn a lot as you go as well. Then they can nurture you along the way. I started that way. They like it when you are close to them and they can park easily at your premises too. You have to make good coffee especially in Melbourne.

Thanks again guys. Plenty of good advice here which I have taken on board. I'll check out those SoS articles too.

Cheers :)

I have to agree with both Jeff and Herb...

My brother owns a heating and ac business.....and he ain't cheap!

but he is so busy that now he has a business partner and seven guys with two office assistants all working for him .............and he cannot keep up!.....

on the flip side ....He L...O...V....E...S.... to work.....he is the first to tell me that he is not the best in his business but he delivers a superior product and service.....

Clifford