Price the thing that actually costs money

Why hourly rates fail here

An hourly rate hides the cost driver from both sides. The client asks for the twelfth version of shot nine without knowing that each version costs money and attention; you absorb it, or you have an awkward conversation about hours that does not describe what actually happened.

The honest unit is the shot, and the honest variable is attempts.

The shape of a quote

Thirty shots, up to four attempts included per shot.

Further revisions billed at X per shot.

Includes: shot list, animatic, generation, edit, grade, sound, one delivery format.

Excludes: music licensing, voice talent, additional delivery formats.

Timeline: animatic in five days; approval required before final generation.

Six lines. Everything a dispute would later be about is in them.

The attempt allowance is the important one, and it is not a restriction; it is information. It tells the client that attempts are the cost, which is a fact about the medium they have no way of knowing.

Pricing the shot

Build the number from your own measurements rather than from a rate card:

• Generation cost. Cost per generation times your measured takes-per-shot. You have both numbers from the previous lessons.
• Still preparation. Making and repairing the first frame, which is often longer than the generation.
• Edit share. Total edit time divided by shot count.
• Overhead and margin.

Then sanity-check against what the work is worth to the client rather than what it cost you. A shot that saves a location shoot is worth what the location shoot would have cost, not what your credits cost.

The clauses that prevent arguments

Five things worth writing down, each of which corresponds to a real dispute:

Approval gates. “Final generation begins after written approval of the animatic. Structural changes after that point are billed per shot.” Without this you will re-generate a finished piece for free.

What a revision means. Distinguish a note (make shot nine warmer, a grade, free) from a re-shoot (make shot nine a close-up, a new generation, billed). Clients do not know these are different and will not guess.

Who supplies what. Logos as vectors, products as photographs or physical items, brand fonts with their licence, any real person’s written consent. Late supply is the most common cause of a missed deadline and it is rarely your fault.

Consent and likeness. “The client warrants that written consent has been obtained for any real person’s likeness or voice supplied to us.” This is not you giving legal advice; it is you declining to be the party who did not ask.

Disclosure. State that generated content will carry a visible label, and that platform and legal requirements may compel it. Put it in the quote so nobody is surprised at delivery.

Saying no early

The most valuable professional act in this subject is telling a client on day one that a shot is not achievable.

From the limits lesson: a specific real product as a generated hero, a character-driven dialogue scene across many shots, precise physical demonstration with hands, anything that will be scrutinised frame by frame. For all of those, a small live shoot, 2D animation or motion graphics is faster, cheaper and better.

Being the person who says this on day one is worth considerably more than being the person who can drive the tool and discovers it on day fourteen with the deadline in sight. It also wins work, because it reads as expertise rather than as reluctance.

What to do when they ask for a rush

Generation time is queue time, and queue time is not something you control. A rush means paying for a faster tier, running more takes in parallel, or accepting fewer attempts per shot.

Offer the trade explicitly: “We can deliver in three days at two attempts per shot rather than four, which raises the chance that some shots are merely acceptable.” That is an honest statement about the medium and it lets the client choose.

Keep the record with the quote

When the project ends, put the actual numbers next to the quoted ones: shots delivered, takes used, hours spent. After three projects that file is the most accurate pricing tool you will ever own, and it is more useful than any published rate card because it is about your work at your hit rate.

Today: rewrite your last quote in shots with an attempt allowance, and see how differently it reads.