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Personal Project Rates & Scoping

Project rates are sort of the in-between rate – you’re not getting paid against a time, and you’re not budgeting an entire project, with multiple folks. Though, many principles from personal project rates apply to creating a budget for a wider project. But with personal project rates, you’re estimating what you believe you should cost over the entirety of a project. If you know what to expect from a client and a project, the Personal Project Rate is actually a pretty good way to roll. 

For budgeting project rates, I recommend estimating how much it would cost you to complete the tasks based on a day rate, multiplying it by 1.5x and calling that the estimate. 

With a project rate, it’s important to define terms – such as quantifiables deliverables, or timeline requirements. This can be casual, but should always be in writing. 

For most of my post-production and VFX clients, I bill against an estimated project rate, and flag for overages as we go. 

Some recommendations for Personal Project Rates:

  • Establish a timeline – Projects to be completed between X and Y date.
  • Establish clear deliverables – for example: 1 original draft, and 2 revisions. This concept is scalable. If you have multiple deliverables, either deliver everything at once or apply the “review round” concept to each. 1 original/2 revisions is industry standard. Be careful to include and breakout concept and wireframe and/or animatic rounds.
  • Define the specifications of those deliverables – resolution, frame rate, codec, format, etc
  • Propose a project timeline, knowing that there will be some back and forth there and there is a certain degree of acceptable flex that breaks the “final timeline.” I’ve never worked on a project where the timeline didn’t change constantly throughout the project.
  • Include obvious, high-level, caveats in-line 

Example Scope Breakout

You can use the model below for most projects and replace, add, or subtract elements to make it specific to your project. If you’re doing a Projection Engineering Design, for example, you might want to include rounds for drafting, or systems’ diagrams, or R&D, etc, etc. 

  • Deliverables

    • Boards 1 Original, 1 Revision

    • Animatic 1 Original, 1 Revision

    • Final deliverable – 1x 90s animation 1920x1080, Apple Pro Res 422, 24fps

      • 1 Original Draft, 2 Revisions

  • Timeline – August 1st through October 20th, 2024

    • Project Kick Off August 1st

    • Boards R1 8/15, consolidated feedback due 8/19 EOD

    • Boards R2 8/30, consolidated feedback due 9/4 EOD

    • Animatic R1 9/10, consolidated feedback due 9/14 EOD

    • Animatic R2 9/20, consolidated feedback due 9/25 EOD

    • Animation R1 10/1, consolidated feedback due 10/4 EOD

    • Animation R2 10/10, consolidated feedback due 10/15 EOD

    • Animation R3 Final 10/20

    • Additional time or versions will be budgeted on a case by case basis

  • Assets

    • Stock, Voiceover to be provided by client. 

  • Changes outside of defined review cycles will be handled case by case.

That last point there – notice how I’m not saying “change order?” People see “change order” and they get a bad taste in their mouths. Instead, I like to soften the language. Given the amount of reviews in this example, additional rounds are unlikely – and if it’s something minor, you generally give a pass. Read more about change orders here. 

Once you have this breakout clear in your mind, you can apply hours to each round and then create a rate based on those hours. Remember to add a wide margin on top as contingency (and as… margin). Then, track your project hours to make sure you’re on track and that you’ve budgeted appropriately. This skill is worth quite a few bucks and is worth getting good at! 

Also, once you have an established and trusted relationship with a client this can become quite casual. 

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