Money Money

All projects take resources to get off the ground. My most recent project had many studio hours required so I thought I'd take a look at the cost this would have incurred in a real situation.

Budgeting

Understanding the costs can really help when working out price for any client. There are many factors to take into account. For the ADR component of my most recent project we used a total of 30 hours recording the vocal talent. But these aren't the only things that cost money. Keeping the talent happy is a major priority when recording any vocalist which means keeping them hydrated and well fed in long sessions in the studio.

Now that we understand these variables here is a breakdown of the costs for our ADR sessions.

Studio Hire:

Tall Poppy Studios is a local studio based in Salisbury Brisbane. They offer a range of options when booking and are quite competitively priced.

(Tall Poppy, 2018)

For these sessions I am going to work off 4, 7 hour sessions from 5pm til midnight. For a total cost of $880

Engineer:

As I am an engineer this cost is negligible for me but for my time I would expect to be reimbursed at $100 per hour for a total of $2800, I would pay any assistants out of this fee.

Talent:

Vocal talent doesn't come cheap for this project we had volunteer actors and one paid actor who worked of a $300 per day fee. This project is broken down into 4 sessions with 4 different actors so for arguments sake we will call it $1200 total.

Catering:

As these session cross over the standard dinner time I'd expect to be looked after for dinner, along with the talent and crew as well. Taking this into account I'd budget for a 4 people max each session for $200 each session and a total of $800. I'd also have refreshments such as bottled water and snack for a total of $120

Miscellaneous:

It's also important to have extra cash for unforeseen circumstances, in this most recent project one of our actors was recovering from a cold and we needed to get some cold and flue tablets. We may also need spare batteries, tape, pens and a whole array of random costs. I think its prudent to budget for these expenses. Lets call it a total of $200

The Budget:

Studio Hire

$880.00

Engineer

$2800.00

Talent

$1200.00

Catering

$920.00

Misc

$200.00

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Total

$6,000.00

As you can see costs can rack up rather fast. Whenever you are planning a project it's important to work out an accurate budget this will allow you and the client to work out costing upfront and plan for all expenses. This will also be very helpful when quoting all in one deals as you know your costs and can quote appropriately.

References

Tall Poppy. (2018). Recording Studio Booking. Retrieved from http://tallpoppyproductions.com/product/studio-booking/