The following chart is a summary of basic production costs, using average industry figures. Costs are based on a 30-second, English-only, sync-sound spot shot in one day in studio. Although averages are hard to arrive at with such a diversity of commercial projects, attempts were made to establish ‘typical’ guidelines.

Production House costs Average Average Average

1987 1992 1997

Personnel

Director Fee $6,000 $8,500 $10,000

Cameraman Fee 2,250 3,500 3,500

Producer Fee 1,500 2,200 2,500

Production manager/AD 900 1,500 2,400

Production assistants 500 1,500 1,700

Freelance Crew

Crew (’87 and ’92 figures reflect 15 crew,

’97 figures reflect 13) 4,650 5,050 4,550

Art director/set designer 900 2,500 2,550

Prop buyer 1,750 1,400 2,000

Wardrobe buyer 1,100 1,200 1,850

Casting 1,500 1,700 1,900

Staging

Studio – 10-hour shoot

2-day build and strike 5,000 5,600 5,700

Prop costs

1-room set 2,800 3,200 3,000

Set construction

1-room set 6,000 6,500 8,000

Wardrobe

4 people 1,600 1,200 1,200

Equipment

1 day camera

package rental 1,400 1,800 2,200

Lighting, grip and

sound equipment 3,500 4,000 5,100

Film and Laboratory

3,500 feet stock process

and transfer to 3/4′ 3,100 3,850 4,050

Post-Production*

Editing fee 1,800 2,900 4,500

Sound Costs 950 1,500 850

Post-production 3,300 3,700 5,900

Miscellaneous costs

Telephone, transportation

insurance, meals, cell phones 2,000 2,600 3,050

52,500 65,900 76,500

Production house mark-up

(20% of quote) 10,500 13,180 15,300

Net Production House quote 63,000 79,080 91,800

Talent

2 x p.p. double scale x

10 hours; 2 x soc. scale x

10 hours; 4 wardrobe calls;

8 extras x 8 hours;

1 VO double scale 6,550 7,677 7,368

Audio

Original music and sound design 11,500 12,820 13,500

Color correction and artwork and storyboards

Average per spot 3,800 4,500 4,500

Miscellaneous

Includes telephone, shipping,

taxes, closed captioning

and cassettes 3,750 4,500 4,500

Total

Production house quote 63,000 79,080 91,800

Net production cost agency 88,600 108,577 121,668

commission (17%) gross 15,638 19,164 21,474

Production Cost 104,238 127,741 143,142

Plus GST 8,942

136,683

* Post figures represent a basic finish with no high-end special effects. Post total is added here to production house quote but in many cases it is added to the agency total with its own 20% mark-up. Editing fees includes editor, assistant and off-line editing.