What is a fair DVD price?

[flounderer]

I work part time on a charter boat here in NC. I'm batting around the idea of purchasing a camera and housing with the intent of shooting video of customers dives. I'm not thinking anything professional, just a video simply edited and burned to DVD. I'm trying to run the numbers to see if this is feasible and I'm curious as to what prices you guys and gals have seen for similar videos? I'm not looking to gain financially from this, just pay off the housing and get customers something for them to remember there dives.

Thanks in advance,
Pat

 

[drbill]

Custom videos that actually feature the divers themselves can be sold for $35-75.

I've been purchased a few of marginal quality for $40-50 US. These featured the marine life of the region without any divers from the dive itself (including me). Didn't realize the quality was marginal until after I viewed them.

I shoot for a broader commercial market and charge $20-30 each for my DVD's depending on subject, duration and quality of footage.

I do feature divers from Scuba Luv's King Neptune dive boat on occasion, but generally only as incidental characters in my 30-min cable TV episodes. If asked, I will produce a copy for the divers at $30-50 each depending on what they want, but these charges are for a "product" I'm creating for my show anyway... not a strictly custom DVD of their dives.

 

[PaulChristenson]

The Gentleman that runs this op...sells for a basic $10.00 a disk plus shipping

A he's pretty good...

http://stores.ebay.com/Plus-Video

Paul in VT
used his Great Lake Wreck videos for orientation...before we dove the sites

 

[moneysavr]

Pat,
Great Idea, I am sure if you keep the rates in the $20.00-30.00 range divers would enjoy a copy to see their dive trip, dive skills / lack of and marine life or wreck's on visit,
Pals that dive with me love it when I send the a few photos of them on a dive,
Good luck1
Brad

 

[PeaceDog]

Custom videos that actually feature the divers themselves can be sold for $35-75.

I've been purchased a few of marginal quality for $40-50 US. These featured the marine life of the region without any divers from the dive itself (including me). Didn't realize the quality was marginal until after I viewed them.

I shoot for a broader commercial market and charge $20-30 each for my DVD's depending on subject, duration and quality of footage.

Genius as usual from the good doctor.

I myself am bouncing around price points for a film I am preparing to relase on DVD in about 3 weeks. I have real difficulty imagining charging anything more than $25. I can go to Best Buy and get all my favorites for about the same price. Since I'm handling most of the order fulfillment, I've also got shipping costs as well. So in the dive shop, $20, bought online from me, $25.

What you do seems pretty specific, so when you personalize it you can certainly charge a lot more. Just make sure that the quality of your shooting matches the price you ask if you want repeat business. You're the only one who can really be the judge of that right now.

 

[flounderer]

I really appreciate the input. I'm thinking around $20-$25 now. That's a lot of DVDs for a $1500 set up. Maybe they can just offset the cost some.

Pat

 

[Mo2vation]

On the Kona Aggressor II over Christmas / New Years they shot a DVD for us. The resident video pro shot it and edited it on the trip, then premiered it for all of us on the last night, then asked for $65.

We all passed.

Of course, I passed out, then I passed.

Get real. Strike price for an on-board DVD, put together in great haste, no matter how compelling, will be maybe $20 - $25. No way am I shelling out big bucks.

Especially after I'd seen the whole thing.

Package it.

Tease it.

Market it.

Don't show it to me, then try to sell it to me. It was sad. I seriously don't think anyone bit.

PLUS - they were giving away a photo CD filled with a zillion shots of the trip the photo pro took. I mean, c'mon.

It was lame and lame some more.

Ken

 

[drbill]

Actually, Ken, that price is not beyond what is often considered standard given the custom work that must be done on each trip. As I said, I paid $40-50 each for videos of the Coral Sea, GBR, and Tahiti that were on VHS (poorer quality) and not custom. If as cheap SOB (Scientist on Board) without an income will pay that, why wouldn't someone earning the big bucks?

I'm trying to remember what we charged on Lindblad for our trip DVD's. They were about 30 min in length as I remember and produced custom for each trip, with relatively little stock footage used. I think they were in the $35-50 range.

I can check with dive buddy #1 (Andrea) who has worked in several locations on the Aggressor and Peter hughes fleets to see what her experience has been.

 

[ronrosa]

My 2 cents. I think a lot of resort and liveaboard videographers mix stock footage with footage of the clients. This is how they can edit and produce so fast. People want to see themselves and it makes the video more personal to the client. The stock footage is not as sneaky as it sounds. The footage is usually from the same dive sites the clients dive.

What's it worth ? Depends on the quantity of footage of the clients. A video of a single day trip would generally be worth less than a full week. I'd say < $25 for a single day and <$60 for a week.

 

[drbill]

Ronrosa- Good point re: the number of days involved. Most of the trip videos I've seen in the up to $75 range have been for multi-day to week-long trips.

The use of stock footage in a "custom" trip video is well justified. The shooter can't possibly record everything that every diver sees on a given series of dives. Ny utilizing stock clips, they can compile a good representation of what the entire group may have seen during the trip.