so a local brewery reached out to me, they found me through instagram i think, and they want some promo footage for their taproom and the outdoor area they're building. probably a half day shoot, maybe 3-4 hours on location, and they want a short edit for social media plus some still frames pulled from the footage.

im still kind of new to charging for this stuff, ive mostly done it for friends or for my own portfolio so far. i was thinking maybe $400 for the whole thing? that includes the flight, the edit, everything. but im genuinely not sure if thats too low or too high for a small local client. i dont want to scare them off but i also dont want to massively undercut myself and set a weird precedent with local businesses.

for context im in a mid-size city in the midwest, certified part 107, been flying seriously for about 18 months, using a mini 4 pro. any thoughts welcome honestly im just trying to get a feel for the market

$400 is too low, full stop. and i say that as someone who made exactly that mistake for the first year. think about what you're actually bringing: the gear, your cert, the insurance you hopefully have, your time driving there, the shoot itself, and then the edit which alone could easily be 2-3 hours depending on how fussy you are about it. when you break it down you might be making like $50-60 an hour if you're lucky, and thats before any business expenses.

for a half day commercial shoot with a deliverable edit i wouldnt go below $700-800 for a local small business, and honestly even that's on the lower end in most markets. they came to you, which means they already want to spend money on this, dont talk yourself out of charging fairly

this is something i think about a lot too, im in a similar boat. one thing that helped me was just looking at what videographers in my area charge for a half day without any drone work, like just a regular camera operator, and then going from there. drone adds value so you should be at least matching that if not a bit more. also worth asking the brewery what their budget is upfront, some people freak out at that but a lot of clients actually appreciate just being asked directly, saves everyone time