What does a DP cost in SF?$1,450 a day.
Here's the rest of the list. Every rate I pay, in a calculator that adds the costs you forget.
30-day money back. No questions. Just email me "refund."
By Jordan P. Anderson. Every rate comes from 10+ years and $1M+ of my own shoot budgets.Circle · SamCart · Toyota · Shell · Miro
You've built the quote. You still don't want to send it.
You read the total again. Then you go back to your fee.
Maybe you take a little off. Just to get the job.
You rehearse what you'll say if they ask why it costs so much. You check an old budget. You text a friend about a rate.
By the time you hit send, you've already negotiated against yourself.
If they say yes right away, you wonder what you left on the table. If they don't write back, you wonder if you priced yourself out.
Then at 11pm you open it again. Did you put insurance in?
Every guess comes out of your pocket.
Price it too low and you pay for the shoot yourself. Forget meals, payroll and insurance on one SF day and that's $2,712. Your money. Gone.
Price it too high, or take two days to send it, and the job goes to whoever sent a real number first.
Can't explain a line when the client asks? They notice. And they don't call you next time.
Do that on 10 shoot days and it's $27,120. Or it's the client.
You can't keep guessing and keep the work.
Here's what it does.
Three things change on your next quote. All on my real SF rates.
Know what it costs before you quote.
You're texting three DPs, digging through old invoices and guessing at the rest. By the time you have a number, the client's asked twice.
- Real day rates for crew, gear and locations in SF and NYC, plus typical rates everywhere else.
- Pick your city and the calculator fills itself in.
- Your DP charges more? Change it and move on.
Stop paying for what you forgot.
The quote looked fine. Then payroll hit, lunch ran long and the rental house added tax. The client never knew. You paid for it.
- Meals, payroll, insurance and tax go in on their own.
- Anything you haven't priced gets flagged before you send.
- One day in SF: $2,712 you'd have eaten.
Send a price you can defend.
The client asks “what's this line?” and you start explaining, then discounting. A clean estimate answers the question before they ask it.
- One click turns your build into the estimate your client sees.
- They see where the money goes. Your fee and what you keep stay with you.
- Save it as a PDF and send it.
Or your next quote goes like this.
The inquiry hits at 4pm. You have a real number by 4:10.
Every line is there. Crew, gear, meals, payroll, insurance. Your fee goes in first.
They ask for less. You don't flinch and you don't touch your fee. You drop the B-cam and tell them exactly what changes.
They say yes. You know what you're keeping before you hang up. That's who gets the next call.
I'm Jordan. These are the rates I pay.
I've produced shoots for 10+ years. I made the launch videos for Circle and SamCart, platforms thousands of creators use to sell online. I've seen what gets someone paid and what has them chasing an invoice for 60 days.
Thousands of filmmakers have taken my course, Million Dollar Edit, to turn their skills into a real business.
Here's what I keep seeing. The work is good. The quote is a mess. The invoice goes out late. The money shows up later.
So I took the kit I use to price my own shoots and opened it up to anyone who sells a job.
Questions first? Text me.
(434) 770-8594It's my cell.Here's what you get.
The Budget Calculator
Build a shoot in a few minutes. It adds the stuff you'd forget and flags anything you haven't priced.
One click and you have a clean estimate to send. The client sees where the money goes. Your fee math stays with you.
The Rate Book
What I pay for crew, gear and locations in SF and NYC. Plus my typical rates for everywhere else. Pick your market and the calculator fills itself in. Your DP charges more? Change it.
The Pricing Guide
How I build a price. Plus the five questions I ask before I give anyone a number.
The Budget Sheet
Put what you quoted next to what you spent, so you know what you made. Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
The Quote Checklist and Change Form
Fine print to paste into any estimate. Plus a one-page form for the day the client asks for more. They will.
Your first quote, built with me
60 minutes, one on one. Bring your next job. We build it in the calculator together. You leave with an estimate you can send.
The AI Producer Playbook
I use AI on every shoot. Not for the creative. For the hours around it. This is the exact setup: the rules file, a skill file for every job and the prompts I actually send.
Hand the folder to your AI and say "work this way." It does the busywork. You keep the creative.
Later, if you want it. Your logo on every quote and a Pay button on every invoice. $29 a month. You can try it free for a week right after checkout. You don't need it to use the kit.
Everything you need to price the shoot.
The calculator, the Rate Book and the templates. Ready the second you check out.
- The Budget CalculatorPrice a shoot in minutes. Clean client estimate.$500
- The Rate BookReal crew, gear and location rates.$600
- The Pricing GuideHow I build a price.$150
- The Budget SheetQuoted next to spent.$100
- Quote Checklist and Change FormFine print and the extras form.$75
- First 20 buyers: an hour with me$175
Try it on your next quote. If you don't love it, email me "refund" within 30 days. Every dollar back. No questions.
Questions before you buy? Text me.(434) 770-8594
What happens next?
Check your inbox.
Your login link is there in seconds. It's on the next screen too.
Log in with Google or email.
Your budgets save to that login. Any laptop, any browser.
Pick your market.
Real rates load in. You're pricing a real shoot two minutes later.
FAQs
1. Is it really worth $49?
On one SF shoot day, the costs most people leave off come to $2,712: meals, payroll and insurance. Miss one of those once and you've lost more than the kit costs. And if you don't love it, email me "refund" within 30 days. Every dollar back. No questions.
2. Where do these numbers come from?
My own shoots. 10+ years of real invoices: what I paid DPs, sound mixers, gear houses and locations on real jobs. Not a survey. Not a guess.
3. Who are you to tell me what to charge?
I'm not telling you what to charge. I'm showing you what the shoot costs, so the number you pick isn't a guess. I'm a producer. I run shoots for startups and agencies in San Francisco, New York and Boston, and this is how I price my own.
4. I can get a free budget template. Why pay for this?
A free template gives you empty rows. The rows were never the hard part. The hard part is knowing what a sound mixer costs in your city, and remembering payroll, insurance, meals and your own fee before you hit send. This fills the rows in for you.
5. Why not HoneyBook or QuickBooks?
They're good tools. They just weren't built for a shoot. They don't know a day rate from a kit fee, a half day from overtime, or what a gaffer costs in Austin. Budget Kit does. Already on QuickBooks? Keep it. Use Budget Kit to price and quote.
6. I don't shoot in SF or New York. And my crew charges different rates.
Pick the market closest to yours and the rates scale to match. Then swap in your crew's real numbers. Change a rate once and it's saved for every budget after that.
7. How fast can I use it on a real quote?
Tonight. Log in, answer six quick questions about the shoot and change what's different. You'll have a real number in about 15 minutes.
8. What if my number scares the client off?
A number you can explain line by line beats a cheap one you can't. The client sees where the money goes, so the talk is about the shoot, not whether you're padding it. That's the talk that wins the job and keeps your margin.
9. What do I do when they ask me to come down?
Cut scope, not your fee. Every line shows its cost, so you drop a camera, a day or a crew role and show them the new total right there. The Change Order Form covers you when they add things after you've said yes.
10. Will my client see my fee?
Only what you choose to show. The client sees where the money goes. Your math stays on your side.
11. Is this a subscription?
No. You pay once and it's yours, updates included. Right after checkout you can try Pro free for a week: your logo on every quote and a Pay button on every invoice. It's $29 a month after that and you can cancel in one click. You never need it to use the kit.
12. What if it's not for me?
Email me "refund" within 30 days. Every dollar back. No questions.
Still not sure? Text me. (434) 770-8594. It's my cell.
Your next quote goes out either way.
With real numbers you can stand behind. Or with the same guesses that cost you the last one.
You save $24. Everything I use to price, plan and run a shoot. The calculator bundle, the AI Producer Playbook and the Call Sheet Template. One checkout.
Or just the kit for $49P.S. A DP in SF is $1,450 a day. Forget meals, payroll and insurance on that shoot and you're out $2,712. The kit is $49. Use it on your next quote. If you don't love it, email me "refund." Every dollar back. No questions.