Professionals poll....Please participate.....PRETTY PLEASE, PLEASE......

Hi all,
I am conducting somewhat of a poll and would like to ask each of you the following few questions. Just for good measure, I've posted my answers as well so we're all on the same level.

1. What state/region are you currently working in?

Me:Florida.

2. What is your going rate for a single hour of non-linear editing? (not including logging and menial tasks.)

Me:$175 on the FCP-SD/Avid Xpress box, $350 on the FCP-HD.

3. What is the "going" rate in your market for a standard "concept to completion" :30 second spot? (example: 1.5 hours shoot time for on camera chatter, 2.5 hours of logging, editing and blah,blah,blah, and around and hour of compositing/titling/effecting/whatever.)

Me:Around $1,500-$2,800 per completed spot for a local ad and upwards of $6k for a regional

4. What is your most common task?

Me:My primary function as of late has been purely managerial, but I am, by trade, a post production editor...with a twist of composting freak.

5. How do you feel about your position in the market? (bear in mind that you don't need to be a business owner to have an opinion about your market.)

Me:Very competitive. I work in a complicated structure of a lot of very big fish in a tiny little pond. While my market isn't stock-full of population, it is a key market for our part of the state and is the largest in our state by landmass. We are in the top 5 production companies in our area and are doing significantly better quality work that most of our immediate competiton.....but at a premium price. The market itself is cut-throat and hazardous to new up-starts and smaller folks as a whole.

6. How do you compete with people that you view to be at, or around, your level of experience and strength in the marketplace? (I'm not looking for trade secrets, just generalizations.)

Me:Stay in the field as much as possible (at client's offices with sales people)and keep on our toes with the local scene. We watch for shifts in technology and keep some pretty close alliances with bigger fish who utilize us to do the kind of work that they aren't structured for. Watching the guy next door isn't our most effective way to compete, but keeping our overall look polished with nice, expensive literature, letterhead, pamphlets, biz-cards and "free-gifts" like "Spiral Design Studios" mouse pads and coffee mugs now and then are working well. A huge amount of our business comes to us because of our flexibility to work nearly all-damn-day and the fact that we function as a conceptual design house as well as production house so the ideas are fresh and not "canned".



I truly apreciate your input and hope that you will check back in a few days to see the final tally to these interesting, thought provoking queries.

Michael Munkittrick
president
Spiral Design Studios/Diesel VFX/POST Perfect