some particulars / a question of league

Travis,

just to interject a few other relevant variables here, if I may:

one should consider whether you're talking about boilerplate authoring for DVD-R, versus "professional authoring" (usually meaning, for premastering a glass master for replication) -- it's the latter that most typically commands bigger bucks, I'd assume. The latter also typically may call for more project-specific & nuanced menu design, etc. If you're looking at using any sort of boilerplate menu design (of the type available in DVDit and the like), I'd tend to think of this as being in a different fiscal league (with different magnitude of time & work required), so those differences should be taken into account. Not unlike talking about the cost of a ball player without being clear on what league (little or big) they're in. All the leagues are valuable & necessary to the baseball universe; but they're not all paid the same loot.

I might be off base here, as frankly I don't happen to know exactly what people charge for DVD authoring of any sort (other than the "$3K - $40K" mentioned above), -- but thought I'd pitch in withal.

cheers, d.i.

ps: it's obviously possible to do particular & painstaking (& work-intensive) work for DVD-R (and perhaps even, in some cases, to be compensated accordingly); the difference of duplication/replication media in itself needn't be decisive. But it's nonetheless likely to be a considerable borderline, in terms of marking the magnitude of money apt to be assumed as reasonable ballpark figures.

By way of comparison: it's possible to hire a Picasso to paint the hallway; but if Sherman-Williams prices are assumed, that's worth noting.

david raphael israel
other shore dvd
washington, dc
davidi@wizard.net