# 4 minute animation: score + sound design - what to charge?



## mwarsell (Jan 10, 2016)

There's no team, a single animator doing it. I think it includes sound design as well.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jan 10, 2016)

Hi,

A bit vague informations here..:

What is the budget of that project? (1000 Dollar? 3000? 10k?)
What kind of style he wants to have? (disney all over the place written music with vintage sound settings, or minimalistic music setting?)
How many sound effects, what kind of? Can you backback them from a library, or do you have to create them all from scratch?
How many minutes of pure score? (which is hard to say when you don´t know the animationmovie)
what do you think how long it takes? (any experiences from past projects?)
What are your costs in general? (I think you have / should know your own business costs)

You see: All these kinds of questions define YOUR Price. And even some more. So by saying that I really can´t tell you any advice here. If you really really want the job then make your safe rate.


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## mwarsell (Jan 10, 2016)

There's no real budget for it. He is just doing it in in his spare time. I think it's not super mickey mousing so probably faster to do than a Disney-style score. 

I'm kinda lost here with what to ask...


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## Dr.Quest (Jan 10, 2016)

In this case you just have to ask what HIS budget is. Is he going to pay anything and if so what he can afford. When I was working with a budget it was a minimum of $500 a minute but if I liked the project I would work with what they had. It was usual for me to get $3000 for a 4 to 5 minute animated short.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jan 11, 2016)

mwarsell said:


> There's no real budget for it. He is just doing it in in his spare time. I think it's not super mickey mousing so probably faster to do than a Disney-style score.
> 
> I'm kinda lost here with what to ask...



I understand. Question: "Do you have to live from your composing? If so you have at least to calculate a charge which covers your costs. That is the minimum. When he offers you a budget which is by far too low then I would go and tell him: Listen, you want me to do some quality music / sfx in your movie. I love to do that because I think your vision is great I see a lot of potential in that movie. But to help you and complete your vision I need a proper budget to work with. I care too much for your project and so I have to charge you at least "xyz".

If he really wants you he will manage to work something out for you here.

Before I forget: This is just my opinion. I don´t say that this is the way that you have / should have to go. When you don´t care about budget that much like mentioned above then do it anyway. Ecspecially when you feel that you need more references in your portfolio. 
I have done last year a soundtrack for a short animation and the budget was really tiny, but I did the job because I loved the direction of the movie and the director / producers vision.


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