01 — Send the details
Use our contact page: the shoot dates, the location, the discipline or rig you have in mind, how many days, and what the shot needs to do.
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How We Quote
SSVIDEO does not publish a rate card. There are no day rates, no packages and no terms listed on this site — that is deliberate, not missing. Every job is quoted on the job itself.
Send the shoot dates, the location and what the shot needs. We discuss the show with you, and an estimate follows.
Why there is no rate card
Two jib days are rarely the same job. A fixed-base Jimmy Jib day in a hotel ballroom and a multi-day crane build on a night exterior use different kit, different crew and different amounts of time. A single published number would be too high for the first job and too low for the second — useful to nobody trying to budget a production.
What is useful is knowing how the number is built and how to get one. That is what this page is for. Nothing here — and nothing anywhere on this site — is a price list or a rate figure of any kind. Every job is quoted individually, and the estimate comes to you before the day, not after it.
The path to a number
Three steps, and the first one is yours.
02 — We discuss the show
An operator reads the brief and comes back with questions about the site, the schedule and the machine — because those decide the job, and the job decides the number.
03 — You get an estimate
A written estimate for your production, covering the gear, the crew and the travel, agreed before the day rather than discovered on the invoice.
What to include when you send your dates
The more of this you can answer, the closer the first estimate lands.
- Shoot dates — including travel days, if the kit has to move.
- Location — city and site, and whether the production is covering travel.
- Rig or discipline — Jimmy Jib, Camera Jib, Steadicam, Camera Crane, or the shot itself if you are not sure which machine it needs.
- Number of days — shooting days, and any prep or build day you already know about.
- What the shot needs — the move you are trying to get, the camera and lens, live or recorded, and anything unusual about the site: ceilings, stairs, load-in, floor, power.
What an estimate accounts for
Every SSVIDEO estimate is built from the same parts, and each one is agreed with you before the shoot rather than added afterwards.
- The operator day — our operator's time on your schedule, which is the core of the estimate.
- Gear and rig — the arm, crane or Steadicam rig and the support gear, chosen for the shot rather than whatever happens to be on the shelf.
- Prep and strike — building, balancing and checking the rig before the call, and taking it down and handing the location back at the end.
- Crew — where the shot or the site needs a second person, the estimate names it instead of leaving the location to provide one.
- Travel — getting the operator and the kit to you. Nationwide work means this varies more than any other part of the number.
- Added days — if the schedule grows, the extra day is agreed before it is worked, so a long shoot is a known cost.
What moves an estimate up or down
A job is simpler when the base is fixed, the arm is short, the floor is flat, the day is short and the production knows what it wants before the crew arrives. It grows when the build is long, the arm and the kit have to travel, the site needs a rigger or a safety lead, the schedule runs late, or the shot changes on the day in a way that needs different gear.
The single biggest saving is a clear brief. A production that sends the shot, the camera, the lens and the room gets an accurate estimate and a schedule that holds. A production that sends “we might need a jib, can you hold the day” gets a worst-case number, because that is the only honest one to give.
Availability
Send your dates and we will send an estimate
Jib, Jimmy Jib, Steadicam, TechnoCrane, Dolly Cam and camera crane services, nationwide in the United States. The fastest answer is always the specific one.