Vourly rates at a glance:
- iPhone 4K filming: $100 per hour, 1 hour minimum
- Professional cinema cameras: $200 per hour, 2 hour minimum
- Editing: $75 per hour, billed separately from filming
- Add-ons per shoot: drone video $150, drone photos $125, professional lighting $150, second camera $150, photo add-on $250
- All raw footage included, plus one free revision round on your edited video
Videographer day rates are the standard way the industry quotes a shoot, and they are also the number that tells a buyer the least. A day rate bundles an unstated number of hours with an unstated amount of gear, and it almost never includes the editing that turns footage into something you can post. This guide breaks a day rate into the pieces it is actually made of, using Seattle rates that are published rather than quoted on request.
What a videographer day rate actually covers
In most quotes, a day rate buys one thing: a camera operator and their kit, on site, for a defined block of time. What it does not automatically include is the part that costs the most downstream:
- Editing. Almost always separate. This is the single biggest source of quote-to-invoice surprise.
- Drone. Aerial work needs an FAA Part 107 certified pilot and is usually its own line.
- Lighting and a second camera. Interview setups often need both, and both are typically add-ons.
- Travel beyond a home zone. Usually billed per mile once you leave the metro.
- Overtime. Ask what hour 9 costs before you sign, not after.
A day rate that looks competitive next to another day rate can be the more expensive project once those five lines land.
Half day versus full day in practice
A half day is commonly about 4 hours and a full day about 8, though neither is standardised. The trap is that a half day is rarely half the price of a full day, and a shoot that needs 5 hours frequently gets billed as a full day. If your shoot is genuinely short, a half day minimum can mean paying for hours nobody used.
The honest question to ask a vendor is not "what is your day rate" but "what does a 3 hour shoot cost". The answer tells you whether you are being priced on the work or on the calendar.
Why Vourly bills by the hour instead
Vourly does not publish a day rate. Filming is hourly on two camera tiers:
- iPhone 4K at $100 per hour, 1 hour minimum. A stabilised iPhone 4K rig is genuinely enough for social clips, walkthroughs, and quick founder segments. Raw files are delivered at 1080p on this tier.
- Professional cinema cameras at $200 per hour, 2 hour minimum. The right call for anything that will headline a website or run as a paid ad. Raw files are 4K.
Converted to the language of day rates, an 8 hour professional day is $1,600 of filming, and an 8 hour iPhone day is $800. The difference from a conventional day rate is what happens at the edges: a 2 hour shoot costs 2 hours, and hour 9 costs one more hour rather than a second block.
What editing adds on top
Editing is $75 per hour and is quoted as its own line. Typical editing time per finished video, based on how these projects actually run:
- Short social cut: about 1.5 hours, so roughly $113 each.
- Car, product, or detail piece: about 2 hours, so roughly $150 each.
- Interview or corporate piece: about 3 hours, so roughly $225 each.
A worked example off the published rate card: a 2 hour iPhone 4K shoot is $200, and three social reels at about 3 hours of total editing is $225, for $425 all in. On the professional tier, a 2 hour shoot with drone video is $400 plus $150, so $550 before any editing is added. Those two numbers are the honest floor of each tier, and quoting one while thinking of the other is how budgets go wrong.
Converting a day rate quote into something comparable
When you have one vendor quoting a day rate and another quoting hourly, put both into the same units before deciding. The conversion is simple arithmetic once you have four numbers from each: hours in a day, what is included, the overtime rate, and the editing rate.
Worked against the Vourly rate card, a professional shoot converts like this:
- 2 hours: $400 of filming. A vendor with a 4 hour half day minimum charges you for 4.
- 4 hours: $800 of filming, which is the point where hourly and a typical half day converge.
- 8 hours: $1,600 of filming, the honest equivalent of a full day rate.
Then add editing to both sides, because a day rate almost never includes it. Three finished social cuts is about 4.5 hours at $75, so $338. One corporate piece is about 3 hours, so $225. A day rate that looked $300 cheaper frequently is not, once the same editing sits on both quotes.
The other number to extract is what happens at hour 9. An hourly vendor charges one more hour. A day rate vendor may charge a half day, which on a long shoot is the single largest swing in the whole comparison.
What to confirm before you book either way
Five things, and they are the same five whether the quote is hourly or daily:
- Is editing in this number? If it is, how many finished videos and how many revision rounds.
- What is the overtime unit? An hour, a half day, or a full day.
- Which camera tier is quoted? A price that looks low is often the lighter tier, which may be exactly right for your use, but you should know which one you bought.
- Are drone, lighting, and a second camera included or extra? At Vourly they are flat per shoot at $150, $150, and $150 respectively, with drone photos at $125.
- Do you keep the raw footage? This decides whether a future edit means a new shoot.
The add-ons that move the number
Each of these is a flat charge per shoot rather than per hour, which means batching more filming into one visit dilutes their cost:
- Drone video, $150. Flown by an FAA Part 107 certified pilot.
- Drone photos, $125.
- Professional lighting, $150. Worth it for any seated interview.
- Second camera, $150. Gives an editor a cutaway angle so an interview does not need a jump cut.
- Photo add-on, $250. Stills captured during the same visit.
Travel, tax, revisions, and what you keep
Travel inside the local zone is included, and out of zone travel is $1 per mile. Washington sales tax is added at 10.5%.
Every booking includes one free revision round on your edited video. Additional editing after that is the same $75 per hour with no package to buy into, so you only pay for cuts you actually ask for. You also keep all of the raw footage from the shoot, unedited and unwatermarked, with full commercial rights, delivered through a secure client portal within 24 to 48 hours. Because you own the raw files, you are never locked into one editor for future versions.
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical videographer day rate?
Most videographers quote a half day at around 4 hours and a full day at around 8 hours, and the day rate usually covers filming time only. Editing, drone, lighting, and extra crew are commonly billed on top. Because the definition of a day varies between vendors, compare the hourly equivalent and ask what happens when the shoot runs long.
Does Vourly charge a day rate?
No. Vourly bills filming by the hour: $100 per hour on iPhone 4K with a 1 hour minimum, or $200 per hour on professional cinema cameras with a 2 hour minimum. An 8 hour professional day comes to $1,600 of filming before editing. Hourly means a 2 hour shoot costs 2 hours rather than a rounded up half day.
Is editing included in the day rate?
Not at Vourly, and usually not elsewhere either. Editing is $75 per hour and is quoted separately so you can see what the cutting actually costs. A short social cut runs about 1.5 hours of editing, a car or product piece about 2 hours, and an interview or corporate piece about 3 hours per finished video.
What happens if the shoot runs longer than planned?
Hourly billing means extra time is simply the next hour at the same rate rather than a second half day. That is the main practical reason to prefer an hourly quote over a day rate for shoots where the schedule is uncertain.