To be brutally honest, if you have no idea, then its not a good idea to take on a client with such high expectations at this stage....high meaning, good quality expensive looking CG or photo-real. To have enough experience to handle such a task would require a number of years working in the business which you may or may not have...point is, you would therefore have a pretty good idea of what is involved financially. If you don't, that would suggest you don't have enough experience to be taking on clients like that. ....just a small point, not intended to discorage or put-down. Merely stating the obvious.
To answer your question however, you need to be thinking about several things. Heres an idea of what you need to think about when pricing. Firstly, you will need to establish just how long the project will take, and quote the client with that in mind.The client on the other hand may have deadlines already layed out. Don'tforget to be very specific in your bidding and in the contract as to what sequences of CG you are quoting for and exactly what you are required to produce. You don't want a client to keep adding things that weren't in your original agreement, else you won't get the job done, and then the client will blame you and you won't get paid....it is ery typical, so always be specific.
Now, you must considder that you must cover the cost of the wages for yourself and those working for you. With the basic visual effects working day being 10 hours, and typically, overtime will not come into play unless you are all part of a union, you should also take into account that working weekends may and usually is required, therefore include that in the cost also. If you are union members you will need to work this all out on hourly rates, else, just a set daily rate per person.
Now you need to considder your overheads....i.e. your yearly electricity and tax bills for your firm, and your software licences and machine maintanence. Then work out what that comes to on maybe a weekly basis and therefore how much you need to include in your quote for this job. If you are VAT registered, you will need to include that also.
Then you need to think about your proffit margin....ie what percentage to add on for it to have been worth your while. Now, all the above is usually taken into considderation by company's accounts department who will typically publish annual rate cards that the company can use as a guide for bidding on work. Don't forget of course that your pricing must be competitive in order to be awarded contracts. If you are a very new company, be prepared to sacrifice a lot of your proffit in order to attract clients quickly.
The above is all just a rough and very brief outline of some of the main things. A few final notes....always use ONLY ligitimate software licenses if ou are making money, it is no cliche, you will be found out and be in a lot of trouble if you use dodgy copies. Make sure you have the correct software, and more importantly, the correct hardware to output to in order for your client to take what you have made and hand it to their editor to create the final piece....don't think you'll be making a whole commercial. Unless you are a large firm who also has in-house editors, sound editors, telecine and a lot of VERY expensive equipment, your client will only be taking your composited CG output....and this will of course be expected on one of a few formats, none of which are cheap or standard home-use.....though in saying that, I have in the past known some final CG to be given to clients on CD's...but its not recommended, and doesn't seem too proffessional.
Finally, one less than pleasant thing to say but is necessary, perhaps not in your case, but for maybe a few people reading this......If you are new to the industry, and think you know enough to do some good work without any years of visual effects produciton experience....YOU DON'T....a lot of graduates leave universities think that its just so darn hard to get a job in this business...so what the heck, lets just make our own company!!!....Need I point out the flaw in this plan!!! If you ain't good enough to get a job for an existing company, what on earth makes you think your good enough to run your own successfully...and experimentation costs a LOT of money. If you are good enough to get a job...and most are, but havn't yet, that is because of a combination of lack of luck, lack of showreel, and lack of ability to market yourself propperly. All good reasons why you NEED plenty of years of experience before you attempt to do your own thing.
Thats all, and good luck with your project Dark Knight, it sounds like a good one.
