How Much Money Do FPV Pilots Make??

How much should you charge for FPV videography? How much do FPV pilots get paid? I'm not an expert, but here's my experience so far.

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[MattPochwat]

Whoops. Looks like I have a "missing file" in the middle of the video. It's all good, I'm keeping the video up!

[clifffield]

The problem with working for free, in my opinion, is two-fold. 1. People will expect you to work for free in future ("but you didn't charge ClientX, why are you wanting to charge us?"). 2. You will likely be over-looked when a company does have a budget. I have done work for organisations for free previously - which they have told me they were very happy with. Then, when they suddenly have some budget for some more work, they go elsewhere to a 'professional' company (because I am not seen as professional because I "work for free"). My life is way better now that I get paid for things I enjoy doing and don't put a lot of effort in for no reward. Photographers, filmakers, artists, musicians all have this issue. None of us should be working for free. My two cents worth. Thanks Matt.

[PerfectlyNormalHumans]

One of the things I used to use a lot when I was building a portfolio was that I'd agree to write people an invoice for the "aspirational" or "fair" amount that I want or would expect to be paid (eg what the work is actually worth at a fair market value), then I'd apply a "discount" on the invoice to bring it down to a nominal fee (eg cover my costs) or even completely discount it to free. But that way the client is seeing and agreeing to what I feel I am worth, thus validating it to some extent, while still freeing me to offer them services at a lower cost. This way if I get repeat business from the client I have better leverage to incrementally bump up the actual paid fee, and as I gained additional new clients I would just offer less and less of a discount until I was charging a fair and competitive market rate. In my experience this works well for any freelance work and I have used it in some capacity for the last 25 years to great effect.

[ClarkDroneFilms]

Great video :) I remember reaching out to you and asking a similar question a while ago.
Everyone always says not to, but I've settled on an hourly rate of £150 for now. Comes out to roughly the same (half)/day rate as others but most of my small business shoots that I've done only end up being 2 hours, and for example I have a gig coming up where a guy wants me to film him cutting down a tree. Which will probably be 1 hour. So, hourly rate for now until + I will maybe develop some packages if I niche down to tours of one industry.
Commercial fpv is so exciting to me as there is such a big market for all of us. I implore everyone here to start and make a killing :)

[nickcormode]

Dude. i started watching you shortly after you started fpv with something like 2k subs. watching you grow into fpv and starting paid work is truly amazing. been into FPV for a while and just starting doing paid work, this video helped.

[BossTalkProductions]

Another thing to consider is doing work for cheap vs doing it for free. While some people would thing charging something is better than nothing I personally would rather do a job for free than for low budget or cheap because you have full creative control and no financial obligation to the client

[seewell]

Very pragmatic approach, well done 👍. I do bits of work here in Calgary for $500/ day for raw footage but it’s not my day job so quite sporadic. When I first started I did work for non-profit organizations where my work was considered a donation. It let me get started and the groups I did the work for were extremely appreciative of even my I initial attempts. Plus it helps make your tax return a bit nicer.

[esclif]

the best realistic and honest opinion i found on youtube.
you rock mate!!

[hotchihuahua]

You have to start somewhere . For me in its infancy it was a web page someone created for me . I had already established a reputation for quality work and needed to expand my business .
This opens up a whole new world to sell your skills . It’s your business and I wish you the best .

[UghThemBiscuits]

So glad I came across this video. Just recently got into FPV flying within the last year. Still brushing up on my skills. But honestly had no idea where to start to get some kind of following. Thank you so much for all the informative information. New subscriber here. Keep up the amazing work.

[RedCornStudios]

I think your approach is spot on. This is the approach a lot of photographers take to get their start in the photo world.

[roystevenson]

Thanks Matt. I have done a few free shoots to get the experience and now lean towards a “pay what you think it’s worth” type of deal as I am not sure of what I will come up with for the location and my editing is still a work in progress!

[dannynguyen]

The fact you talked about the niches is so true
I started doing fly throughs and one take of real estate and business but its not as fun as I thought it be
Actions sports is the way I like to head and really explore that as I am a adrenaline thrill seeker myself so being able to capture those moments in FPV is just words I can't describe

Free work to create some sort of proof of concept to build your portfolio makes sense for me but I like the idea of also getting paid for your service and if money cant be part of the deal offering stuff in compensate make sense for equal value

There certain companies I worked with before that didn't pay and wouldn't even offer something worth while but being able to shoot that would be a big win in the books in terms of boosting your career but I wish I got paid for it instead

What do you think about working and being tagged in bigger companies in post and be given credit instead of payment or other forms of payments?
This is something I think about a lot too but, I think we can all agree being paid is the best option lol

[Google_Does_Evil_Now]

Great video. I like your filming style. That hotel video is cool. It makes me want to go there. Glad you're getting paid, even in steaks :-)

[rickmagnell]

Thanks for the video! I was hoping to have my FPV kit together last year but I ended up buying a bunch of other gear for client projects. Just ordered the drone today, got the controller last year.... now to get the goggles. Looking forward to adding this to my services.... once I get good.

[nozty]

I work in film and got into fpv at the start of the pandemic. Got into racing but now I'm hooked. Still hoping one day use my skills in production projects. ☺Thank you so much fo this type of content.

[bryanmineo]

You make many great points in regards to content use/ trade- off in value. Great video!! Thanks very much for your research 👍

[pikachua]

This is so on point. Really needed this info. Thanks for this Matt!

[nextlevel_fpv]

Such a fulfilling video for me. I have had these questions but never really asked anyone and this video answered them all for me. I have been flying FPV for a year now but I have been doing paid gigs with my DJI Mavic for almost 3 years. I'm just starting to get requests for FPV shots and I really didn't know what to charge in comparison to my DJI Mavic jobs which were mainly photography jobs. Thanks for the info bro! It really helped me!

[JaroslavBengl]

Very useful insights, thanks so much for sharing! ⭐️👍🏻