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Sunday, April 02, 2017

What The Heck Does PFH Mean in Voice-Over Job Quotes?



The letters 'p.f.h.' often appear at the side of voice over job quotes, for example "The client is willing to pay $250pfh." It is important to understand what these letters mean and how they impact on your earnings. Get it wrong and you could severely dent your hourly pay rate. 


In this video I discuss the meaning of PFH in voice overs and how to work out the real amount you are being paid.

Here is the transcript 

There are three letters which can make quite a big difference to your voiceover career, because the way you handle them will determine how much you get paid. We're about to find out what those three letters are.


Hello. I hope you're in fine voice. Now the three letters I'm talking about are PFH. You may have seen them crop up at the side of numbers, and those numbers are normally how much you're going to get paid, possibly. Also, you may see clients, or experienced clients, asking you how much you charge PFH. Now the words stand for per finished hour. Let's say you're being paid £100 PFH. Now you might think, "Well, that sounds great. That means I'm getting £100 an hour."


But hold your horses, because it doesn't really mean that. It means the finished audio, the completed voiceover, lasts one hour. They're willing to pay you £100 for that hour that is completed audio, finished audio, per finished hour. But of course, it's going to take you much, much longer to produce a single hour of voiceover. You've got to record it. You've got to edit it. You've got to produce it. You might have to do retakes and so on.

You're talking at least four times the length, possibly five. Now that's an awful lot of time to produce that one hour. Now one hour is actually something like 10,000 words, to give you an example. What you're going to do then is divide that figure by four, at least, to give you a realistic view of what it's worth. Let's take the £100 PFH example, £100 per finished hour. That's what the client's going to offer you. In fact, you'll need to divide that by four. That means it's actually £25 an hour. In real terms, you're going to earn 25 quid per hour.

It's really important to understand the implications of PFH, because it looks like you're getting paid more than you really are. Always bear that in mind, so particularly for stuff where perhaps it's only paying £25 or £50 PFH. Obviously, that's a much, much lower rate. £50 PFH would be effectively £12.50 an hour. And as you get lower, you're probably going to go under minimum wage. Always bear that in mind.

All right. I hope to cover some other letters in the future with some future videos. All right, thanks very much for watching today. Look after your voice and see you next time.

1 comment:

Ish said...

How can I submit work to you?