The Eighteen-Thousand-Rupee Jewellery TVC
A Chandigarh ad agency asks you, a freelance storyboard artist with two years' experience, to board a 30-second jewellery TVC: 40 panels, three rounds of revisions, delivery in eight days, ₹18,000 flat. Your records from your last job: 20 panels, one revision round, ₹14,000, delivered in five days at roughly six focused hours a day. The brief arrives with six product shots, two actors, one location, and the creative director's line: 'Simple stuff, mostly product. We'll just need small changes - and maybe a few options for the opening.' The agency has mentioned no advance, no contract, and no plan for what happens if the TVC's shoot date moves. You have one other enquiry on the table for the same week. You have never worked with this agency before.
1. Estimate the real effort and decide whether ₹18,000 is acceptable. Show the arithmetic.
Read the worked answer
No, not as offered - and the arithmetic, not the gut feeling, is the argument.
Your own baseline: 20 panels + 1 revision round in 5 days x 6 h = 30 h for ₹14,000. That is roughly ₹465/h, or about ₹700 per panel once the revision round is absorbed.
New job, real scope:
- 40 panels.
- 'A few options for the opening' - take that as 6 alternates. Total drawings about 46.
- 3 revision rounds. On a 40-panel board, three rounds realistically add 25-40% in drawing time, say 12-18 panel-equivalents.
- Total: about 60-64 panel-equivalents.
At your demonstrated rate (20 panels plus a revision in 5 days, roughly 4 panels a day), that is 15-16 working days. Even at a fast 8 panels a day with revision time folded in, you are at 9-10 days against an 8-day deadline. Call it 55-60 hours.
₹18,000 ÷ 58 h ≈ ₹310/h - about a third below your last job's rate, for more work, a tighter deadline, a first-time client and no deposit.
So the flat number is not the problem; the undefined scope is. Three revision rounds on 40 panels plus 'options' is a different job from the one being described as 'simple stuff'. Price the unit, not the vibe.
2. How do you restructure the quote and the scope so the rate holds and the client stays?
Read the worked answer
Move the conversation from a flat fee to a unit, then offer a smaller version of the same job.
Quoted structure:
- ₹750 per panel x 40 = ₹30,000, two revision rounds included.
- Additional revision rounds: ₹4,000 each, or ₹200 per panel changed.
- Opening alternates: first one included, ₹600 each after that.
- Rush delivery inside 8 days: +25%.
- 50% advance, balance on delivery of finals; layered files released only after the balance.
- Written definition: a change of shot design, camera angle or panel count is a new panel; moving a hand or a prop is a revision.
Then the budget-fitting option, offered in the same email: ₹18,000 for 24 panels, one opening alternate and one revision round. Hand them the full panel list so they choose which 24 moments carry the film. They keep their budget, you keep your rate, and the scope becomes a number instead of an adjective.
Confirm everything by a single email the agency replies to: 'This confirms 40 panels, 2 revision rounds, ₹30,000, 50% advance, delivery 8 working days from script lock and advance.' That one paragraph is your contract. It costs nothing and it ends the 'small changes' conversation before it starts.
3. Name the main business risks in this job and the specific mitigation for each.
Read the worked answer
Five risks, and each one has a cheap written fix.
- Non-payment or late payment. 50% advance before you start, milestone payment at the first approved round, and a line stating that copyright in the drawings stays with you until the final payment clears. Deliver watermarked low-resolution files until paid.
- Unlimited revisions. Cap the rounds in the quote and define what counts as a revision rather than a new panel. Three rounds is the agency's ask; make the third round the last included one, in writing.
- Schedule slippage. The TVC shoot date will move. Add a hold clause: dates shift free if they tell you 48 hours ahead; otherwise the slot is charged. Also start the clock at script lock, not at 'yes'.
- Usage and credit. Boards are pre-production documents. If the agency wants them in the pitch film, on a hoarding, or in a making-of video, that is a separate licence fee - raise it before you hand over files, not after. Ask for a 'Storyboards: [your name]' line in the deck.
- The other enquiry. Do not turn it down until the advance is actually in your account. A verbal yes from a new agency is not work; a deposit is.
One more: keep every version. If a dispute starts, the dated v01-to-v05 folders and the confirming email are the entire case.