# Videographer.com

Describe a video shoot in plain language and get a real, calibrated production budget in seconds — then get matched with videographers who fit. Free, no sign-up.

## Get a priced quote (agents welcome)
POST https://videographer.com/api/quote  {"description": "a 3-hour wedding in Austin, two cameras, drone"}
-> returns a structured order + a calibrated budget range (raw footage → fully edited).

## Get listed as a videographer
POST https://videographer.com/api/join  {"email": "you@studio.com", "bio": "Wedding films across Chicago.", "cities": "Chicago"}
-> creates a free listing. Email is the only required field.
-> a bio, a reel or a work piece is what makes a listing PUBLIC. Without one it exists and is shown nowhere.
-> no sign-in link comes back; one is queued to the address given.

POST https://videographer.com/api/join/detect  {"site": "yourstudio.com"}
-> reads that public site and proposes a name, bio, cities and shoot types. Stores nothing.
-> public http(s) addresses only: loopback, private ranges and link-local are refused after DNS resolution, on every redirect.
-> an unreadable site answers 200 with detected:false. Joining never depends on it.

## Send it to videographers
POST https://videographer.com/api/lead  {"description": "...", "email": "you@example.com"}
-> prices the description server-side, stores it, and routes it to at most three matching videographers.
-> returns {ok, id, routed}. `routed: 0` is a real answer: nobody covers that work in that city yet.
-> do NOT send a `website` field. It is a spam honeypot: any request carrying it is accepted and silently discarded.

## If you already have structured fields
POST https://videographer.com/api/estimate  {"shootType": "wedding", "cityTier": 1, "durationMinutes": 300, "cameras": 2, "addons": ["drone"]}
-> deterministic: the budget estimate alone, no parsing step.

## Create a bookmarkable request object
POST https://videographer.com/api/order  {"description": "brand film, half day, Chicago"}
-> returns {id, token}. The token is an owner capability — keep it secret; it is what lets you broadcast and manage the request later.

## How our numbers are calibrated
Budget ranges are calibrated on thousands of real delivered video productions — nearly $5 million in real production invoices, analyzed across 14 years. We do not publish the underlying rates: it is one studio's non-standardized billing history, and presenting it as a market index would misrepresent the market.

## Typical 2026 costs by shoot type
- wedding videographer: $700 – $2,900 (see https://videographer.com/cost/wedding)
- corporate event videographer: $700 – $2,000 (see https://videographer.com/cost/corporate-event)
- brand film: $700 – $2,600 (see https://videographer.com/cost/brand-film)
- real estate video: $600 – $1,000 (see https://videographer.com/cost/real-estate)
- music video: $700 – $2,400 (see https://videographer.com/cost/music-video)

## What costs money, and what never does
Free, on every domain: a listing in the videographer.net directory, free and permanent; scoped, already-priced leads that match your cities and shoot types; the embeddable budget widget for your own site; the second-shooter network.
Never charged: a commission on the booking — the videographer bills the client directly and keeps all of it; a per-lead fee — leads are free, whether you accept them or pass; a subscription to receive leads; a fee to appear or to be found — being on the sites is free and stays free.
- $99/yr — Your own profile page on videographer.com. Your studio at videographer.com/p/your-name — your work, your cities, what you shoot, and a do-follow link to your own site. The page a client reads while they are deciding.
- $199/yr — Your work in the gallery. Your work shown at videographer.com/work, the page people open when they want to see what good looks like before they call anyone.
- $750/mo — Managed advertising. Google Ads set up and run for your studio by someone who has done videographer marketing for a living. Search and local, built around what you actually book.
Routing is free on every domain, both sides: no commission, and no fee for a lead received, accepted or passed.
No paid position, priority or ranking exists in the product today. Order does not vary by what anyone paid.

## Pages
- https://videographer.com/ — describe your shoot, get a budget
- https://videographer.com/request — describe a shoot and get a scoped, priced request
- https://videographer.com/cost — full 2026 cost guide
- https://videographer.com/work — browse real work, "get this"
- https://videographer.com/pros — for videographers (free lead matching)
- https://videographer.com/agents — MCP server + API

Budget estimates calibrated to real production pricing; each videographer sets their own final price.