Strangely many “professions” don’t like talking about rates and a daily wage as it’s still taboo…in their heads. Next time you visit your doctor ask him/her what their take home pay is each month, you will get the “not as much as you seem to think” chestnut ?
Freelancers like ourselves are in a better position when it comes to daily rates but things become confused when you get part timers charging for their services…let me explain.
For years the thorny subject of “money” and what someone is worth seems to be a grey area till you are threatened by the under cutter …the part timer is a person that earns a wage so anything he or she makes on top is a bonus. The classic example is weddings, part timers don’t need to charge a lot because they are happy making an extra £200 at the weekend, its a hobby and they get paid for it.
Today its not only the part timer that threatens your livelihood its more likely to be the person engaging you to film and edit the job, times are hard so your client takes advantage of this by cutting you down to the bone, your no sooner sitting enjoying their hospitality when your walking out their office £100 per day worse off, they are looking for a deal and you reluctantly give them one.
There is no easy answer to this other than to have set daily wage you are prepared to work for let me give you an example…
Recently I noticed a web advert for a job in the media filming and editing for £20,000 per year thats £83 per day before taxes !
So you are worth £83 per day in that particular employment…not a lot.
Taking that example most decent posts pay £40K upwards so the person employing you to film is on about £166 per day, that was my pay before tax 15 years ago working for Scottish Television news as a freelancer without kit.
Your worth,… in your mind, is also equated to equipment used, if you have £20K worth of gear you will command a lot more per day than someone with a DSLR…but here is where the waters become somewhat muddy.
If you decide you are worth “x” amount per day, possibly 2.5 times your competition you also have to bear in mind what someone is willing to pay for your services…remember if the person you are working for is on £350 per day themselves they are not expecting to pay you much more than they earn per day, its all about competition.
What are your competitors charging for filming and editing, forget about kit at the moment remember most companies don’t care what kit you own nor do they have the savvy to judge beyond your “pitch” and initial filming costs per day, to them you are all on the same boat.
“Oh but my gear cost £20K” who cares, your client certainly doesn’t unless its for broadcast use…, most cars cost £20K upwards but you only get 35p per mile if you are able to factor that into the job.
Broadcast work in general is fairer as the daily rates are set in stone, the crews above are using mainly Sony PMW-500s, Digi Beta, Panasonic P2 and one DVCPRO camcorder, depending if its the broadcasters kit or yours will determine your daily rate.
Working for broadcast you will certainly be able to factor your kit into the equation with a Canon C300 plus lenses etc you can expect £650+ per days filming in the UK, note broadcasters in general are looking for Sony PMW-500s or JVC HM650s with FTP capability.
The two factors in a good days pay is time served and a good track record, the media industry is changing, equipment is a lot cheaper than it was 15 years ago, you can now shoot 4K for £2500 plus lenses, fantastic shallow depth of field HD for £1000 plus lenses, editing is a whole lot cheaper than even 7 years ago… so don’t be fooled by your equipment costs.
There are a ton of people coming into the video business every year, I get a flurry of CVs at the completion of every media course, these young adults are keen and willing to work, they are the future, they may not have the experience but they come with fresh ideas and more importantly are a lot more willing to work for less pay to build up the experience.
Back to the question “How much are you worth” or putting it another way “How much is someone willing to pay you” …every job is unique and so are you, if someone really likes your style they will pay your going rate but if you are up against an unknown competition for the same job its likely to fall on the cheaper quote no matter how good you are.
There is no set daily rate unless you work for a broadcaster or a client who decides what you are worth from day one.
Its all about how hungry you are for the work and keeping the overheads down, its not easy but I enjoy my work and that’s a major bonus in itself, I don’t sit in traffic jams to get to work for nine o’clock and enjoy my dogs, so work in general is a bonus in itself and like everyone else strike deals with clients.
Bottom line : Some of you may have credit agreements for £20K worth of gear which even at 0% interest is £1650 a month so the minimum you need to earn just to keep your head above water is £55 per day, frightening… not to mention other banking commitments so what you charge has a bearing on not only your finances but your wellbeing in general.
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I put this article up in good faith as I assumed that by giving an embed code it would remain watchable after the event !!!
Live streaming video by Ustream
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Having talked to a few of my peers over the filming of the media covering the helicopter crash its become very apparent that this was not appropriate so the footage will not be used in the the review of the Sony AX1.
Don’t know what I was thinking of, sorry if I offended anyone over this post.
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REGISTER to attend the event on the evening of December 4, at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, to see the 10 best entries shown on the big screen with a full lineup of guest speakers and cinema presentations. Please note : Entries to show your films are now closed but we still have a few seats available.
When I announced the Movie Machine Digital Cinema Festival in late October, I had no idea what the response would be. Would there be any entries – was there any appetite for this kind of thing in the modern world.
I’m pleased to say we have had a fantastic response with entries from all over the world: movie submissions from the UK,USA, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Canada, Australia, from far flung corners of the world to where one would least expect to find passionate filmmakers, yet the same passion for filmmaking exists everywhere. This is what is obvious from the movies submitted.
And there is good content to view! We have many films of seriously high quality, running between 1 and 5 minutes.
On the night of Dec. 4 at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, London we will show the 10 best films.
The judges, there are 5 in total, are busy watching, viewing and putting in their verdict for each of the films. The films are judged on cinematic merits including execution of story, camerawork, lighting, use of sound and editing technique.
The winner of the festival will be announced the evening of December 4, at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, London.
1st Prize for best film is a Blackmagic Cinema Camera, courtesy of Holdan.
Register now to attend the Movie Machine Digital Cinema Festival and see the best 10 films shown on the big screen – along with guest speakers, cinema presentations, and footage from many different cameras, including: the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Camera, Digital Bolex, Canon 5D Mark III, Canon C100, Sony PMW-F3, PMW-F5, RED Epic and more! Everything from “affordable cinema cameras” to “not-so-affordable” cinema cameras.
www.moviemachine.tv/digital-cinema-festival/
Hope to see you in the heart of London, 7.30pm, Dec, 4.
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A rather controversial plugin has just been announced by CINEFLARE, “hand held” is a plugin that aims to make you footage look more…amateurish, at least thats one of the few comments that underpin the You Tube video.
“So bad. All that hard work to make something look like no thought was put into the camera work.”
”Not really sure about this one… I can just drop my GlideCam and shoot by hand if that’s the effect I want. I can see the “trendiness” if you’re shooting a music video or maybe a scene for a movie, but then again, you can just shoot it that way. Not for me.”
Its not often a plugin creates a string of negative comments like these but in my opinion its all about the way you apply the plugin, some of the whip pans look very useful but to the professional cameraman this plugin has the ability to make your work look poor and thats the heart of the problem.
You get a hip and so called trendy “director” in the edit suite with a less experienced editor and all your hard work could look less than professional and once its out there for all to see theres nothing you can do about it.
Professional cameramen and women are very protective and guarded when it comes to their creative work so lets hope anyone who buys “hand held” uses it sparingly, at $49 its not going to break the bank.
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You agree to charity work then panic “how am I going to cover a non paying event”…simple it may be non paying for the charity but professional cameramen or should I say reliable cameramen don’t come for nothing, you take a hit and get on with it. This was for a great charity called “Maggies” a charity that deals with cancer for both the patient and the carer.
The lads and two JVC 600 series camcorders, one Canon C300 for a locked off wide shot (11mm) and a roving Lumix GH3.
The JVCs worked well together giving us a good clean shot in low light at 0dB, Scott was using the Manfrotto 504HD, the C300 was on the stage on a Millar Solo ENG tripod with a Compact 25 head, Sean was using his JVC 600 on a Manfrotto 501 HDV and I had the Lumix GH3 and a light weight DSLR Manfrotto 500AH head.
The magic happened back at base when I was trying out the new multicam in FCPX for the first time. You choose your footage and by right clicking you are given an option to use multicam, FCPX then sorts out the various shots via their sound tracks and all camcorders are synced together…works like a charm…fantastic.
You have to be aware of the limitations of multicam even although I let all three cameras record simultaneously, at the editing stage it was not necessary. My advice is to film each dance then pause, this saves on card space but FCPX is far happier and accurate with a single dance than a whole one hours worth of footage.
The one thing that struck me was how close all three cameras matched, obviously the two JVCs were matched but the Canon and Panasonic both matched the JVCs without any grading !
Below is a small part of the 4 camera shoot just to let you see how cool multicam is in FCPX, my apologies for the crap sound I was given a “clean” feed from the desk only to discover it was far from clean !
Note : For anyone who was at the evening and wants a copy of the 43mins DVD you can email me your details to smallvideo@mac.com the cost is £10 includes 1st class postage.
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Why not treat yourself to a 4K experience at H Preston Media today. Watch 4K pictures on the new Sony 55″ KD55 X900 5A (£3199 better than Curry’s) plus the Sony FDR-AX1 4K camera at (£3799). Remember you can get 12 months interest free credit on all purchases over £500 at H Preston Media. The XDCAM version is coming in next week so don’t delay if you need a fantastic 10bit run and gun 2K/4K camcorder this is the choice.
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