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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Is this what is hurting the market? No wonder producers are looking for $100 people

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unless your afraid of him as a competitor its not a big deal..

if people want to pay 100 bucks and get shitty footage, thats their call.

I would honestly rather not work with the productions skimming the bottom of floor for talent and gear
 
Vilmos Zsigmond and László Kovács DPed a heap of indie films for free in their early years.

Nobody would ever criticize them for that.
 
no i work for free all the time.

you missed my point..

alot of time low pay gigs are shady producers who could careless if your gear is damaged or even provide food on set.. ive dealt with it and gone to court because a producer decided he didnt want to pay.

dont get me wrong i do pro-bono and shoot for free ALL the time (if its my project)

im not complaining about his rate. Im complaining about low balling production companies
 
so anyways.. to take the attention of this thread off me for a sec..

work for free.. work for 100 bucks.. work for 10,000 bucks.. as long as your working and your happy.. its all good!

just dont let people abuse you..
 
Stephen Williams said:
Reread what David wrote, about $20K for 10 years, 60K now after joining the union, that alone is not cheap.
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Yes..that's pretty much what I recall from David Mullen's post.
Was kinda brave of him to be so honest and tell it like it is or was.
Can't find it...Anyone have a link to it...?
 
Aged 21 I started out with my Betacam SP and I accepted TV work for $200 a day with all my kit.

Why??

Because I wanted to eat, party and pay my rent as a young man. I'm now 40 and turn over $500,000 per annum. I'm sure that I wouldn't now have the clients, 5 loyal staff and 6 cameras if I'd thought that that was beneath me.

I've been lucky too but I never stopped working in the last 15 years. Rates can go up too.
 
The recording industry experienced this same sort of shift when DAWs entered the equation. And let me tell you, the guys with million dollar studios who were going out of business were PISSED at the low budget bedroom productions. But in the end it brought the market more options and the world still turns.
 
XiaoSu Han said:
See, some people would rather work for 100 usd a day instead of sitting at home waiting for higher paid work.
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I seem to remember thats what DM got paid for 'Norfolk', extreamly good work.
 
There are directors and vfx supervisors I would happily pay $100 a day just to let me follow them around and eavesdrop.

Getting experience, building contacts and clients can be invaluable.

But I also agree with Zakaree. Pick carefully because the experience you have with the bottom feeders can be less than beneficial. When you just compete on price you'll never find the clients who actually value your talents and give you the freedom to bring more to the table. It's the client that is willing to pay the premium for quality that you want to hold onto because then you'll have a chance to really grow as an artist. I've seen a lot of companies that are all about cutting costs and delivering the lowest bid. They seem to get trapped in this mindset of being the cheapest--and they win all the clients who just want something passable delivered at the lowest rate. I couldn't work for a company like that. It's the wrong attitude in my opinion and it degrades the product because you never then have the time or budget to do it right.
 
I'm not in the business of trashing other people's work. But it is honestly a very common thing, even more so among the less experienced and film students.

What I find more audacious was that I just had a producer tell me he had quotes (yes plural) for $400 for the weekend. And thats for a full Red package. He said all the other cameras were booked on his filming dates, but that was all he was going to offer me... Now I can see how certain people might mistakenly devalue a DIT's job, but for a full red package, I found it a tad insulting.
 
Justin Nguyen said:
I'm not in the business of trashing other people's work. But it is honestly a very common thing, even more so among the less experienced and film students.

What I find more audacious was that I just had a producer tell me he had quotes (yes plural) for $400 for the weekend. And thats for a full Red package. He said all the other cameras were booked on his filming dates, but that was all he was going to offer me... Now I can see how certain people might mistakenly devalue a DIT's job, but for a full red package, I found it a tad insulting.
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Warren Buffet would not invest in a 'commodity business' for this very reason, it's hard to make money unless you have a competitive advantage, with 7000 Red Ones, Epic & Scarlet soon to ship it wont get any better.
 
Justin Nguyen said:
What I find more audacious was that I just had a producer tell me he had quotes (yes plural) for $400 for the weekend. And thats for a full Red package. He said all the other cameras were booked on his filming dates, but that was all he was going to offer me... Now I can see how certain people might mistakenly devalue a DIT's job, but for a full red package, I found it a tad insulting.
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Isn't the normal formula for rental equipment 100 rental days to get even with the purchase? So if someone purchased a 40K RED package, it's perfectly fine to rent it out for 400 a day in my opinion.

Just because some people managed to get 1200 dollars a day out of a 20K package, doesn't mean everybody can do it. I guess the RED gold rush is over ?
 
Just a couple examples:

A Cooke S4 15-40mm can be had USED for around 40K
Otto Nemenz rents it out for $400.00. - that's without any rebate yet.

Arricam ST/LT are like 200K each, are rented for 1500-1600 a day.

RED ONE package = 40K, but renting it for 400 USD is an insult?
 
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