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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 :)

American DITs... ugghhh

jake blackstone said:
Not to change the subject, but...
Can anyone explain to me, why, as a colorist, having much more, than quoted $40k in equipment, calibrating it religiously using very expensive software and gear, etc, I never get to charge the kit rental, but DITs do? What gives?
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Your costs aren't calculated into your rate?
 
Scott Crawley said:
Your costs aren't calculated into your rate?
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Nope, pure pay for my work. I get paid the same, if I work freelance at another facility using their equipment. Should I start charging my clients separately for my pay rate,my assistant pay, equipment rental, office rental, electricity, water, phone, Internet, FTP, web server etc?
 
jake blackstone said:
Nope, pure pay for my work. I get paid the same, if I work freelance at another facility using their equipment. Should I start charging my clients separately for my pay rate,my assistant pay, equipment rental, office rental, electricity, water, phone, Internet, FTP, web server etc?
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Yes! When I was an on-line editor at a local TV affiliate we charged a facility fee with all services listed as line items so they see what they were paying for. Now I usually only add this charge if my client is camping out for more than a day. Or if we are using all the machines in the suite at once.
 
"Focus" here...this is movie making.

Hang around some surgeons, for awhile, especially thoracic surgeons, who KNOW that the arch of the aorta is the location of the human soul...

Thank you very much

Fury
 
Nick Fury said:
"Focus" here...this is movie making.

Hang around some surgeons, for awhile, especially thoracic surgeons, who KNOW that the arch of the aorta is the location of the human soul...

Thank you very much

Fury
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I feel like one should really re-read this quote after taking a heroic dose of Ayahuasca ... :)
 
jake blackstone said:
Nope, pure pay for my work. I get paid the same, if I work freelance at another facility using their equipment. Should I start charging my clients separately for my pay rate,my assistant pay, equipment rental, office rental, electricity, water, phone, Internet, FTP, web server etc?
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You're a smart guy. You set your price, and you know you are eating those costs. My question is why do you do it? Are you simply unable to command a fee large enough, or does your self worth simply find it untenable to look at what is left of your rate after you adjust for expenses?

I presume this is just your way of complaining that production is too cheap. ?
 
Ivan Kovax said:
I feel like one should really re-read this quote after taking a heroic dose of Ayahuasca ... :)
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Hi Ivan,

Might do, but one of their OR's, when Wagner cues up (things going South) would do just fine...

BYW, Maybe an heroic dose of somethin' er other...might work on movie sets too...fer the cure that ails U.

Thank you very much

Fury
 
We had a Japanese DIT on our last production and when it turned out that some files were corrupted, he committed Seppuku right there on the director's shoes. Boy, that guy cared...
 
What are standard DIT rates? Are there training courses and standard procedures (and unions) established and expectations in terms of what you get (dailies, preliminary grades, etc.)? It seems rates vary more for DITs than for any other position.

I've only DITed once (as a low-pay favor and it was just copying and pasting files, super easy--no redundancy checks or first light grades or LUTs), but the responsibility intimidates me. If you're a DP and you screw up once you get a shot that looks bad or is flatly lit. If you're a DIT and you screw up once you might lose a day's worth of footage. The responsibilities might be specific but they're immense and intimidating. That said, $2000 is a pretty good day rate for anything, and I do feel some crew positions (gaffer, stunts) are even higher stakes and more demanding because there's danger to people as well as footage/gear involved.
 
Liam Hall said:
I didn't mean him, or you for that matter;-)

BTW I shot in Japan last year and had a really good time. Tokyo is as mad as a box of frogs.
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I mean't rule 16 ;) (ie. to add it that is... )

Dial me in next time you are in Tokes. Always down for a good yak with a fellow reduser.
 
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jake blackstone said:
Not to change the subject, but...
Can anyone explain to me, why, as a colorist, having much more, than quoted $40k in equipment, calibrating it religiously using very expensive software and gear, etc, I never get to charge the kit rental, but DITs do? What gives?
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I can Answer this...

as a colorist.. I assume you have a designated work area right?
a permanent desk set up in a suite?


as a DIT.. we have to haul a heavy cart around, plugging in and unplugging cables...
red rockets for example.. super fragile.. being in a mobile situation ensures they go bad even faster..

So the kit rental basically covers our replacement costs for everything..

Ive damaged two nice monitors on set just by a a PA tipping my cart while loading it onto a truck, and hitting a curb and shit goes spilling over..

also, the kit rental is a service fee.. things like transcoding.. is a service.. its not really the general description of what we do.. I charge for that service.. if a post house doesnt want to do it, and most dont because of turn around times.. we can do it on set.. but thats an extra cost.. It adds to my duties and takes me away from the camera.
 
Matt W. said:
What are standard DIT rates? Are there training courses and standard procedures (and unions) established and expectations in terms of what you get (dailies, preliminary grades, etc.)? It seems rates vary more for DITs than for any other position.
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they do vary...

I charge anywhere from 650-800.. 650/10 is pretty common..
800/12..

plus the kit rental.. really depends on your gear your using..

with transcoding 2 cameras.. im RARELY longer than 15-20 mins past wrap.. I get that shit done FAST.. and the expensive gear i have purchased helps ensure that.. so i make sure I charge accordingly

Ive been offered rates of 200-300 with 50$ kit... I usually politely (sometimes impolitely) reject those ridiculous rates..
 
I shot a feature in Japan about 8 years ago and I have to say the Japenese have to be some of the most awesome people I have ever worked with. They fucking rule! When the bar is that high it is hard to compare. That however does not take away from all the other excellent DITs of the world. I'm just fortunate enough to worked with one for the past 15 years pretty regularly. In this day it is such a significant role their worth is priceless. But I'm digressing. Every field has its assholes and while I subscribe to maintaining a bit of humility in ones endeavors we are all different. I can't imagine a person lasting very long with a shitty attitude. I would not hire them again.
 
Ivan,

I know what you speak of. Sometimes being the only nerd that understands cameras, post, and all the unknowns in-between gets some people feeling pretty important.

Having been a 2nd AC loading on 35mm jobs at 21 (circa 1991), and then being a (bad) 1st AC at 27 years old had me feeling my oats at that age too. Luckily I had some people to bring me down a notch at the time. I grew up a little bit too.

But when they can talk tech circles around everybody's head, the seasoned producer just puts a shit-ton down on that line in the budget and says I'm not gonna argue this one. It's because even an idiot can see it's tied to the safety of the footage that it goes this way.

The old ways of the camera dept. are changing rapidly. Women pulling focus (yay!). Young tech nerds holding sway. Cats in trees.

I get grumpy about it, but then I realize being an old grump about it is not going to help me, so I pack it away and move on. So it goes.
 
as zack says, it's to maintain the overhead. post houses may not charge for a equipment rental, but they charge for usage to maintain their overhead. every hour of processing, every gigabyte of storage, the time it takes to copy to a external hard drive. houses like Deluxe/CO3 charge for every moment of that.

in the case of a DIT, the policy is, equipment coming to set, is a rental. it's the only way we can afford 40-50k of gear to bring on board, and maintain it. day rate alone isn't enough to sustain that. 95% of the money I make from equipment rentals usually goes right back to equipment. this new piece of kit here, this new computer card, a new monitor all the time. anything and everything that makes the system run smoother, and faster. depending on what camera system is on set, I have to reconfigure my cart accordingly and have enough equipment to be able to do that as well.

The task is a multitude of things including retrofitting to handle different download station methods, piping a lot of footage as fast as technology will allow, and configuring it so it can be mobile. I'm on a job this week where I have 2 different types of 10g ethernet cards, running over two towers just to accomodate two completely different cameras. Plus with immense raid storage, gpu's (and the list goes on) i probably had to drop 2 grand to get some extra bits and pieces to take on this job. this is almost a regular thing for me.


you have to look at it more as renting anything else for use on set. you have the operators, and you have the equipment. plenty of colorists don't have their own suites, they just get hired and they book time at a facility, and there is a rate on top of that colorist's hourly. DIT's just charge a flat rate for the gear for use, because it needs to be rented somewhere either way. from us, or a facility, there's no way around it. And the fact that you don't charge anything more than your day rate just means that you have a sustainable business and income off that, and are down right a much better deal than any other facility on top of being good at what you do. Just simple business models, and it's a losing business model in a DIT's case if we can't get decent kit rentals.
 
and to Ivan, subject is pretty much talked to, to death already. If you're ever in NY again shoot me a PM and I'll take you out to a drink of your choice. I assure you I have a much better bedside manner than who you were dealing with. Jerks are jerks, that's all it boils down to. Doesn't matter what field. There are Dp's, Directors, gaffers, ac's, producers, etc etc. that think their shit don't stink. a lot of the time it's a ego game, and generalizing over a single incident kind of gets people heated up. It's a shame it had to happen, and hope you'll have a more pleasant on set experience with your crew if you are ever back in the states.
 
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