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"Competitive" Rates for D.P.?

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JT Thurlow

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Hi there,

I approached the agent of my first choice D.P. (for my first narrative feature, which I'm producing) and was turned down, on the grounds that the film's total budget is too low ($65K) for the D.P. to be paid at competitive rates.

I am wondering: what rates (from typical to concessional) are acceptable for fairly well-established/rising star/world class DPs, and what size budgets will they not scoff at?

In my case, the D.P. has shot two successful low-budget indie films, and is currently in pre-production on what appears to be his first feature produced by a major studio, but I'm curious about the gradations in general.

Thanks!
 
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It's tough to pay a DP a reasonable rate with anything less than a $100K budget. That's my experience at least. Something in the neighborhood of $500 a day on a 20 day shoot is already $10K and that doesn't take into accont gear or anything else. Unless a DP is doing the feature for other reasons, they'd need at least $400 or $500 without gear to stay afloat. The agent knows that if you spend even $7500 on the labor of a DP, the rest of the budget will run out pretty quickly. I'm not trying to dissuade you at all. That's awesome that you have $65000!
 
Local 600 has good standard rates for union work. I asked my indie friend and he said $300 to $500 per day for commercial work and far less for indie narrative (usually low to no budget passion projects). These include camera like C100mkII or EVA1.
 
I think one has to understand the agent's interest in all of this.

The agent gets a percentage of the rate for representing the talent (in this case the DP).
The agent will likely have a greater interest in landing jobs that will pay the DP more as
they will in turn get paid more.

This is no different with agents representing actors and actresses as they tend to steer them clear of lower budget projects as well.

Naturally there are no absolutes and circumstance vary but I found this to be generally the case.

Briann Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA
 
Tom S said:
Local 600 has good standard rates for union work. I asked my indie friend and he said $300 to $500 per day for commercial work and far less for indie narrative (usually low to no budget passion projects). These include camera like C100mkII or EVA1.
Click to expand...

ACs make more than that per day here in Chicago.
 
Tom S said:
Local 600 has good standard rates for union work. I asked my indie friend and he said $300 to $500 per day for commercial work and far less for indie narrative (usually low to no budget passion projects). These include camera like C100mkII or EVA1.
Click to expand...

Your friend was very wrong. Commercial DP rates are at the very bottom $1500/ day and frequently more, and do not include a camera kit. Branded content might drop down to $500-650 range but still should never include a camera.
 
Agreed (see above). For an low budget indie I'd imagine that an "average" DP's rate is probably around $1k per day. But for a microbudget it's all over the map, since the DP will basically take way less than their usual rate because they like the project and want the job.
 
Just gunna throw in my personal experience.

I just did a SAG ULB qualifying film as DP (budget around $250k after tax incentives) and everyone made the same - NYS mandated minimum wage. I believe the term is "favored nation". I'm don't have any representation. This all being said, I have a long relationship with this director and I had been working with him on the story before a script existed. The film meant a lot to me so it honestly didn't matter what I got paid, but I made sure everyone on my team was treated well, paid on time, and their timecards accurately reflected their standard and OT hours.

Anyway, no two experiences will be the same. This is just an example of mine from this year.
 
I'm stating what I hear as I have a different job. It seems the Local 600 rates are good, but outside this world, commercial (non-union) rates seem to be all over the place. Outside of Cinespace/BBDO/The Mill, what percentage of local commercial shoots will pay an AC $1,500/day? (not asking as an argument, I don't have an idea). I don't see this as a large market. Who in the indie world is hiring DPs at $1,500/day or more?

The complaint I hear is markets are saturated with RED cameras which has been driving down prices.
 
Somebody who is prepping for a studio shoot is probably not going to want to jump back into the indy trenches unless there's a personal connection of some kind. They are trying to move their career upward. A successful DP friend of mine has said that the jobs you DON'T take are as important as the ones you DO take.

Rates are all over the place and hard to quantify but union scale is probably a good place to start for established DP's. World class DP's could probably triple that. DP's that are doing quality work at an indy level (sub 200k) but have not broken out yet are making maybe $300 to $600 a day.
 
I believe the current minimum union low-budget feature rates for a Local 600 DP are around $900-$1000 a day, and a first assistant AC is around half that ($450/day). You can gauge indie rates as a percentage using this as a basis. Even if they only worked for half this rate, that's still $500/day, plus equipment rental. I think $5000/week is pretty standard in the TV world, but note there are conditions for OT and meals and so on. IA you can work around to a point, but you'll almost for sure have to use SAG-AFTRA actors, and you'll need to agree to their contract for that. You can get in touch with SAG here:

https://www.sagaftra.org/contact-us

It's fair to say that a $65K budget is very low and I'm not sure how far you can stretch the dollars, unless this is a very simple film (say with no more than 2 or 3 locations), a very small cast, and no difficult stunts or effects. I've seen a handful of films get done for $100K in about 2 weeks with maybe a cast of 6 and maybe a half-dozen locations. More money allows you more time, more time allows you more takes, and the ability to (theoretically) get better results from your cast and crew.

Ryan Purcell said:
Somebody who is prepping for a studio shoot is probably not going to want to jump back into the indy trenches unless there's a personal connection of some kind. They are trying to move their career upward. A successful DP friend of mine has said that the jobs you DON'T take are as important as the ones you DO take.

Rates are all over the place and hard to quantify but union scale is probably a good place to start for established DP's. World class DP's could probably triple that. DP's that are doing quality work at an indy level (sub 200k) but have not broken out yet are making maybe $300 to $600 a day.
Click to expand...
I think this is good advice. I worked with an award-winning DP a few weeks ago, and was surprised to learn from him that he actually makes more as a DP than as a director in TV, for a variety of reasons. Pay rates, like everything else, is always negotiable, but there's a point above which the producers just won't or can't go.
 
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