Re: Romancing the day rate

My question is, is this a typical situation and day rate for what I was being asked to do?

One thing I haven't seen anybody address is Mick's question to whether this was a typical situation. I freelanced for years in the 90's and I can unfortunately say "yes, it is."

I used to do a lot of freelance work for ESPN shooting sports. Mainly college basketball games. And these weren't low-profile games, these were typically University of Kentucky, IU, Louisville and other teams in that geographic region. At the time, all of them were perennially top ten teams.

I did it because I liked it. Which was a good thing because ESPN paid $75 for a 10-hour day. Yes...you read that right....$75. And I not only shot pre-game stuff, the entire game along the sideline (usually hand-held), post-game interviews. I ALSO had to help pull-cable and setup stuff before the game, AND stay after the game to help the production truck pack up for their next gig.

It sucked, but it was great experience. At the time, on most other jobs I did, I was getting $250 to $300/day (this was 15-18 years ago).

Fast-forward to modern times. As a facility owner, we occasionally do work for ad agencies (which is odd since we also are an agency). Invariably, they schedule 12-14 hour days with way too many setups, with no breaks for crew, and they typically don't bring anything for people to drink, snacks...nothing.

They also typically will schedule a shoot day that's 10-12 hours long on top of a drive round-trip to the shoot of 2-3 hours. Do this 3 or 4 days in a row and you're wiped out...and by the last day you're at the point of not caring much about the quality of the work.

These same agencies are constantly trying to trim the budget. I've been asked countless times in the last 3 or 4 years by agency producers, "do you really need to light?" It's incredible that people ask that...but they do. We've had agency producers plan elaborate scenes with talent, only we get to the shoot, and the talent turns out to be people they've recruited off the street...or from the aisle of a grocery store, or the showroom of a car dealer. Again...I'm NOT kidding.

I've always been a little annoyed and amazed at how badly many producers treat a production crew. When we schedule shoots ourselves, we ask people working if they have kids they have to pick up from daycare at a certain time, or if it might be a long-day, we offer them some sort of small perk to help make up for it. If it's an employee, we give them a half-day or full-day off as compensation. If it's a freelancer, we'll pay them more, or get them a gift card to a nice restaurant.

Anyway....long answer to a simple question, but YES...it's typical in this industry. I've never understood it...but unfortunately, it's how most production crews work. I've always believed you'd get better work and footage by scheduling a crew for 3 normal days vs. scheduling them for 2 insanely long ones. And when you pay overtime, it's probably cheaper to do the 3 day option paying normal day rates.



Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
www.videomi.com