OT: Rates

Is $350 a day good money or am I just being greedy?

Are you any good? Do you have a reel? Client following? Any Awards? If you charge $350 per day and you have little or no experience, you won't even get a dirty look from a Producer. If you charge $350 per day and you are all that, you are undercharging and undercutting your fellow Editors...making experienced Editors reduce their rates in order to get work. it's a vicious cycle.

You are only as good as your reel.



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

depends on what youre doing, what your experience level and market area are...

i charge $1200/day and i have yet to have a legitimate client bark at that. BUT, keep in mind - im in houston tx and we dont have a thousand desperate kids clamoring for would be "cinema" dollars.

but do the math - $350/8 = $43.75 check with any agency who places people at your experience level in your area and see how it compares...

IMO, from what ive heard in the LA market - $350/day is FAR from greedy, if you have any real world experience...

Thanks..

I do have a lot of experience, just not all professional - I've been chopping for 4 years on FCP and 8 years total, I'm 24, the last three jobs I've had were working as an editor for a high profile wedding company, editor of a low budget feature documentary as well as an editor for a few 10 minute pieces for Al Hurra Arabic television - the place that just hired me is editing background abstract footage for a concert, the performer is huge - when they asked me what my rates were, being that this was the first super-high end job I've had yet, I clammed up and said between 350-600 depending on the project, then they told me editors here make 35 an hour which would put me at 350 for a 10 hour day, not wanting to lose the job with a high figure I accepted - I now regret my acceptance, but not the job, this job is giving me a lot of awesome experience and something very nice for my new reel - its all evolution - i just hate that feeling of talking numbers..

the big problem with the music/video/movie industry is that there is always some star struck twit who is willing to work for practically nothing. thats just the way it is.

even here in TX, everyone wants to be in austin, cause thats were all the supposed "cool stuff" goes on. the same project that gets you $85-$125 per hour here in houston, is likely only to bring $40-$65 or less just a very crucial 180 miles northwest in austin.

the question id ask myself if i were you is "is this job going to help me get where i want to be?" at the start of a career, its often wise to take a smaller sallary just to beef up your reel. but only if it beefs it up in the area you need it to.

I would say $350 for a young 24 yr old editor is not bad since you don't have years and years of experience. I bet most of the guys here saying they make $1200 are quite a bit older and have maybe 10 years of experience. I find that it's harder to get over $500 while you don't look like you're in your 40s and older. Just my observations....

-CHL

precisely CHL, im 37 and have been in the NLE world since the "video spiggot" days. (1993, 1994ish)

While there's no such thing as a "standard" rate in LA, I do come across the $350/day rate pretty often for freelancers. It's not what I would charge to edit a small feature or a show for a TV network, but for most smaller jobs at a lower experience level it's a place to start. I certainly wouldn't accept anything LESS than that.

JK

You also need to be clear as to wether or not that includes the edit bay. You have your editor rate, then you add on your "room rate".

I use The DR Group's rates as a starting point for my "room rate" - they keep competitive prices for edit bays without editors - plus they have DV rooms and HD rooms. Even though I have an HD rig, I don't charge HD prices for a DV job.


Hope that helps.

I would obviously charge much higher if I was using my own equipment if that's what you mean.. I am using their edit bay for this job

You better get used to talking numbers or you will undervalue yourself and undercut your fellow Editors by doing a project "on the cheap". It comes with the territory.

I need to clarify what a "day" is. 10 hours is NOT a day, my friend. An Editor's day is 8 hours with 30 to 60 minutes for lunch. I charge in 8 hr blocks. If I work 9 hours, a new 8 hr block is charged. This prevents the cheap clients from keeping me there all damn night

$35 an hour is LOW for a professional wage. It's a good starting point for a newbie professional. I did that right out of school for corporate gobbldee gook. It is definitely a step up in pay from doing weddings (In the old days, I used to get $150 per edited wedding no matter how long it took).



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Figuring out freelance pay is tricky. When I left my staff job to be a freelancer six years ago, I was told to shoot for invoicing 50% more as a freelancer than I was paid when I was on staff to live an equivalent lifestyle.

That may sound like it's easy math...but as a freelancer, you certainly don't work 8 hours a day 40 hours a week. The math isn't that easy. A couple years ago I broke it down for my own piece of mind. I started with my rate, subtracted the employers' half of the Social Security tax, my health insurance premiums, my retirement contributions, other insurance (the kind an employer usually provides...), two weeks "paid" vacation, and sick time to figure an equivalent "salary" to my day rate. Then you have to estimate how much you'll actually be working. Every week you don't work is sort of like taking a 2% pay cut. If you don't work for a month, it's 8%. Six weeks is 12%...you can see the pattern...

According to my math, if you work half time or less, that $35 an hour is equivalent of about $8 an hour on staff. Granted, you get a lot more free time...but if you're trying to pay the rent...

If you work full time, it's the equivalent to less than a $15/hour staff job.

Yeah, deb...when you break it down next to a full time salary, the salary is depressing. You have to look at it another way, though. While we're talking Rates...why doesn't anyone talk about Benefits of a Salaried Designer / Editor? The only thing that keeps me in my current Salaried position is the amazing benefits package:

* Full Medical Benefits (me & spouse) = $100 per month total (pretax)
* Full Dental (me & spouse) = $13 per month total (pretax)
* Vision = $5.00 per month total (pretax)
* Life Insurance package covering $300,000 = $24 per month (total)
* Accidental Death & Dismemberment covering $500,000 for $8.00 per month (total)
* 2 Weeks Paid Vacation
* 7 Paid Holidays
* 3 Floating Holidays
* 8 Flex Days (that we can sell back if not used up to $1000. Can you say "Christmas Club"??)
* $3000 Adoption Reimbursement Benefit
* Tuition Reimbursement
* Short Term Disability (Company paid)
* Free Cable & Broadband Internet Service (if I live within my company's jurisdiction - which I don't, DAMMIT - that alone would save me around $100 per month or more - HD would be included).
* The fact that I am not forbidden to take on freelance work on my own time. (This is a big one because my salary is not great and I am supporting 3 of us.)

...and there's a 20 page book on area restaurants, golf courses, cell service, amusement parks, auto repair shops, and a lot more that give me discounts if I just show my badge. There are many benefits to being on salary.

It would have to be a pretty sweet deal for me to want to do freelance full time. I can only attribute freelancing to Bartending (which I did on Southbeach & Miami for 12 years)...when your working in a hot club, the money is rollin' in by the wheelbarrow. If you get really sick & miss a week's pay - might miss a few bills. If you get injured and miss 2 weeks...may miss rent & create a large chunk of debt from the Doctor bills. I never had Medical Insurance all 12 years I was Bartending. Ask 10 freelance friends...I bet half of them have no Medical Insurance. Freelancing is only good as long as you KEEP WORKING.

I could go on for days...but I have a freelance gig to work on for a few hours tonight and I have to be at the studio (day job) by 8:00 AM EST (yawn).

- Joey



Post Edited (04-19-06 20:33)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Wow...

The benefits I was getting on staff were alpo compared to your filet mignon, Joey!

I estimated the benefits I used to get cost the company roughly $15,000-$17,000 a year. That's about what I pay now to cover myself...and my freelance rates are adjusted to compensate for that...My clients don't get out of paying for my benefits, they just don't have to muck around with administrating them!

But wow...if any of the companies around here offered a benefits package that sweet plus a decent salary...I'd have to seriously consider it...

Still...I'm not over being able to edit in my jammies quite yet...

I'm sure that will pass someday!

;-)

Adjustin' your rate for the amount of benes is one thing...keepin' the work comin' & stayin' healthy is another.

I hear ya though, deb. I am lovin' the freelance gigs I can do in my sweats with my boy on my knee ...but the benes are just too good right now to give up.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Joe,

If you don't mind me asking, where do you work? I checked out your site and couldn't find any clients/credits.

-Rick

There's more to being an Editor than using the razor blade in FCP...

There's story telling, pertinent use of transitional effects, motion effects, color correction, title-ling effects.

Most newspapers require a reporter to have a Master's Degree in the subject area of his/her reporting... besides Journalism. TV news departments seem to be more oriented to audience demographics (ethnicity and hair color)...

Do you have a degree in a subject area that you like to edit projects about? That can allow you to charge more when editing projects on that subject.

There's aestetics of visual positioning in the safe area, as well as pacing (quick and pause) of the dialogue interaction. You should also understand the emotional impact of sound design, and match the emotion of the music to the emotion of the piece. (My friend is Chief Engineer at a huge Post house in Hollywood, and one day he let me observe in an editing suite where they took a popular 1970s film, and spent hours re-positioning the action in the title safe area to frame it up better!).

Make your talents match the Client: If you're cutting something for National Geographic Channel, make sure it looks like you're on Crack, have a fish-eye filter, can walk around the interview subject 360 degrees while holding the camera fairly steady to survive the time ramp, and have 5 variations of the WHOOSH SFX...

You might make more doing a wedding in Beverly Hills, than Echo Park...

You might make more shooting for Exxon, than for, say, er, ME!



Independent photographer, film maker and Producer. In the wonderful UK.