daily rate, half day rate?

C

chlsy8

What does typical daily rate mean - 8 hours? 10 hours? 12 hours?

And half day? Anything less than 5 hours?

What about 2 hour shoot at night? Does that count as half day mostly?

Thanks
 
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I've always based full day on a 10 hour day, half is anything under 5. Half typically bills at 60-65% of a full day.

A 2 hour shoot would typically count as a half day, regardless of what time it was.
 
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Full day rates can differ depending where you are. It's usually 10-12 hours. Some places regulate film days as 12 hours, some as 10. I tend to work 10 hour days, but if the situation ever arose where 12 hour days were expected, I wouldn't bork and expect 2 hours overtime pay (at hourly rate+50%). That said, here in Aus, overtime loadings are quite high and most will stick to a standard 10 hours in case people aren't all cool about it. We are also required to be paid night loadings for night shoots. Our union dictates standard rates for different crew levels, and this is often a good guide. Most major productions will pay union rates even if crew members aren't part of the union. The union sets a full day at 10 hours.

In terms of half-day rates, I'm still debating whether I make half day rates available.. Sometimes they can be useful for things like table reads, location recces etc, but on the other hand you essentially have a day that you cannot take any other work, but are only being paid half your rate for. I'm sure there's something in the union documents about half-day rates, I'll have to sift through them again..
 
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10 hours is pretty standard for myself and most of the people I work with, but overtime rates don't kick in until after 12 hours generally.

Half day is 5ish hours (over 6 constitutes a full day), but 60-70% of the day rate. Example: Day rate is $500, Half day is $350. Reason it's not a flat 50% is that if they're booking you for a half day, you really can't schedule any other clients that day. Also, any costs you include with your day rate, like transportation or equipment rental don't change wether it's 5 hours or 10 hours.
 
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As far as a 2 hour shoot, you might ask for an hourly rate. An hourly rate is usually more than 1/10 or 1/8 of a day rate, but two hours may be cheaper than a half day.

For all freelancers who aren't a part of a union, it's all subjective. There's no rules about it, they charge based on what they feel is fair and a good business strategy. If they charge too much, they won't stay in business. Free market baby :)
 
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I realize it doesn't work this way in the "real" world of professional film making, but on my sets 10 hours would be a "short" day. A typical day would be 12 to 14 hours and I have had 18 or 19 hour days on set with 6 hour turn arounds to the next morning's call.

Edit:
It's called "no budget film making". If I only have budget to pay for the gear rental, or the location for X number of days, then we shoot everything there in that amount of time, whatever it takes.
 
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a 19 hour day would attract 6 hours of overtime (at time and a half), and the 6 hour forced call would attract extra allowances/loadings, as (at least in our union rules) it is stated that 12 hours is minimum turnaround time between wrap and next day's call time. Even if you're working for free, it's goo to make sure that you try and stick to 12 hour days and 12 hour turnarounds as much as you can, people are less likely to resent you for overworking them and not getting any sleep ;) Sleep is important - no sleep leads to mistakes.
 
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