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Paying a sound guy for half a day??
- Thread starter dr stilly
- Start date
Basically he is a replacement that we use when our sound guy has been off for the day - and we have a set day rate, he comes does the job, gets on with crew, done. Anyways, we scheduled pick-ups at a location that we had limited time at, so on the monday we only had the wednesday to use it and so we got the crew and actors on board last minute but our sound guy couldnt do it, so we call our replacement who was on holiday and text back saying; all sounds good, will call you tomo when back from holiday to discuss details'. he calls next day (tuesday - day before shoot) and tells us that 3 hours will still be full days rate. It just doesn't feel justified, that's all.
In the end, an actor came late and it was only a two hour shoot in total so would of felt crappy if I had to pay full days rate for two hours. I get what everybody is saying and do respect it. I'm not trying to belittle anyone else because I understand that professionals work the same way, but just something about this guy in particular just seemed as if he felt he had us in a position where we couldn't say no. Wrong. Apologies for sounding judgmental, just a bit jarred and venting at the wrong peeps, next time gonna channel it into his boom mic
In the end, an actor came late and it was only a two hour shoot in total so would of felt crappy if I had to pay full days rate for two hours. I get what everybody is saying and do respect it. I'm not trying to belittle anyone else because I understand that professionals work the same way, but just something about this guy in particular just seemed as if he felt he had us in a position where we couldn't say no. Wrong. Apologies for sounding judgmental, just a bit jarred and venting at the wrong peeps, next time gonna channel it into his boom mic
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The other thing to think about is - sometimes people will 'price you out'. I've over-charged for corporate jobs simply because I didn't want to do them.
Unless you have a good working relationship with someone, they have absolutely no reason to give you any kind of discount. Myself, and many of my colleagues, have seen the way low-budget indies can go and how some can turn horrible, and some Directors can expect you to do everything, including 100 things that aren't in your job description simply because you're getting paid etc. etc.
Not all are like that, but you can't get a sense of how a set will go down unless you know the people. That's why you charge a full day rate. Because at the end of the three hours when you've only shot two shots out of the fourteen you're meant to have shot, and the Producer asks if you can stay for 'just another hour' and you end up staying for another 7 whilst the Director figures out what he wants - well, at least you've been paid for a full day and don't need to try and squeeze it out of them.
And then there's all the other points on top of that I made before.
I'm not saying all indies are like that, but you end up doing enough of ones that are to make you want to charge full day rate all the time - and you get to a point where you're getting enough work that you don't need to take every job that comes along, and certainly not at a heavily discounted rate.
Anyway, hope your shoot day went well
Unless you have a good working relationship with someone, they have absolutely no reason to give you any kind of discount. Myself, and many of my colleagues, have seen the way low-budget indies can go and how some can turn horrible, and some Directors can expect you to do everything, including 100 things that aren't in your job description simply because you're getting paid etc. etc.
Not all are like that, but you can't get a sense of how a set will go down unless you know the people. That's why you charge a full day rate. Because at the end of the three hours when you've only shot two shots out of the fourteen you're meant to have shot, and the Producer asks if you can stay for 'just another hour' and you end up staying for another 7 whilst the Director figures out what he wants - well, at least you've been paid for a full day and don't need to try and squeeze it out of them.
And then there's all the other points on top of that I made before.
I'm not saying all indies are like that, but you end up doing enough of ones that are to make you want to charge full day rate all the time - and you get to a point where you're getting enough work that you don't need to take every job that comes along, and certainly not at a heavily discounted rate.
Anyway, hope your shoot day went well