A Beginner’s Introduction to Freelancing as Crew Members

Alex H.

Moderator
Staff member
KNOW YOUR WORTH… AND YOUR RATE

So, you’ve decided to freelance as a crew person in TV and film. One of the biggest mistakes made by those new to production and freelancing is mismanaging rates, both by selling themselves short and by not knowing how to structure proper rates for billing. If you’re new to the industry, and looking to pursue a freelance (a.k.a. self-employed) career, this post is for you. It’s a brief overview, not a comprehensive guide. Please also note, this pertains to freelancing in the United States. Things may work a little differently elsewhere in the world.

Welcome to the World of Small Business

As a freelancer, you’re not just labor for hire on a film or TV show. You’re a small business, and need to manage yourself as such. Just like any small business, it’s more than just the work and requires budgeting and marketing. Further, if you own and operate gear, this needs to be treated in a particular way.

You’re self-employed, so you need to figure out your cost of living, your personal expenses. But you also need to factor into your overall budget the cost of operating your small business. Those costs include cell phone, web hosting, travel, networking meals, gear purchases, expendables… the list goes on. With an idea of your overall expenses and budget, you’ll have an idea of how many days you need to work per month to cover your bases, and to make a profit.

As a business, you need to sell your product. This industry runs on reputation and word of mouth, so referrals are crucial, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to put some of your budget into marketing yourself. Marketing includes (but is not limited to) printing business cards, subscribing to a website hosting plan, and attending conventions and networking meetings.

The idea of maintaining a website may seem dated, but the reality is that a site for your freelance business is still a very helpful tool. You’re not likely to book much (if any) work from people stumbling across your web pages; it’s more about aggregating your information on a website that you can share with potential clients who have already contacted you.

The Day Rate, and How to Bill It

There are, generally, two situations in which you’ll find yourself when it comes to getting paid. Some shows are set up with payroll services, meaning that you’ll be filling out time cards and receiving a W2 from each employer come tax time. For productions that don’t use payroll, you’ll be invoicing the client and receiving a 1099 from each. The biggest difference is that taxes are withheld from payroll, but independent contractors with 1099s are responsible for reporting their own income and paying taxes on that income.

No matter which type of work you take on, you need to understand your day rate, your hourly base rate, your overtime rate, and your gear rate. It’s also important to understand industry rates, and to make sure that you aren’t selling yourself short. Some productions will come at you with the lowest rate they think they can get away with, and you shouldn’t be afraid to actively negotiate to get your rate. It’s also important not to be afraid to walk away from a job if they just aren’t going to pay you what you’re worth.

One frequent mistake I see from beginners is taking flat, “all-in” rates. The flat rate means that you get paid the same for the day whether you work 10 hours or 16 hours. “All-in” means, for those who own and operate their own gear, that gear is included in the flat rate.

A flat rate that doesn’t allow for overtime means the more hours you work in the day, the less you get paid per hour. The proper arrangement is to set a day rate based on a “guaranteed 10”, which means you get paid 10 hours whether you work only 7, or the full 10. Some shows and many films insist on a guaranteed 12. Either way, calculating base rates and overtime rates is a crucial piece of knowledge.

A guaranteed 10 is based on 8 hours of straight time, plus 2 hours of time-and-a-half overtime. A guaranteed 12 is 8 hours of straight time plus 4 hours of 1.5x overtime. These numbers are reverse-engineered from the 10-hour or 12-hour day rate. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say that you’ve set your day rate at $700/10. You need to figure out your hourly base (straight time) rate is.

Because a guaranteed 10 is 8 hours of straight time plus 2 hours of overtime, we can look at the day rate as 700 = 8x + 2(1.5x).

Let’s simplify the overtime. 2(1.5x) = 3x, so 700 = 8x + 3x.

Or, 700 = 11x.

700/11 = 63.636363.
We can round that to 63.64

So, your base rate (straight time) is $63.64/hour. That means your overtime rate $95.45/hour.

But what about the guaranteed 12? Well, that’s 8 hours of straight time plus 4 hours of OT.

700 = 8x + 4(1.5x)
700 = 8x + 6x
700 = 14x
700/14 = 50


Base rate is $50/hour. Overtime rate is $75/hour.

This brings up one issue: if your 10-hour and 12-hour rates are the same, you’re making less per hour on a 12. The solution, then, is to take your 10-hour rate and add the extra OT hours on that rate to come to your 12-hour rate.

So, at $700/10, the hourly base rate is $63.64 and the OT rate is $95.45. Add two more hours of OT, and the 12-hour rate is now $890.90. Importantly, whichever rate you set, hours worked past the guarantee are billed hourly at the OT rate (in some situations, OT past 12 is billed at 2x hourly base rate).

Remember: you’re a small business, and you have to negotiate your rates as you see fit.

The other issue with flat, all-in rates is that gear is included at no additional cost. If you own and operate gear, the gear should be billed separately. Why? Because it’s working, too. You have an investment in that equipment, and it needs to be able to pay for itself. Once it’s paid for itself, it needs to keep earning income that allows for inevitable repairs, replacements, and upgrades. If you aren’t billing for gear, you’re losing money every day you put it to work.

Nothin’ But Net

One more important note about invoices: always set payment terms. An invoice without a payment term is a client with no immediate obligation to pay. The widely-used standard is Net30, or payment received within 30 days of the invoice being sent. There are companies that insist on Net45, or even Net60 or (ugh) Net90. Again, you need to negotiate your terms. Push for Net30 wherever you can. Being self-employed, you need to know when your next check is coming in.

To further solidify payment expectations, and other terms, it’s recommended to get everything together in a Deal Memo (another term for contract). Some productions will provide you their deal memo, which will specify labor and gear rates, and net payment terms. Read these deal memos carefully: production companies have them written to favor the production companies, not the freelancers. If you want to generate your own standard deal memo, and some freelancers do, consult an attorney as this does mean drafting a legal contract.

Get It on the Schedule… C

Finally, as a small business handling invoices, you’ll inevitably face the annual obligation: taxes. This is where it may be time - and is extremely helpful - to hire a professional. Find a good CPA, preferably one who understands how to navigate freelance TV and film production.

Keeping track of expenses and receipts, gear purchases, mileage, invoices, etc., is crucial. Knowing how to put it all together can be intricate. This all boils down to itemizing your taxes on a Schedule C. There are plenty of things that can be deducted as business expenses, including the fee you pay your CPA, but this is where my advice stops at “hire a pro”.

It’s Feast or Famine

Last, one must keep in mind that the world of freelance is fickle and inconsistent. There are times when work seems to be spilling out on the floor, and times where it feels like the next job isn’t ever going to happen. Getting into freelance work without understanding this can lead to a lot of anxiety and disappointment. Acknowledge the instability.

Just as important, this is a business of referrals and reputation. Every job, no matter how big or small, is an interview for the next. Even jumping on a team for a local film festival could mean meeting someone who works professionally outside of those projects, and that could be the person who keeps you in mind for paid projects down the road. Your ability to work well on set with others, and to deliver results in doing your job, will get your name passed on to other productions.
 
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This is really great information and overall I agree with pretty much all of it.

The one caveat I may add is that working for a day rate can sometimes be a path to making less money than you may otherwise be capable of billing for. Now, this does depend on your skillset and the overall ask, but I never give a day rate when someone reaches out to me for work.

I ask for the details of the project, the creative brief, list of deliverables, etc. and then I send back an estimate to complete the project, so I provide a project fee. My project fee will most likely differ for each and every job that comes in.

But, I also do pre and post-production, source additional vendors/crew, etc. So I'm functioning often as a production company vs. just a day player.

I also have friends and colleagues who simply want to come in for a day, make a rate, and move on to the next job. So I'd say it's important to just know what type of jobs you want.

But, again, great post and topic.
 
But, I also do pre and post-production, source additional vendors/crew, etc. So I'm functioning often as a production company vs. just a day player.

Yes. If you’re functioning as a production company, you have a very different method of bidding a project. And of course, you have to incorporate many more cost factors in quoting a production to a client as you’re hiring other crew, providing gear, billing for machine time in post, etc.

This thread is aimed at those (like me) who work a freelance crew position from show to show.
 
I don't think I'm reputable enough to charge people yet.

Let me address this for a wider audience: once you start working for free, you’ll have a hell of a time trying to convince people to pay you.

If you are offering a professional service, you should be charging a professional price. The best foot in the door in the industry is working as a Production Assistant (PA), especially if you aren’t yet at a technical proficiency in whichever department you think you’ll eventually want to work. The PA is an entry-level position, but is paid, and rightfully so.

There’s the old lament of “you have to have credit to get credit”. So how do you get your first credits? Well, this is where local filmmaking groups can come in. There are local and regional film festivals that host things like 48-hour, 56-hour, and 5- or 7-day shootouts, and these crews are typically all-volunteer. That’s where you can dip your toes in the water as a PA before seeking a paid position. There may also be other local groups that make short films throughout the year, just for fun. Get connected.

And if you’re wanting to get started as a PA, this book should be required reading. The author is a friend of mine, a very talented AD I’ve worked with on a few projects, and she has put together an indispensable guide for the newbie Production Assistant:

How to Survive on Set: The Set Production Assistant's Guide Book
 
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A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Just as important as understanding how to calculate and bill rates, is how to set your day rate. In the world of union production, rates are largely set and that information is readily available through the local. The major exception, for some crew positions, is in the low-budget agreement rate chart, a special designation for crew rates on smaller films. This agreement is set up in tiers (budget brackets), and the bottom tiers - Tier 0 and Tier 1 - list several position rates as "STN", or "Subject to Negotiation". Rates on low-tier films can end up being close to minimum wage.

In the non-union world, though, rates can be a bit more fluid for better or for worse. In this case, you have to negotiate for the best rate you can get. One of the best things you can do is to familiarize yourself with typical market rates for your crew position. This information isn't hard to find, especially if you know other crew members in the same department. Know the rate, and negotiate to get that rate for yourself.

Once you have a sense of the common rates, keep in mind that it's a market value. Coming in low just to get the job means you're hurting yourself, and others. You leave money on the table, and you won't make many friends in the process. A rising tide lifts all boats, after all. Getting to know other crew in your market, and working with them, also expands your network and can lead to more referrals. You’re not likely to get a referral from someone who knows you’ll charge half what they would.
 
I don't think I'm reputable enough to charge people yet.
When I started my company, I did a few spec spots to show the kind of work I wanted to do. Then I took those spots and showed them to a guy I know that runs a local small business. I told him I wanted to do a video for his company. If he liked it, he could purchase the end product for a 75% discount. If he didn't like it, no worries, but I still could use it as a demo to get more work. He did like it, so I was off and running. I joined the local chamber (which my friend was also a part of), then could say to other businesses that I did a video for The Good Stuff Botanicals and then kept building from there.

If you're wanting to make certain kinds of videos, just go make them even if nobody has hired you to do so. My first spec was a whiskey commercial for Old Crow. It cost me $12 for a bottle and $5 for some apple juice so I didn't waste whiskey doing the pours. I setup a small white set in my kitchen and shot it in two hours. The end result, combined with the discounted video for The Good Stuff, was good enough to land an actual paid gig for Whistling Andy's (a local distillery).
 
I wish the UK film and TV rates were that high - and even worse, the TV folks too huge numbers of theatre people into film/TV after people swapped industries during covid. Lighting and Sound for theatre and events struggle with £200 a day, because they can do the same things and work less hours in TV/Film Net result a real skills shortage. The rates you seem to be able to command in the US perhaps explain why so many US movies are made in the UK.
 
I wish the UK film and TV rates were that high - and even worse, the TV folks too huge numbers of theatre people into film/TV after people swapped industries during covid. Lighting and Sound for theatre and events struggle with £200 a day, because they can do the same things and work less hours in TV/Film Net result a real skills shortage. The rates you seem to be able to command in the US perhaps explain why so many US movies are made in the UK.

Rates are a tricky thing. There’s always talk of raising rates each year (for non-union) to keep up with inflation. There are sound mixers, for example, asking for some pretty great rates right now, and getting them. For a lot of non-reality, non-broadcast, and both commercial and non-commercial, those rates aren’t questioned as often.

Reality TV is a different beast, and so many of those shows are trying to pay freelancers low rates that are at least 15 years old. And in places like LA, where the market is incredibly saturated, there’s a definite race to the bottom as so many of those freelancers will take whatever low rate they can get their hands on.

Union productions are a completely different world, as full-budget productions have set rates from the union, and low-budget productions have the Low Budget Agreement with tiers and, as I mentioned above, can pay incredibly low rates.

The $700 I used in my original post wasn’t a specific, real-world rate. Depending on the crew position, it can be lower or higher than that.

And yes, Hollywood productions are moving overseas for lower costs of production.
 
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