Crew Rates?

those Texas day rates look more like a 150k budget weekly rates ...
in LA you can find a experienced crew at 100-150 day any position ..anybody that doesn't like the rates there will be 30 other persons to choose from for that one position ...
from my experience i find LA crews very experienced in all pay rates ...
however i have shot in dallas area and find you have to pay top $$ rates to get a experienced crew ( more then the rates listed in texas rates post) ....
 
Must mean the competition is that much more fierce in LA, in that there are SO many experienced compared to the work at hand vs. Dallas.

Khmuse, thanks for the added information, but my concern still seems valid at this point. According to the contracts, if I bring in cast at the lower contract, but then have a distributor wanting to pick it up, then the cast would have to be paid the difference of what they WOULD have gotten in the larger contracts, which could mean a fairly high group pay check (so to speak) that the distributor would have to shell out (or myself) to SAG before they could distribute the film. The more the distributor has to put up front to obtain the rights, increases their financial risk on the film, and therefore could make it less attractive to pick up, if there's this price tag due that's hanging over it.

Since I can throw all the headache of contracts, reporting, etc. onto a co-producer, those 'hoops' don't worry me as much compared to the potential of making the film less attractive to postential distributors because of money that would be due.

Thoughts?
 
donatello said:
In LA you can find a experienced crew at 100-150 day any position . . .
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I don't know ONE "experienced" person in L.A. that I can hire for $100-150/day. Who are these people? You know experienced gaffers, electricians, grips that know what they're doing for only $100/day? I have to pay my electricians $400-$550/day. I want NAMES!
 
donatello said:
however i have shot in dallas area and find you have to pay top $$ rates to get a experienced crew ( more then the rates listed in texas rates post) ....
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Yes... even as the film industry is BOOMING down here right now (largely because of Mark Cuban), it's still dominated by a fairly small group of industry experienced poeple. Let me just put it this way, if you work in the industry down here, you work with people you've worked with before, no matter what the project is. It's a tight knit group.

Sorry, gotten off topic a bit.
 
Rezfactor, love the banner ... VERY pro.

Maybe this is a pathetic comparison, but it sounds like what we've ran into with babysitting. We pay $6/hour for our three kids, ages 10, 8, and 5. The oldest is really self sufficient, and the 8 year old is pretty well off also. So we're mostly paying the girl to hang out & play for a couple hours, and then once the kids are in bed she gets to watch movies on the 61 inch HDTV, talk on the phone, eat our food, etc. Compared to minimum wage at McDonalds with people screaming at you for the order being wrong, and the fact it's tax free, I think she's getting a great deal.

But then others we know pay even less for their sitters, and yet other we know can't imagine how we get away with paying 'so little', as they pay $10/hour for someone to watch just their ONE child. But they also feel that once they've gotten used to paying that person X amount of dollars, they can't fathom asking them to work for less ... and odds are they're right ... it would be an uncomfortable situation at best.

But it's proven that there are others out there just as capable & have just as much of a desire to babysit, that'll work for far less & sometimes even do more (clean the house, do dishes, etc.).

Not comparing babysitting to working on a film (though I guess it depends on the cast/crew you have to work with, lol), but this thread sure seems to prove it's relative to the area, the market demands, and how creative you can get in looking around, working deals, etc .... oh, and the story. Above all the project/story.
 
Actually I have seen this phenomenon too. I get calls from everywhere in the country; from NYC to Geen Bay, WI. Los Angeles is the only place I get calls from people trying to hire me for 1/3 of the going rate or even less. Talking with other people in other cities, they have all experienced this LA budget dip too.

The theory is that in LA there is such a huge supply of crew, non-union production companies can hire some pretty experienced crew members, desperate for work, for super cheap. Meanwhile, the crew at the very tippy top pull down the huge dollars that everyone else is moving to LA in hopes of getting. Basically it's either feast or famine with very little "middle class" budgets.

I think some LA producers expect similar experiences in other cities where we generally have a much more balanced market.

Cheers
 
Hey wabbit, what's your focus ... I'm guessing sound by the avatar? Production, post, both? You're only a couple+ hours from me, so just curious ... then again, you know the stinkin' low budget we're on. :)
 
Rezfactor said:
I don't know ONE "experienced" person in L.A. that I can hire for $100-150/day. Who are these people?
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But have you tried offering $100-$150 per day? You might be amazed at how many really experienced people will show up. I think LA actors and crews just plain want to work. :thumbup:
 
rcbrown23 said:
Ummm... $100-$150 a day for lead actors?? I think not. Unless you have a story that's out of this world, I don't think you'll find any real talent for that.
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I beg to differ... you'll get tons of talent to come out... its called getting your work out there...
 
Well with all of this back and forth of no you can't, yes you can- it seems that the following statements hold true for all of it-

1. You can pay for what you agree on / bargan for.
2. You get what you pay for.

I know that we have had the opportunity to work with some great crew who typically get paid $400+ / day for their services, for just copy / credit (and deferred if it ever shows up.). So can you get it on the cheap? Sure. How likely are you- seems to be up for debate. I'd be nice if things were more clear, but then again we are not paying for item X which is easily definable, we are paying for someones knowledge and expertise.
 
Envision said:
Hey wabbit, what's your focus ... I'm guessing sound by the avatar? Production, post, both? You're only a couple+ hours from me, so just curious ... then again, you know the stinkin' low budget we're on. :)
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I am completely booked until the end of the year (pending some clients falling through) but if you want to PM me I can definately point you in some directions that you might find useful.

Then again with Portland right across the river you have a whole community right in your backyard that I don't know at all. Well actually I do know a couple of guys but not well.

Love to talk to you either way. :)
 
Envision said:
Must mean the competition is that much more fierce in LA, in that there are SO many experienced compared to the work at hand vs. Dallas.

Khmuse, thanks for the added information, but my concern still seems valid at this point. According to the contracts, if I bring in cast at the lower contract, but then have a distributor wanting to pick it up, then the cast would have to be paid the difference of what they WOULD have gotten in the larger contracts, which could mean a fairly high group pay check (so to speak) that the distributor would have to shell out (or myself) to SAG before they could distribute the film. The more the distributor has to put up front to obtain the rights, increases their financial risk on the film, and therefore could make it less attractive to pick up, if there's this price tag due that's hanging over it.

Since I can throw all the headache of contracts, reporting, etc. onto a co-producer, those 'hoops' don't worry me as much compared to the potential of making the film less attractive to postential distributors because of money that would be due.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Hey Norm,

I have some very specific points that you should consider but as these are unique to your project and not of general interest, I have sent you a PM with some of the details. I don't feel comfortable discussing these in an open forum as some of this would fall into the category of privileged information.
 
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