I want to direct a music video...

HAHA, oh boy, here we go again. I paid my Key Grip on the last music video $275, I'm not an unfair producer at all. If someone can name another indie music video where any grip got $275 I'd love to hear it ;) Nobody in the grip / electric department on my last shoot came home with less than $200 I don't believe. It actually wasn't budgeted that way, to be fair, I think $150 was the pay for many of those positions but since one grip didn't make it, my UPM mentioned to me that the grips had asked if they could split his pay among themselves because they were doing more work. Since I had it in the budget anyway, I said sure, why not?

I am a guy who pays professionals to do their jobs, and I'm very fair about it. I am sorry I don't pay everyone $1 million a day, but when I start making $10 million a day maybe we can talk ;) On Craigslist I always see people trying to take advantage of professionals and offer ridiculously low pay, but I've paid everyone from the start of my career. On my first short I still paid the actors, while in film school, even though it was an exercise not a thesis film, not even a midterm film!! It was only $100 each actor for a day and a half of work, but they were not by any means really accomplished professionals, and they were thankful for getting something, plus we took them out to nice restaurants for lunch and dinner, haha. I'm very cool about stuff like that and now that I do pro level work, I know I have to pay the money to get the talent.
 
HAHA I get what you're saying Jonathan. There just isn't enough in the budgets of most music videos to pay people properly.
What I disagree with is this part.

JonathanLB said:
It's all based on union pay scales and people being obscenely overpaid.
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People have to earn livings. Film crews don't work 5 days a week all year long. They need to be compensated somehow.
 
I agree with that, but the problem is there usually isn't the budget in most work I see around to pay people enough that they can even make a full living doing just one thing. You have to be very fortunate to be in that position. I mean for me, I can rent out equipment, I can find clients and produce and direct the projects, etc. Other people can be a grip, a 1st A.C., a 1st A.D., etc., so they can find regular work in different positions.

But it can't really fall on the producer to pay you $800 a day because you can only find four days of work per month. I fail to see how that's the producers problem. That's your problem. It's like when a school teacher complains they only make X amount per year, and they don't work summers, but they want more money. I had a friend, Dwight, who was a school teacher previously, high school history, and he drove trucks in the summer to make an extra $15,000/year, so his total income was very nice when all was said and done, especially for where he lived (Oklahoma). He always said the same thing I feel, which is that school teachers complain about their salary and expect to be paid more even when they only work 9 months of the year, so it's up to them to find gainful employment the other 3 months.

The same goes with people in the film industry, which is why many people work other jobs too.
 
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