Typical rate for sound mixer and designer?

Mattykins

Mattykins

Cute Member
I've been working in sound design and mixing for a year now. And I am considering actually seeing if I can start working more in it. Typically I design and mix as favors for people - I've never done it for pay.

In the event I move to getting paid for design - what is a typical rate for say a short film. Are we talking hourly or fixed? And how much generally per hour? I know this is a broad question determining on many factors. But say a Maya Generalist generally gets (on average) 50 dollars an hour - what would a sound mixer and designer get?

Just wondering if it is worth it to move into doing this for some income.

Thanks,

-Matt
 
Well that mostly depends on your experience level and the market that you're in. Wages are higher on the East Coast, but over here I typically ask for $25-30 per hour for editorial on low budget projects and most people don't mind that too much. Rates for mixers are a lot more, but if you're not mixing in a properly tuned room with years of experience it's hard to justify to clients to spend the extra money on you. If you're doing this for extra income and don't have access to a professional mixing room, I would just bid based on package deals with your mixing rate about the same as your editorial rate. Figure out what you think clients would be willing to pay for your services per day, and break it down into a 9-10 hour day to figure your hourly rate.

Here is a link to the Editors Guild Minimum Wage Scales. http://editorsguild.com/v2/wages.htm#
If you've only been doing this for a year and you're not in the union, you can't expect people to pay that much for your services, but it's good to know what you can eventually charge.
 
Low budget films are all over the map. Most don't have much of a budget and probably "forgot" to put in any for audio post. Most I have worked on have some amount and that's it. So hourly is a bit well, you don't really want to know. But if your doing it all and it's not your only income stream it can be doable but I don't think your going to make rent just on low budget films. If your working on narrative films figure 10-15 man-hours per screen minute for a full on editorial then add some time for mixing. Unless you have multiple projects all the time you probably won't pay your way. I do ad's and theatre and general recording and restoration. I do big budget films when there is work to be had but it's pretty limited around here. NYC should have more opportunities in the mid range. The union is a good thing to get into if you can but that may be hard unless you get a larger film to work on. Low budget films tend to range from free to around $30K. The high end may sound good but out of that is going to be everything and a mix stage will run you $100 - $500/ hr so ... Ad's pay around $10K for a 30 sec spot (editorial only). With the changing economy who know how that will hold up but it's a lot more profitable (but not nearly as satisfying) than low budget films.
 
Brad,

I was originally going to do sound post on Eyes of a Child. Things got delayed and one thing and another and when they were finally ready I wasn't available. Glad you got some work out of it ;~)

Cheers
SK
 
Noiz2 said:
Brad,

I was originally going to do sound post on Eyes of a Child. Things got delayed and one thing and another and when they were finally ready I wasn't available. Glad you got some work out of it ;~)

Cheers
SK
Click to expand...

Wow that's now two projects in San Francisco where we just missed each other, the other being Caveh's film. I worked on Eyes while at Outpost and Dave was nice enough to get me a credit on the film. It was my first real credit and I have fond memories of that film for introducing me to Foley recording and editing. :beer:
 
Thanks for the replies. I was mostly curious. I do have access to a mix room for most of my mixes. Typically on Protools - depending on the project.
 
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