Video Playback Engineer / VTR - Crew Rates?

Chadfish

Chadfish

Veteran
I have the opportunity to work on an Indi film as a Video Playback Engineer, which is basically running a Sound Devices PIX240 recorder for 12 hrs a day for 5 weeks. It's indi, but there's at least a high caliber actress in it. They are offering 250.00 a day saying that that is the union rate (I'm not union). it seems low. I haven't done that position before, but can learn it in a day. Has anyone done this job before? Does the rate seem fair? It feels low, but though it would be long days I would have a decent chunk at the end of it.
 
The question being... Do you have anything else paying for those days.


That said, just based on the length of the day it seems low, seems you should be into overtime after about 10 hours, but I might be wrong. If you have nothing else paying you for the time period, might be worth the money if you have other gigs that will cause you to receive a 1099 for taxes. If this will be your only thing, then the tax hassle may not be worth bothering.
 
That's the thing, I don't really have anything except for filming a rodeo for 3 days, and they said I could probably be covered for that time. Everything I do is 1099 anyway. 7,500.00 ain't bad compared to nothing for 5 weeks. Long days, but just sitting around. I'm going to see if they can do 300.00 a day. I'm just not sure if that's a fair price, and asking for more would be uncool.
 
They're saying 250 for 12 is the union rate? That's simply false. For majors and TV here it's about the same as the sound recordist pay scale which works out to something like 450 for an 8 hour day. The tier 1 rate is about half that, so for a 12 hour day it would still work out to around 400. If they're treating you as a contractor and not an employee (totally illegal by the way, if you're on set you're positively an employee) , thereby giving you a 1099, I would certainly ask for more than 250 for 12.
 
Chadfish said:
I have the opportunity to work on an Indi film as a Video Playback Engineer, which is basically running a Sound Devices PIX240 recorder for 12 hrs a day for 5 weeks. It's indi, but there's at least a high caliber actress in it. They are offering 250.00 a day saying that that is the union rate (I'm not union). it seems low. I haven't done that position before, but can learn it in a day. Has anyone done this job before? Does the rate seem fair? It feels low, but though it would be long days I would have a decent chunk at the end of it.
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maybe tier 0?

Tier 0 is insulting and the union should be ashamed to have it. It's basically for people desperate to hit the healthcare days. I'm so pissed about tier 0, what a joke.
 
Maybe they just weren't clear on the details. They said "250.00 a day" and that they were doing 12 hr days. Maybe they are assuming I know that means a day is 8 hrs and that the other 4 hrs is time and a half. That would be 375.00 a day for 12 hrs. I can live with that. I just haven't had the next conversation with them, as today is the 4th of July and probably wont get hold of them.
 
Chadfish said:
Maybe they just weren't clear on the details. They said "250.00 a day" and that they were doing 12 hr days. Maybe they are assuming I know that means a day is 8 hrs and that the other 4 hrs is time and a half. That would be 375.00 a day for 12 hrs. I can live with that. I just haven't had the next conversation with them, as today is the 4th of July and probably wont get hold of them.
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You defenitly want to get that cleared up, up front. Don't assume. Although I don't shoot them, I know that a lot of reality shows are 12 hour days(before OT).
 
I just shot them an email to clarify. I hate not knowing. I don't even know if I have the job! They did say that I had more experience (I do my own video production business producing TV ads and event videography) than any other of the locals, even though I've never run VTR, so I think I got it.
 
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It turns out the 250.00 is for a 12 hour day. Per IA scale 24.04/hr. OT starts at 12 hours. Not great, but a good experience.
 
So a 60 hour week is normal?

And still, if you have no other work during that time period, not much to lose (hopefully).

Do they have all cables, DA's, monitors and stuff you are supposed to connect, or do you need to bring your own?
 
72 hr work week! All I do is show up and hit record. But It's a PIX 240, so I may just be able to sync it to the camera and watch it record when the camera op hits record. It's a lot of time on set for sure, but I only have one small gig during that time that they say I may be able to bug out and go do. I'm used to 100/an hour for my own video production, and 1,000/day for my aerial video gigs, but this is happening right near my house. I had hoped for more, but I'll get 7 grand in 5 weeks, so that's more than I would have gotten all summer. It's been slow!
 
The last two sentences sum it up, I just hope better paying stuff doesn't come up that you may have to turn down.
 
Me too! It's good to get in the mix with real crews. There is value there. I'm a one man band in my small town, so it's good to see how it's really done, make some friends, let everyone know that I do aerial video.
 
I don't know what the expectations are, but playback is rarely as simple as hitting record (and sometimes, play). Generally it involves specific hardware that allows the operator to instantly jump to marked start points, quickly make loops as requested, simulate over and undercranking on playback, sometimes scroll frame by frame etc. It's not rocket science, but it would be a little tough to do properly on a PIX240, in my mind. Again it all depends on the expectations of the people you are working for. If they are used to typical playback operation, they may have high demands. When a director calls out "jump to the second half of the scene, after such-and-such leaves the frame" they want to see that immediately, and if you don't have the ability to jump around nimbly in a file, you may find some people irritated at you. It can actually be a notably stressful job. I've seen plenty of directors frustrated by the playback operator if they aren't fully on it. Just a word of warning!
 
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I have done it in the past with a computer system with talk back and audio routing, and as Charles points out it can be a stressful and thankless job. Every setup change you will be wrangling at a bare minimum the directors monitor and cables.
 
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