Rates Of Pay

That's useful to know. Would that apply to a second unit guy running around with a PD170, A1 etc.?

2nd unit camera is still a camera man and thus still makes $52 an hour. This is the minimum for IATSE union production. DP rates will usually be higher for experienced guys.

I see the BBC are showing programmes about the seas around the UK next week..There is one presented by the beautiful Kate Humble containing clips sent in (for free) by UK divers. I expect this is the same programme I was asked to contribute to for free and a name check...

So it begins... Better check out the competition !!!

Dive safe

DeanB

Kate Humble? Wasn't she on Top Gear with Clarkson?

Nah.. You mean the other posh bird.. Shes on the tip of my tongue got a double barreled name... Balls, cannot remember.

I know who you mean though.

Sod it I will not be able to sleep now <_<

Dive safe

DeanB

VICKY BUTLER-HENDERSON...

Yeah..

Nice but not quite Kate's league...

Dive safe

DeanB

Yes Kate was on Top Gear for a few episodes during the migration to Fifth Gear.

Are you sure you're english?

I see the BBC are showing programmes about the seas around the UK next week..There is one presented by the beautiful Kate Humble containing clips sent in (for free) by UK divers. I expect this is the same programme I was asked to contribute to for free and a name check...

 

So it begins... Better check out the competition !!!

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats great, so now the stations don't even have to spend money to go out and buy-shoot the stuff, just expect everyone to send it in for FREE Well they will not get any my material for the show if they find me.

I once went out with a Jap crew and at the end of the day not only did they expect to not pay me, (yes we did agree to a price at the start) but wanted some of my stock for free as well Anyhow I got some Jolly notes out of them in the end...O we are going to promote your area...ye right...just cheeky...

Yep it is getting harder as every man and his dog has a video camera and underwater box. Good thing it's not my only job.....

You all know that Kate is married to TV producer Ludo Graham don't you???

I'm such a wet blanket

English with some Scottish blood from my mothers side..

Just cannot remember Kate on top gear..

Oh crap, she's married

Dive safe

DeanB

In France, the union minimum rates are as follows:

DOP : 452 €/day

Cameraman : 285 €/day

First camera assistant : 220 €/day

This is of course for topside film and nett.

PS Dean, Vicky is an ok driver, but Sabine Schmitz is the babe of the Ring. That woman can drive circles round 99.9999% of anyone around the ring.

Well, in Denmark, you need to be certified as a commercial diver if someone wants to hire you for a job, to go filming underwater.

However, you can still sell stock footage.

That means a diveteam of minimum 2 persons, diver and tender with comms and umbillical to the surface, or diver and saftetydiver.

That is not making anything cheaper

I think that it is extremely difficult to make a living only by doing underwater filming. You will need to find something besides that, to fill in between.

Hi all,

Just had my man from the BBC visit to cast a beady eye over my footage.

He liked it.. Also said they have been using the A1 for some other applications. Probably for paper weights so I'm staying in touch. Got to get some more pieces to my film jigsaw together and then we will go from there.

Looks good so far.

Sorry.. Did not mention prices...

Dive safe

DeanB

Hans,

Same in the UK. You have to be 'HSE media diver' qualified to get day work.

4 weeks off work and around £2000 for the privilage of owning a certificate.

Drew, 'Babe of the ring' eh.. wasn't that a remake of Lord of the rings

Dive safe

Dean (dirty boy)B

Hi,

I posted this thread a while back as I was looking into getting serious work. Well I was approached by a very large media company in the states.

From reading the replys I gave them a quote. My set up is HDV but they wanted DV, so I couldnt justify charging HDV rates and just set my camera for DV.

I charged $650 for wet days and $240 (40%) for dry and now have $4.5 grand in the bank for just 11 days work (only 4 diving the rest travel).

I considered charging extra for overnight stays but decided to counter by not discounting myself with a bulk rate charge, ie. a weekly rate being cheaper than 5 seperate working days. This was not raised by the compnay so I may look into this further for future jobs.

The producers where very happy with my work and considered my quote "very reasonable". This made me think that I could have charged more. I also spoke to their top side videographer who gave me tips and clues as to how to price in future.

He advised hiring out my equipment at a set price regardless of wet or dry days after all if its in transit you cannot earn money from your gear any other way, and my work seperately depending on wether Im sitting at an airport or diving. This also allows you to charge a little more and be able to work out which pieces of equipment are earning money for you and which are not. It also helps with tax purposes as you can itemise business expenses.

Apparently, a lot of companies use a set industry union standard for pay, which Im looking into and will post here. It does depends on location though.

Thankyou to everyone who has contributed to this topic, hopefully we can all take something from it and try and maintain a decent standard of pay for our work.

Fat Fish.

Long time ago somthing posted here!

The bigest Zoo in my country contacted me!

They are opening a new aquarium and they will project underwaterfootage on the seeling between the aquariums!

They are going to use 3 beamers! (standard definition)

After a talk with the parkmanager we came to the conclusion that it is a good idee to make 3 movie's from about 4 min each "small" "medium" and "big" so i made a verry nice selection in my stock and asked him to do me a offer to use the footage!

They are offering me 3 times 500 euro + a free entrance for my whole family for a year :-)

offcourse i am not selling the footage they are just paying for the rights to use it!

What do you guys think about it?

Wow this is an old thread!

Brumpy

Seeing how broadcast clips are at least $1500 a minute (even at today's exchange rate,the € is not that high... YET). If it's not that rare stuff, obviously it's less. However, this is for public display, and for thousands of visitors a month. So I'd ask them to do a final count of how many minutes they want then make a counter offer. I mean seriously, how often do you go to the zoo a year for it to be financially viable to accept that deal?

You should know how good your stuff is or not. I wouldn't accept anything less than €5000... especially since you are doing editing as well.

Bruno,

500€ per clip is on the cheap side. I would at least double that and then add another 1000€ for editing. Searching the clips and editing takes you probably 1.5 to 2 days.

Peter

I get sick of being ask for footage and then have them complain it's way too much. They then come back and say well we will send over our own cameraman...yeh well how much is that going to cost.

Ask for more.....

Is the video in each of these 3 versions just the same footage in a different format?

Non-broadcast, single territory, 5 year licence: USD 25 per second

x 60 = USD 1,500 per minute

x 4 minutes = USD 6,000 for the video (EUR 3,893)

Add on your editing charge per hour.

Chuck in the medium and small versions in exchange for the free entry. Or add those versions on at 25% of the large version and take them off if they want to bargain.

Don't forget to re-invoice them after 5 years when the licence expires.