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Sound Mixers Don't know Math??


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Thought that you guys would get a chuckle from this one..

Looking though MANDY today, and I found this JOB.

So, I thought.. sounds good, I'll reply... This is what I got..

--- start reply ---

You would get a flat rate of $1,050 for the Production Sound Recordist plus $20 a weeks (4 weeks) for gas and $50 to go with your monthly cell phone bill. To do all of the post sound you would get a flat rate of $2,500 plus 3% in profit participation. If that is okay with you and if you are interested would you like to read the screenplay?

All the best,

--- end ---

--- Here's my reply ---

Greetings,

Hollywood uses a "DAILY" production rate in order to figure out crew cost for producing movies.  Nearly every single item like equipment rentals, car or truck rentals, and labor rentals uses this same daily scale. When you say that your production is 4 weeks, I have no idea what that means, plus add in the fact that for a Production Sound Mixer, sometimes there are days that you do not need a sound dialog recordists on the set for that particular day because you are filming a montage perhaps where there is NO dialog. Or what happens if the production runs long? Do we get overtime? You should consider converting your budget to the standard "DAILY" rate to make sure there is LESS confusion.

So.. In order to convert your flat rate into Hollywood Rates I have to use a little bit of math, please correct me in this if I have it incorrect.

4 Weeks equals a total of 28 production days.  $1,050 + $80 (gas) + $50 (misc cell, incidentals) equals a total of $1180.00 for the whole job.  Divide this by 28 days on the production, is $42.14/per day.  Is this correct?

Ok.. Well, I've worked low pay gigs before, not a big deal.  What kind of a budget do you have for the sound rental equipment?  Perhaps we have margin in the rentals then?

Thanks, and let me know.

-Richard

--- end my reply ---

I'm curious as to what kind of reply I'm going to get back?

Wow.. I wounder if someone would take that job?  I hope NOT, but you never know.  And I find it conforting to know that if a sound mixer DID take that job, that thats 4 weeks of wasted time he/she spends on not bidding against me for other LA jobs..  :)

-Richard

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It just keeps getting better..

I've been corresponding with this clown all day.  He's clarified to me that it's $1180.00 for 20 days (not 24).  So it actually works out to be about $59/day.

So, I did a little math using Coffey "Basic Sound Package".

-- reply --

Looking at their BASIC sound package to give a rough estimate here which is $3,600 a week x4 == $14,400. Divide this by 20 days which == $720/per day rental for sound.

Therefore if you take $720/per day and subtract $59/day it == $-661.00 per day they would have to pay toward the production of your film. Of course this doesn't include transportation, batteries, DVD-Rom dailies, gas, or all the other expendables.  It might be closer to -700/per day.

-- end --

So, then he responded that he's actually looking for someone who owns his own equipment..  Hum.. As if the Equipment Fairy dropped my 60K worth of sound gear out of the sky one day!!

Oh well.. I guess he'll figure it out.. or not.

-Richard

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Well.. I'm happy to report that, "I did NOT get the job".  I think they are 'really' looking for a sound mixer that is bad at math.  I did offer that I was available if you need a 'real' sound mixer (for my rate of course).. As I'm curious to know what the heck the guy expects to get for nothing??  This guy honestly thinks that you worked hard for your equipment, now please let me use it all from free!

On a side note.. The only thing here that makes me feel better when I see crap like this..

a) Someone with no experience will take this job, thinking he's "IN" a real sound mixer job in Hollywood, only to get horribly burned when he has to come up with so much money out of his pocket, only to get the next job that expects the same free work.

B) Or the production complete crashes due to the producers thinking that every job on the crew can be had for the price of lunch.

Either way.. bad, bad, bad.

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I responded to this same add & this is what I got...

"Thank you so much for being interested. Now this is for deferred payment and profit participation only. If that's fine with you and if you are still interested would you like to read the screenplay".

Thank you,

BTW, at Mandy's he clearly states that All positions will be for deferred pay, so I really don't know why he offered payment to you in the first place! Odd...

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Here's a good question...

Has anyone here ever gotten "deferred pay"? I did a few gigs this way early in my career... and never saw a penny on any of them. I've never even heard of anyone below the line getting any deferred pay.

As far as his original offer... many USC grad students make thesis films in their final year(s). They pay other students to do sound, because no one will do it for free. They pay each other more than this gig would have paid.

He couldn't even get a student to do his sound for this rate.

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Had somebody contact me for a gig similar to this a few months back. We had several phone and email conversations about pricing. I basically told them they needed to double their rate and maybe they would get a kid fresh out of school. But they would still have to then rent gear.

As far as deferred payments go, I've done it a couple of times as a favor for somebody involved in the production. Never been paid, but what has happened is I'm usually referred to somebody who is doing some commercial work and so maybe I would call this indirect pay.

Wayne

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Here's a good question...

Has anyone here ever gotten "deferred pay"? I did a few gigs this way early in my career... and never saw a penny on any of them. I've never even heard of anyone below the line getting any deferred pay.

As far as his original offer... many USC grad students make thesis films in their final year(s). They pay other students to do sound, because no one will do it for free. They pay each other more than this gig would have paid.

He couldn't even get a student to do his sound for this rate.

Yes, several, and most of them paid out according to contract.  I was selective about who I did this for (ie not someone I'd never heard of) and my colleagues and I vetted the paperwork with an actual attorney.  Anymore, deferred payment is out of fashion--everyone is supposed to do it for the experience, credit, contacts, love of filmmaking, etc. etc..  Those are all good reasons to do the work if you can afford to do it--and you become an investor in their project.  As always, it is important to invest wisely.  This guy's film will get made, somehow.  They'll, finally, find the people who will do the work in some way for whatever reason.  It is unlikely they'll be professionals, but neither will anyone else involved, probably.  Just because the guy can't pay doesn't mean his project isn't worth doing, and how else would he find people who will help him besides Craig's List etc?

Philip Perkins

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I've only received deferred pay once. This was a guy who was doing a shoot for a contest for the video game "Assassins Creed" and he (we?) won the $10,000 first prize. As promised, he paid everyone their promised day rate (It was only a 1 day shoot), in cash, after he got the payment from the contest. Other than that one fluke example, I pretty much subscribe to the opinion that deferred pay = don't hold your breath. It always makes me wonder when these things have some "big name" attached, if they believe in the project so much, then why don't they invest a couple bills of their own to make sure it's done right with a good solid crew for hire instead of letting the noob try to scrounge up whatever he can find?

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