Found an Interesting thread on Camera forum re: Sound pay

[pverrando]

Stumbled across this discussion from a year ago. Camera ops talk amongst themselves about paying sound operators.

http://www.b-roll.net/forum/showthread.php?t=26668

[Toy Robot]

Wow, that's a really great thread on another forum that proves we are not the only professionals in this industry who have heated rate discussions. When they toss out some numbers about their pay rates it makes me want to go buy a camera! (kidding)

I'll say that there were some obvious professionals posting on that forum who understand and value our profession, and to them my hat is off. The rest will learn the hard way, and one poster on that thread did an excellent job of setting the record straight as to why rate-cutting is a terrible idea.

Great find.

[RPSharman]

Interesting.

I guess what the lowballer seems to ignore is that any sound person worth anything has his/her own gear. By offering $250 without gear, the sound person must choose to leave gear at home and reduce his/her income.

I don't own camera gear and offer to rent it to production at the expense of a fellow crew person. I don't think camera people should do that either.

Robert

[Toy Robot]

...

I don't own camera gear and offer to rent it to production at the expense of a fellow crew person. I don't think camera people should do that either.

Robert

I knew there was a point I forgot to make. Agree with you completely. How would they like if if they received a job and were paid only labor, and then found out I was renting the camera and light package to production?

I don't like the idea of it, but I think the best way to fight it is simply never do labor-only jobs, or just take them, but at a labor rate that is high enough to warrant taking the job.

[Robert Li]

how about the fact that you know your own gear intimately and you can use it to the best of its ability with peak efficiency instead of doing the "errrr let me check the manual on that" move.

I just read the entire thread... that svp guy just made me angry, it was like an argument with any fundamentalist, the more your challenge their ideas the more they cling to them /facepalm.

[Philip Perkins]

Don't read threads like this, they will just piss you off and you can't really change their attitude. For several years I resisted calls by "Alpha Male" cameramen who owned all the gear used on their jobs and wanted me to be their labor-only tech "valet", basically. With some of them I explained the situation, with others it didn't seem worth it. The real truth is that the choice we face is to either A: work labor-only, and work whatever comes along, as many days as possible (in my town, guys who work "out of the hall" an all sorts of event jobs), or B: do what most soundies on JW do, which is set themselves up as small rental businesses and only work with their own package. It's tough to afford the gear if you try to do both sorts of jobs, so MANY years ago I quit doing labor-only work, and intend to follow the "small-rental-biz" model as long as they let me. In truth, it's better for the work being done, at some cost to the "Alpha" cam dudes.

phil p

[benr]

^^^^^^^ Agreed.

[AudioNinja]

Ha. I always own the camera du jour (currently a 7D) w/lenses sticks/cards/you name it. I always ask, what are you shooting on? Then if try say 7D, I offer my whole camera package for a couple hundred a day. They can't resist a B camera. I have made so much money with this method it's crazy. Started with the Hvx 200, now the 7d, next up a black magic cinema camera or a Sony f3. I love the look on the camera dept. face when I stop by with their camera.