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Ideas for equipment


Alejandro Reyes

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Some time around the September of last year, I was approached by someone on Facebook to work on there feature doing sound. So I asked the potential client what was his budget, he responded $10,000 US. So I had the brilliant idea of charging him the cost of my current audio recorder the Zoom F8 in exchange for my services. Having mentioned money, he immediately went on to saying that this was a shoe string budget and that no one from the crew was getting paid. After respectfully declining, I decided to sell my one and only audio recorder which was the Zoom H4N, and bought my F8 on credit, which I'm still paying to this day. I wanted know if anyone on this platform has ever received equipment as payment from their clients, in exchange for ones services. If so, what would be the best way to go about this method? 

 

Thanks!

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Yeah, almost 10 years ago I did a few day job for someone making a short.  He had  purchased a basic sound gear package for that project even though, or despite that fact that  he was only interested in writing and directing and not sound, or even learning the gear

 

In return I kept the gear at my house for a year and used it to get and do jobs to make money to then buy my own gear.

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, anzel2002 said:

Yeah, almost 10 years ago I did a few day job for someone making a short.  He had  purchased a basic sound gear package for that project even though, or despite that fact that  he was only interested in writing and directing and not sound, or even learning the gear

 

In return I kept the gear at my house for a year and used it to get and do jobs to make money to then buy my own gear.

 

 

 

 

Hey anzel2002,

 

Stories like this are fascinating to me, what kind of gear was it? What did you end up purchasing afterwords?

4 hours ago, VAS said:

I would like to exchange my money services for four new Audio Ltd A10 wireless. Hehe

 

Hey Vas, I remember exactly whose youtube channel I was watching but I remember hearing that corporate jobs can purchase certain items for you if you can accept them as payment. I haven't any luck getting these jobs, but on a good note I'm getting close to paying off my paying my audio recorder. My next step is to buy a new or used wireless system, options are Lectrosonics or Zaxcom.

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3 hours ago, Alejandro Reyes said:

Stories like this are fascinating to me, what kind of gear was it? What did you end up purchasing afterwords?

He had a Rode NTG 3 mic, solid mic, sounds really good, and he had an old tascam, maybe dr100, and  heavy boom pole, etc headphones etc, and I later bought my own Rode NTG 3 and the tascam dr680 and fiber boom pole, headphones etc, and now just got the new Zoom Field recorder, really good recorder/mixer for the price too,

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Matt Price has a great YT channel, and in one of his videos he talks about how his first feature film he took the money up front then used it to buy his first recorder. 

I think that way makes a lot more sense than "working for gear", instead try to get the money up front (which also means you don't need to worry about them not paying you! Which is a problem with some low budget shoots) then reinvest that into your own gear that you need on the shoot. 

 

16 hours ago, anzel2002 said:

In return I kept the gear at my house for a year and used it to get and do jobs to make money to then buy my own gear.


The first director I did sound for on a short film had a 416, so I got to borrow that whenever I liked for a few years, which was a nice upgrade over the NTG2 I owned myself back then. These days I never use it, and have my own Sanken CS3e (thank you Mike! Am loving it). But back then the 416 was handy to help out, so I could focus on acquiring other things first such as say wireless. 

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I’ve heard of productions giving larger sums up front in order to purchase gear for use on the show. 

 

My my biggest advice is be careful about going into debt to purchase gear. You most likely pay more through interest and can put yourself into a tough situation financially. 

 

There are are lots of differing situations though that we adjust to in our profession. 

 

 

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7 hours ago, anzel2002 said:

He had a Rode NTG 3 mic, solid mic, sounds really good, and he had an old tascam, maybe dr100, and  heavy boom pole, etc headphones etc, and I later bought my own Rode NTG 3 and the tascam dr680 and fiber boom pole, headphones etc, and now just got the new Zoom Field recorder, really good recorder/mixer for the price too,

That's a pretty sweet deal!

 

2 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Matt Price has a great YT channel, and in one of his videos he talks about how his first feature film he took the money up front then used it to buy his first recorder. 

I think that way makes a lot more sense than "working for gear", instead try to get the money up front (which also means you don't need to worry about them not paying you! Which is a problem with some low budget shoots) then reinvest that into your own gear that you need on the shoot. 

 


The first director I did sound for on a short film had a 416, so I got to borrow that whenever I liked for a few years, which was a nice upgrade over the NTG2 I owned myself back then. These days I never use it, and have my own Sanken CS3e (thank you Mike! Am loving it). But back then the 416 was handy to help out, so I could focus on acquiring other things first such as say wireless. 

 

I remember that video, funny how it never occurred to me to take this approach. Thanks David I'll keep this in mind!

1 hour ago, ryanpeds said:

I’ve heard of productions giving larger sums up front in order to purchase gear for use on the show. 

 

My my biggest advice is be careful about going into debt to purchase gear. You most likely pay more through interest and can put yourself into a tough situation financially. 

 

There are are lots of differing situations though that we adjust to in our profession. 

 

 

Hey Ryan,

 

This is true when I purchased my Zoom F8 I got through a company called Zzounds, they have a pay as you go plan interest free. Currently as it stands If am to get this next film the weekend of the 2nd-the 4th of February I would have finished paying it off. My hope is to finance a the wireless and some laves so that I can at least start getting better jobs without having to rent or borrow so much gear. Thanks for your advice!

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21 hours ago, Alejandro Reyes said:

My hope is to finance a the wireless and some laves so that I can at least start getting better jobs without having to rent or borrow so much gear. Thanks for your advice!


If you're still building up, on a tight budget and not in a rush, then watch out for local secondhand deals. Also look at equipment from a generation or two ago, as likely if they're pro grade then they're still excellent gear but you can get at quite a discount because they're not "the latest and greatest". 

Also for lav mics, take a look into Oscar SoundTech:
http://www.oscarsoundtech.com/services.html
Reckon they're the way to go if buying new, OST lavs have been discussed quite a bit already on this forum if you do a search.

 

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2 hours ago, IronFilm said:


If you're still building up, on a tight budget and not in a rush, then watch out for local secondhand deals. Also look at equipment from a generation or two ago, as likely if they're pro grade then they're still excellent gear but you can get at quite a discount because they're not "the latest and greatest". 

Also for lav mics, take a look into Oscar SoundTech:
http://www.oscarsoundtech.com/services.html
Reckon they're the way to go if buying new, OST lavs have been discussed quite a bit already on this forum if you do a search.

 

Thnks David I'll look into this one.

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