Some reviews of my recent movie

[Matthew Buick]

GO GO DAVID M!!!

 

You truly are an inspirational cinematographer, not just because of your fantastic skill, but your dedication to all of us, and for putting up with me, I bet I'm the star of every ASC member's darkest nightmares, such an honour. :D

 

You blew my mother and brother away, literally. <_<

 

If you don't mind my asking (if this is in anyway too intrusive please don't hesitate NOT to answer) how much was the total sum you earned for this film? (I'm trying to evalute ASC cameraman wages).

 

Good luck. B)

[David Mullen ASC]

I was paid close to minimum scale wages for a union DP on a feature, same as on "Akeelah and the Bee", even though this movie had more than twice the budget, mainly because I wasn't going to make a push for a higher rate on a Polish Brothers movie. In order to really push up your rate over what's offered, you have to be willing to walk away from the deal if they won't budge (or at least, they have to believe it's a possibility) -- in this case, I was going to do that movie no matter what so I basically took whatever Warner Bros. offered me.

 

Scale minimum for a feature DP is roughly in the $4000/week range although that doesn't include overtime, which can push it towards $5000 or $6000/week sometimes. I was on that project for about 11 weeks total including prep.

 

Better than "Northfork" where I earned $1000/week flat (no overtime) for about 7 weeks total...

 

I'm probably running a risk talking about my wages in public -- studios tend to offer you whatever they find out you were paid on the last show, so it's hard to push your rate up unless they really want you specifically.

 

You also have to factor that many DP's like me don't work for half the year. I may shoot one feature in the spring and another in the fall basically, occupied for 3 months on each.

[K Borowski]

I'm probably running a risk talking about my wages in public -- studios tend to offer you whatever they find out you were paid on the last show, so it's hard to push your rate up unless they really want you specifically.

 

You also have to factor that many DP's like me don't work for half the year. I may shoot one feature in the spring and another in the fall basically, occupied for 3 months on each.

 

Well, one way of dealing with the risk is to use the Mr. Scott conversion factor and always multiply your wage estimates by a factor of four :-)

 

 

[Apollogies for the almost comic wording of my prior post. I didn't get a chance to re-edit it so that it didn't sound like a film student from Pakhistan wrote it before someone else added a comment. My typing gets really scarry on days when I'm tired and the caffeine effect is wearing off!]

[Matthew Buick]

I was paid close to minimum scale wages for a union DP on a feature, same as on "Akeelah and the Bee", even though this movie had more than twice the budget, mainly because I wasn't going to make a push for a higher rate on a Polish Brothers movie. In order to really push up your rate over what's offered, you have to be willing to walk away from the deal if they won't budge (or at least, they have to believe it's a possibility) -- in this case, I was going to do that movie no matter what so I basically took whatever Warner Bros. offered me.

 

Scale minimum for a feature DP is roughly in the $4000/week range although that doesn't include overtime, which can push it towards $5000 or $6000/week sometimes. I was on that project for about 11 weeks total including prep.

 

Better than "Northfork" where I earned $1000/week flat (no overtime) for about 7 weeks total...

 

I'm probably running a risk talking about my wages in public -- studios tend to offer you whatever they find out you were paid on the last show, so it's hard to push your rate up unless they really want you specifically.

 

You also have to factor that many DP's like me don't work for half the year. I may shoot one feature in the spring and another in the fall basically, occupied for 3 months on each.

 

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk about something many find a very personal subject.

 

I think that for your skill you should have had at least twice the pay.

 

I DEMAND YOU DEMAND MORE!!!!! :P