Where Does The Budget Go?

[Landon D. Parks]

Like I mentioned above, 'filmmaker' is a title I would award to someone who stays with a project from inception to distribution - anyone else is simply 'working on a film'. Sure, the director is still important in ANY film, and depending on the film, the director, and the studio he or she might have a large say in directing the film... But a true Filmmaker is one who is involved from the very start and who follows through to the end. Often times, 'filmmaker' do not work in the studio system at all. If they do, they tend to either stay out of Hollywood (Rodriguez) or are so large they can basically fund whatever they want and get it out there (Spielberg).

 

As for name above the title, I say it's perfectly fine. Even more so if you actually created the story in question.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Landon D. Parks

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

Thank you, Macks, for starting this thread! I always wanted to know this, but I hesitated about asking, thinking that this will show how ignorant I am about the film industry. :D

[Tom Yanowitz]

I came across this article recently.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Tom Yanowitz

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

What a coincidence! :D Thank you, Tom.

[Tyler Purcell]

I'd love to be that nearly million dollar editor. I mean really? That's just insane!

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

I was surprised than an editor gets more than the DP. I would’ve thought he/she earns either less or the same. Is it standard for an editor to be paid more?

[Tyler Purcell]

Yea, I mean I know a lot of union editors and nobody gets even close to that. Most are making between 2500 - 5000 a week. It takes around 3 months to cut a feature, so if you do the math, you're looking at less then 100k, which is 1/10th of the rate given in that breakdown.

[David Mullen ASC]

Below the line people are paid hourly, so a lot of the differences are due to time. Editors spend more months on a feature than the cinematographer, and cinematographers work in pre-production unlike operators, etc.

 

Most studios though are strict about paying crews (including editors and cinematographers) barely over minimum guild requirements except for the top tier stuff.

 

For example, a cinematographer working for seven months on a TV series, which is probably similar to the time spent on a big studio movie, isn't going to end up with $900,000 at the end, more like $180,000 though a few make more.

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

Before I say anything else, how exactly is time measured? Who holds the “stopwatch”? Does the hourly rate mean every hour begun or is it possible to be paid for, say, 7.88 hours?

[Brian Drysdale]

Usually crew are booked on a set number of hours per day and assuming there is overtime, that comes on top each hour isn't unusual, although if factoring less an hour, every 1/4 hour tends to works . Who holds the stopwatch can vary, depending on the nature of the production, if there's travel involved I hold the stopwatch from leaving base to return to base.

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

Goodness me, this is one of those things where you realize what you’ve just asked only when someone replies. I have no idea how I forgot that there’s a schedule here and pretty much the same things as working hours elsewhere. So it’s not difficult to determine how much you need to pay someone. :)

[David Mullen ASC]

We all fill-in time sheets and turn them in at the end of the week. The AD department and script supervisor also keep track of when shooting actually starts and ends though many crew people have to work after wrap is called, if only to put away equipment. But times submitted on time sheets are cross-referenced with the production times in order to keep track of the budget. For example, a crew person can't just show up and start working before their call time and then charge production for the extra time, even if they feel they needed to come in early -- overages like that have to be pre-approved or else a budget would just go out the window.

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

How about this? It's from an article from 2014. Perhaps it was already posted here somewhere.

 

CINEMATOGRAPHER

 

$5K-$30K A WEEK

 

Top directors of photography, of which there are probably about 10 to 15 in the industry, can command $25,000 to $30,000 a week on movies that shoot up to 12 weeks — maybe even a little more, according to insiders. That select circle of top cinematographers would include 11-time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins, Gravity Academy Award winner Emmanuel Lubezki and Martin Scorsese's frequent collaborator Robert Richardson. On a big-budget studio movie — say, $80 million or more — an experienced cinematographer can expect to earn $10,000 to $20,000 a week. On a low-budget indie fare, DPs often take home $2,000 to $5,000 a week. On TV productions, the range is $5,000 to $8,000 a week.

 

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-salaries-revealed-movie-stars-737321

Edited September 2, 2016 by Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos