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The Tale of "Raising Production Costs"


Stephen Sanchez

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I had a recent discussion with a seasoned DP in my area (40 yrs experience I think). We were on a discussion about commercial price brackets (30k jobs, 200k jobs etc.) and staying within budget.

Previously, we both got to visit another commercial set that was two 12ft walls, 15 skypannels for backlights and key, 2 alexa minis, wireless FF each, really heavy O'Connor tripods. This was for a stationary talent. The crew was something like 20 people total. I want to say there were two operators for those static cameras, I can't remember.

About staying on budget. I said it was quite a lot of gack for the situation, and I've done similar with much cheaper lighting and fewer personnel. And his response was...

He's seen on bigger jobs like that where the DP and Director would deliberately inflate the costs to bump the commercial into a higher price bracket. Because the DP and Director got a percentage of the spot's total budget.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Perhaps it was a story of old, I forgot to ask. But I am still curious!

Thanks friends!

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Dunno, it is beyond my pay grade as 'they' say.

But, on a much lower level of working in demolition and construction decades ago, there was a lot of 'extras' involved in jobs when you could charge for material. Contractors would overspend and would keep the extras as a bonus of sorts after the job was done. They could charge for the same material on the next job, bill for it. They would buy the same material and use the receipts to get paid, then get refunds and use some of the leftover from the previous jobs.

It may not be exactly related you your example. But in this day and age, people are getting more and more desperate when it comes to $$. The amount of spam I get has skyrocketed with scams. It is human nature to try and grab all the gusto you can. And sometimes it is not exactly honest. 

In your case, you may be able to build on your honesty and get a reputation of being able to produce good quality work within a moderate budget.

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Yes, it's very common in the commercial industry to "skim" money by renting friends equipment for a higher dollar value for instance. I've played that game, where I've been "subrented" and the DP made a few grand off the deal. I have personally seen budgets get inflated just because the director or producer wanted it to "seem" like a bigger production to the cast, so in the future they'd want to work with them again. Heck, we do mostly film and I've seen DP's add three or four rolls to the budget, just because they wanted them after for their own projects. I was involved in a commercial not long ago where it was a Friday shoot and cameras needed to be back on monday, but the DP kept the cameras to shoot his own film without insurance of any kind, for free of course. This stuff is all very typical and I agree, I have never been on a commercial shoot without this stuff happening. If you're just sitting around picking your nose, you won't see it. But when you're friends with the producers and other crew, it's very evident that it's happening. The finished product is always amazing, but everyone is playing the game. 

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There is (and I think its a bit old school) idea of the commercial director taking 10% of the budget. Now I think its usually a flat rate. and I've never head of a Director inflating the budget to get a higher cut. Generally commercial budgets are roughly set  upfront by the advertising agency or client and the only time you push the budget up is if they are making asks that can't be facilitated with the money they have.  It's hard to convince a client that you need more money unless you have a valid reason.

sometimes you have a a client with a budget way to big for the job they need and people go ahead and spend it. Usually I see that with like sorta corporate-ish jobs. You'll have a Mini LF w/ everything and wireless FIZ for a talking head for some internal video no one will ever see. but people do it. That all said if the client comes to set and sees only 5 people and a 1ton lighting package that might wonder why they had to spend a 100k to do it...so of course you spend it.

Dp's rates are generally per day even the most high end folks will get day rates. for those w/ agents its usually around 3-5k or more if they are "famous".

 

 

Edited by Albion Hockney
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