Film / TV / Media Crew - Technical, employment opportunities and ranting

Any gaffers?

Want to sense check an idea to light a moving pov shot.

Just bought some extra kit this week and realised someone may wish to hire - in which case hit me up.

A non exhaustive list:

Fixtures, mostly aputure:
I've got 2 x 1200D, 2x 600, 2x 300D, 4 x 60d, 2 x p300c, 1 X p600c, 2 x b7c kits.

Various attachments for them including spotlights, Fresnels, domes, lanterns,

A multitude of combo, magic and c stands of various sizes.
Various frames 4x, 6x, 8x
Various dopchoice and gaffers band fabrics to match the frame
Buckets and buckets of modern and matthews grip, apple boxes (we use Treebox nested kits and have 4), boa bags etc

A CRLS move kit (diff 1-4 in sizes 7, 15, 25, 50)

Arri lmb 4x5 full kit, nd set, rota Pola, various diff filters

75mm and 100mm heads and legs

Couple of Teradeks, nucleus m fiz sticks, emotimo (v mount with Dana dolly integration - this was the new purchase that reminded me to type here), Dana dolly and Dana steel pipe kit, Matthews slider stands x 2, tilta float, rs2 pro, Matthews monitor stand, various 7" monitors, a Small HD cine 24", a digicase, a pair of inovativ carts.

A couple of cameras (ursa G2 and 2x pcc6ks) both with EF and PL mounts that can be fitted and shimmed before use.

Lots of power - 8x 150w hawk woods mini Vs, 8x 90w hw mini vs.

I have some sound bits but suspect you'd get further hiring a sound op with gear but in a pinch I have: 416, mk50, pair of AVX kits with MKE2 lavs, sound devices mix pre 6mk2

Also have a couple of quite capable live stream flypacks including vmix box and some black magic hardware (hyperdecks/constellation, some atem minis)

Etc etc

I typically just use with it myself for our own productions but am happy to rent competitively if anyone wants a quote as I'm starting to accumulate stuff faster than I can get it out in the field.

Some kit list, Aputure 1200D brighter than the sun.

Big list! What sort of stuff are you using that on?

Where are you and kit based?

Therein lies the rub. I'm in Devon. I mostly shoot in London, sometimes Brighton, often Milton Keynes, often Southampton.

I moved to Devon from Brighton about 3 years ago and I've had precisely no shoots down here.

I'm a director and producer, run a production company with clients all over. Hated having to drive to Bristol or London a day early to rent gear, so I just bought stuff.

Have now accumulated enough clobber to start a small rentals service. I'm not a gaffer but out of necessity I can do a fair imitation on a shoot where you can't afford a 3.5 ton package, gaffer and sparks.

I typically stay overnight in Winchester with family and set off early with mileage from Winchester (devon to winchester miles and the overnight are on me).

@S_b typically we shoot halfway decent corporate stuff or low/mid budg commercials for AdSmart (think £10-£20k budget all in including post which we usually do in house - read 'I edit and colour and am not terrible at either one').

I don't touch sound if I can avoid it. I prefer not to operate cameras solo but often end up doing so on smaller jobs.

Currently trying to complete an inventory (which is a fair bit longer than the above - lenses/easyrig etc) and get some labels made but just thought I'd post while I was thinking of it.

yeah in my head I thought you were down that way, but was thinking cornwall at worst, maybe bath/bristol at best.

After a long period of doing sound post ‘in house’ on a kind of rolling freelance basis I now have a modest home studio type of setup. Although I loved the work I was kind of at the mercy of them actually having a project on, when they didn’t I would find myself at a loose end without having a studio to work in.

I’ve only worked on film for the last couple of years but I’m quite keen on making some contacts to get some short form work in. In my mind I’d like it to fill in the gaps that sometimes appear between big film jobs and also to get a bit of variation in my working life. Working on one project for up to a year can be a bit gruelling at times..

Anyway, sorry for the shameless self promotion.

TL/DR- Happy to share details of all the recent work I’ve done if anyone is needing a freelance sound editor at any point in the future :).

I'd be interested, as the couple of guys who I've worked with have busy schedules.
I'll pm you and we can discuss, but for context, I'd be looking for audio post work on promo's so 30-90s mixing music and sync, adding fx and a soundbed and then delivering final mixes and stems at the end.

Hello. Looking for a bit of a steer on costing a bigger job. I'm a shooter/editor but would be just shooting on this job with a creative director and a photographer. Mainly interviews and b-roll capture.

Baseline details are 4 shooting days in Vietnam, 4 in Indonesia and 4 in Singapore, over approx 3 weeks with travel time. Being asked for an estimate excluding expenses.

Thinking of my day rate x12 which I would consider a decent return. Would a production company/ client expect a discount for booking a 12 day block? Or should I be charging more as there's additional days on the job where I obviously can't be working on other work.

There is additional interest personally in terms of the aspect of travelling to those countries so I don't want to scare them away but also aware it could well be a grueling job in practice.

Any thoughts or similar experience would be great!

i wouldn’t discount because of the travel days and they should be charged for too. maybe charge a normal day rate and a really low travel day (plus per diems)
I’m not a producer though (photographer) they would probably charge you out full wack every day and that adds to their profit pot (rolls eyes)

As far as I know my sound recorder mate (who does a lot of location jobs) charges full day rate for work days and half rate for travel days either side. I’ll ask him what he does for longer jobs where he’s away for a few weeks…

Edit: he says anything over a month he discounts a day a week (depending on shooting schedule) but this isn’t a ‘big’ job, so price as if you were working full time at home 5-6 full days per week (don’t lose money).

As the others have said you’d charge for the travel days, whether it’s full or a discounted rate is upto you. Long haul flights in and out should probably be full rate.
Some companies would offer a buyout for the whole of your time there which is usually less than paying your full day rate for every day, so you could work out what your day rate for everyday is, then subtract the discounted travel days to give yourself two totals and if they offer a buyout, see where that lands.
But I’d go in with full day rate for all days and see what happens, they’ll be budgeting from their end so if it’s over what they can afford, they’ll look to negotiate it down.
Edit:
Would you be taking your own kit to shoot on? If so that affects your day rate as well.

don’t book any work in for the 3 days after you get back!?
you will be fucked and will need to sleep, stare out the window or watch homes under the hammer/shed and buried during the day.

@cornelius_blackfoot Yep it'd be my own gear, which I factor into rate.

Thanks all for the sage advice. I've been able to come back with a sensible figure that serves everyone involved well given the job at hand. I would have lowballed myself otherwise. Much appreciated.

My mate also charges a kit rate on top of day rate, I think only for shooting days but it works out well - his stuff gets paid for over time and the production company can see a saving over hiring for the whole duration.

Thanks, please do drop me a DM if you ever want to have a chat about anything!

I need a location sound recordist for a 1.5-2 day shoot in mid August. It's for a charity helping carers of disabled and young people, so there's almost no budget but I could offer a nominal fee. I'm directing, producing - probably editing too - pro bono, but understand not everyone is able to do that. Shoot will be in Lewisham.
If anyone has any good contacts of nice people, please send them over. Or get in touch if you yourself are a nice person with sound kit. Thanks!

Is this through the media trust? If so I’m going to be doing the same early august as well..
Haven’t started chasing people to work on it yet.

Yes it is! Are you working with Fleur?
I've got my DOP sorted, but I'm really out of the loop with sound contacts these days. Happy to do a contacts exchange if you're also finding it hard to find people

I am working with fleur.
My dop is sorted but everything else is up in the air, shoot second week of august so have to chase those asap.
I’ll send you a dm and we can discuss.

Spent several days over about 3 weeks on a workshop, proposal and feasibility for a potential project. Client suggested we were a sure thing and just needed to have something on paper for sign off. Proposal was about 22k which they'd said was fine throughout. Client yesterday came back and said:

"it knuckled down to price in the end and we have decided to go with another supplier... their quote was £1,200 (they do it for part time work / hobby) and have made a video similar to the content we are looking for."

Major FMCG brand.
Baffling.

The mind boggles. Part of me hopes it explodes in their faces…

A familiar story in my game, the cheap work always looks cheap.
some people don’t notice the difference though.

expect a call in a week “can you do it £20800?"