How do you charge for prep?

[WillArnot]

Prep is an 8 hr day

[Lawrence Karman]

Prep=8hrs. The rental houses don't charge for their gear on prep days and you shouldn't either. Usually only get prep days on a feature or the beginning of a series. On commercials usually you field a couple of calls from the AC's and insist on a pre-call.

On day calls I always ask for a pre-call of at least 1/2 hr to load in.

[Charles Papert]

Pre-calls are complicated. The worse case scenario is an episodic day call where they will be rehearsing right at call, and Steadicam might be first up and the set might be close to lit, so you are expected to have the rig ready to go right away. Combine that with having to drop the gear off at the stage and then park in the structure etc and sprint back--that's a lot of stuff to have to get done in half an hour. Actually the WORST scenario is a day call at Warner Bros whernthey can't grant you a spot on the lot, so you have to go through the truck gate, wait your turn to have the bomb-sniffing dog check out your gear, hope your pass is actually in the system, cross the street and wend through the backlot to the stage, drop off the gear, dump the car in the structure (if lucky, get a PA to do this) and finally get to building the sucker. It's virtually impossible to get that done within an hour let alone half...!

 

Even on jobs where for some reason I'm not given a prep day, if the camera is anything out of the ordinary I'd rather go on my own time to suss it out at the prep rather than go through the stress of having to flail on the shoot day. Certainly one can take a haughty attitude "if you'd paid for my prep, this wouldn't be happening now" but in the long run, it will likely reflect badly on you with virtually all involved. Generally this is when I've had to trade the prep day for some other (more desirable) negotiation point.

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Pre-calls are complicated. The worse case scenario is an episodic day call where they will be rehearsing right at call, and Steadicam might be first up and the set might be close to lit, so you are expected to have the rig ready to go right away. Combine that with having to drop the gear off at the stage and then park in the structure etc and sprint back--that's a lot of stuff to have to get done in half an hour. Actually the WORST scenario is a day call at Warner Bros whernthey can't grant you a spot on the lot, so you have to go through the truck gate, wait your turn to have the bomb-sniffing dog check out your gear, hope your pass is actually in the system, cross the street and wend through the backlot to the stage, drop off the gear, dump the car in the structure (if lucky, get a PA to do this) and finally get to building the sucker. It's virtually impossible to get that done within an hour let alone half...!

 

Even on jobs where for some reason I'm not given a prep day, if the camera is anything out of the ordinary I'd rather go on my own time to suss it out at the prep rather than go through the stress of having to flail on the shoot day. Certainly one can take a haughty attitude "if you'd paid for my prep, this wouldn't be happening now" but in the long run, it will likely reflect badly on you with virtually all involved. Generally this is when I've had to trade the prep day for some other (more desirable) negotiation point.

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Hey Charles ,

Ya, I also agree with you If I'm unsure about gear or something new, I'll will also take the extra time on my dime along with the pre prep time that the PM has given me to make sure I don't look like an ass holding up production. That being said, when there is circumstances that hold me up that are out of my control (ie: I'm on location early to build the rig and the production truck has the camera's locked and I'm standing around waiting for the camera's to be released, and the EIC has an 1/2 to an hour call after me just chaps me because now I'm the ass for not being ready and the PM didn't get the memo to make the camera's available early) ETC . . .anyway

 

Prep = 8 hrs all in agreement?

[Dan Coplan]

Prep=8hrs. The rental houses don't charge for their gear on prep days and you shouldn't either.

 

Do I then understand correctly that prep = 8 hrs. labor with no charge for the Steadicam? And it's 8 hrs. whether prep takes one hour or eight?

 

Charles brought up an interesting point about prepping so you don't look incompetent when you show up to set. I've fought for prep days on some projects and been told that it's simply not in the budget. But I prepped anyway, not to do production a favor, but to insure I don't end up looking like an idiot and it's generally been the right decision. Depends on the production, though. I haven't prepped for some projects and warned production about that choice.

 

Dan

[Alfeo Dixon SOC]

Prep=8hrs. The rental houses don't charge for their gear on prep days and you shouldn't either.

 

Do I then understand correctly that prep = 8 hrs. labor with no charge for the Steadicam? And it's 8 hrs. whether prep takes one hour or eight?

 

Charles brought up an interesting point about prepping so you don't look incompetent when you show up to set. I've fought for prep days on some projects and been told that it's simply not in the budget. But I prepped anyway, not to do production a favor, but to insure I don't end up looking like an idiot and it's generally been the right decision. Depends on the production, though. I haven't prepped for some projects and warned production about that choice.

 

Dan

 

 

Dan,

 

Yes. Prep and call the PM for every little thing you can think of to get their approval on no matter how small an item it is. "It will only help make things run smoother in the end." is the suggest terminology. This will do two things, one: make him/her realize that your best interest is for 'making things run smoother' for them and two: show that you actually where putting in some work and if you hadn't been there that... 'things may not have run smoothly.'

 

-Alfeo "Pay for me 8"

[Michael Stumpf]

I'd love an 8-hr. guarantee but I can't justify charging that for something that will take me 3 hrs. tops, assuming there are no problems.

 

I'm inclined to do an hourly rate, though I can see working out a fixed half or full day rate depending on the amount of time.

 

Dan

 

 

Prep has always been an 8 hour day. Take it. Don't be "That" guy that screws it for the rest of us.

 

+1

 

 

I sometimes get 10 hours on prep days as that's usually my daily minimum, but mostly it's 8

And you'll rarely if ever get a rental.

As far as I know, the producers aren't paying Panavision (or any other rental house) rental on prep days either, so why would we be any different.

 

Edit: Oops guess I should of read the whole thread first, Doc pointed out this very thing.

[Charles Papert]

As far as I know, the producers aren't paying Panavision (or any other rental house) rental on prep days either, so why would we be any different.

 

Which reminds me--I love that deal where a show will try to take your weekly rental rate and divide it by 5, so when you have a short week due to holiday, travel etc. they will attempt to pro-rate it. Try that with the rental houses (then again, they've probably find a way to do just that these days, so never mind). I have it in my deal memo that it is an X per day rental, 3 day week with no pro-rating.

[Mike McGowan SOC]

I have the same thing in my deal but it never fails that on the first short week they pro rate your rental anyway. I call and they say, "oh, sorry, our mistake." and fix it. Yea, I'm sure it was just an accident, lol.

 

Speaking of rental houses, a friend of mine owns CVT in Miami. I was looking at the deal he made on the last show we did.... If you ever feel like you?re getting the short end of the stick, check out what the rental houses are giving up. This particular deal was on a TV series. It was a 1.5 day week, discounted at 75%! The reason it was so low is that they were competing with CSC (which is owned by ARRI). They don?t have to buy their equipment, just pay for the building so they can afford to charge next to nothing for the rental, just to win the bid.

 

Even more crazy is that when they got down to a 1.5 day week at a 75% discount, CSC came back with, "whatever CVT bids we will beat it"!?! Fortunately, the DP put his foot down and said if they wanted him to do the show they would get the package from CVT (not many camera men have the balls to do stuff like that).