Check with your ops before accepting "their" deal

[BJMcDonnell SOC]

That is true unfortunatly

[John atkinson]

I have another thing to add to all this. I've been shooting in Louisiana a ton and recently found out a fellow operator told some other operators I was low balling to get jobs. I hear this and of course I call that operator and ask what the Hell is going on? One job was mentioned in particular that I did and I did it for scale but got my full rental for Steadicam per week at full rate. Why did I do it for scale?, because it was a favor of a friend who is a producer. We all do this from time to time. I have a great agent and he negotiates my deals and gets me great deals. So with all this said, before people go to a meeting about rates and start saying so and so is taking cut rental or working for cheap maybe talk to that person before you slander his name. Sometimes there are favors to be done for friends and you don't know the situation. It just causes people to get all up in arms before they go to the source. It's a problem I see all the time with gossip about rates. Anyway that's all I got to say. Fly safe y'all.

 

 

Friend and producer is an oxymoron.

 

Lol

 

JA

[BJMcDonnell SOC]

Yea haha they aren't all bad. Well most of them are but there are a select few that are cool.

[Charles Papert]

Guys:

 

As I'm now in the interesting position of hiring my colleagues on projects large and small and in the case of the latter, it's been an internal struggle for me to to ask guys to work for rates that are not what they should be. Every time this happens I make sure to tell the producers that these are no-quote deals that friends of mine are doing as big favor to me and we are lucky to get them. What's great about this is that I am getting to "try out" a wide range of operators and see who has the stuff, who is going to be right for future jobs at different levels. I'd like to think this is a different situation than what is being discussed here, but as we all know this business is about building relationships and taking opportunities and it's often not as simple as taking the dollar amount and holding it against an operator. At the same time, I do hear about guys who constantly low-ball and occasionally far worse (bad-mouthing other operators or literally lying their way into a gig). It's hard to know who is doing what and what is truth and fiction.

[BJMcDonnell SOC]

Hey Charles, amen to what you just said. You also happen to be at that rate meeting. Again if this comes up at meeting remember there is one side to the story and te other person isn't there to give their side. Good thing is that some of us are man enough to confront the situation with the other person. By the way Charles give me a call soon so I can give you my side of the story since I wasn't present at my lashing. And why would I low ball anyway? There is no reason for it. I've kept my rates pretty high except for the occasional job for friends which is always at scale or above with full rental. lowballing only kills the future for all of us. I don't need to take a cut to get a job. Whatever happened to having a skill and good work ethics? Is asking for a low rate to get the gig ever a good idea, NO!

[BJMcDonnell SOC]

And as for the badmouthing other operators, Don't even get me started on what I heard. Makes my blood boil.

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

You know, awhile back I had heard about a young but talented operator working for too little so I contacted him to see what was up. I told him my theory on these things and he thanked me. Some months later he emailed me a thank you letter because he had been turning down work that wouldn't pay a proper rate. While some of those jobs went elsewhere, the better ones eventually relented and gave him what he had asked for and continued to hire him.

[Mark Karavite]

BJ & Charles bring up good points. Not every job we do is for the money. I had a similar situation several years ago. A Tier 2 film had, as part of their financing agreement, a deal to only pay scale to all crew (no consideration of Steadicam labor). The DP is a friend, and I wanted to work with him. It was an unbelievably crappy rate, but my agent (same as BJ's) was able to secure a very high weekly rental, plus production rented my 2nd FIZ, Iris Unit, OC 25/75 & slider for rate card (instead of me having to match a 60% discount from a rental house). Overall, I made as much, if not more, than if I had a standard labor rate. In reality, the only person who got shorted was my agent & his 10% on labor, and he structured the deal, and he declined to take a bigger % to make up for it.

 

Bottom line, sometimes today you have to be creative in your deal, but not risk the future rates for yourself & others. UPM's always talk to each other. If you take a low rate the "no quote" promise is not honored, you could very well be working for that rate for the next year, or longer. Consider the long term financial loss of doing 4 or 5 shows at the crappy rate you agreed to last year. Not an attractive balance sheet.

 

I have a standard response to the "as used" question when it comes up. Sure, we'll do an "as used" rental, with a guarantied 3 days weekly @ $1200 / day.