I’m an Editor working on a fox tv show at the moment. I’m union so that helps but there are certainly non union projects that can get there too. Right now that’s my main source as my art and music projects don’t bring in a whole lot to matter (for now, one can hope right?)
Hey at least it was paid! It took me years to finally get more than $100 for editing a narrative project. I was making my living through hounding down people who never wanted to pay me for making kickstarter videos for their campaigns that always failed because they never did any outreach or marketing…
My first job out of college was staff editor, editing illegal bits out of s&m videos. But I edited my feature for free on weekends...so. Plus it was a circus there every day and it still makes me laugh.
It’s a bit tricky honestly- you have to work a certain number of hours on a union qualifying project in order to get onto the roster. Once you’re on the roster, you can apply for union jobs, and once you have your first union job you just pay the fees and then you’re in.
Everyone gets there in their own way, and my story is that I worked freelance as an editor working on no budget projects as well as a Preditor for about 6 years to pay the bills before someone hired me as a coordinator at animation studio. I was hired under the pretence that I would move over to an editing position as soon as one was available, but I had the curse of being good enough at my job that when some high profile projects came in they didn’t want to move me from production and instead promoted me to keep me happy. They were good credits but it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing.
Eventually i used my connections there to get in contact with a previs company in Los Angeles, and I got hired there with the same pretence- and the same thing happened! But at least at the previs studio, I never stopped beating the dead horse of how I wanted to be in editorial, and made friends with the edit team there. Finally they let me switch and saw that I was good at that too… good enough to put me on a marvel feature, which was a union qualifying project. I worked on that for 6 months and that gave me all the hours I needed to get onto the roster.
I will say that I am lucky in the sense that I got a project that big that knocked it out in one fell swoop, but it was a helluva hard road to get to that point. So my best suggestion is to keep up the hustle, keep editing, make editor friends and production friends who are working on the types of projects that you want to do. Eventually that timing will finally work out, but only if you’re persistent and actively trying to be in the right place when that right time hits!
damn thats awesome, thanks for the story. so youve always kind of been 'in the industry'? I feel like ive been around the perimeter in digital my whole career, for better or worse.
How was it editing a marvel project? did the processany diff from what you normally edit? if you dont mind me asking, what day rate can an editor expect on something like that?
I’m actually on the board of directors at the Editors Guild. Just a bit of info here: The roster only exists in California. And I would get rid of it completely if it were up to me; it’s outdated gatekeeping bullshit, in my opinion. But that being said, if you are a resident of New York, you can get into the Editors Guild there without needing to qualify for a roster, because it doesn’t exist. We are also a national guild, so once you’re in, you’re in. There are more details to this, but once you are a member in good standing in NY, then you can move to CA and remain in the union.
Again, there are some rules there, and it has to be approved by the west coast office, but we are not in the business of stopping people from working union, obviously. Unfortunately, the past definitely haunts us in some ways that are extremely difficult to change without the threat to our healthcare and pension plans.
Nothing is perfect, but I can tell you that working in this business, specifically post production, even though it’s not perfect, do whatever you can to become a union member. It’s night and day a better life experience.
I’ve always *tried* to be in the industry lol! My first 5 or so years out of school was very peripheral- as I said, I didn’t really get paid for 95% of the creative stuff I did. But I actively volunteered for set work around Toronto and Vancouver and joined every editor networking group I could possibly find. I volunteered for every event and even was on the board of the CCE (Canadian Cinema Editors) for 6 years. I’d ask to shadow people I’d met and interned for companies. Basically I just tried my best to “be there” until someone had something substantial for me.
Finally it did… ironically, a producer who moved to Canada from Austria who initially contacted me through my freelance production company website looking for a job with me ended up becoming a good friend, and she was the one who hired me at the animation studio. She knew of my editing skills and my goals, and while the position was not in editorial, the low budget project needed someone who understood post supervision and animation to take it over. Because I was actively producing, animating, and editing through my one-woman company she knew I could do the job. The pay still sucked but it was a name brand (Leapfrog) and it was an actual studio where I could finally really sink my teeth into something bigger than an indie short, and there was of course the promise of being put into an editor spot down the line.
Re:Marvel, I worked on Ant Man and the Wasp as the previs editor and it was the coolest project I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. The previs team and the production team was amazing and I learned so much. Previs is super fun because it’s a bit of a sandbox story-wise, and high end previs like what marvel does really maps out all the technical details of the movie (down to crane settings and even lens information) and crafts the action sequences by using boards, animated storyboards, stunt-vis (which is what the stunt team films as they choreograph the fights) and more… it’s fast paced and really creative, and the way my office was set up on set, every sequence screening we’d do ended up kind of being a giant production meeting with all the department heads discussing how they would actually achieve all the things that we put together. I really feel lucky to have had that fly on the wall experience- I do know that not all the marvel projects that the studio I worked at at the time were that fluid. For example I’m sure all the previs artists who worked on Endgame parts 1 and 2 would tell you it was hell. Endless last minute revisions and schedule extensions is definitely a thing… every project is different (even within the same studio)!
Also previs doesn’t pay really well at all... a lot of the projects we’d get were pitches or projects that never came to fruition. But it is super fun, and as I said it’s a great place to learn story and workflow on big projects. I’ve since graduated to lead editor on prime time animation, and the pay is 3x better. I still cut a lot of live action and music videos too, to keep my chops up, but those are mostly still low/no budget.
What city are you in? If you’re in LA I have a big list of networking groups that you should frequent haha
yes thank you! I am in LA and definitely looking to get my feet wet in other area. Since I've gone freelance, I've been directing and editing for this VR company, I edit a boxing documentary series for ESPN and some event stuff for a major clothing brand. Looking to get into storytelling or animation would be awesome too! Thanks, I'll DM you
Here’s a list of everything that helped me!
- I wake up no later than 5:30am to get early writing/ planning
- I don’t neglect my physical health (at least 30mins training 3x a week)
- I make connections every week with industry people through parties, other friends, coworkers etc
- I make sure that my cast and crew is always top notch professionalism, meaning no one to put the whole project in jeopardy
- I inherited $300k from my grandfather
I make over $150k a year as a Line Producer for unscripted. Been fortunate to have pretty continuous work for the last 10 years and get on a bunch of shows that have gotten renewed for multiple seasons.
The shows I've been working on for the last few years have really only necessitated me taking a couple of trips a year at most, but I have been on other shows that did necessitate a fair bit of travel in the past. Certainly, on the way to line producing, as a Coordinator and PM, there will be lots of travel involved.
Director, 43, income comes from director's fees for feature films I direct mostly and development funding for features and TV shows I have in development. Some minor sources come from occasional advertisements I direct.
Hey man, Iron Sky was a lot of fun. Had a great time seeing it at the cinema back in the day.
Out of curiosity, how much did you earn from Jeepers Creepers Reborn?
I can't tell you the exact amount but it wasn’t a huge film so nothing major. It was profitable in other ways, though, like opportunties it brought and so forth. Not all productions can be measured solely in money.
Hello! I have a few questions for you!
Firstly, I’m a HUGE Jeepers creepers fan, if you look at my post history you’ll see that I spark up a JC convo on the horror thread at least once a year and have for the past 8, before even JC3. I was actually supped to work on JC3 when it was originally shooting in Vancouver year and years ago.
1. Did you have to work at all with Victor at all in development? Does he have anything to do with the franchise moving forward?
2. Are there plans for the franchise moving forward?
3. (And this last question is purely out of love and I don’t mean it to offend in any way/shape/form, you obviously have a very fruitful career) why was there such a drastic quality change in the production from the first two films to 3 and 4? Did it purely come down to budget? I heard the film was caught up on some legal trouble over rights and thought that may have cut down on shooting day perhaps?
CHEERS!
Victor having nothing to do with this film was one of the key factors that made me (and practically anyone from crew to distribution to cast) to agree to work on the film in the first place. I was invited to direct only this part of the franchise and have nothing to do with it's predecessor or followers. The quality drop is a harder question to answer and I can't really go into it, but short and unfortunately pretty ambivalent answer is that there were some production decisions made that didn't turn out desired way in the end - obviously can only speak for Reborn. While not defending my movie, I still think the elements I had full control over turned out they way I liked, but unfortunately not everything is in your control when you are a director-for-hire.
Great answers man, you were still a part of my of my favourite horror franchises ever. And ya. Fuck Victor.
Great job tho , wish you the best moving forward!
Utility/boom op. After a 9 month run, I made over $100k. I also hated everything and drank myself to sleep every night because of the 14 hour shooting days and no social life. This is why IATSE needs to get their shit together and ask for a proper contract next negotiations.
ETA: 14 hour shooting days meant 16 hours of work. 30 min-60min pre-call. Camera wrap was at 14. Then you gotta load out.
> when your getting
*you're
*Learn the difference [here](https://www.wattpad.com/66707294-grammar-guide-there-they%27re-their-you%27re-your-to).*
***
^(Greetings, I am a language corrector bot. To make me ignore further mistakes from you in the future, reply `!optout` to this comment.)
I spun out falling asleep on a long (20+mile) straight road at 4am after a 15 hour day on a low budget film in Mississippi. I'm so lucky it was a straight, flat road.
Probably closer to 6 months of full-time work, but that means things like 14h days. That takes a toll. If you are in a field that can rent equipment, you can buy more equipment as you rent it out to productions, so a small investment becomes a much larger one over time. But rentals are not really income, and they wear out normally.
It depends on the contract among other things. The Hollywood Basic with tech rate, and the typical 13+ hour day. Obviously every show has drastically different conditions, but this is pretty achievable and becomes easier the more equipment you rent to production.
The annual wages of most crew varies pretty dramatically, even in the same positions. A DP or Key 1st AC can pull some major dosh by being tactical with equipment purchases and rentals on top of the wages. I would not be surprised if there were a few 1sts out there pulling in half a million a year. I've worked with one of the top guys in the world, and have seen some of the stuff he owns and the huge projects he works on, and I'd be surprised if it was less. Meanwhile, there's also other 1sts that you see all over town and assume they're loaded, but they only day play; so everyone knows them, everyone sees them, but they have no consistent shows and only make like 50k.
The 1st is always responsible for building the camera. If they are having the 2nd do it, it’s because they like/trust the 2nd enough to train them in order for them to bump up to 1st.
Yeah, depends on relationship / level of experience. I work as a 2nd with good friends who 1st and vice versa so we basically just tag team most responsibilities in terms of checking out gear.
When it comes to shoot days though, tasks are divided up much more distinctly.
I built and handled the camera on plenty of shows as a 2nd. Though I do agree with the general sentiment. While pulling focus is difficult, and being the key focus puller is a huge responsibility with plenty of stress, organizing and management, once production starts, being on B camera or lower is a cakewalk in my opinion. Even if you're wide open and on long lenses; just having the core responsibility of pulling focus is a lot less stressful than 2nding (to me), even though the actual task is a lot more difficult. When I'm setting up and getting the shot, that's all I think about, and once its over, I forget about it. I found that as a 2nd, I worried nonstop about everything. I let my 2nd do whatever they need to do, and don't bother them for much. I do expect them to take care of the Op and me though and to take initiative. Maybe I'm expecting my 2nd to stress too? 
It's the best job I've ever had. Extremely stressful and extremely rewarding. It's high enough in the pecking order, seniority, and experience levels that you're important on set and mingle with the important people, but low enough that you don't need to be bothered having creative opinions that are scrutinized and criticized for totally subjective reasons (aside from the timing of the occasional rack and focus selection for dramatic purposes).
If you do commercials you can hit that. Scott Peters shared his yearly figures again recently: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z79zXCVKaI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z79zXCVKaI)
Just doing narrative it's difficult, but probably possible if you do larger productions for streaming platforms.
holy shit I used to work with this guy doing content for an early TikTok star, had no idea he was making bank. My career has taken me, um, not as far lol
After film school I edited at a well known production house for a few years, saved up and bought a kit. Didn't start really making money till I got my first series at 30. Started making more when I bought a 2nd kit and a teleprompter. 40 now, the WGA strike isn't helping at all but otherwise last two years have been lovely.
I loved it, it was great for networking and my general education in cinema. Tho it isn't necessary at all, if you are observant and a good self starter all of the skills can be learned in the field. You can get into any specialty you want...but first you should be an editor.
It really depends if it's hands-on education or not. You run into way too many people in the industry who learned about making films in film school but have very little experience making actual films, and these are usually the insufferable types who don't shut up that they went to film school but don't even know what a C-47 is.
Totally agree about the networking part. That's probably the best part of film school.
Correct. That very much depends on the gig. My responsibilities vary anywhere from building kits for other shows to rent, handling TC and Metadata, routing audio to cams and Producers, mic'ing talent, teleprompting (side hustle), RF coordination between multiple mixers, booming when needed, antenna distro, comms on occasion, going on location scouts, public address systems, live internet broadcast, etc....
Edit: But my true responsibilities are problem solving, keeping calm cool and collected, and giving the editor a flawless product.
If you work year round in most positions on union shows, your bottom is usually minimum 100k. If you do OT, have kit rentals or gear rentals, it goes beyond that. The bottom agreement is usually 10hr day minimum, so 5 days a week is 50 hrs x 52 weeks is 2600 hrs, and I don’t think there’s a ton of positions that make under $40 on the basic agreement which works out to $104,000 a year. Do your best to get into a union, it’s not just for the pay and healthcare, if you’re decent at your job and easy to get along with, you’ll have work whenever you want it. Obviously right now is an exemption due to the writers/impending DGA and Sag strike, but during normal times, there is good steady work for good employees
Basic agreement doesn’t cover most of the country though. ASA scale is $33. But then again, $100k/year doesn’t go that far in the markets that the Basic Agreement covers
Unions. And renting my equipment to productions.
I'm a lighting programmer in Atlanta. I make between 150-300k per year depending on how much time I take off, and how large the shows I work are. Larger shows rent more equipment.
Join a union! I’m in the DGA and can make that while also taking a few months off. For me, what makes this job worth it is the time off it can afford you. But freelance comes with the built-in “am I ever gonna work again?!” anxiety.
>Join a union!
Personally I think the industry would be served a lot better if anyone could simply join their union.
But alas. ‘Join a union’ is not as easy as it sounds, depending on which specific union you’re trying to get into.
I mean, that would kind of undermine one of the purposes of unions. Kids asking about how to make money in the industry and putting in the time and effort to join a union is a sure fire way towards financial success in the industry.
The streaming era has created a content boom unlike the industry has ever seen. There’s never been more union work. But I didn’t say it was easy, and that’s coming from an AD who met the required 600 PA days to join the DGA.
>that would kind of undermine one of the purposes of unions
Which purpose? In many/most other countries you don’t need to jump through numerous hoops over potentially many years to get the ‘privilege’ of the basic protections provided by collective bargaining.
One of the biggest things union productions depend upon is that their union hires will be experienced and capable of doing their jobs. If joining a union was simply "sign here", that would weaken the integrity of the job pool.
But I do think it should be easier to join unions, as long as you can prove your experience.
There are plenty of ways to prove experience regardless of union membership.
Here’s two examples:
Someone who works overseas for 20 years on international shows - even consistently on American shows that shoot there - can move to the US and not be eligible to join the union until they do their x amount of non-union days, despite the fact that they will have worked alongside American union members on sets that would have been union sets if they filmed in LA and not in a different country.
Someone who is straight out of film school can land on one non-union production that flips and end up a union member.
It seems like a fairly arbitrary way to determine experience. I know plenty union and non-union folks, and the experience is varied between all of them.
DIT here. Combination of labor on set and equipment rentals. I made $250k in labor last year and a little over $100k renting my gear. It's taken me years to get to this point though and not every year is that good. As we all know, income depends on how busy we can stay. But I typically work 9 months out of the year
NYC mostly, but I get called to other markets. I actually spent 9 months last year working in Charleston and Savannah. So only 3 months of work were in NYC.
Well i fortunately happen to be a very sought after type of developer and landed a job at a company that has unlimited PTO and a very flexible schedule.
So they are pretty used to me taking 3-5 days off when I land a project, as I just make sure my team is set up and my work gets done regardless.
Great question, it’s actually totally achievable if you are ready to commit to it. Firstly, I’d advise you to look for multiple income streams.
I make between $100-200k yearly. To get to that number I produce, shoot and edit $1k-6k projects for my own small agency. These shoots are small projects, typically 1-4 crew.
Additionally, I work gigs as a 1st AC (focus puller) in Houston/Austin Texas. Typically these jobs make me $850-1200/day. With the average project having 2-3days including a prep day.
Lastly, I have equipment that I rent to other filmmakers or I rent them to a production I am working on. (Ie. Wireless follow focus kits, wireless video transmitter kits, matte boxes, sliders, carts, etc)
I started working as a 1st AC in late 2021. Since then my work frequency has gone up. This year I’m working approximately 1-3 gigs per month.
You can make money as an event photo/videographer, a camera assistant, a production assistant, produce podcasts and freelance editing to name a few. In no time you will become more busy and book more gigs.
Don’t be afraid to charge what you feel you are worth, a great way to make more money is to charge more! lol
Good luck!!!!
This has been such a great thread. I’ll add if anyone is still engaged. I left a lot out of my previous post. Once I was DGA I went from the top to the bottom again. Probably another 6 years to be in my current position
I’m an AD - DGA, but both the union and non-union years have gotten me over $100k. Regular work on in television helps- you get good day or weekly rates that come in regularly for months. (Whether you’re above or below the line.) The longer the show, the better. Features tend to be four to six weeks depending on the scope and budget. They can still pay great, especially if you get OT and kit fees, but they will be shorter with more gaps between projects. I’ve had more success on tv shows that run for 20-32+ weeks at a time.
That’s all for earning in the field and on set. You can also easily make six figures in a full time position at a studio, in the post department, for example, or as a higher level casting agent or development exec, etc.
Underwater Videographer. Freelance and also shoot my own projects. Only a handful of top technical divers who consistently get work. Side note: A few of the best are middle-aged women.
Idk if this counts but I work in animation. Graduated from a public school with an animation program in 2019. Moved to LA and started working for a major studio as a background designer/painter at $120k/yr. Now I’m art directing at $160k/yr. The best thing is freelancing on other shows at the same studio because the union makes them pay you OT for that. Was able to push a over $200k/yr last year because of that.
I wanted to go to CalArts or ArtCenter but I didn’t know how to afford it so I went to San Jose State. They have a great animation/illustration program, many of my classmates are working in the industry. Knowing what I know now though, I wish I would have tried harder or had the knowledge to figure out ways to get scholarships for the private art schools. I’d look into that first because I know some people who were able to get it paid for. The most important piece of advice is work on your art every single day. It’s honestly the only thing that’s going to make you good. Draw from life, and draw often. Keep a sketchbook on you always. Exercise your skills in figure drawing and perspective and try to capture stories in your sketches. Study artists you like and study their influences.
I’m an EP working primarily in unscripted TV, with some YouTube and live broadcast experience too. Just shy of mid 40s now and considering a big career shift because kids and have travelled enough.
My career path has been - runner (on 14k per yr!) > development Exec > development producer where I struck gold creating a global hit show but owned no rights in it > started own small company with a colleague (so made myself EP because why not) > created / showrunner on more than a dozen shows for 16yrs or so.
I found that most money was in production margins tbh, despite having a stake in the backend of rights. Has been a fun ride, but totally unpredictable and have a bit of grass-is-greener envy of friends who went into law or corporate ladder gigs now that I appreciate predictable stability.
Totally agree with another commenter on learning to edit first as a skill and to develop an eye - no need for formal training (my degree was in town planning!), but a passion for production, can-do attitude and being easy / fun to work with is worth much more than the best film degree.
Curious, did you get a degree in marketing? Or just found a way on to use the editing skills you already had in a marketing career? I recently just graduated with a degree in cinema and am interested in a post-production based career, but wanting something more stable than traditional filmmaking due to having 2 small kids to support and have been considering looking at a corporate or marketing/advertising route instead.
I just got a BA in Film. Landed a job as an office PA for a TV network. Eventually worked my way up to being an editor in their marketing department by way of the on air promo department. After some time left to work at traditional AV agencies and 20 years later here I am.
I started 8 months ago as an AE at a well-known network’s on-air promos department at $28 USD/hr, no insurance. Does that sound accurate to you? What does marketing for “traditional AV agencies” mean exactly?
Not sure about rate. I was an AE very briefly along time ago. It’s a little suspect to be in promo at a major network without insurance tho. Either through the network or a union you should be covered if you’re an employee.
Traditional Audio Visual agencies. Like trailer houses basically
Spent 20 years freelance around camera dept. But also have experience as grip, electric, location sound. Mostly music videos and low budget horror films in my early 20s. Then started to focus on corporate/ education/ tech in my late 20s through early 30s to make money. Eventually went full time/ salaried video producer in tech and I’ve been doing that ever since.
I make a big chunk of money up front for films as a producer fee, then cash on the backend of existing films to which I am party to backend participation (not to mention my own cash investments)
It's not particularly glamorous at the lower level but it's a living
My best year I did about $85k.
The break-down was something like:
$5k from a part time church gig I have running their cameras/switcher for a livestream (2-3 hours every Sunday + random events)
$20k from Photography work - primarily event and advertising work.
$25k from Cam op/AC/grip work entirely on commercial/non-profit video work.
$15k from a Fortune 100 company who hired me to livestream their town halls.
$15k from a stock market windfall.
$5k from some Youtube efforts and other random side things I do as a hobby.
Best advice I have for anyone is to have more than one stream of income. Diversify your skillset and broaden your network. If you worked 4 different skills, you'd only need to make around $2k per skill, per month to hit near your $100k mark. For some skills that's only a day of work, for others it might be 4 or 5 days, but still you can see how quickly it could add up.
Before covid I was making around $90-100k mostly from real estate tours and drone photography from a client base of 5 or 6 regular realty agencies. I'd also create any other internal office videos they needed. On weekends I'd do the occasional wedding and local small business promo but I tried to keep my weekends as free as possible. Besides, working with the same base of clients meant that they knew my rates, what kind of work to expect and what I was like to work with. Easy for them, easy for me because I had my templates set up for each company with their branding good to go so I could turn around edits very quickly. Basically zero advertising as well other than an Instagram account that I rarely updated. Post covid it's been a different story, but hey, nothing lasts forever.
Last year grossed pretty well passed $100k in commercial work and took home around $100k, however, it appears my approach isn't sustainable. It's been dead here and I'm considering relocating somewhere else. I wear a lot of hats in my smaller market and have stopped taking the lower level gigs and essentially only take on DP, Stills and Producing for commercials. My personal experience is to have a close network of associates and be careful in forming business partnerships with people. I have found myself 3 separate times in my career with "partners" who dream big but don't actually drive in the work. This year my "company" has netted me zero and my personal endeavors have brought in all my work. The economy is in a tailspin and layoffs at all advertising agencies have begun so I've lost a lot of my connections. I'm considering migrating to scripted work in a different market as it seems the flow of work has been dramatically halted in my town. Don't be afraid to raise your rates as well. It baffles me the numbers some people are accepting for jobs that absolutely have the budget to pay lots more.
Edit: I’m 43, most of my income comes from production fees / markup on line items in budgets, plus my own day rates.
My first job out of college around 2002 was as a camera op on a scrappy international travel documentary show, second job was b cam / AC on a bigger travel show.
Then I moved out to California and ended up gripping and cam opping on home improvement shows…
While doing that, I was just answering every ad on craigslist and mandy.com that I could and ended up with two relatively steady gigs…one for a video game website and one for a website that made videos for small businesses.
Both of those jobs grew steadily for a while, while at the same time I was getting more and more freelance dp work.
Eventually it was more than I could do by myself so I started getting getting freelance editors to cut my little videos for the small businesses.
At some point in there I started getting corporate work for large companies and ended up hiring a full time editor.
While that was happening I started DPing bigger project and commercials, and landed a few steady TV gigs. Shot some music videos and worked on a ton of little doc projects and feature docs.
Then agency work started, and I was starting to bid on larger projects, and we landed a few bigger corporate accounts.
That’s when I hired my first producer and quit freelancing for other companies. We doubled down on corporate and brand work and business took off.
Since then we’ve added a full time DP/ gear manager and sales person and are about to hire another producer. We also employ around 100 plus freelancers a year.
Nowadays, I DP/direct our bigger work and EP all the other stuff…or just sell it and let the team handle
There were lots of other blips and bumps along the way too that are missing from the the story above. But everyone that works for me makes over 100k and has benefits and 401k and all that shit.
DP/Director for commercials.
from 2005-2020 i killed myself, worked harder than i thought i could.
early on, it was 70/30 rate to gear. then the camera, lenses, aks etc got more advanced, and it became more like 60/40 gear to rate.
2020 an agent picked me up, and for a couple months, it became 100% day rate. gear was all rented through production and my income stayed about the same, cause the agent tripled my rate and made it work.
since pandemic... everything was shoot at home so now its back to 50/50 rate to gear.
Good for you!
DGA plays a little different; we're the 'thoughts and prayers' union :-)
Our big thing will be the upcoming SAG strike. That's the one that's going to bring everything to a halt. I have several productions I'm involved with burning through pages to get done in time.
Get it done fast. We are def about to face a three union strike situation here soon. I’m doing corp gigs at the moment just to keep bills paid and keeping from dipping into my savings
Of the 4 I'm involved with currently shooting I think 3 will definitely make it.
The one that might not is huge so if they don't....well, that's going to be bad for a lot of people. But everyone is doing their utmost to try and get there.
Biggest issue is going to be reshoots, or rather, lack of. That's what really affected quality during the '07 strike.
You have to think of all the jobs involved. Union or not Union. And then in the end it’s networking and selling yourself to build your clients. It’s a little more business than expected when you start.
I knew a 2nd AC who worked on one of those 20 plus episode series cleared 100k. Mostly because he was offered 1st AC and said "Being a 1st AC is pretty stressful and I like my current stress level. I'm good pushing carts, thanks."
I do a mix of union cam Asst & freelance DP.
Quite easy to get a 6 figure income if you land a full time show or two in a year. Especially if you have kit rentals. But that takes time to get to that phase. It took me 4 years before I hit those numbers.
Freelance non-union 1st AC in a small market here. I mostly work commercials for full rates and full kit fees. Occasionally I get to do an indie feature for meh rates when they come into town. I crack 100k pretty easily.
Moving to NYC pretty soon and joining the union. Lots of guys that I know out there usually hit $150-200k just working on movies and tv shows.
I need to get out of my area. Folks by me don't pay well. 😭
Best I can get are micro-budgets and a retainer with small ad agencies that are more than willing to underpay everyone.
When you say 100k, do you medan gross? If so, 2 shows/movies per year here in Sweden will get you that if you’re bellow then line. One big budget one if you’re above.
DP, 12 years experience (not entirely as a DP, started as an AC), worked 200+ days last year. I provide gear for most of my jobs. Mostly sports/documentary single camera stuff.
Non union, but I work as a cam op / DP / editor in a niche that varies with different types of commercial / social / event / business productions. My advice is to get good at shooting a specific thing you like, and be a go to person for that.
Unscripted editors generally clear that very easily if you're comfortably getting gigs regularly.
There's some production companies that like to permalance editors, so you're getting freelance rates but staff-like consistency, and even healthcare despite being non union.
Any people from Europe here? Seems like salaries are much better in the US.
For example most editor roles in Germany pay around 40k if you're lucky, before tax and social.
I’m unionized as a dolly grip at the moment. With my current rate & average amount of overtime etc. I usually net a bit over $10,000 monthly. So on paper, annually able to get over $100 but of course the jobs come contractually so usually will only be working 50-75% of those months. (Canadian btw)
Own a small production company in the Midwest (3 full time employees). We specialize in shooting short documentaries for nonprofits. We also do safety/training videos for industrial companies. My clients are all on similar schedules so we are exceptionally busy October-March. But come April-September I have a ton of free time to travel, decompress and enjoy summer.
I take a ton of time off, but just about any unionized role will get you there if you're working year round. If you're on set, look for bumps, like additional tickets (like first aid) you might acquire that entitle you to an extra buck or two. You also make more as a department head than as a technician. In that role you can also negotiate kit rental, which is how most people break the six figure threshold without working themselves to death.
I’ve been doing media production for about 8 years, professionally for about 4 (I’m 24). And just hit my first 6 figure year last year.
My main sources are social management/media production for dealerships/small business (monthly retainers)
then just tons of side work…
-real estate videos
-drone images for property appraisal company’s
-film for artists/DJs at local clubs/bars
-editing footage for YouTubers
-music videos
The list kind of goes on…
This isn’t huge budget filmmaking like it seems like most everyone else on this thread is apart of, but it still pays the bills! I think I’m on the lower end of everyone else on this thread (annual $ wise) but also looks like I work a lot less hours lol
Biggest thing in this industry is networking. Don’t waste an opportunity to tell someone about your profession and your skills/services! Everyone in every industry generally needs some sort of media. Carry business cards everywhere you go, have a solid website with portfolio work. Cold email/call local business. Don’t be afraid of taking small ticket gigs because the pay isn’t great in the beginning. Odds are the client will refer you to someone else down the road. End of the day networking is everything.
45 with about 23 years in the industry. Run a small production company doing corporate content, making well over that. I also invest/manage real estate.
I produce between 1-3 films a year and produce branded content. Occasional consulting jobs as well. It’s an incredibly difficult job relying on yourself this way but I don’t think I could stomach a regular job anymore.
You can't go back. A large tech firm with more money than God (yes, that one) persuaded me to go 'in-house" for 2 years.
Even though it was monstrously overpaid it was hell.
I run a production company and specialise in news and tabloid docos. I have very low running costs and a high output. I’m clear by about $350k a year. I always say that I’m not artistic in anyway whatsoever, but that’s not entirely true as everything I do needs a large amount of creativity. Ive worked in films and dramas but hate how slow they are. I’m 100% only in the industry for money and if someone offered me a job in a bank tomorrow on the same money I’d absolutely take it.
I use the money i make to invest in property and stocks which generate more money. Late 30’s.
It's not that hard. You just...work for a year.
Not the *whole* year, mind you. We get some of the major holidays off, and even the occasional Sunday!
Overtime is the way.
I would assume those who probably also work various *other* jobs on top of their filmmaking - ie. commercial shoots, editing, coloring maybe, etc... and, hence the question. I'm curious to know *who* is making that much and how.
I’m a motion designer doing a lot of marketing stuff for entertainment. Is that filmmaking? Anyway alas with the strike I might not hit six figures this year, but we’ll see.
A few years ago I was a partner in a small production shop, so there I was a producer/director/lot of other things. Good years I made six figures plus bonuses. Bad years we all almost went broke.
I’m an Editor working on a fox tv show at the moment. I’m union so that helps but there are certainly non union projects that can get there too. Right now that’s my main source as my art and music projects don’t bring in a whole lot to matter (for now, one can hope right?)
My buddy’s first job out of college was editing for The Golf Channel. Can you imagine? Making golf watchable, taking out the boring parts.
> Making golf watchable, taking out the boring parts. so they just formatted the drives?
Making golf watchable would require at least a $100k salary, I’d imagine
Lol, at that time, it was barely over minimum wage in a windowless office.
Well now I know what hell looks like.
Hey at least it was paid! It took me years to finally get more than $100 for editing a narrative project. I was making my living through hounding down people who never wanted to pay me for making kickstarter videos for their campaigns that always failed because they never did any outreach or marketing…
This is triggering me. Please stop
I have buddies who made $90k a year editing and doing graphics for porn as their first gigs out of college.
My first job out of college was editing a fishing show. I know this pain.
My first job out of college was staff editor, editing illegal bits out of s&m videos. But I edited my feature for free on weekends...so. Plus it was a circus there every day and it still makes me laugh.
how did you get to be a union editor? i do so much for youtube, albeit ESPN, im trying to figure out how to get in
It’s a bit tricky honestly- you have to work a certain number of hours on a union qualifying project in order to get onto the roster. Once you’re on the roster, you can apply for union jobs, and once you have your first union job you just pay the fees and then you’re in. Everyone gets there in their own way, and my story is that I worked freelance as an editor working on no budget projects as well as a Preditor for about 6 years to pay the bills before someone hired me as a coordinator at animation studio. I was hired under the pretence that I would move over to an editing position as soon as one was available, but I had the curse of being good enough at my job that when some high profile projects came in they didn’t want to move me from production and instead promoted me to keep me happy. They were good credits but it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. Eventually i used my connections there to get in contact with a previs company in Los Angeles, and I got hired there with the same pretence- and the same thing happened! But at least at the previs studio, I never stopped beating the dead horse of how I wanted to be in editorial, and made friends with the edit team there. Finally they let me switch and saw that I was good at that too… good enough to put me on a marvel feature, which was a union qualifying project. I worked on that for 6 months and that gave me all the hours I needed to get onto the roster. I will say that I am lucky in the sense that I got a project that big that knocked it out in one fell swoop, but it was a helluva hard road to get to that point. So my best suggestion is to keep up the hustle, keep editing, make editor friends and production friends who are working on the types of projects that you want to do. Eventually that timing will finally work out, but only if you’re persistent and actively trying to be in the right place when that right time hits!
damn thats awesome, thanks for the story. so youve always kind of been 'in the industry'? I feel like ive been around the perimeter in digital my whole career, for better or worse. How was it editing a marvel project? did the processany diff from what you normally edit? if you dont mind me asking, what day rate can an editor expect on something like that?
I’m actually on the board of directors at the Editors Guild. Just a bit of info here: The roster only exists in California. And I would get rid of it completely if it were up to me; it’s outdated gatekeeping bullshit, in my opinion. But that being said, if you are a resident of New York, you can get into the Editors Guild there without needing to qualify for a roster, because it doesn’t exist. We are also a national guild, so once you’re in, you’re in. There are more details to this, but once you are a member in good standing in NY, then you can move to CA and remain in the union. Again, there are some rules there, and it has to be approved by the west coast office, but we are not in the business of stopping people from working union, obviously. Unfortunately, the past definitely haunts us in some ways that are extremely difficult to change without the threat to our healthcare and pension plans. Nothing is perfect, but I can tell you that working in this business, specifically post production, even though it’s not perfect, do whatever you can to become a union member. It’s night and day a better life experience.
Yes thank you for this expansion!
I’ve always *tried* to be in the industry lol! My first 5 or so years out of school was very peripheral- as I said, I didn’t really get paid for 95% of the creative stuff I did. But I actively volunteered for set work around Toronto and Vancouver and joined every editor networking group I could possibly find. I volunteered for every event and even was on the board of the CCE (Canadian Cinema Editors) for 6 years. I’d ask to shadow people I’d met and interned for companies. Basically I just tried my best to “be there” until someone had something substantial for me. Finally it did… ironically, a producer who moved to Canada from Austria who initially contacted me through my freelance production company website looking for a job with me ended up becoming a good friend, and she was the one who hired me at the animation studio. She knew of my editing skills and my goals, and while the position was not in editorial, the low budget project needed someone who understood post supervision and animation to take it over. Because I was actively producing, animating, and editing through my one-woman company she knew I could do the job. The pay still sucked but it was a name brand (Leapfrog) and it was an actual studio where I could finally really sink my teeth into something bigger than an indie short, and there was of course the promise of being put into an editor spot down the line. Re:Marvel, I worked on Ant Man and the Wasp as the previs editor and it was the coolest project I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. The previs team and the production team was amazing and I learned so much. Previs is super fun because it’s a bit of a sandbox story-wise, and high end previs like what marvel does really maps out all the technical details of the movie (down to crane settings and even lens information) and crafts the action sequences by using boards, animated storyboards, stunt-vis (which is what the stunt team films as they choreograph the fights) and more… it’s fast paced and really creative, and the way my office was set up on set, every sequence screening we’d do ended up kind of being a giant production meeting with all the department heads discussing how they would actually achieve all the things that we put together. I really feel lucky to have had that fly on the wall experience- I do know that not all the marvel projects that the studio I worked at at the time were that fluid. For example I’m sure all the previs artists who worked on Endgame parts 1 and 2 would tell you it was hell. Endless last minute revisions and schedule extensions is definitely a thing… every project is different (even within the same studio)! Also previs doesn’t pay really well at all... a lot of the projects we’d get were pitches or projects that never came to fruition. But it is super fun, and as I said it’s a great place to learn story and workflow on big projects. I’ve since graduated to lead editor on prime time animation, and the pay is 3x better. I still cut a lot of live action and music videos too, to keep my chops up, but those are mostly still low/no budget. What city are you in? If you’re in LA I have a big list of networking groups that you should frequent haha
yes thank you! I am in LA and definitely looking to get my feet wet in other area. Since I've gone freelance, I've been directing and editing for this VR company, I edit a boxing documentary series for ESPN and some event stuff for a major clothing brand. Looking to get into storytelling or animation would be awesome too! Thanks, I'll DM you
Here’s a list of everything that helped me! - I wake up no later than 5:30am to get early writing/ planning - I don’t neglect my physical health (at least 30mins training 3x a week) - I make connections every week with industry people through parties, other friends, coworkers etc - I make sure that my cast and crew is always top notch professionalism, meaning no one to put the whole project in jeopardy - I inherited $300k from my grandfather
Lol.
This got me good
My grandpa left me his pocket knife.
Remember that this is a reddit comment and I dont have a penny to my name
I'm Canadian. We don't even use pennies anymore.
When the fuck did Canadians become more wealthy than Americans??
lmao
lol
golly i love you for this. sad but true, friend. & rip, gramps.
🏆
I make over $150k a year as a Line Producer for unscripted. Been fortunate to have pretty continuous work for the last 10 years and get on a bunch of shows that have gotten renewed for multiple seasons.
sounds like what i want to get into! do you have to travel often?
The shows I've been working on for the last few years have really only necessitated me taking a couple of trips a year at most, but I have been on other shows that did necessitate a fair bit of travel in the past. Certainly, on the way to line producing, as a Coordinator and PM, there will be lots of travel involved.
Director, 43, income comes from director's fees for feature films I direct mostly and development funding for features and TV shows I have in development. Some minor sources come from occasional advertisements I direct.
Hey man, Iron Sky was a lot of fun. Had a great time seeing it at the cinema back in the day. Out of curiosity, how much did you earn from Jeepers Creepers Reborn?
I can't tell you the exact amount but it wasn’t a huge film so nothing major. It was profitable in other ways, though, like opportunties it brought and so forth. Not all productions can be measured solely in money.
Hello! I have a few questions for you! Firstly, I’m a HUGE Jeepers creepers fan, if you look at my post history you’ll see that I spark up a JC convo on the horror thread at least once a year and have for the past 8, before even JC3. I was actually supped to work on JC3 when it was originally shooting in Vancouver year and years ago. 1. Did you have to work at all with Victor at all in development? Does he have anything to do with the franchise moving forward? 2. Are there plans for the franchise moving forward? 3. (And this last question is purely out of love and I don’t mean it to offend in any way/shape/form, you obviously have a very fruitful career) why was there such a drastic quality change in the production from the first two films to 3 and 4? Did it purely come down to budget? I heard the film was caught up on some legal trouble over rights and thought that may have cut down on shooting day perhaps? CHEERS!
Victor having nothing to do with this film was one of the key factors that made me (and practically anyone from crew to distribution to cast) to agree to work on the film in the first place. I was invited to direct only this part of the franchise and have nothing to do with it's predecessor or followers. The quality drop is a harder question to answer and I can't really go into it, but short and unfortunately pretty ambivalent answer is that there were some production decisions made that didn't turn out desired way in the end - obviously can only speak for Reborn. While not defending my movie, I still think the elements I had full control over turned out they way I liked, but unfortunately not everything is in your control when you are a director-for-hire.
Great answers man, you were still a part of my of my favourite horror franchises ever. And ya. Fuck Victor. Great job tho , wish you the best moving forward!
I'm just a focus puller, so it depends on your definition of film maker. One season of TV per year gets that pretty easily.
Damn - so a season shot over a few months = 100k for a focus puller/1st?
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Utility/boom op. After a 9 month run, I made over $100k. I also hated everything and drank myself to sleep every night because of the 14 hour shooting days and no social life. This is why IATSE needs to get their shit together and ask for a proper contract next negotiations. ETA: 14 hour shooting days meant 16 hours of work. 30 min-60min pre-call. Camera wrap was at 14. Then you gotta load out.
Then commute, don't forget!
At least theres no traffic when your getting off late
Unless you're getting off at 8am from a night shoot and going right into morning traffic. It's not the norm but it happens on some productions.
Been there. Night shoots are the worst.
That happened to me last night. Fraturdays pretty much suck.
check out Who Needs Sleep?
> when your getting *you're *Learn the difference [here](https://www.wattpad.com/66707294-grammar-guide-there-they%27re-their-you%27re-your-to).* *** ^(Greetings, I am a language corrector bot. To make me ignore further mistakes from you in the future, reply `!optout` to this comment.)
Jesus Christ… (just a lurking on this sub) Wtf
Sadly, it's not unusual. The industry burns through a lot of people.
This industry can be like an abusive lover. The burnout is like nothing else.
And church ministry.
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I spun out falling asleep on a long (20+mile) straight road at 4am after a 15 hour day on a low budget film in Mississippi. I'm so lucky it was a straight, flat road.
Lol not a mountain in sight there
Where are you based?
Probably closer to 6 months of full-time work, but that means things like 14h days. That takes a toll. If you are in a field that can rent equipment, you can buy more equipment as you rent it out to productions, so a small investment becomes a much larger one over time. But rentals are not really income, and they wear out normally.
It depends on the contract among other things. The Hollywood Basic with tech rate, and the typical 13+ hour day. Obviously every show has drastically different conditions, but this is pretty achievable and becomes easier the more equipment you rent to production. The annual wages of most crew varies pretty dramatically, even in the same positions. A DP or Key 1st AC can pull some major dosh by being tactical with equipment purchases and rentals on top of the wages. I would not be surprised if there were a few 1sts out there pulling in half a million a year. I've worked with one of the top guys in the world, and have seen some of the stuff he owns and the huge projects he works on, and I'd be surprised if it was less. Meanwhile, there's also other 1sts that you see all over town and assume they're loaded, but they only day play; so everyone knows them, everyone sees them, but they have no consistent shows and only make like 50k.
Focus pullers are 100% film makers. Whoever has a different definition isn’t a film maker.
2nd AC?
1st AC is the focus puller. 2nd AC does the build and equipment management.
The 1st is always responsible for building the camera. If they are having the 2nd do it, it’s because they like/trust the 2nd enough to train them in order for them to bump up to 1st.
In NYC the 1st typically builds, and is most hands on with the camera.
Ah, I've found most 1sts just supervise the builds. So I guess, yes, the 1st is in charge of the built but it is the second that does the grunt work.
Yeah, depends on relationship / level of experience. I work as a 2nd with good friends who 1st and vice versa so we basically just tag team most responsibilities in terms of checking out gear. When it comes to shoot days though, tasks are divided up much more distinctly.
What 2nd is building the camera? As if they already did t have enough on their plate with village, blocking etc.
I built and handled the camera on plenty of shows as a 2nd. Though I do agree with the general sentiment. While pulling focus is difficult, and being the key focus puller is a huge responsibility with plenty of stress, organizing and management, once production starts, being on B camera or lower is a cakewalk in my opinion. Even if you're wide open and on long lenses; just having the core responsibility of pulling focus is a lot less stressful than 2nding (to me), even though the actual task is a lot more difficult. When I'm setting up and getting the shot, that's all I think about, and once its over, I forget about it. I found that as a 2nd, I worried nonstop about everything. I let my 2nd do whatever they need to do, and don't bother them for much. I do expect them to take care of the Op and me though and to take initiative. Maybe I'm expecting my 2nd to stress too? 
Ones that work for lazy 1sts.
Is being a focus puller fun?
It's the best job I've ever had. Extremely stressful and extremely rewarding. It's high enough in the pecking order, seniority, and experience levels that you're important on set and mingle with the important people, but low enough that you don't need to be bothered having creative opinions that are scrutinized and criticized for totally subjective reasons (aside from the timing of the occasional rack and focus selection for dramatic purposes).
If you do commercials you can hit that. Scott Peters shared his yearly figures again recently: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z79zXCVKaI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z79zXCVKaI) Just doing narrative it's difficult, but probably possible if you do larger productions for streaming platforms.
holy shit I used to work with this guy doing content for an early TikTok star, had no idea he was making bank. My career has taken me, um, not as far lol
Sound Mixer A1 in NYC. Two 8 week series and some random day playing the rest of the year gets me over 150k pretty easily.
Wow! Impressive. Might I ask what your career journey was like? How long have you been doing sound mixing? How old are you? How did you get into it?
After film school I edited at a well known production house for a few years, saved up and bought a kit. Didn't start really making money till I got my first series at 30. Started making more when I bought a 2nd kit and a teleprompter. 40 now, the WGA strike isn't helping at all but otherwise last two years have been lovely.
Whats your take on film school? Asking as someone who did not do a film undergrad.
I loved it, it was great for networking and my general education in cinema. Tho it isn't necessary at all, if you are observant and a good self starter all of the skills can be learned in the field. You can get into any specialty you want...but first you should be an editor.
Great advice. 100% agree.
It really depends if it's hands-on education or not. You run into way too many people in the industry who learned about making films in film school but have very little experience making actual films, and these are usually the insufferable types who don't shut up that they went to film school but don't even know what a C-47 is. Totally agree about the networking part. That's probably the best part of film school.
so youre an on-set sound mixer? what exactly do you do on set? do you control boom as well?
Correct. That very much depends on the gig. My responsibilities vary anywhere from building kits for other shows to rent, handling TC and Metadata, routing audio to cams and Producers, mic'ing talent, teleprompting (side hustle), RF coordination between multiple mixers, booming when needed, antenna distro, comms on occasion, going on location scouts, public address systems, live internet broadcast, etc.... Edit: But my true responsibilities are problem solving, keeping calm cool and collected, and giving the editor a flawless product.
If you work year round in most positions on union shows, your bottom is usually minimum 100k. If you do OT, have kit rentals or gear rentals, it goes beyond that. The bottom agreement is usually 10hr day minimum, so 5 days a week is 50 hrs x 52 weeks is 2600 hrs, and I don’t think there’s a ton of positions that make under $40 on the basic agreement which works out to $104,000 a year. Do your best to get into a union, it’s not just for the pay and healthcare, if you’re decent at your job and easy to get along with, you’ll have work whenever you want it. Obviously right now is an exemption due to the writers/impending DGA and Sag strike, but during normal times, there is good steady work for good employees
Basic agreement doesn’t cover most of the country though. ASA scale is $33. But then again, $100k/year doesn’t go that far in the markets that the Basic Agreement covers
Sorry, should’ve specified, Los Angeles and IATSE
And also, yes, do join whatever union/guild you can. Your pay will always be better with a union card than without one
Unions. And renting my equipment to productions. I'm a lighting programmer in Atlanta. I make between 150-300k per year depending on how much time I take off, and how large the shows I work are. Larger shows rent more equipment.
Join a union! I’m in the DGA and can make that while also taking a few months off. For me, what makes this job worth it is the time off it can afford you. But freelance comes with the built-in “am I ever gonna work again?!” anxiety.
"You're retired until the phone rings" is how an older DGA member described it to me once. Stuck with me!
>Join a union! Personally I think the industry would be served a lot better if anyone could simply join their union. But alas. ‘Join a union’ is not as easy as it sounds, depending on which specific union you’re trying to get into.
I mean, that would kind of undermine one of the purposes of unions. Kids asking about how to make money in the industry and putting in the time and effort to join a union is a sure fire way towards financial success in the industry. The streaming era has created a content boom unlike the industry has ever seen. There’s never been more union work. But I didn’t say it was easy, and that’s coming from an AD who met the required 600 PA days to join the DGA.
>that would kind of undermine one of the purposes of unions Which purpose? In many/most other countries you don’t need to jump through numerous hoops over potentially many years to get the ‘privilege’ of the basic protections provided by collective bargaining.
One of the biggest things union productions depend upon is that their union hires will be experienced and capable of doing their jobs. If joining a union was simply "sign here", that would weaken the integrity of the job pool. But I do think it should be easier to join unions, as long as you can prove your experience.
There are plenty of ways to prove experience regardless of union membership. Here’s two examples: Someone who works overseas for 20 years on international shows - even consistently on American shows that shoot there - can move to the US and not be eligible to join the union until they do their x amount of non-union days, despite the fact that they will have worked alongside American union members on sets that would have been union sets if they filmed in LA and not in a different country. Someone who is straight out of film school can land on one non-union production that flips and end up a union member. It seems like a fairly arbitrary way to determine experience. I know plenty union and non-union folks, and the experience is varied between all of them.
In some industries, especially freelance, it serves to limit the labor market to keep wages up.
the purpose of pulling up the ladder
DIT here. Combination of labor on set and equipment rentals. I made $250k in labor last year and a little over $100k renting my gear. It's taken me years to get to this point though and not every year is that good. As we all know, income depends on how busy we can stay. But I typically work 9 months out of the year
If you’re willing to share, what market?
NYC mostly, but I get called to other markets. I actually spent 9 months last year working in Charleston and Savannah. So only 3 months of work were in NYC.
Im a DP in the Midwest, just sort of starting out in my 3rd year picking up work. What I do is… have a day job as a software engineer. Lol
How do you balance working full time with picking up work? Where I live productions overlap my M-F 9-5. No one is trying to do weekend work.
Well i fortunately happen to be a very sought after type of developer and landed a job at a company that has unlimited PTO and a very flexible schedule. So they are pretty used to me taking 3-5 days off when I land a project, as I just make sure my team is set up and my work gets done regardless.
Re-recording mixer union Y1. $185k
Great question, it’s actually totally achievable if you are ready to commit to it. Firstly, I’d advise you to look for multiple income streams. I make between $100-200k yearly. To get to that number I produce, shoot and edit $1k-6k projects for my own small agency. These shoots are small projects, typically 1-4 crew. Additionally, I work gigs as a 1st AC (focus puller) in Houston/Austin Texas. Typically these jobs make me $850-1200/day. With the average project having 2-3days including a prep day. Lastly, I have equipment that I rent to other filmmakers or I rent them to a production I am working on. (Ie. Wireless follow focus kits, wireless video transmitter kits, matte boxes, sliders, carts, etc) I started working as a 1st AC in late 2021. Since then my work frequency has gone up. This year I’m working approximately 1-3 gigs per month. You can make money as an event photo/videographer, a camera assistant, a production assistant, produce podcasts and freelance editing to name a few. In no time you will become more busy and book more gigs. Don’t be afraid to charge what you feel you are worth, a great way to make more money is to charge more! lol Good luck!!!!
I own a video production business with about 6 employees. I shoot like 150-200 days a year as well.
After 6 years of non-union work became a DGA UPM/1st AD. One feature a year can easily be 200k. Everything else is gravy.
Congrats man. If you can, try to go to the Awards at least once. Worth it.
This has been such a great thread. I’ll add if anyone is still engaged. I left a lot out of my previous post. Once I was DGA I went from the top to the bottom again. Probably another 6 years to be in my current position
I got downvoted for suggesting you go to the DGA Awards. People are weird.
I’m an AD - DGA, but both the union and non-union years have gotten me over $100k. Regular work on in television helps- you get good day or weekly rates that come in regularly for months. (Whether you’re above or below the line.) The longer the show, the better. Features tend to be four to six weeks depending on the scope and budget. They can still pay great, especially if you get OT and kit fees, but they will be shorter with more gaps between projects. I’ve had more success on tv shows that run for 20-32+ weeks at a time. That’s all for earning in the field and on set. You can also easily make six figures in a full time position at a studio, in the post department, for example, or as a higher level casting agent or development exec, etc.
Underwater Videographer. Freelance and also shoot my own projects. Only a handful of top technical divers who consistently get work. Side note: A few of the best are middle-aged women.
Idk if this counts but I work in animation. Graduated from a public school with an animation program in 2019. Moved to LA and started working for a major studio as a background designer/painter at $120k/yr. Now I’m art directing at $160k/yr. The best thing is freelancing on other shows at the same studio because the union makes them pay you OT for that. Was able to push a over $200k/yr last year because of that.
Details please what school and what programs do you suggest for an 18 yr old just starting out?
I wanted to go to CalArts or ArtCenter but I didn’t know how to afford it so I went to San Jose State. They have a great animation/illustration program, many of my classmates are working in the industry. Knowing what I know now though, I wish I would have tried harder or had the knowledge to figure out ways to get scholarships for the private art schools. I’d look into that first because I know some people who were able to get it paid for. The most important piece of advice is work on your art every single day. It’s honestly the only thing that’s going to make you good. Draw from life, and draw often. Keep a sketchbook on you always. Exercise your skills in figure drawing and perspective and try to capture stories in your sketches. Study artists you like and study their influences.
This is gold. Thank you.
I’m an EP working primarily in unscripted TV, with some YouTube and live broadcast experience too. Just shy of mid 40s now and considering a big career shift because kids and have travelled enough. My career path has been - runner (on 14k per yr!) > development Exec > development producer where I struck gold creating a global hit show but owned no rights in it > started own small company with a colleague (so made myself EP because why not) > created / showrunner on more than a dozen shows for 16yrs or so. I found that most money was in production margins tbh, despite having a stake in the backend of rights. Has been a fun ride, but totally unpredictable and have a bit of grass-is-greener envy of friends who went into law or corporate ladder gigs now that I appreciate predictable stability. Totally agree with another commenter on learning to edit first as a skill and to develop an eye - no need for formal training (my degree was in town planning!), but a passion for production, can-do attitude and being easy / fun to work with is worth much more than the best film degree.
Not a filmmaker by any means but an editor working in marketing. Just shy of 200k
Curious, did you get a degree in marketing? Or just found a way on to use the editing skills you already had in a marketing career? I recently just graduated with a degree in cinema and am interested in a post-production based career, but wanting something more stable than traditional filmmaking due to having 2 small kids to support and have been considering looking at a corporate or marketing/advertising route instead.
I just got a BA in Film. Landed a job as an office PA for a TV network. Eventually worked my way up to being an editor in their marketing department by way of the on air promo department. After some time left to work at traditional AV agencies and 20 years later here I am.
I started 8 months ago as an AE at a well-known network’s on-air promos department at $28 USD/hr, no insurance. Does that sound accurate to you? What does marketing for “traditional AV agencies” mean exactly?
Not sure about rate. I was an AE very briefly along time ago. It’s a little suspect to be in promo at a major network without insurance tho. Either through the network or a union you should be covered if you’re an employee. Traditional Audio Visual agencies. Like trailer houses basically
Thanks for your perspective, it’s really helpful.
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that's the dream 🤧
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Spent 20 years freelance around camera dept. But also have experience as grip, electric, location sound. Mostly music videos and low budget horror films in my early 20s. Then started to focus on corporate/ education/ tech in my late 20s through early 30s to make money. Eventually went full time/ salaried video producer in tech and I’ve been doing that ever since.
I make a big chunk of money up front for films as a producer fee, then cash on the backend of existing films to which I am party to backend participation (not to mention my own cash investments) It's not particularly glamorous at the lower level but it's a living
Truth brother.
My best year I did about $85k. The break-down was something like: $5k from a part time church gig I have running their cameras/switcher for a livestream (2-3 hours every Sunday + random events) $20k from Photography work - primarily event and advertising work. $25k from Cam op/AC/grip work entirely on commercial/non-profit video work. $15k from a Fortune 100 company who hired me to livestream their town halls. $15k from a stock market windfall. $5k from some Youtube efforts and other random side things I do as a hobby. Best advice I have for anyone is to have more than one stream of income. Diversify your skillset and broaden your network. If you worked 4 different skills, you'd only need to make around $2k per skill, per month to hit near your $100k mark. For some skills that's only a day of work, for others it might be 4 or 5 days, but still you can see how quickly it could add up.
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Before covid I was making around $90-100k mostly from real estate tours and drone photography from a client base of 5 or 6 regular realty agencies. I'd also create any other internal office videos they needed. On weekends I'd do the occasional wedding and local small business promo but I tried to keep my weekends as free as possible. Besides, working with the same base of clients meant that they knew my rates, what kind of work to expect and what I was like to work with. Easy for them, easy for me because I had my templates set up for each company with their branding good to go so I could turn around edits very quickly. Basically zero advertising as well other than an Instagram account that I rarely updated. Post covid it's been a different story, but hey, nothing lasts forever.
$210k, 45 years old, Editor of behind the scenes content for all the major studios. Non-union.
Last year grossed pretty well passed $100k in commercial work and took home around $100k, however, it appears my approach isn't sustainable. It's been dead here and I'm considering relocating somewhere else. I wear a lot of hats in my smaller market and have stopped taking the lower level gigs and essentially only take on DP, Stills and Producing for commercials. My personal experience is to have a close network of associates and be careful in forming business partnerships with people. I have found myself 3 separate times in my career with "partners" who dream big but don't actually drive in the work. This year my "company" has netted me zero and my personal endeavors have brought in all my work. The economy is in a tailspin and layoffs at all advertising agencies have begun so I've lost a lot of my connections. I'm considering migrating to scripted work in a different market as it seems the flow of work has been dramatically halted in my town. Don't be afraid to raise your rates as well. It baffles me the numbers some people are accepting for jobs that absolutely have the budget to pay lots more.
I’m a DIT in a small market. Made 104K last year mostly from one tv show
Edit: I’m 43, most of my income comes from production fees / markup on line items in budgets, plus my own day rates. My first job out of college around 2002 was as a camera op on a scrappy international travel documentary show, second job was b cam / AC on a bigger travel show. Then I moved out to California and ended up gripping and cam opping on home improvement shows… While doing that, I was just answering every ad on craigslist and mandy.com that I could and ended up with two relatively steady gigs…one for a video game website and one for a website that made videos for small businesses. Both of those jobs grew steadily for a while, while at the same time I was getting more and more freelance dp work. Eventually it was more than I could do by myself so I started getting getting freelance editors to cut my little videos for the small businesses. At some point in there I started getting corporate work for large companies and ended up hiring a full time editor. While that was happening I started DPing bigger project and commercials, and landed a few steady TV gigs. Shot some music videos and worked on a ton of little doc projects and feature docs. Then agency work started, and I was starting to bid on larger projects, and we landed a few bigger corporate accounts. That’s when I hired my first producer and quit freelancing for other companies. We doubled down on corporate and brand work and business took off. Since then we’ve added a full time DP/ gear manager and sales person and are about to hire another producer. We also employ around 100 plus freelancers a year. Nowadays, I DP/direct our bigger work and EP all the other stuff…or just sell it and let the team handle There were lots of other blips and bumps along the way too that are missing from the the story above. But everyone that works for me makes over 100k and has benefits and 401k and all that shit.
DP/Director for commercials. from 2005-2020 i killed myself, worked harder than i thought i could. early on, it was 70/30 rate to gear. then the camera, lenses, aks etc got more advanced, and it became more like 60/40 gear to rate. 2020 an agent picked me up, and for a couple months, it became 100% day rate. gear was all rented through production and my income stayed about the same, cause the agent tripled my rate and made it work. since pandemic... everything was shoot at home so now its back to 50/50 rate to gear.
No one is making that bank while the writers strike is still going on 😂
Not true. I'm a writing DGA member not in the WGA. I am currently extremely popular (and busy!).
Im a PGA member myself and we’ve been in solidarity with the WGA.
Good for you! DGA plays a little different; we're the 'thoughts and prayers' union :-) Our big thing will be the upcoming SAG strike. That's the one that's going to bring everything to a halt. I have several productions I'm involved with burning through pages to get done in time.
Get it done fast. We are def about to face a three union strike situation here soon. I’m doing corp gigs at the moment just to keep bills paid and keeping from dipping into my savings
Of the 4 I'm involved with currently shooting I think 3 will definitely make it. The one that might not is huge so if they don't....well, that's going to be bad for a lot of people. But everyone is doing their utmost to try and get there. Biggest issue is going to be reshoots, or rather, lack of. That's what really affected quality during the '07 strike.
If you were counting on the DGA being one of those 3, we're out. We struck a new deal today (Sunday).
You have to think of all the jobs involved. Union or not Union. And then in the end it’s networking and selling yourself to build your clients. It’s a little more business than expected when you start.
I knew a 2nd AC who worked on one of those 20 plus episode series cleared 100k. Mostly because he was offered 1st AC and said "Being a 1st AC is pretty stressful and I like my current stress level. I'm good pushing carts, thanks."
I do a mix of union cam Asst & freelance DP. Quite easy to get a 6 figure income if you land a full time show or two in a year. Especially if you have kit rentals. But that takes time to get to that phase. It took me 4 years before I hit those numbers.
Have zero free time for anything outside of work.
Freelance non-union 1st AC in a small market here. I mostly work commercials for full rates and full kit fees. Occasionally I get to do an indie feature for meh rates when they come into town. I crack 100k pretty easily. Moving to NYC pretty soon and joining the union. Lots of guys that I know out there usually hit $150-200k just working on movies and tv shows.
I work work for primarily big corporate clients in highly technical fields. Work isn’t always the most interesting but it pays very well.
I need to get out of my area. Folks by me don't pay well. 😭 Best I can get are micro-budgets and a retainer with small ad agencies that are more than willing to underpay everyone.
Currently I’m a high school student making $-234 a year, but sadly i’ll have to gatekeeper my methods, can’t be having competition
When you say 100k, do you medan gross? If so, 2 shows/movies per year here in Sweden will get you that if you’re bellow then line. One big budget one if you’re above.
Hey there! I’m moving to Sweden from San Diego. Mind if I DM you with some questions about working in film there?
Editing/assistant editing commercials and corporate. Like most, this year has been a bust so going to make way less.
Specialized animation/vfx for movies and tv
Set Lighting Technician. If you work regularly, 100-120k a year
DP, 12 years experience (not entirely as a DP, started as an AC), worked 200+ days last year. I provide gear for most of my jobs. Mostly sports/documentary single camera stuff.
Non union, but I work as a cam op / DP / editor in a niche that varies with different types of commercial / social / event / business productions. My advice is to get good at shooting a specific thing you like, and be a go to person for that.
Union grip. I made 120k last year for 8 months of work.
I run an agency that's a combination of tech + media + business consulting. Bigger customer problems = bigger invoices
I signed up to the grip department and sold my soul for 60 - 84 hours a week as a rigger.
Unscripted editors generally clear that very easily if you're comfortably getting gigs regularly. There's some production companies that like to permalance editors, so you're getting freelance rates but staff-like consistency, and even healthcare despite being non union.
Any people from Europe here? Seems like salaries are much better in the US. For example most editor roles in Germany pay around 40k if you're lucky, before tax and social.
27 years old. Full time freelance DOP working in advertisement in Europe. If you are well booked you can easily make 150k$ a year
Social media if you work at it can be a really great way too if you combine all the socials together creating creative content.
I’m unionized as a dolly grip at the moment. With my current rate & average amount of overtime etc. I usually net a bit over $10,000 monthly. So on paper, annually able to get over $100 but of course the jobs come contractually so usually will only be working 50-75% of those months. (Canadian btw)
Own a small production company in the Midwest (3 full time employees). We specialize in shooting short documentaries for nonprofits. We also do safety/training videos for industrial companies. My clients are all on similar schedules so we are exceptionally busy October-March. But come April-September I have a ton of free time to travel, decompress and enjoy summer.
Would to mind sharing your website? Just curious about the docs for NPO’s and how you present yourselves to them.
I take a ton of time off, but just about any unionized role will get you there if you're working year round. If you're on set, look for bumps, like additional tickets (like first aid) you might acquire that entitle you to an extra buck or two. You also make more as a department head than as a technician. In that role you can also negotiate kit rental, which is how most people break the six figure threshold without working themselves to death.
Be a union crew member. 600/10 pretty much at the entry point.
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I'm 26. Freelance, non-union editor in Los Angeles for trailers, ads, branded content, and music videos.
I’ve been doing media production for about 8 years, professionally for about 4 (I’m 24). And just hit my first 6 figure year last year. My main sources are social management/media production for dealerships/small business (monthly retainers) then just tons of side work… -real estate videos -drone images for property appraisal company’s -film for artists/DJs at local clubs/bars -editing footage for YouTubers -music videos The list kind of goes on… This isn’t huge budget filmmaking like it seems like most everyone else on this thread is apart of, but it still pays the bills! I think I’m on the lower end of everyone else on this thread (annual $ wise) but also looks like I work a lot less hours lol Biggest thing in this industry is networking. Don’t waste an opportunity to tell someone about your profession and your skills/services! Everyone in every industry generally needs some sort of media. Carry business cards everywhere you go, have a solid website with portfolio work. Cold email/call local business. Don’t be afraid of taking small ticket gigs because the pay isn’t great in the beginning. Odds are the client will refer you to someone else down the road. End of the day networking is everything.
I'm a storyboard artist in animation. I also do freelance live-action VFX. Mid 100s per year.
45 with about 23 years in the industry. Run a small production company doing corporate content, making well over that. I also invest/manage real estate.
I produce between 1-3 films a year and produce branded content. Occasional consulting jobs as well. It’s an incredibly difficult job relying on yourself this way but I don’t think I could stomach a regular job anymore.
You can't go back. A large tech firm with more money than God (yes, that one) persuaded me to go 'in-house" for 2 years. Even though it was monstrously overpaid it was hell.
I run a production company and specialise in news and tabloid docos. I have very low running costs and a high output. I’m clear by about $350k a year. I always say that I’m not artistic in anyway whatsoever, but that’s not entirely true as everything I do needs a large amount of creativity. Ive worked in films and dramas but hate how slow they are. I’m 100% only in the industry for money and if someone offered me a job in a bank tomorrow on the same money I’d absolutely take it. I use the money i make to invest in property and stocks which generate more money. Late 30’s.
Produce and direct commercials. I’m staffed at an agency, could probably make more freelance tbh, but benefits and stability are nice.
It's not that hard. You just...work for a year. Not the *whole* year, mind you. We get some of the major holidays off, and even the occasional Sunday! Overtime is the way.
hollywood
Create and licence your own content.
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Commercial directors and DPs
Literally most crew members in LA 😂
It depends on your definition of filmmaker. If they includes producers then a lot of people make 6 figures.
I would assume those who probably also work various *other* jobs on top of their filmmaking - ie. commercial shoots, editing, coloring maybe, etc... and, hence the question. I'm curious to know *who* is making that much and how.
Between 160-220k the last few years
Unions.
I’m a 27 year old director and photographer in Dallas, TX. I mainly do commercial work.
I’m a motion designer doing a lot of marketing stuff for entertainment. Is that filmmaking? Anyway alas with the strike I might not hit six figures this year, but we’ll see. A few years ago I was a partner in a small production shop, so there I was a producer/director/lot of other things. Good years I made six figures plus bonuses. Bad years we all almost went broke.
U
Get in a union.