the only real problem is i dont do anything with the business. its all the other guy. so its basically telling him everything your telling me.

perhaps you should look around for another person that either knows a little about business or has the desire to LEARN the business end !!!

i have found most directors are terrible at business !!!
most have producers and reps that take care of the business end so they can deal with Creative end ...

you are just starting out and IMO your work deserves more $$$ ..
$$$$ it all depends where you are sitting .. most of the persons i know are making - directors 3500-5000 day , DP 2500-3500 day , Producer 750 + day + % to come in under budget, editor 500-750 day , gaffer 500-750day ...and most companys add on 17-25% of the budget for PROFIT/overhead ...now these are LA type rates for music video's ..yes there are many doing it for less and in the end they are all trying to get experience to move up to the next $$ level - at some point one has to decide that they are no longer going to charge X and set their rate to the next level - usually at 1st it may be slow ....BUT over the years i have seen when a company's want a 2500 a day DP they are not going to hire ( or even look at ) a 500 day DP..

That means they get one edit for the price, they cant keep asking for changes. I usually build in 3 edits but they PAY for that as part of the budget.



ash =o)

Ohh, ok...never even thought of that. I hate when i have to change stuff though. especially at what were charging.

sure you're underpaid, but seriosuly look at it as experience. Sounds like this guy that you're working with is wearing clownshoes.... AKA doesn't know his business. It also sounds like you have enough ideas and initiative to try to get your own gig started. Underpaid is all relative to the market. I won't even try to do commercial spots out here in the college town I live in because the cable company charges like $40-50 for a complete edited 30 second spot!! How can someone compete with that?! Sure they look horrible, but it's a monopoly on the market... they build their production cost into their contract with other charges like airtime... When I was 17 and 18 I did 2 wedding videos where I was WAY underpaid. We shot with two panasonic 3 chip cameras (can't remember model).. there were 2 photographers per wedding and each wedding we charged $250. The first wedding was 3 hours away and we had to stay two nights out there. It was a friend's brother that was getting married so we were doing the family a "favor". By the time we paid for gas and food that weekend us splitting $250 barely covered expenses. Not to mention the editing time(no multi-camera synch back then)... BUT it gave us experience. The second wedding I hired a classmate from my broadcast technology class to help me out and shoot the wedding/reception for $50. I edited it and made $200. Sooo I guess what I'm trying to say is.. If you have a roof over your head and food to eat, each new job is more experience and at 18 you're not doin too bad a few hundred here and there... Try marketing yourself if this dude isn't doing much, or hire him to work on YOUR gigs. Best of luck! With a good portfolio.. or "reel"... you can raise your rate over and over... but to get good experiences sometimes you have to work for dirt!

Yea, i would totally work for myself, but i dont know much about business/legallity issues or how to find the work. And the thing that makes me mad is, he doesnt do anything. At all. Except learn the "camera lingo" and tell people "we" do great work. It almost makes me mad that im buying a new camera tomorrow and he tells clients "were updating equipment"...sheeze, he should be saying "the 18 year old is buying a 5k$ camera, so wait..." Im not trying to get special treatment that im 18 either, cause it doesnt matter in my eyes, but i know that people look at me differently since in this business it's usually more expierienced people...

I'm 20 and do freelance work(graphics, web sites, videos) for people along with niche market "special interest" videos. The business isn't impossible to learn and owning your own business can be very rewarding, at least it is for me.

A sole-proprietorship is easy to setup and you just need to hire an accountant to take care of your taxes. I wouldn't waste my time with this loser, especially since you have your own equipment. Don't dwell on your age, I don't let people know how old I am unless someone asks, age is not a selling point.

well, i'll keep working here for another few months till i go to school, then after school im gonna try to move somewhere better. Atlanta, NY, Cali...i dunno. I dont really know where i wanna go yet, i just know what i wanna do so i dunno...we'll see

There are tons of jobs in ATL now since everyone is trying to be T.I.

Link down
 

Giuseppe,

The link to your video is down (or at least I can't get to it).