ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

I would say that between £200-£400 per 10 hour day for camera crew for example. You can get the BECTU rates from their website for reference. Depends on a lot of factors though. Do you have a schedule first and foremost? Can't do a budget without one!

8 years, 4 months ago - John Lubran

Interesting to note that £249,000 might be considered as a micro budget. All depends on the production of course, some docs cost millions, but for the most part I wouldn't consider anything more than £2,000 per minute to be even low budget. For me Micro is just above zero!

What differing planets we live on.

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

$311,700 dollars is micro for a doc? So are you asking the rate for an editor? Your post is a little confusing. If so, $2,800 a week.

8 years, 4 months ago - Tessa Clarke

The definition of Microbudget as being under £1m according to Production Base (http://www.productionbase.co.uk/ratesofpay.aspx)

Yes, sorry if my post was confusing!

I am trying to find out what are the normal rates of pay for an EDITOR for a MicroBudget documentary feature film?

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

BECTU features editor rate for under £1m - 10 hour day incl hols £225.

But this can be misleading. You would pay less than that for someone with little features experience and more if they were highly experienced. Rates are a funny thing as they are not cast in stone. You need to find an editor you'd like to work with and negotiate a flat fee or weekly fee or some other combination.

You could advertise for a features editor with experience in docos, see what you get and if you like the work of any - then discuss price.

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Yes, what Wozy said. My figure above is for a seasoned doc editor. I don't know about UK law, but if you're set up as a non-profit, you can defer part of the editor's fee. Being a non-profit entity, the deferment of any salary would convince the editor that he/she will actually see the money if the doc makes money. Of course you can defer any part of a fee whether you're non-profit, a corporation, or having no official corporate standing at all (at least here in the U.S.). Just make sure you have any contract or deal memo with the editor gone over by an attorney. Also keep in mind that docs can be much more time consuming in the editing phase than a feature. Work out a post schedule with breathing room, as docs can change completely in the editing room and can drag on for quite some time. It depends so much on how you've set the editor up. For example, having a complete transcript of all of your footage and time code references for, say, each line of an interview. You could also do an edit on paper, basically a script, for you editor to work from to get a basic structure and go from there. I certainly wouldn't dump 200 hours of footage on the desk and say "here you go!" That will take forever and should be reflected in your budget and pay scale.