Digital Video Prod.vs. Feature Film Prod.

What in your opinion makes more money when it comes to the actual industry? working for someone or owning your own company? What is the pay like?




(Message edited by autotunner69 on December 30, 2004)

that all depends what city and state you live in... depends on what clients you have too.

This might be a difficult question then for someone trying to make a decision as to what direction to go or which major to choose. For instance:

Most Major Production Studios(Paramount,ILM, Disney) in California usually don't disclose the pay with a job description. They want a persons qualifications &(demo reel), the person sends it in and will supposibly(spl?) be notified. They pay there employee an hourly wage or how ever they do it. This is feature Film Production.
(I understand that what company the person chooses will effect the pay difference because of how much money the company makes off of every feature they produce, but I'm not sure if the state the company is in would have an effect other than besides maybe the cost of living in that state/city/town.)

The other. There is basically two ways about it, you either work for a Videographer(Independent Filmmaker). videotaping for them(out on location), editing for them(in there studio), ect., odd little jobs that they have for you to do. They most likely pay an employee an hourly wage. or, You are just an Independent Videographer that has no employees and you perform every little detail of your movie and try to make money off of it(from clients, which would be tough)or(like most wakeboarding videos/movies, make the video and try getting distribution contracts). This is Digital Video Production.

So, what I am asking is, how much , if anyone knows, is the difference in pay between these two very simular(spl?) but very different careers?






(Message edited by autotunner69 on December 31, 2004)

i think it also depends on what aspect of the field you want to work in... editing, video/cinematography, directing, PA, grip, audio...

robert, theres a website somewhere that gives you the mean annual salary and hourly pay rates for the arts/entertainment industry... we always have these posted up at school.

yo, rob to me it sounds your a newbie into the scene so my suggestion would be to work for someone a few years, learn the ins and outs, make some friends and clients then, go out on your own. if you can build up a decent clientel its always better to be on your own. as for working for major industry prod companies. its hollywood and hollywood has money. sure at first you arent going to make the big bucks, but if you stick with it long enough money will spill in faster than you can imagine. i have friends that make several thousand a month and only have been in the bizz for a year or two, but are working with top execs at major prod companys

good luck travis
ps where are you coming from

I'm not really new to the scene, just new to the buisness side of it(how to make money, making movies)(what are the different areas)?

I did some research online and found some rounded figures of hourly wages between Motion picture and video industries and all industries within movies and video.

Travis-check your email

like travis said, the only way to really get succesfull in this business is to meet alot of people and work for them...then you got connections. and dont ever do anything stupid to get blacklisted... even though theres no "real" blacklist, word gets around whatever town you are working in, and you will never get anybody to work for you or you will never get to work for them if you screw up.

Exactly how you said it. Also get ready to work for free a lot becasue most of the time to get started you have to meet people and a lot of the shoots you might come across are non-paying. a good site to check out is LA411.com Its a hard industry, welcome.