Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Film technician minimum rates

These are the minimum rates of pay for film crew agreed between Screen Producers Ireland and the Film & Entertainment section of SIPTU last year. I thought I'd post them here since they are almost impossible to find online. It also sets out the budget levels for 'small', 'medium' and 'large' productions.

Click to enlarge -

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are those rates for a 50-hour week?

irish film portal said...

Yes, that's what it says. 50 hours broken down between 39 hours standard rate, plus 11 hours at time and a half.
So each payment can be analysed per hour worked by dividing the amount being paid by 55.5. For example, a 1st AD will earn €34.24 per hr on a 'large' production; €27.03 per hr on a 'medium' production; and €25.23 per hour on a 'small' production.

irish film portal said...

I should have added that these are the 'basic' rates. They do not include holiday pay credit of 8%, or overtime, or double time payment for bank holiday work where time off in lieu is not an option. Nor does this include provision for mileage which becomes payable in certain circumstances depending on the exact situation of location shooting. Nor does it include per diems payable especially in 'resident' locations, on 'rest days' and travel days. Nor does it include payment for non-working or 'rest' days on location.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the clarification. Interesting that the rates would be published based on those hours: does this mean that these working hours are now the norm? Sorry if it's a very basic question.

irish film portal said...

From a reading of the full agreement I believe that these are the basic rates and hours to which additional days/hours/nights may be negotiated as necessary to the particular production or, alternatively, an 'all-in' rate may be negotiated to include the totality of hours and circumstances worked.

In calculating cost and other production factors there may be a benefit to shooting for, say, five six-day weeks as opposed to six five-day weeks, or vice versa.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Thanks for posting this info.
Are these the rates that all these technicians work at on every film ? Or are these entry-level rates ? Would a 1st A.D. with 10 years experience in the job still be charging those rates ? Or is there a standardised method for calculating how much they can increase their rate by ? Or a generally accepted method ?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.

irish film portal said...

These are the - so to speak - 'official' rates, or a benchmark. It is up to each production and freelance technician to negotiate and agree a rate for the particular job on the particular film/drama as they would for commercials and other work. Being a 1st AD or other Head of Dept. implies that the person has built up years of experience in the industry and has worked their way up to that rank.