Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Kenner on February 26, 2003 at 16:11:31

In Reply to: Re: film production posted by SR on February 26, 2003 at 13:50:58:

SR,

I appreciate the desire for accuracy.

When I mentioned $200 per hour, I referred to "billing" which in this case was the amount I was told a consulting post-production company in Santa Monica billed for editing. This was a special, but apparently not unique case, in which the enormity of the post-production of 100s of F/X & CG sequences- and remarkably a time constraint- meant that PP work was done by numerous firms. Also, though an assistant, my friend had an (on-and-off) staff of two others (assistant assistants?) within that $200/HR fee and worked 60-80 hours per week for a year.

This situation reminds me of other professionals- a staff attorney may bill out by the firm at $300/HR but this includes overhead, secretaries, investigation, copying etc. and the attorney's wages are $3000 a week, not the $12-15,000 billed.

I did not intend to lump the salary of a Hanks or Roberts in with below the line personnel, but wanted to point out that in large-budget features like the $100 million+ movies these lead actors appear in their salaries of $10-20 million are now something like 10-20% of the budgets. "Titanic" cost over $200 million and I would guess that the lead actors were well under 10%. But this movie has passed $2Billion! BO and video income and the like other $100Million+ movies that produce $300Million+ incomes the leads' $10Million salary is shown to be cost-effective.

My point was to emphasize the large contribution of crew and post-production people whose efforts are not fully appreciated by the general public in terms of both cost and contribution. I went through a phase where I believed that studio movies were 20% script, 20% directing, 20% acting, 20% lighting, and 20% editing! Now I realize that product placement on E! and CNN are another 50%! For independent film the extra 50% becomes Sundance.

Remember that I am not an insider looking at accounting of these figures.

K