Charing for Travel Time

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tim Frechette] “Gathering opinions on what you would charge for the actual travel days besides the hotel stay, meals, etc.”

The standard is 1/2 your day rate. So if you charge $600/day for your services, you charge $300/day for travel days.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Grinner Hester]

As Walter mentioned, a hald day rate plus expenses is the morm. I usually do not do this though.
I am a one man band with overhead. I charge no different for digitizing, editing, animation, sound design or shooting. To me, travel is no different. I charge full rate as a way of limiting my travel time.
That said, I am all about the package rate when I travel. It’s usually a day or two of shooting, a day or two of travel, and a few days of post. If I see a 6k budget, I can somtimes call that 5k knowing a chunk of that is sleepin’ on a plane.

[Tim Frechette]

Thank you Walter.

Another follow up question for everyone. If my equipment is stolen in transit by the airlines who pays? Do you have the written in your contract?

Thanks
Tim

[Christopher Wright]

You should really have your own business insurance which should cover things like this.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
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[Walter Biscardi]

[Tim Frechette] “If my equipment is stolen in transit by the airlines who pays? Do you have the written in your contract?”

Your insurance company. You do have insurance, including liability and travel insurance, on all your gear, right?

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Todd Terry]

Loss or theft of gear is never mentioned in our contracts… the producer is responsible for his stuff; I’ve never heard of a producer attempting to stick a client for stolen gear (unless for some reason the client somehow facilitated the theft).

Good luck with the airlines… they have surprisingly limited liability when it comes to losing stuff. You would likely never get back anywhere near the actual value of expensive equipment that was lost or damaged.

To that end, we almost never fly with our gear unless we absolutely have to. We almost always FedEx everything. We have a number of cases that are dedicated just for shipping our stuff (and of course insure everything out the wazoo). We FedEx it “hold for pickup” to our shooting destination, get off the plane, then go to the FedEx office and pick it up. It can be pricey, but I have never even once had a problem with gear being delayed, go missing, or finding something broken… which is something I can not say about the airlines.

If you can arrange your shooting schedules so that you do not have a local shoot immediately prior to (or right after) your distant location shoot, you can FedEx 2-day or 3-day and save a lot of shipping costs as well.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Steve Wargo]

We charge 1/2 of a day’s labor. If a person’s day rate is $500 plus gear, we charge $250 for that person’s time.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Steve Wargo]

ALL Airlines have a clause when you buy your ticket that says that they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for camera gear and accessories. You can find that info on-line on the airline’s websites.

Our insurance covers all of our gear when in transit by a professional carrier. This includes FedEx and the others.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Tim Frechette]

Thanks for all of the replies.

I do have my own business insurance which covers everything mentioned. I didn’t want to leave any stone unturned regarding stolen property.

The half day rate seems fair.

When the client pays do you fly coach or first class?

Thanks

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tim Frechette] “When the client pays do you fly coach or first class?”

Coach. Never take advantage of a client. If they offer first class, then take that, but always take coach.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!