Raising 5.4M, Reading Rainbow wants a full-time FCPX editor for 25K/year

[Gary Huff]

I’d be really interested to know how much the editor of the original series back in the 80s was making, especially adjusted for inflation.

[Mark Suszko]

They say a range between 25 and 30k, commensurate with experience level. It does seem a little low, considering what they’re asking for and who they are, and where you’d have to live, but it does have a full benefits package. Comparisons to the PBS original may or may not be fair; we don’t know where all the kickstarter money is allotted, and a nationally distributed show requires a lot of “stuff” to operate.

Considering it’s Burbank, and considering the glut of qualified applicants, it’s likely they’ll only have about, oh… 300 resumes to choose from, even at that wage. It’s a supply and demand issue.

Current U.S. median income is something like 35K, if I’m not mistaken. Seems I read that somewhere recently. So, as a starter wage for some single person early in their career, not bad. If you’re a 20-year veteran, it’s not for you.

[David Roth weiss]

They probably paid three to four times more on the original – when they read that FCP X is three to four times as fast as all other NLEs they adjusted accordingly. 🙂

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Mark Suszko]

I know you’re kidding but there is truth in a good joke. If you’re faster in the edit, you free up time to re-visit decisions, and try more alternate takes, perhaps to discover a much better version, or to confirm that you’ve done the best job possible. Or, with the spare time, you could spend more hours on compositing effects, coloring, or on sound design. Time saved in one step, is time available for other uses. Accuracy IS speed.

A classic question asked is: what’s cheaper; an old pro charging 500 an hour, who’s done in an hour, or a newbie who works ten hours to get to the same place, but only charges fifty bucks per hour? A math or accounting student probably says they are equal. A producer more likely looks at the additional time freed up by the pro’s single productive hour, and decides this is the better distribution or resources. Same as with hiring pro actors for your productions versus using amateur “volunteers”.

It’s not that you can’t get a good performance out of the less experienced actors; With a good director, time, and patience, you can.

But that the pros are so very consistent, that you can shoot single camera from multiple angles and *know* you have something that will cut together well, in minimal time. Whereas, with the non-pro talent, you might shoot multi-cam iso coverage because they can’t be consistent, take to take. You spend more manpower and you spend extra for the multiple cameras, more time and gear to simultaneously light for three angles instead of one or two, and you spend more time in post because you have to ingest more footage from multiple sources, and a LOT of time will be spent fixing continuity and timing or line errors in the multicam.

My old friend Lou Rosenblate used to call this: “Stepping over dollars, to pick up dimes”.

[Andrew Kimery]

Lowball rates know no NLE bounds. Look on Mandy, craigslist, or even typically better sites like StaffMeUp, and you’ll see people offering crap rates for Avid, FCP 7, Resolve, X, PPro, etc,. Some of my personal favorites are no-budget filmmakers that demand their epic, indie masterpiece be finished in 4k… ugh.

[Mark Suszko] “They say a range between 25 and 30k, commensurate with experience level. It does seem a little low,”

For LA that’s super lower. That’s PA position low. That’s working at McDonalds low. My first job in LA in 2004 was as a vault manager at a post house and I made 23 or 25k a year. That was tough to live on 10 years ago and expenses have only gone up since then. IMO it’s one thing to offer a gig at a low rate because it’s short term, but to offer a non-entry level staff position at such a low rate is a much tougher sell, IMO, since the assumption is that you are in it for the long haul.

I’m sure they will find someone that fits into their budget, but whether the person will have all the experience RR is looking for is another question. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this turn into a revolving door job where qualified people that have hit a rough patch take it out of desperation and then bail as soon as they find a gig that pays their going rate. Or RR is going to have to adjust their sought after level of experience and find someone more green who can grow into the roll.

[Andy Neil]

I hope the editor they hire has parents in town because that’s where they’ll have to be living in order to survive on 25K.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Michael Phillips]

The post has been removed. That was quick.

Michael

[John Davidson]

I was going to respond with something similar Mark but didn’t. 30k with those benefits actually costs them about 50k after taxes since it’s a full time job. 5.4 million seems like they should be on easy street but with 30+ employees in Burbank it’s anything but. I estimate they’re burning through about 250 to 300k (if not more) in expenses per month once you factor taxes, legal, insurance, rents, etc. That’s not even factoring in infrastructure costs for building it up from pretty much scratch. I wonder how much of that 5.4 million they actually get to use and how much goes to taxes.

No it’s not a great job if you’re a freelancer who just edited a series for broadcast television with 20 years of experience. If you’re 23 and have a few roommates, you could do worse. By my estimation it pays about 30k more than most craigslist jobs.

Creating full time jobs is not easy (especially in California!). While some of their expectations are unreasonable, there are absolutely worse jobs out there. If money really is that important to you though, you could always go for this job. https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/tfr/5010154835.html Don’t forget to save up for that 50% freelancer tax rate.

Looks like they didn’t want to be mocked. The original craigslist ad has been removed.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Michael Phillips] “The post has been removed. That was quick.”

I think originally went up last week, maybe they found someone? I think it was also on the “I need an editor” FB page and didn’t exactly get a warm reception there either.

[Shane Ross]

Drat. I was going to send them this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhckuhUxcgA

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

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