It ranges from nada to well into six figures. You know your budget so set the position based on that and hone the perfect candidate accordingly. Some find it cost effective to hire and pay for experience. Others find it more cost effective to hire a few youngness for that price and train them to your workflow before they develop a life, night schedule or opinions. Then sometimes handing someone a key and knowing all is well is quite valuable.
By far the most cost effective way is to just do it and show them. Often, trying to explain something creative to someone who is not is a null. Trust goes a long way. “I have an idea I’d like to try” often yields the final in a few minutes. If your client is driving the boat, the time tested tactic of simply making your ideas their idea bats 1000.
Never would I light these dudes or slow myself down with external mic. It’s just dangerous. So I shoot EVERYTHING in auto preset and create what I want in post. I use only the camera mic when shooting motorsports and don’t so much as drag my sticks out of the closet.
I do not normalize or use compressors with audio. I manually change levels as needed and once married with music and sound effects and stingers, it becomes seamless. I do a lot of color grading in post and often I stabilize shots in post as I shoot everything hand held, usually quite high on adrenaline.
Watch for Street Freaks on Velocity! 🙂
30 day net.
I offer no monetary incentives for paying on time but do add late charges.
Now that said, I did have a client that was a full time gig for several years. They paid net 90 or more to collect interest on my money. Not very cool of em but it was a 300k a year contract and once the late checks made their rotation, I felt no burn as all the other late checks would follow. This is the only client I have made this exception for and it was non negotiable with them. Vendors either agreed or passed more work to me.
This totally depends on the relationship with the client and the relationship you want in the future. The black and white business part of this is they booked you for those days and owe you for them. But friendships and business relationships go far and beyond that.
I would explain that you booked those days and now have to get a half day pay for all 5.
Word smithing and respect will dictate how it goes. Do know they won’t respect you if you lay down dead on it.