OK Nino. Here are the numbers as best as I can give them to you, based on my having made, produced and sold several hundred hours to cable. Personally, I have never even run into anyone who wanted to barter, or anyone who wanted to talk to me about sponsorship. That, in my experience, is solely the province of the cable company. All I have ever done is pitch concepts and produce and deliver shows.
All work I have done has either been work for hire or deficit. I did deficit when I ran NY Times TV, because they had the pockets to deficit and wanted to retain rights. Other than that, it is always work for hire.
Once you get a client interested in an idea, they will give you some sense of what they are willing to spend for an hour or half hour of programming. There is some flexibility in this, but they have a pretty clear range. Again, it runs the spectrum, from 50 on the low end to 300 on the high end for an hour. They will expect you to submit, along with the written proposal, a detailed budget. This is all in. Your fees as producer, the camera crew or VJ, the editor, rental of editing gear, rental of camera gear, travel, meals, rental cars, phone. Everything. If you are doing a great deal of the work yourself, you still put in the budget lines for each item. For a one-hour this is possible. If you want to work with someone else, or a few other people, that works fine also. As someone here pointed out, it is pretty hard to do an hour alone, and very lonely as well. You'll need support. PAs, research, editing, whatever you feel you need in the way of support. Pay them. Once everyone agrees on the budget and the proposal and the timeline for delivery, you are in business. Payment is generally 1/3 onsigning, 1/3 on completion of primary shooting, and 1/3 on delivery. Pilots also generally include graphics, music, narration and so on. All of this is budgeted for. From a budget of 100K, how much can you pocket in the end? Its a function of how much of the work you can carry yourself, and how much you want or need other people. Can you make a nice living at this? I think so. Is this doable in todays cable market? I think so. Can anyone do this? no. but some people will find that they can. Many who might have thought that they could not. Someone, after all, has to fill all those hours on cable every day. Does it matter if you shoot this with a PD150 or a digibeta? No. Not really, so long as it looks good. (OK Ivan, i know). Does it matter if you edit this on an Avid or final cut pro? No, again so long as the final product looks good.
is this helpful?
All work I have done has either been work for hire or deficit. I did deficit when I ran NY Times TV, because they had the pockets to deficit and wanted to retain rights. Other than that, it is always work for hire.
Once you get a client interested in an idea, they will give you some sense of what they are willing to spend for an hour or half hour of programming. There is some flexibility in this, but they have a pretty clear range. Again, it runs the spectrum, from 50 on the low end to 300 on the high end for an hour. They will expect you to submit, along with the written proposal, a detailed budget. This is all in. Your fees as producer, the camera crew or VJ, the editor, rental of editing gear, rental of camera gear, travel, meals, rental cars, phone. Everything. If you are doing a great deal of the work yourself, you still put in the budget lines for each item. For a one-hour this is possible. If you want to work with someone else, or a few other people, that works fine also. As someone here pointed out, it is pretty hard to do an hour alone, and very lonely as well. You'll need support. PAs, research, editing, whatever you feel you need in the way of support. Pay them. Once everyone agrees on the budget and the proposal and the timeline for delivery, you are in business. Payment is generally 1/3 onsigning, 1/3 on completion of primary shooting, and 1/3 on delivery. Pilots also generally include graphics, music, narration and so on. All of this is budgeted for. From a budget of 100K, how much can you pocket in the end? Its a function of how much of the work you can carry yourself, and how much you want or need other people. Can you make a nice living at this? I think so. Is this doable in todays cable market? I think so. Can anyone do this? no. but some people will find that they can. Many who might have thought that they could not. Someone, after all, has to fill all those hours on cable every day. Does it matter if you shoot this with a PD150 or a digibeta? No. Not really, so long as it looks good. (OK Ivan, i know). Does it matter if you edit this on an Avid or final cut pro? No, again so long as the final product looks good.
is this helpful?
