randiculous
Member
I did a bunch of searching around CB, Google, and asked a few friends, but I still feel like I have no idea where to start in negotiating a design fee for my upcoming gig. It's a musical being produced at a state college theatre department in a 400 seat proscenium and it's my first professional gig as an LD. I live pretty far away, so they are flying me out and putting me up somewhere for the 12 days I will be in town and I'll be spending 2 days in transit. The show runs 5 performances over the course of one long weekend, and I won't be able to stick around for strike - I have to get back to my other job. It looks like it'll cost about $400 RT to fly out there, and I suspect they'll put me up somewhere on the campus or with another member of the production team who is local. I want to make sure this gig is worth my time, as I'll be losing all but 1 of my precious vacation days from my regular job to go out and do this.
I think I have a rough idea what my time is worth, and I estimate it'll take me around 160-200 hours of work. My one friend told me to ask for $1000, and my other told me to shoot for $2000 and go a little lower if need be. I'm afraid of marching in and asking for a laughable price, and I'm not even sure if I'm high or low. For some reason $1800 is coming to mind but I really have no idea what I'm doing. I wish someone with more experience could sit me down and explain the business side of this to me. I worked an SM gig this spring and got totally ripped off ($3000 for stage managing 95 kids "part time" for 4.5 months) and I really don't want to do that again.
If you need more background I have a BA in theatre, I've been an LD for 2 theatre department productions and 5+ student productions, and have 4 years professional experience working for house crews and production companies as a technician.
EDIT: we've only had one production meeting where we determined if my schedule would work with the show schedule - it does. So we are just now about to start talking design fees and travel plans.
I think I have a rough idea what my time is worth, and I estimate it'll take me around 160-200 hours of work. My one friend told me to ask for $1000, and my other told me to shoot for $2000 and go a little lower if need be. I'm afraid of marching in and asking for a laughable price, and I'm not even sure if I'm high or low. For some reason $1800 is coming to mind but I really have no idea what I'm doing. I wish someone with more experience could sit me down and explain the business side of this to me. I worked an SM gig this spring and got totally ripped off ($3000 for stage managing 95 kids "part time" for 4.5 months) and I really don't want to do that again.
If you need more background I have a BA in theatre, I've been an LD for 2 theatre department productions and 5+ student productions, and have 4 years professional experience working for house crews and production companies as a technician.
EDIT: we've only had one production meeting where we determined if my schedule would work with the show schedule - it does. So we are just now about to start talking design fees and travel plans.
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