Lighting Design Payment Structure

[dbuckley]

Indeed I would say it is a mark of skill that you can achieve the seemingly paradoxical of doing more with less. Having ten times the fixtures (as per your example) will provide many more options, but wont necessarily lead to more artistically usable looks

[pauldub]

Its simply something to just think about so you know the scope of work because obviosuly a rig with 240 lamps is going to take 10 time longer to focus and draw then a rig of 24.

 

It might not effect your fee, however if a producer is offering half of what you normally would charge for example, then you might take the job if its not as much work and you can fit it in. If its a lot of work then you might not feel its worth it.

 

You just need to think about the whole scope of the job to work out how much time it will take, thus effecting your fee and also if you can fit it in your schedule or if you need to turn down other smaller jobs to fit it in

 

if that makes sense...

[paulears]

If the producer offers half the fee, then this is exactly what upsets the real world, working LDs. The ALD in the UK are very aware of the fees issue, and judging by the events of the past year, really feel that LDs must stand together and reject this kind of thing. It is very difficult turning down money, and I guess putting food on the table means even ifyou say no, somebody else will say yes - but we shouldn't try to equate fees (note, not wages) to the content of the design. Manual focussing time has always taken a long while - it could perhaps be argued that movers actually save time? The LD doesn't usually do the focussing himself, so although a big rig always takes longer than a small one, the only real issue is how long in total the fee will cover. If you are expected to be on site longer, then the fee may be stretched - and surely this is just part of the lighting designers world. More important is the provisiaon of adequate accommodation, and subsistence. Lighting design is a service industry and the fee is to cover everything. Some LDs I've had on my shows make heavy water of everything, take up hours of crew time, cost a fortune in extra calls, and make repeated visits to see what changes I've had to make as a result of production requirements. Others, speed through everything, leaving the local crew to 'tidy up', and the director and dsm to tweak, and are never seen again. They both, no doubt had similar fees. I noted one in rehearsal making wysiwyg changes to a plan - neat I thought, until I noticed this wasn't our show - so he was designing one, while programming the next. Other LDs now have a programmer on their payroll, and expect a higher fee to cover an extra person. The board side of the process is certainly quicker when op and designer are closely integrated.

 

I think I'd suggest that if you start to base your fees on hours worked, then it isn't going to really work - management will be suspicious of your design content as it could just be a ploy to get more money?