Is it high? Is it low? We’ll look at it all: salary ranges, how much you need to get started, and why you should focus to make a career out of it.
Let’s start at the beginning: is there a way to know where you stand in terms of pay?
The first thing to realize is that most film salaries come from the movies themselves. We don’t want to be overly optimistic – pay rates are going down across the industry, so you may consider getting started a little early – but we feel like getting your first small break should be on the budget of the film you’re working on.
So what is the median film salary? There are only a few data points you can use: The New York Times’ salary-line survey in December 2016, and the Screen Actors Guild’s list of salaries for its members in October 2016. You can take a look at the full list for yourself, but we recommend just looking at the list in November 2017, when all the major actors and actresses agreed to be on one salary.
Then there’s a third-party list, which is a good resource as long as you know what to look for. In this case, we found that the median starting level for a director in 2017 was $200,000.
You’ll want to be comfortable with making those numbers work for you. There’s very few movies where your first paycheck is worth two times your wage.
And let’s say you’re a new filmmaker who makes 20 movies a year. How much do you need to be working to make a living in the industry, at least for a year?
The average salary per year for new independent directors in 2017 was $150,000, which you probably don’t want to live like that. The median was $115,000. And the highest paid director made over $300,000 in a year just like that!
In order to get to a position where you want to be, the budget for a year or two has to be a bit higher than average, with a more manageable wage. That also means you’ll want to take some work that requires more specific skills you’ll need for a film career. If you want to know how much training time for your craft a movie needs, the following figure can help: The average length for a new director is 15 to 18 months.
That means you’ll want a year or two in which to make a minimum of $200,000
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